Mac Pro noise level?

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  • Reply 21 of 40
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Huh, why does it go fantastic (awesome pun, be quiet) during single-user command line bootup then?
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  • Reply 22 of 40
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by a_greer


    I am not one to call people out for lieing, but a QUIET quad xeon box?!?!?!?!? This thing is, for all practical purposes, lets face it, a tower server. If the cooling system is as quiet as you say, then I really wanna know how they did it; there seems to be so little baffling in the case: and the thing is aluminium, which would serve to increase whatever noise is put out...



    They did it because these XEONs are based on the Core 2 Duo micro-architechture which has highly impressive performance-per-watt. This Ars review states (on page 6) that the Mac Pro is quieter than the Power Mac G5 and is generally a very quiet machine, even with high CPU load.
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  • Reply 23 of 40
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mikethomson


    I have to agree with theapplegenious. The only noise I can hear right now is the low hum of my external Maxtor drive and the CD in my Mac Pro. It REALLY is THAT quiet.. so why am I shouting



    Gawd, a rack full of these == quiet datacenter...wonder what xserve will be like in this respect...
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  • Reply 24 of 40
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mr. H


    They did it because these XEONs are based on the Core 2 Duo micro-architechture which has highly impressive performance-per-watt. This Ars review states (on page 6) that the Mac Pro is quieter than the Power Mac G5 and is generally a very quiet machine, even with high CPU load.



    Now youve done it; I was kinda saving for a big TV, but now; I will be saving for a macpro...you happy now? I am
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  • Reply 25 of 40
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by a_greer


    so what happens when you really spin the tires on this bad ass hot rod? compile code, run a database, compress /encode uncompressed video...



    I'm an animator, and I run Maya, I'm still setting the machine up at the moment. I've only had it for 12 hours. I'm installing XP via boot camp right now, so I can get Maya running all four cores. I have Maya running in OSX, but under Rosetta. It seems OK, but I really want to get the most out of this machine until @#%^#$ Autodesk bting out a universal binary of Maya.



    Assuming there's no problems with the XP install, I'll run a couple of renders and see how the fans hold up
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  • Reply 26 of 40
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mikethomson


    Autodesk bting out a universal binary of Maya.



    and you thought the Quark move to OSX was slow...I think this will take the record: If it aint Autocad on Windows at AD, it may as well be a third world refugee...
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  • Reply 27 of 40
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Does Windows recognise and (potentially) use all four cores?
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  • Reply 28 of 40
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Placebo


    Huh, why does it go fantastic (awesome pun, be quiet) during single-user command line bootup then?



    I was wondering the same thing. Do we know that that is definitely the case, because this, at the bottom, under "System Management Controller", states "The Mac Pro uses an advanced system management controller (SMC) to manage thermal and power conditions, while keeping the acoustic noise to a minimum. The SMC is fully independent of the operating system."
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  • Reply 29 of 40
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Placebo


    Does Windows recognise and (potentially) use all four cores?



    It would have to be the Pro version.
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  • Reply 30 of 40
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Okay, cool, I didn't know it could at all.
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  • Reply 31 of 40
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Placebo


    Okay, cool, I didn't know it could at all.



    if pro cant do 4 cores (its limit is 2 CPUs, so it depends how they defined them in the license and system code) you can use Server2k3, which I would recomend for hardcore stuff like Maya because it is lean (as long as you leave out things like active directory).





    UPDATE: pro can do it fine
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  • Reply 32 of 40
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by a_greer


    I am not one to call people out for lieing, but a QUIET quad xeon box?!?!?!?!? This thing is, for all practical purposes, lets face it, a tower server. If the cooling system is as quiet as you say, then I really wanna know how they did it; there seems to be so little baffling in the case: and the thing is aluminium, which would serve to increase whatever noise is put out...





    By the looks of it, each heatsink must have more than 500 square inches of surface area. Imagine holding a lighter under a broiling pan; it's never really gonna heat up that much. because the air can wick the heat off so fast.



    The trick isn't muffling the fan noises; it's barely running the fans at all in the first place.
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  • Reply 33 of 40
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    Hey, you know what I just realised? Apple are using sane amounts of thermal grease in these machines! Thank goodness for that.
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  • Reply 34 of 40
    mordakmordak Posts: 168member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mikethomson


    Blue Screen Of Death.



    Kernel Panic in OSX speak. I think I might be using a windows sp1 disk not a sp2.



    can you confirm this ?
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  • Reply 35 of 40
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mordak


    can you confirm this ?





    Yes. I have a couple of XP disks lying around, that I can't remember which ones I've slipstreamed with sp1 or sp2.



    Sp1 blue screened, but sp2 worked fine, but the apple boot camp drivers did not.



    I'm going to start a thread on Mac Pro and Boot Camp workarounds now that we're getting OT. On topic, however, my XP install is as quiet as OSX 8)
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  • Reply 36 of 40
    demenasdemenas Posts: 109member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mikethomson


    I have to agree with theapplegenious. The only noise I can hear right now is the low hum of my external Maxtor drive and the CD in my Mac Pro. It REALLY is THAT quiet.. so why am I shouting



    I wonder how quiet it will be with the ATI 1900 video card?
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  • Reply 37 of 40
    OK. I have Maya up and running on the Mac Pro running XP. I loaded up a scene that I'm working on which involves volumetric rendering of a particle simulation. I did a test frame and watched the task manager. All four columns leapt up to 100% and sat there for 6min 52sec while the frame was rendered. There was no increase in fan noise. Mind you, this was only one frame and it's winter down here in Aus at the moment. A 48hour render in the middle of summer may produce different results.



    As a comparison, I ran the exact same frame on my single pentium 2.8 to see how much faster the woodcrests are. The frame rendered in 47min 24sec. Thats nearly 7 times longer than the mac, even though the mac is theoretically only 3.8 times faster in pure GHz (10.64GHz vs 2.8GHz). This shows how much more efficient the new core architecture is than the old P4s.



    The best Aus$3,999 I ever spent!
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  • Reply 38 of 40
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by demenas


    I wonder how quiet it will be with the ATI 1900 video card?



    You're going to hear the card, that's for sure.
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  • Reply 39 of 40
    mordakmordak Posts: 168member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mikethomson


    Yes. I have a couple of XP disks lying around, that I can't remember which ones I've slipstreamed with sp1 or sp2.



    Sp1 blue screened, but sp2 worked fine, but the apple boot camp drivers did not.



    I'm going to start a thread on Mac Pro and Boot Camp workarounds now that we're getting OT. On topic, however, my XP install is as quiet as OSX 8)



    So you got it to work with workarounds? Can you explain here a bit more?....



    nm i see your new topic
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  • Reply 40 of 40
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    Let's have a multi-thread comparison.



    I have a Perl script that does the Monty Hall Problem, and a C application that does 50 million calculations of the factorial of 6. Both will automatically detect and use all processors with threading.



    I will make a new thread with links to the apps.
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