From The Floor - PowerMac Too Loud? Crywolf Shows The CoolMac Silencer

by , 2:30 PM EST, January 9th, 2003

PowerMacs are noisy beasts. The fans Apple put in the units are loud, and there are no two ways around that. Petitions have circulated, rants have been written, and e-mails have been sent to Apple, and probably to just about every Mac site on the Internet: Many PowerMac users don't like the noise.

Admittedly, there are many PCs that are at least as noisy, but there are few Mac users who chose a Mac because it's just as bad as a PC.

For every problem, there is a solution, and the free market has chosen to look at the noise problem as an opportunity. Crywolf Computers has introduced a product designed to insulate a PowerMac or Xserve, while still allowing it to be cool. It's called the CoolMac Silencer, and it comes in two models: the gCab for PowerMac towers, the xCab for Xserve rackmount units.

The CoolMac Silencer provide drawers for sliding your Mac in an out of the cabinet, internal lighting, a digital temperature meter, door locks, and the ability to have cables running out of the cabinet in a very flexible manner.

Kevin Langdon of Crywolf tells TMO that the gCab can reduce the noise output from a PowerMac G4 tower from 67db to 35db. The xCab can reduce the output from an Xserve from 82db to 38db.

Silence is golden, or so the saying goes, and in this case, there is a price tag for the gold. The gMac is priced starting at US$699, and the xCab starts at US$1699. Even at those prices, which are competitive within the market of such products, the units presold out the entire first month's projected sales in the first two days of Macworld Expo, according to a Crywolf representative. You can find more information on the CoolMac Silencer at Crywolf's Web site.

The Mac Observer Spin:

We think it remarkable that Apple's inability to make the PowerMac quieter, even though the G4 Cube was fanless, has resulted in a company being able to market, and sell, a product like this. Kudos to Crywolf for meeting what is obviously a strong demand, but non-kudos to Apple for making it necessary; and demand is the right word. We saw lots of people at Crywolf's booth looking into the product.

Crywolf