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ionic · Oct 23, 2006, 11:57 AM

I received my Mac Pro last week as a replacement for a 3.4 GHz Dell PC damaged by lightning. It's a 2.66 with 2 GB RAM. So far, it's ok, but I'm not really blown away with the speed by any means, as I think the Dell seemed faster. One thing that's really started to get on my nerves is the constant hum of the fans and a rattling vibration in the case. It's a sympathetic vibration that seems mostly to be coming from the side access panel. If I pull the latch to release the panel (but leave the panel in place), most of it goes away. Anyone had this problem and fixed it? I put felt pads under the feet of the case to reduce vibration in the desk.

wr11 · Oct 23, 2006, 12:22 PM

Yes. I determined that it was the HDD and it's sled. I was trying all sorts things to try and figure out where the sound was coming from. I finally figured it was from sled 2. After removing and re-installing securely I have not heard that sound again.

brokenjago · Oct 23, 2006, 05:24 PM

I'd say most of the Mac Pro's speed shows itself when multitasking. On mine, things I'd do that would normally slow my old machine down to a crawl perform perfectly on this thing. I love it!

ionic · Oct 24, 2006, 02:15 AM

Thanks for your input, wr11. I reseated the hard drives and their sleds, and that eliminated the vibration and the majority of the noise problems. The fan is still slightly noiser than I'd expected.

I'll have to wait until more apps become macintel native to really get a good feel for the speed, but it's not as speedy as I thought, at least with today's apps. It's interesting that even MS Office functions seem much more responsive running Windows XP through Parallels than using the Mac PowerPC version. It takes the Mac fully 10 seconds to open Word 2004 (PowerPC). In Parallels running Windows XP Pro, Word XP is open practically before I even have finished clicking the icon. I want to try BootCamp to see how that performance compares, but I need to figure out how to install it on my second hard drive, as I'd rather not partition up the Mac OS drive.

all2ofme · Oct 24, 2006, 03:20 AM

This is OS X putting it all through Rosetta. If you quit Word and open it again it'll be much faster the second time.

It should be as fast (likely faster) as it is under Parallels in OS X once it's a UB.

Happy to hear that you got your machine quieter, by the way. Mine's not noisy, but I'll give it a go and see if I can get it quieter still.

Originally Posted by ionic

It's interesting that even MS Office functions seem much more responsive running Windows XP through Parallels than using the Mac PowerPC version. It takes the Mac fully 10 seconds to open Word 2004 (PowerPC).

wr11 · Oct 24, 2006, 03:35 AM

Originally Posted by ionic

Thanks for your input, wr11. I reseated the hard drives and their sleds, and that eliminated the vibration and the majority of the noise problems. The fan is still slightly noiser than I'd expected.

Glad to have helped. You should have seen me trying to figure out what was causing the sound. I was tipping the MacPro slightly and it would go away. Then I tried putting a book under it to get the same angle and it would start vibrating again. Needless to say I hoped it would not need to be "held" all the time.

justmetoo · Oct 24, 2006, 12:56 PM

Originally Posted by ionic

... The fan is still slightly noiser than I'd expected.

If I might hazard a guess, you have the Radeon X1900 vid card? If not, then there may be an issue with your fan noise, as I've heard nothing but soundless reviews from stock-carded MPro owners...

If so, then you can't complain about the computer. You must have seen that monster fan sitting up top the vid card? Live and revell in that purring sound of digital graphics power, like a Harley owner does... [BTW count yourself lucky you didn't have to live with the din put up by the G5 Power Macs, now THAT was fan noise...].

Also, as others have said, you are likely running software not optimized for the chip set. Even what you run in Parallels will be slower in PC virtualization than if you install Bootcamp and run it natively in windoze... Rosetta: a necessary G5 virtualization evil, for now...

EDIT: and thanks wr11 !!! I've heard that intermittent low "buzz" as well, but only since I installed another HD, which I just attributed to that... Good one!

ionic · Oct 25, 2006, 02:26 AM

Nope, I have the stock NVidia 7300. The Mac is slightly louder than my Dell was and seems to have way more vibration issues, which is surprising because the Dell case was certainly not built nearly as solidly. Maybe all the (sloppy, I thought) 1/8" gaps in the Dell's plastic actually were there to keep things from vibrating! The vibration from the hard drive sled on the Mac recurs intermittently despite reseating all of the sleds. From what everyone was saying, I was expecting the Mac would be quieter. The constant fan noise is from the front of the case behind the grille, and seems to be the lower fan. It's nothing compared to older PC's I've had, though, so I shouldn't complain. Still, this was the second most expensive computer system I have bought, right after the 1983 IBM 8086 PC, which was also built like a tank (and is still in original working order). I'll be curious to see if the Mac will still boot up in 23 years.

mikochu · Oct 28, 2006, 05:57 PM

My Power Mac's side panel makes a buzzing sound. It's real annoying. As a temporary fix, I opened the latch and have the panel leaning on my battery backup.

macintalk2c · May 22, 2007, 08:51 PM

Hello,
The vibration issue is probably an issue with the one of Hard drives. I have had a similar problem in the past on a Power Mac G4. The case vibrated no matter what I did do it, but if I put a hand on it would stop. I too thought at first it was the Apple Case. Same ideas with thinking it was the door loose etc. I though it was a result of having two 7200 RPM hard drives in one case. That was wrong too. The problem was the Seagate hard Drive that I had put in it. When I later replaced the Seagate with a Western Digital the crazy harmonic vibration of the case was gone. Then I put that same noisy Seagate into a DEll Optiplex and its case started to vibrate and sing as well. When running the drive in hand the heavy vibration could be felt from it. So it seems like you have a annoying DRIVE like that in the Mac Pro causing all that harmonic vibration. Just take that noisy drive out and that should quite it up.
Also that Seagate drive sounds like an jet turbine engine when spinning up and down.

valdore · May 31, 2007, 02:59 AM

i unlock the latch and noise disappeared.