Will the new MacIntels be noisy?

imac davidimac david
Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
I've scanned the other threads, and I haven't seen this question raised.



I use a Mac at home for 4 specific reasons:



The design of the Mac makes it acceptable in a living room environment. Intel chips shouldn't alter that.



Mac OSX: a thing of beauty when compared to XP. Intel Chips won't change that.



The iLife software: used daily. Intel chips won't change that.



Macs are extremely quiet when compared to PCs. This worries me about the MacIntels. Will they also need damn great fans to keep the machine cool? Will I, when I change my G4 iMac, end up with a noisy machine whirring away in the living room?



Any ideas?



David

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    mpls244mpls244 Posts: 61member
    Yes, IMHO the Mactels will be as quiet as the PowerPC's. Ever since the G4 "Windtunnel" fiasco, Apple has been putting quite a bit of effort into quieting its machines. There's no reason that effort won't continue.



    Besides, the first machines to get the Intel CPU's will be the quietest -- macMini and PowerBooks. Low noise level is a design goal of both machines.



    Few hardware products will get the scrutiny that the first-generation Mactels will get -- and Apple knows it. For that reason, Apple's goal will be to show that the CPU doesn't make a difference -- the Mactels will be virtually indistinguishable from their PowerPC predecessors in all dimensions - look, feel, low noise, and performance.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    cory bauercory bauer Posts: 1,286member
    Wintel boxes are noisy because Wintel makers don't care to take the time or spend the money to develop a means of cooling them quietly, like Apple did with the current Powermac G5 design. It's not that they couldnt, it's that they're interested in building cheap boxes as fast as possible with as little expense to them as possible. Apple can and will make their Intel-based Macs quiet, because it's important to them and they're willing to invest the time and money to do so. Which is great. But it'll cost ya.
  • Reply 3 of 7
    copsecopse Posts: 64member
    Im using an ultra portable dell laptop, 1,2Ghz M-processor. The fan is dead silent.



    My father has a laptop with 1,8ghz Mobile processor and same there, completely silent.



    Dont really know the sound volume on the intel workstations processors though.
  • Reply 4 of 7
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,423member
    Think about it this way.



    Intel is going to have an efficient process for 65nm that allows the notebooks to run at 25 watts and the desktops probably 40-50 watts. Much easier to cool..say goodbye to liquid cooling.



    a decent set of quiet fans and we're all set.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    commoduscommodus Posts: 270member
    It can depend on the CPUs they end up using. If they use CPUs based on the Pentium M core (including the dual-core variants), then they won't exactly be noisy to start with.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    imac davidimac david Posts: 286member
    I'm absolutely no expert, so don't flame me if what I'm about to write is complete rubbish:



    I thought that the reasons Intel chips are hotter than equivalent PPC chips are the extra pipelines and higher clock speeds. To dissapate the heat a high speed fan is glued/bolted on top of the chip, and this fan is never quiet (I'm talking about desktops here, which I have to use at work).



    So why would an Apple intel chip running at 3.4GHz be any cooler that it didn't require all these fans? Isn't the G5 Powermac cooled using low speed fans, as the PPC isn't that hot to start with, and hence can be quiet?



    Sorry to go on about is, but my Mac is never switched off, and I like the fact that it makes no noise when it's just sitting there and doesn't intrude when I'm listening to a quiet scene in a movie on my TV!



    David
  • Reply 7 of 7
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,423member
    iMac David.



    You are right but about the 3.4Ghz pentium but Apple may not deliver desktop Intels until they have the new Conroe out late next year which will be based on Pentium M architecture in ways. Thus it won't be 3.4Ghz but it'll perform like a 4Ghz P4 likely yet at half the wattage.
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