Surprising console noise comparison..

J

joemama

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Sep 13, 2000
Messages
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I have a 360 and don't find it particularly loud...but then again I have it on a shelf under my desk along with my pc which is considered loud to most people. (9 fans total including chipset cooler)
But......the Wii is the loudest out of the 3 consoles???:confused: This guy has all 3 consoles and measured the sound of all in various states....the 360 was loudest at rest but both the PS3 and Wii were louder while gaming! For those who don't read the [H] frontpage:
http://www.pregamelobby.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2680

Not exactly scientific but close enough for me..
 
Before the flaming starts I'll just say that the Wii was a lot louder than I expected and I've heard very loud and very quiet versions of the 360. No experience of the PS3 other than a model in a display cabinet.
 
Totally believeable. Most would think the 360 is loudest but the ONLY time the 360 is loud at all is when its reading a 360 game disk. The drive needs to spin at a much faster rate to process the data. When you put in an Xbox title or a DVD, you cannot hear a thing.

I wouldn't have believed the Wii being the loudest until I played one this weekend. I noticed it was a lot louder then I had expected.
 
Perhaps the Wii is the smallest because the system itself is so small, and it has smaller fans inside. They might have to spin faster, to move more air, and therefore make a lot of noise. I'm just guessing, and to be honest I haven't been able to examine a Wii, in person yet. You can't find them around here, and only one of my friends has one at the moment, and he's currently 4 and half hours away, in school.

Anyway, I'll read the guy's testing (I haven't done that yet).
 
I don't hear any of them. Surround sound kind of knocks down the relevancy of this topic...
 
theNoid said:
Totally believeable. Most would think the 360 is loudest but the ONLY time the 360 is loud at all is when its reading a 360 game disk. The drive needs to spin at a much faster rate to process the data. When you put in an Xbox title or a DVD, you cannot hear a thing.

I wouldn't have believed the Wii being the loudest until I played one this weekend. I noticed it was a lot louder then I had expected.
Click to expand...

I agree with you on the Wii. However, the X360 is a console, and reading games is probably what it should be doing 90% of the time. And thats what counts.
 
my PS3 is whisper quiet, while my roommates' 360s seem quite loud while playing gears and halo 2. they agree with me on this topic as well. weird.
 
I was surprised at the results of the PS3.

I think what I take away from this test is not which console is the loudest. Rather that the noise from the 360 comes from the DVD drive whereas the noise in the PS3 comes from the cooling system.
 
I have all 3 also...the PS3 is virtually silent. Except for the moments its loading off the disc.

THe 360 is a vaccum. Its loud all the time. I dont know if id agree with the Wii being loudest though. 360 is just plain loud.
 
Wii the loudest!?

I haven't noticed it making much of any noise...
 
I think the 360 has a more "annoying noise level" kind of whining like an old pc when idle, then its ridiculous when gaming. You can put up with the ps3s constant smooth air flow. the wii i have not noticed as much, i wouldnt say its louder than the 360 though. To those comments saying this thread is useless because you just crank the surround sound up are idiots. Not everyone has surround sound or can blast music out late at night whilst the other half or kids etc are trying to sleep. I dont find it neccessary to crank music out at full volume, yer its nice now and then but sometimes it can be overkill. I hate downloading on the 360 whilst im doing my office work in the same room, annoying as hell, it really distracts me.
 
Rash said:
I think the 360 has a more "annoying noise level" kind of whining like an old pc when idle, then its ridiculous when gaming. You can put up with the ps3s constant smooth air flow. the wii i have not noticed as much, i wouldnt say its louder than the 360 though. To those comments saying this thread is useless because you just crank the surround sound up are idiots. Not everyone has surround sound or can blast music out late at night whilst the other half or kids etc are trying to sleep. I dont find it neccessary to crank music out at full volume, yer its nice now and then but sometimes it can be overkill. I hate downloading on the 360 whilst im doing my office work in the same room, annoying as hell, it really distracts me.
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I have a really crappy mono TV.. i never notice the Xbox360 or Wii noise levels..
 
SCSI-Terminator said:
Mine too. The Wii is sitting right on top of the 360 and I notice the 360 alot more than my Wii when playing. I'm guessing something isn't right with the way he took his measurements.
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Or... as others have stated he's managed to get one of the rare quiet versions. They do exist, but I've only ever seen a quiet model that has been bought in the last few months.
 
