Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

neilxu · Dec 8, 2003, 09:47 PM

I am using an eMac which is fine. Unfortunately, I am sensitive to noise. Sometimes the sound of eMac drives me crazy.

Is Powermac G5 noisy? Is it quite as iBook?

thanks

bimmerphile · Dec 8, 2003, 10:15 PM

The loudest part is the fan on the CTO 9800 pro card.

Replace that with a heatsink, and you wont know your computer is on.

Arkham_c · Dec 8, 2003, 10:35 PM

Sorry, but it's absolutely louder than an eMac.

If you want a super-quiet machine, get a laptop. The eMac and iMac are both significantly quieter than the G5.

wulf · Dec 9, 2003, 06:03 AM

Originally posted by Arkham_c:
Sorry, but it's absolutely louder than an eMac.

If you want a super-quiet machine, get a laptop. The eMac and iMac are both significantly quieter than the G5.

Not in our office it's not. As long as the cooling system is running correctly, the G5 is surprisingly quiet. We have a dual 2GHz here, and it's often being maxed out (lots of video rendering). It's much quieter than our old G4 533 tower.

However the loudest machine, by far, is our eMac 700. I've been on aeroplanes quieter than this. Having said that, perhaps the more recent eMacs are quieter, I don't know.

In fact the G5 is not all that much louder than my G4 powerbook when the fan's going full whack. As I say, surprisingly quiet.

Caveat: If the G5 cooling system is not running properly, e.g. if it's booted up in firewire disk mode, it's noisy. Really noisy. So noisy you have to talk louder to make yourself heard kinda noisy.

nath · Dec 9, 2003, 06:19 AM

Originally posted by Arkham_c:
Sorry, but it's absolutely louder than an eMac.

If you want a super-quiet machine, get a laptop. The eMac and iMac are both significantly quieter than the G5.

that's crazy talk. or you have a dodgy radeon fan.

i just bought a dp 1.8 with radeon 9800, to replace my 700mhz eMac. Running them next to one another you couldn't even hear the G5, whereas the eMac is without a doubt the loudest mac i've ever used, with the possible exception of my office G4 1.25dp.

D'Espice · Dec 9, 2003, 06:55 AM

Like I've been trying to say for years now, there is no simple Yes or No answer to this question.
Some people are more sensitive to noise than others, what might be absolutely ok for one of you may almost kill somebody else. Also in order to determine the real noise level, one has to listen to it in a quiet environment without any kind of background noise. Hence an office environment is not really what it takes to determine the real noise level.

TiDual · Dec 9, 2003, 07:48 AM

my dual 2ghz is basically silent (quieter than my cube which now has a pretty quiet fan). I don't often max out the dual (that would be difficult). There is some noise, but you don't realise it until you turn the machine off.

wulf · Dec 9, 2003, 09:16 AM

Originally posted by D'Espice:
in order to determine the real noise level, one has to listen to it in a quiet environment without any kind of background noise. Hence an office environment is not really what it takes to determine the real noise level.

True. But, in reference to my post, I ought to point out that I am actually in a room on my own in our office. Just me and the Macs. No conversation and I don't play music.

I notice the G4s (PM & eMac) but I don't notice the G5 if it's the only one on.

It's certainly not even in the same league as an eMac in noise level.

Leonis · Dec 9, 2003, 12:17 PM

SlowSilver� and MDD towers = Hair Dryer/Blower

G5 = VCR

sailin74 · Dec 9, 2003, 01:22 PM

Wish I could say the same. Mine is loud and Apple is making me take it to DC to be evaluated. It's only about a 70mile drive but I haven't had the chance for about a month. The good news is that they'll have to order the power supply to fix my lower fan grumbling noice. It distinctly reminds me of the dieseling sound from the dual G4's. I don't want to go a month with my machine sitting 70miles away, the sound is beginning to drive me nuts though.

-Jason

Phayamac · Dec 9, 2003, 07:51 PM

I just received my G5 dual 2Gig and after using a 17ich PowerBook as my main machine I have to say my ear is more then sensitive to any noise. The G5 is by far the Most quiet Workstation I have ever used. I can truly say you wont be disappointed.

cambro · Dec 10, 2003, 05:52 PM

Yup, me too. Just set up my G5 1.8 here at work. AMAZINGLY quiet. I honestly cannot even hear the thing on the floor beside my desk.

Immortal K-Mart Employee · Dec 10, 2003, 06:22 PM

Originally posted by bimmerphile:
Replace that with a heatsink, and you wont know your computer is on.

