[WizOSX]

Just wondering if anyone had an exception. Also, if you do have copper, I'd be interested in deeping a tally and knowing if it helps on sound (lower heat so fans come on less)?

[Lateralus]

Yes, they all have coppers.

[OreoCookie]

If you look up some older threads, I think you'll find viable advice on how to make your Mac less noisy.

[chefpastry]

Yes, the all have copper heatsink.

Does it help with noise? Personally, I don't think it does much. I replaced an aluminum heatsink on a dual 1.25GHz system with a copper sink and the thermometer apps never showed much difference in temperatures at all. YMMV.

[newtech]

The Cu heatsink is an improvement over the rev 1 Al heatsink in the 1.25 dual, but about equal to the rev 2 Al heatsink. the issue being Cu tendency to retain heat internally ( ie spread but dissipate ineffiently )

[joe]

The largest source of noise in my dual 1.42Ghz G4 Tower was the OEM 4" Delta cooling fan. I replaced that with an Apple OEM 4" Panasonic fan from Small Dog shortly after I bought my dual 1.42Ghz G4 Tower. It's been silent ever since. It's so quiet in fact that my newly acquired dual 2.5GHz G5 Tower is louder even when running at idle.

Some MDD Towers also had noisey power supply fans. I believe Apple fixed that problem by the time the dual 1.42G4 Towers came out. The only noisey fan in my G4 Tower was the original 4" Delta fan. Also, my G4 has the copper heat sink. From what I've read the copper heat sink was standard on all dual 1.42GHz G4 Towers. It's suppose to be more efficient at removing heat than Aluminum.

[newtech]

Originally Posted by joe

The largest source of noise in my dual 1.42Ghz G4 Tower was the OEM 4" Delta cooling fan. I replaced that with an Apple OEM 4" Panasonic fan from Small Dog shortly after I bought my dual 1.42Ghz G4 Tower. It's been silent ever since. It's so quiet in fact that my newly acquired dual 2.5GHz G5 Tower is louder even when running at idle.

Some MDD Towers also had noisey power supply fans. I believe Apple fixed that problem by the time the dual 1.42G4 Towers came out. The only noisey fan in my G4 Tower was the original 4" Delta fan. Also, my G4 has the copper heat sink. From what I've read the copper heat sink was standard on all dual 1.42GHz G4 Towers. It's suppose to be more efficient at removing heat than Aluminum.

Cu is better at conducting (spreading) heat than Al but does not radiate it as well.

Think of baking sheets, why is it you never see Cu baking sheets? Beacause they would retain heat and cause scorching.

The highest performance heatsinks in the PC world all use copper to conduct heat away from the CPU die, but use aluminum to radiate it away.

[joe]

Originally Posted by newtech

Cu is better at conducting (spreading) heat than Al but does not radiate it as well.

Think of baking sheets, why is it you never see Cu baking sheets? Beacause they would retain heat and cause scorching.

The highest performance heatsinks in the PC world all use copper to conduct heat away from the CPU die, but use aluminum to radiate it away.

I only meant that copper heat sink or not, it was the 4" / 120mm Delta fan that created all the noise in my 1.42GHZ G4 Tower. It made a loud vibrating noise. I bought that computer as a refurb from Small Dog. Apple wouldn't cover the noise under warranty since all the Delta equipped MDDs made that sound. IIRC the noise was caused by the Delta's ball bearings rattling at different fan speeds. I probably could've pushed the issue. But since Small Dog had the official replacement in stock (Apple OEM Panasonic) I just bought it outright and installed it myself.

I'm not sure if the Apple / Panasonic fan uses quieter sleeve bearings or not. But my MDD G4 Tower has been very quiet ever since. Not as quiet as my previous G4 Cube. But quieter than my dual 2.5GHz G5. In fact, as I'm typing this from my G5, the fans have reved up/down at least 3 times - drowning out my G4 each time. And they weren't even running at full speed! The only program running on my G5 is Safari! Meanwhile my G4 has been happily recording and archiving video from my EyeTV200 with narry a sound even under full load! Sure, the replacement Panasonic was the reason for the G4's silence. I only wish there was as easy a way to silence my G5

[WizOSX]

Originally posted by newtech
The Cu heatsink is an improvement over the rev 1 Al heatsink in the 1.25 dual, but about equal to the rev 2 Al heatsink.

When you say "rev 2" do you mean the 1.25 dual that didn't run Os9? The same machine that had the FW800?

[chefpastry]

I have to retract what I said in my earlier post... Last night, I finished building an MDD with dual 917MHz (originally dual 867s, but were 933MHz chips), aluminum heatsink , 1 optical drive and 5 hard drives. Amazingly, this thing is far quieter than my dual 1.25GHz and dual 1.42GHz MDDs which have copper heatsinks. Also, Temperature Monitor reports that this machine runs at under 100F most of the time and I've only seen it peak at 103F while my other two MDDs normally run at around 130F+.

My only guess at why this machine is so much quieter and cooler is that it's a bit under clocked. The only other difference is that the other two MDDs use 7455Bs while this one has 7455As.

[newtech]

Rev 1 Al heatsinks as in the 2002 MDD vs. the Rev 2 Al heatsink in the 1.25 FW800 and 2003 MDD.

Rev 1 was cast/machined from a monolithic block of Al while Rev 2 is built up from a cold block to AL sheet fins/vanes.