Hmm, if I could get my hands on a PS3 and Wii to test I could ask Steeeeve who I need to contact to use the Virginia Tech sound room and get some good readings on the three consoles.
 
lol
The 360 is fairly "loud". It's not LOUD like.. I can hear it in the other room, but it's loud enough that I can actually hear it... and NO it's not just when I start up a game, it's constantly loud with the fans spinning and such.

My PS3, on the other hand, is whisper quiet provided the right temperature in my living room. When it gets hot outside (NYC weather is crazy lately), and it gets hot in here, you can hear my PS3 struggling to breathe. But, during regular gameplay and normal room temperature, it's not audible.

Lastly, my former Wii was a little quieter than the 360, but still audible.

So, in conclusion:
Loudest to quietest:
360 -> Wii -> PS3
 
Easy solution to noisy consoles ..... turn up the volume, then you can't hear any of them.
 
The person who did the testing is a retard. He choose to put the sound meter a the wrong places. Like for the PS3, he put the sound meter, right next to the side vent ... but it's not near any vent for the Wii & 360 ... gg. He should've placed the sound meter, right behind each console ... so the test is more fair.

Oh and I think that my 360 is way more fucking noisy than the PS3 ... PS3 is whisper quiet while the 360 is like vacuum. The 360's fans and drive are noisy but I don't think they are on the PS3.

Someone need to re-do the test ...
 
wii - low hiss/whine

xbox - vacuum

ps3 - pretty good for noise, now just need some games!
 
U HAX0R said:
The person who did the testing is a retard. He choose to put the sound meter a the wrong places. Like for the PS3, he put the sound meter, right next to the side vent ... but it's not near any vent for the Wii & 360 ... gg. He should've placed the sound meter, right behind each console ... so the test is more fair.

Oh and I think that my 360 is way more fucking noisy than the PS3 ... PS3 is whisper quiet while the 360 is like vacuum. The 360's fans and drive are noisy but I don't think they are on the PS3.

Someone need to re-do the test ...
Click to expand...

except you dont stick your ears behind the vents, it should be done at a normal playing distance, or multiple 5feet 10feet and 15feet
 
I never hear my Wii. Me and my girlfriends computers drown out any other ambient noise in our room. (that, and my 1200w 7.1 channel theater system)
 
360 is way too loud and unnecessarily loud, because all the unpleasant noise is coming from the DVD drive spinning at full speed constantly, and it's UNNECESSARY, because once when I was playing Oblivion the disc skipped and the drive went down to almost idle, it was so whisper quiet yet the load times were not ANY slower. I continued playing like that for a few more hours, no problems at all, again load times were IDENTICAL. MS could simply change the software to make it load at full speed at the beginning and once you are in game slow it down.

/rant
 
sakurakana1003 said:
MS could simply change the software to make it load at 48x at the beginning and once you are in game slow it down to 8x.
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Or... they could just source a quiet drive and vibration proof it properly. The 16x in my computer is far more quiet than the 12x in the 360. Or at least the old ones, anecdotally some of the new ones seem a lot more quiet.
 
These results are bogus. The PS3 is whisper quiet, while the 360 is louder then my computer even when not spinning up a DVD drive. I haven't had a chance to hear the Wii though.
 
joemama said:
I have a 360 and don't find it particularly loud...but then again I have it on a shelf under my desk along with my pc which is considered loud to most people. (9 fans total including chipset cooler)
But......the Wii is the loudest out of the 3 consoles???:confused: This guy has all 3 consoles and measured the sound of all in various states....the 360 was loudest at rest but both the PS3 and Wii were louder while gaming! For those who don't read the [H] frontpage:
http://www.pregamelobby.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2680

Not exactly scientific but close enough for me..
Click to expand...

That guy that wrote that article is a moron.
360 sounds like a vaccum going off when you start a game. The Wii is nowhere near the same amount of noise the 360 generates while gaming.

Bad article. Totally unfounded.
 
Yeah, this article is obviously the bogus work of a MS fannyboi. Having both a Wii and a 360, and knowing friends with PS3's (which are super quiet), I'll say flat out that this is bullshit. 360 is, bar none, the LOUDEST of the next gen consoles.
 
I know no-one's listening but I still say he could have a newer revision. We're all jaded cos our early adopter models sound like hairdriers!

[Edit - When I say we, I mean [H] as a whole. I'm not buying one until HDMI, bigger HDD and I'm convinced that my bro's quiet version isn't just a freak of nature!]
 
A little more info on the 360 might help.

My wife bought me a 360 for xmas, purchased at the end of October, mfg date was may 06. That thing was LOUD as hell even at the dashboard. The fans sounded like they were 5 years old with the bearings failing. Then once a 360 title was inserted it just got worse, loud as fuck.