.... if you are a deaf mute.

Hydra · Dec 10, 2003, 07:17 PM

My dual 2.0 G5 is far far quieter than my old dual 800 G4. When just idling the G5 is almost silent with the 9800 making most of the noise (I really don't mind the 9800's buzzing noise) and under heavy load it is still more quiet than my old dual 800.

-Jerry C.

MindFad · Dec 10, 2003, 08:11 PM

Originally posted by Hydra:
My dual 2.0 G5 is far far quieter than my old dual 800 G4. When just idling the G5 is almost silent with the 9800 making most of the noise (I really don't mind the 9800's buzzing noise) and under heavy load it is still more quiet than my old dual 800.

-Jerry C.

Well, that's good to know. My dual 800 is *loud*.

dlefebvre · Dec 10, 2003, 08:40 PM

After comparison with many different Macs an dual PC workstations (IBM, HP, Compaq, Intergraph, SGI) we have at work, the dual 2Ghz G5 is the quitest machine we have. Let's not forget the G5 is a workstation so you have to compare it to a workstation, not a Cube.

Landos Mustache · Dec 10, 2003, 09:47 PM

Originally posted by dlefebvre:
After comparison with many different Macs an dual PC workstations (IBM, HP, Compaq, Intergraph, SGI) we have at work, the dual 2Ghz G5 is the quitest machine we have. Let's not forget the G5 is a workstation so you have to compare it to a workstation, not a Cube.

It is true. My Dual G5 is MUCH quieter then the Quicksilver 733 and Dual 1.25. It is about the same volume as my Cube most of the time but in a different way (fan whir not hard drive spinning sound).

i_wolf · Dec 10, 2003, 10:06 PM

yes its extremely quiet! I have a dual 2.8 Xeon and dual 2Ghz Opteron at home as well. every so often i have to take the dual G5 i use in work home. Not only is it much faster than the other two for the work i do, its much quieter too!

However i gotta agree with that guy that mentioned how noisy it gets when in target firewire mode.... bloody hell. Thankfully apple are rumored to be releasing a firmware update for the G5 so that when it isn't running OS X in conditions like in target disk mode it runs quieter!
Bear in mind now i am used to noisy machines, so my definition of super quiet (how i would consider the G5) may not be the same as your definition. Come to think of it, most of the time its quieter than the Dell 1GHz single we use as a mail server.....

Best of luck.
i_wolf

Incidentally if you want the quietest workstation of the lot, then look at water cooling a wintel machine. The next best workstation in terms of quietness is the G5.

zigzag · Dec 11, 2003, 06:57 PM

I am also very sensitive to noise and avoided buying a tower for many years for that very reason. I went through an iMac DV, a Cube, and a flat-panel iMac instead. I also have an iBook. I recently bought a dual G5.

When I bought the iMac DV (having owned an older tower), I was impressed at how quiet it was without a fan. Yet when I recently powered it up to prepare it for sale, I was surprised at how much electrical noise it generated (I assume this has a lot to do with the fact that it has a built-in CRT). I think it has a lot to do with what you're used to - at that time, we were all used to noisy CRTs. I haven't used an eMac (does it have a fan?) but I assume that, if it's anything like the iMac DV, the CRT emits similar electrical-type noises.

The Cube is dead-silent except for occasional hard-drive noise. In that respect, it remains my favorite.

The flat-panel iMac was also dead-silent most of the time, but when the fan did come on, it could be loud. Also, for some reason it would sound like a jet engine when I inserted certain CDs. I was never sure if this was the fan or the optical drive spinning or both.

The iBook is usually silent, and even when the fan comes on I don't find it bothersome.

I was thrilled when the G5 was announced because I had outgrown the other desktops and could finally get a reasonably quiet tower. I would say that for the most part I'm very satisfied - it's under my desk and emits a very light fan noise that I normally don't even notice. The fans will speed up on occasion but that doesn't bother me. In fact, it's fun to hear the fans roar once in a while, since it's only temporary - it's a bit like hearing a fine sports car revving up. My only complaint is with the notorious "chirp-squeak" sounds, which seem to come and go. I don't know if these are present in all G5s. The CHUD fix hasn't helped in my case, so I'm wondering if I just got a squeaky fan. Some people have also had problems with noisy power supplies, but this seems to be an anomaly.

So, I would definitely recommend a G5 if you want a quiet tower, but be mindful of the fact that some of them have been afflicted with unusual noise issues.

As for Target Disk Mode, this doesn't present a problem for me - I just use the G5 as the host and the other machine as the target.