If we were blessed with the funds for or gift of a new Power Macintosh G4 desktop machine, perhaps we could answer the question posed by our headline. Apparently the fans in the new units are noisier than in the past, and already people are talking about fixes.

If you are affected (afflicted?) by higher decibel levels coming from your new QuickSilver, a visit to this xlr8yourmac.com page entitled "Info on Quieter Fans for G4 Towers" may be instructive. The first reader report is from a user who "sacrificed the CD-ROM drive-bay and floppy-drive" in his G4-upgraded beige PowerMac G3 for two fans. His unit is running up to 12 degrees (celsius) cooler, and the fans are quiet. Several links to fan suppliers are provided, and new PowerMac owners might want to consider these solutions.

Whether or not Apple is using "cheaper, noisier fans" in the new models as some believe, it's usually possible to improve on these orginal equipment components, if you're willing to spend the money and take the time. Some readers at the above URL discuss putting foam padding on fan casings and even around hard drives, but we don't recommend putting any extraneous materials inside your Mac cases unless you really know what you're doing. Replacing a fan is one thing, altering the flow patterns of the air inside quite another.

Comments: An interesting subject, to say the least, especially considering that a highly-touted advantage of certain recent Macintosh models was how quiet they are. We trust that reports of "wind tunnel" QuickSilvers don't mean the relegating of silent running to the trashbin of marketing. Even with our beloved 8600 and its two 7200rpm hard drives, noise is a consideration. In the utterly still and quiet adobe house we lived in for the last year or so, the computer was the loudest thing in our lives aside from the radio. In our current temporary quarters in Arizona, the whirring is drowned out by the continous whoosh of ducted air from the rooftop swamp cooler and the yacking doves (mourning, white-tail, and Inca) outside.