Bottom line is I took it back to CC and they replaced it 2 days ago for one built in October 06.

NIGHT AND DAY, the new unit is awsome, it's quiet at the dashboard, dvd is no where as noisy as the original one.

As for the fans, No idea why the difference. However the oringinal unit had a hitachi built dvd and the new one is a samsung built dvd. Now my Samsung DVD RW in my media center is quiet, much more so than my 2 NEC 3500 series DVD RW's.

So the bottom line is MS is sourcing to different mfg's for the same parts in some cases and that explains why there is a huge swing from mine is quiet to mine is noisy. While I'm now happy with my Xbox 360 I think consistancy is a problem that MS should address.
 
zpackrat said:
So the bottom line is MS is sourcing to different mfg's for the same parts in some cases and that explains why there is a huge swing from mine is quiet to mine is noisy. While I'm now happy with my Xbox 360 I think consistancy is a problem that MS should address.
Click to expand...

Sourcing to different mfg's is normal operating procedure for these types of things. So long as the console still functions fine it doesn't matter. Some will be louder, some will be quieter, but that is at the bottom of MS's list. Hopefully with their push for IPTV and downloadable content they do start taking more a concern about the noise output. Anyways, as it is the fans in my launch unit aren't very loud at all, about the same as my laptop fan when it runs. The DVD drive is the real noise maker.
 
Erasmus354 said:
Sourcing to different mfg's is normal operating procedure for these types of things. So long as the console still functions fine it doesn't matter. Some will be louder, some will be quieter, but that is at the bottom of MS's list. Hopefully with their push for IPTV and downloadable content they do start taking more a concern about the noise output. Anyways, as it is the fans in my launch unit aren't very loud at all, about the same as my laptop fan when it runs. The DVD drive is the real noise maker.
Click to expand...

While sourcing to different mfg's is normal there are specifications that the mfg's have to build to. And since MS promotes the 360 as a media box as well as a game box the noise should be an issue. I for one use mine as a media center extender as well as to watch DVD's and my first one was unpleasantly noisy so much that I exchanged it. As for IPTV we won't see it for a while in the US. And I did find it odd that the fans in my 1st unit were excessivly noisy.
 
zpackrat said:
A little more info on the 360 might help.

My wife bought me a 360 for xmas, purchased at the end of October, mfg date was may 06. That thing was LOUD as hell even at the dashboard. The fans sounded like they were 5 years old with the bearings failing. Then once a 360 title was inserted it just got worse, loud as fuck.

Bottom line is I took it back to CC and they replaced it 2 days ago for one built in October 06.

NIGHT AND DAY, the new unit is awsome, it's quiet at the dashboard, dvd is no where as noisy as the original one.

As for the fans, No idea why the difference. However the oringinal unit had a hitachi built dvd and the new one is a samsung built dvd. Now my Samsung DVD RW in my media center is quiet, much more so than my 2 NEC 3500 series DVD RW's.

So the bottom line is MS is sourcing to different mfg's for the same parts in some cases and that explains why there is a huge swing from mine is quiet to mine is noisy. While I'm now happy with my Xbox 360 I think consistancy is a problem that MS should address.
Click to expand...
How can you tell which manufacturer the dvd drive came from? I assume I have the Samsung because I don't notice it being particularly loud..
 
I would say my 360 is louder than my Wii, but I don't really notice it on either. And I have the Hitachi DVD drive.
 
Haha...I have all 3 as one or two other people in this thread and the Xbox360 is by far the loudest....

I have 3 xbox 360's in my house right now...and they are far the loudest console. And actually I have never heard my wii make a noise...ever. I didn't think they even made noise. The PS3 is also whisper quiet also, I rarely ever hear this. The thing I love about it is, if it gets really hot it will turn up the fans to Max power. And I know I need to shut down the console and let it sit.
 
Draax said:
Easy solution to noisy consoles ..... turn up the volume, then you can't hear any of them.
Click to expand...

Not a solution. I don't want to add more noise. I live in a pretty quiet area, so when I turn on one of these consoles, I can definitely hear them. It's annoying to put up with that when you just want to download a demo, watch a movie, or play a quick game.

The xbox360 is the worst offender, and it's not just the DVD drive as some suggested. Just sitting at the dashboard, there's an awful lot of noise coming off of that thing. The PS3 is pretty quiet. It is still audible, but it has a lower less-annoying pitch to the fan noise. I don't own a Wii, so I won't comment on that.
 
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