The Apple thread

[Cloudane]

In Soviet Russia, the Mac hardware turns you on.

[RiK]

In Soviet Russia, the Mac hardware turns you on.

Works pretty much like that over here too

[tufty]

My new Mac Pro is just about silent. The only noise on my desk is when my external backup drive spins up for Time Machine.

Do not tell me this. Really, just don't. I'm kinda fixed on an iMac to replace my Mini, and if the pro is noiseless, I may be forced to spend more money...

<inserts fingers in ears>
lalalalalalalalalalala can't hear you

[kalmar]

iMac should be quiet but for some reason the heavy weight of the unit putting the aluminium stand under a slight bending moment seems to amplify and inject the HD vibration into the desk and the floor. I can hear the thing in the next room :/

[Fuseball]

iMac should be quiet but for some reason the heavy weight of the unit putting the aluminium stand under a slight bending moment seems to amplify and inject the HD vibration into the desk and the floor. I can hear the thing in the next room :/

That's unusual. Mine is near silent. No vibration at all.

[kalmar]

I think mine's a fairly early one, it was a refurb "not core due 2" model and maybe they've refined it since. Or it could just have a particularly vibratey HD

[piku]

I think mine's a fairly early one, it was a refurb "not core due 2" model and maybe they've refined it since. Or it could just have a particularly vibratey HD

I have a server in my cupboard. It stands on the bare wood floor and I can hear it throughout the entire top floor of my house as a resonant throbbing noise. After nearly going mad with this sonic attack I went investigating.

Twisting the computer so it sat differently on the floor cut half the noise, then standing it on some polystyrene blocks made it even quieter.

[kalmar]

Yeah I do have mine sitting on a polystyrene sheet too admittedly, but it's not ideal because I like to move it quite often. I might upgrade the HD at some point anyway (if you can do that) so that might cure it.

[zip accident]

The Phong II PC case has rubber grommets in the hard drive screw holes, which cut out easily 90% of the hard drive noise. I don't know whether that's available for, or doable, on a Mac, but if it was it would be well worthwhile. Since Apple like the appearance of quality and this is such an easy and cheap fix, I'd expect to see it in the next generation if it's not in this.

[Dio]

90% from rubber grommets? Not on any machine I've tried. If it's an old harddrive, or there's loose components in the area, then they do cut down on a bit of low-frequency hum, and there's a little bit less transmission of head seek noise, but it's really not that special. It's a bigger effect to swap a standard drive for a quieter one like the Samsungs.

The best results I've had for harddrive mounting is to use velcro strips hanging below the drive bay, but thick case insulation and a quiet harddrive is far more important.

For my PC's that sit on the floor I use high-density foam blocks to sit them on rather than polystyrene - much better results, but you have to make sure bottom vents aren't important.

[zip accident]

Dio wrote:

90% from rubber grommets? Not on any machine I've tried. If it's an old harddrive, or there's loose components in the area, then they do cut down on a bit of low-frequency hum, and there's a little bit less transmission of head seek noise, but it's really not that special. It's a bigger effect to swap a standard drive for a quieter one like the Samsungs.

The best results I've had for harddrive mounting is to use velcro strips hanging below the drive bay, but thick case insulation and a quiet harddrive is far more important.

90% is my subjective impression, it's based on knowing how loud a particular drive used to be, and the noise I get from the same drive in the new case. I can't hear it over the fans, and those are less loud than those in my previous boxes were. It could well be head seek noise I'm used to hearing.

Maybe I'm confused and "grommets" is the wrong word, I mean little pieces of rubber that the screws pass through, so the screws hold to the drive and the rubber, and the rubber is in contact with the case, but the screws are not. They seem to have cut out most mid-range frequency transmision from the drive to the case, and since I don't hear much from the drive any more, I suspect that resonance within the case is the main mode of sound transmission from the drive. I suspect the screw holes had to be enlarged to fit the rubber bits. It may be that the rubber bits are so placed that the drive isn't in contact with any other part of the case, or maybe I was just lucky in that regard. The case doesn't seem to be accoustically insulated in any other way.

I have heard good things about the Samsungs, but I seem to mostly see very high prices for them.

[pocketfun]

If I'm not mistaken the G5 iMacs had rubber mounts for the drives, and I'm sure the pictures I've seen of the intel iMacs have them as well.

[Misfit]

Anyone interested in buying my 15" Macbook Pro? (can include a VAT receipt).

Very good condition.

It's the current spec as on the apple site:

* 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 1440 x 900 resolution
* 2GB memory
* 120GB hard drive1
* 8x double-layer SuperDrive
* NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics with 128MB SDRAM

I bought it because I needed a new laptop, and we needed a Mac to test stuff on. In reality, we need both at the same time, so I'm going to get a Mini and a PC laptop.

Would consider a fairly new Mini as part exchange.

PM me if you whis to discuss....

[Dio]

I have heard good things about the Samsungs, but I seem to mostly see very high prices for them.

I haven't found them any more expensive than anyone else. They're by far the top of the pile right now if you ask me.

[Mary Poppins]

All macs that I know of use rubber mounts for the HDDs including all the laptops. Don't know about the HDD Air though as I've not stripped one yet.