Totally off-topic

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Posted by MadaboutDana
Aug 29, 2014 at 09:51 AM

I know this has absolutely nothing to do with outlining or indeed any other form of information management as such, except perhaps for the most spurious of connections involving the intellectual benefits of an ergonomically efficient working environment, but one of the most remarkable aspects of moving over to an all-Mac environment is the sheer absence of noise! No more howling hard drives, no whirring fans – it’s bliss.

I mention this only because a colleague recently booted up her Windows PC to access some old stuff that hadn’t been transferred to servers, and the racket (sorry, US folks, very GB term = din) was absolutely mind-blowing. Not least because the PC in question was a respectable HP laptop, so in principle optimised for quiet, relatively noise-free working. When she switched it off again after a few minutes, everybody in the office (a) remarked on it/laughed about it and (b) visibly relaxed (shoulders down, slight smile on the face etc. etc.).

But even my son’s super-iMac, running a 3TB Fusion drive, is almost totally silent, showing an attention to detail that blows even the expensive PC manufacturers out of the water.

I suspect Chromebook users benefit from the same noiselessness! So it’s not really a price thing. It’s a philosophy thing.

Cheers,
Bill

Posted by Paul Korm
Aug 29, 2014 at 10:59 AM

Generally, I agree. There are exceptions: my MacBook Air is quiet, except when Parallels (the app that manages my Windows 8 VM) heads off on one of its mysterious fugues, and cranks up the CPU to 110% (by using massive memory caches). At those times, the MBA whistles like a drone.

Posted by MadaboutDana
Aug 29, 2014 at 11:07 AM

Actually, I was under the impression that my MacBook Air didn’t HAVE any fans, until a glitch in FoxTrot Pro caused a memory overload and the fans suddenly kicked in. It was a genuine shock - I was looking around the office for the source of the noise

until I realised it was coming from the cunningly concealed vents at the back of the main keyboard area. That did prompt me to download a dinky little app that monitors the system’s temperature settings, but I don’t run it very often because I’ve not had the problem before or since that one incident.

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