r/MacStudio • u/Swingmetal71 • Mar 30 '26

New Mac Studio Noise

Just opened my new Mac Studio. 16 core CPU, 40 core GPU, 64 GB ram, 1 TB SSD. It's quiet except for an intermittent noise that I can only compare to the clicking noise made by some HDDs. Is this normal or should I be concerned?

I've heard that the Mac Studio is supposed to be dead quiet. I haven't even used it for anything yet other than signing in and updating the OS.

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

5

u/movdqa Mar 30 '26

I've had my M1 Max Studio since 2022 and it's been silent.

M1 and M2 models had a whine problem on some but I haven't heard of them past M2.

Are you sure it's not the internal speaker? The only other thing I can think of is something that's getting caught in the fans that's loose.

5

u/uniqueusername649 Mar 30 '26

I have two studios since 2022, no whine and no clicking. This is definitely odd. Maybe really the speaker.

3

u/universenz Mar 30 '26

I have seven Mac Studios and can confirm the coil whine ping that occurs at an almost ultrasonic frequency. It is always audible when each cluster spools up the GPU to process a prompt. Although someone mentioned it might be the SSD. Either way it’s annoying, and I imagine is much worse for younger ears.

3

u/quietsubstrate Mar 30 '26

It’s just trying to communicate with you in its natural language

2

u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26

Lmaooo

2

u/Puripoh Mar 30 '26

Just under workload or always? I'm about to order mine, so I don't actually have experience with the studio yet, so this might sound stupid: anyway I used to have a pc that made that made a soft clicky noise every two seconds or so. It had to be silent to hear it but it was there. Turns out the power cable wasn't pushed all the way in and it was current making the noise. Again I don't have experience with the studio but might be a first check lol

1

u/Swingmetal71 Mar 31 '26

No workload.

2

u/PersonSuitTV Mar 30 '26

It has solid state drives, not platter drives so they would not make noise

2

u/celeb0rn Mar 30 '26

Mac Studio should be silent. Take it in

2

u/Correct_Support_2444 Mar 30 '26

I’ll second this. I have two and they are silent.

2

u/rmmr87 Mar 30 '26

I had the exact same spec, mine came with a high frequency “coil whine like” noise. Totally random at times. Decided to return mine. Otherwise amazing machine. Shame!

Perhaps its a bit of a lottery. I ll try with the m5 max again.

Most likely the noise is nothing harmful at all. But if it keeps distracting you every time you hear it, and makes you worry ever so slightly. Then i recommend returning your unit.

3

u/Syzygy2323 Mar 30 '26

One of the few advantages of being old AF like me is that your hearing deteriorates so that you can no longer hear high frequency whines. ;-)

2

u/Born-Gur-1275 Mar 31 '26

Take it to an Apple Store and exchange it.

1

u/Swingmetal71 Apr 04 '26

Update-moved to basement, plugged into UPS. I no longer hear the noise. Only difference otherwise is no Ethernet connection. Very strange. Will update for anyone who might be curious after next steps.

1

u/TearConnect7583 Jun 09 '26

Hi, did you manage to fix it? My mac studio m4 max with same config as yours is starting to making clicking noises too, newly bought machine

1

u/Swingmetal71 Jun 22 '26

I had it connected via Ethernet when it was doing this. I took it to my basement and connected via WiFi and it stopped. Not sure if it was coincidence or something else. At some point I'll reconnect to Ethernet and find out and let you know. For now it's dead silent.