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I am about to buy my 1st mac and have been lurking here for a few weeks. I decided upon a 2.5 as, from what I can see, there doesn’t look to be an upgrade coming anytime soon, so I may as well by the best.

One thing that threw me though, and I am not too sure if I saw it at this board or not but there was a discussion re the dual 2GHz version being a better intro to mac given the issues over cooling on the 2.5 and the fans kicking in every time you move the mouse (practically).

Anyway my use at the moment will be mainly web/email/word/excel/pwrpoint > all college stuff. But once summer comes I’ll be back to 3D Design and Games.

I thought about adjusting the proc perf to ‘reduced’ during normal duties and back to ‘automatic’ during computationally intensive work. This, I hope would address the fan issue – I have a big problem with noise and I built my PC to specifically be quiet. What do you think?

I haven’t seen any benchmarks for the likes of Maya, is there any? Just wondering if there is much of a difference between the 2 and 2.5.

BTW are the 4 cooling zone independently managed/controlled?
 
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I have a 2 GHz and the only noise I really get is from the graphics card I have in it. If i put my finger on the graphics card fan, the mac really is one of the most quietest computers I have ever heard.

It's unfortunate that apple don't engineer their own graphics cards too, cause I'm sure they'd figure out how to make them as silent as the rest of their computers!

To try and resolve this issue, although I'm not too bothered about it, I've been looking into third party cooling systems that are meant to reduce the noise produced by graphics card fans. Here's a link if you're interested:

http://www.quietpcusa.com/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=8&Product_ID=212&CATID=5
 
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Thanks for responding johnnyluu. If you read over on Apple's Official Forums its littered with threads on fast/noisey fans. I guess it's down to luck.

I use a similar device to cool my PC Grphx Card, just wondering would this work on a mac considering the mac control's the fan spead (as I undertsand it).
 
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yea, the dual 2.5 is liquid cooled, no fans. each zone is managed separately, the only difference youll see if any between the 2 is when you have lots and lots of apps open and a decent amount of ram.
 
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Macman said:
yea, the dual 2.5 is liquid cooled, no fans.

Even a liquid cooled computer needs fans...so does the dual 2.5GHz G5.
How do you think the liquid would be cooled otherwise?!

It's similar to a closed car cooling system:
The CPU is like the motor block (except that the liquid doesn't run through it, of course!), and the liquid is driven by a pump, getting warm by the CPU, going to a radiator were it get's cooled and then to the CPU again.
In a car, the radiator get's cooled by the air running through it while driving, or by a fan when the car is not driving, but the engine's running. Mostly the car's fan only runs after the liquid atains a certain temperature...
Anyway, as the G5 usually is standing still and not running around, it needs fans for the airflow through the radiator, to cool down the liquid.
 
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ah, thanks for putting it in easier top understand terms.
 
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I think a dual 2.5 would be slight overkill for what you want, unless you can really afford it I would go for one of the 'lesser' PowerMacs.
 
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alias said:
I use a similar device to cool my PC Grphx Card, just wondering would this work on a mac considering the mac control's the fan spead (as I undertsand it).

The mac does control the fans but not the graphics card fan, that's controlled by the jiggerypockery on the graphics card itself and according to the manufacturers settings. So as long as your cooling device is compatible with the graphics card you'll get in your mac, and it fit's inside the machine, it should work.
 
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johnnyluu said:
The mac does control the fans but not the graphics card fan, that's controlled by the jiggerypockery on the graphics card itself and according to the manufacturers settings. So as long as your cooling device is compatible with the graphics card you'll get in your mac, and it fit's inside the machine, it should work.

If that's the case why do I read about FW upgrades for fans in G5's to control fan spead?

BTW thanks for the feedback guys.
 
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alias said:
If that's the case why do I read about FW upgrades for fans in G5's to control fan spead?

BTW thanks for the feedback guys.

What johnyyluu meant is that, except the graphics card fan, all other fans in the G5 (and other Macs too) are controlled by the mainboard, and partly by the OS. that's why a firmware or OS update can change the fan's behaviour, except for the graphics card. And, as far as I know, the fans of the powersupply aren't controlled by the system either...

But all other fans are.
 
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if they wanted some serious water cooling with NO FANS macintosh would use a phase change liquid cooling system.

in other words, a refridgerator (sp?
 
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yeah but that would involve a fan at some point unless they used a crazy big radiator ;)

energy can't be destroyed ... just converted
 

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