And let’s not forget the manufacturer must design this within acceptable price points of their current systems. Not to mention this material has to not produce waste materials in manufacturing that violate any federal regulations.

Concerning electromagnetic fluxes: 6.3 Electromagnetic Flux, McGraw Hill

Note the varying diameters and the relationship of flux to cross sectional area: it is inversely proportional to the cross-sectional area (diameter thickness of insulator does matter), not to mention this doesn’t take into account the material properties of the insulator used.

Rule of thumb : Costs trump best design any day of the week when you are designing a product to maximize your net profits. Apple I suppose could absorb the costs of developing their power supply unit to be whipser quiet, but do we have any assurances that this newfound elimination of “hum” would result in sales increasing to make this absorbed cost worth the losses?

Unless Apple suddenly invests a sizeable chunk into companies that specifically deal with material science engineering and electrical engineering power theory I doubt Apple or any PC manufacturer will make huge leaps forward into reducing these annoying “hum.”

By the way, to think that only a mechanical system makes noise seems strange. Even solid materials (what we can deduce from our senses) on a molecular level are definitely not in a fixed state but in a continuous struggle of interacting forces. These interactions result in “hums,” that range from outside to inside our own hearing range.

Of course we should all be so fortunate to have a Quad G5. I’ve got some old PIII’s I could trade for one. Somehow I’d manage to tolerate this “hum.”

But he is dead wrong if he thinks that Apple is somehow shipping crappy analog electronics inside the machines. A more accurate assessment is that Apple — and just about every other brand name computer manufacturer — ships with the best quality components that can be had at a reasonable price and yield reasonable performance.

I simply find it unacceptable for a PSU to make noise from its “non-moving” parts (i.e., not the fans). I find it hard to believe that Apple cannot find a single vendor that can meet the power/size/heat/durability/price requirements of the Power Mac G5 PSU without chirping. But if this really is the case, then Apple simply needs to increase the price it’s willing to pay for this part until it can satisfy that goal. If that means Apple has to lower its margins on this product, or even increase the retail price (Intel Mac mini anyone?), then so be it. (Alternately, Apple can modify the case design to make the PSU easier to create at the desired specs, etc. Whatever it needs to do.)

I can understand the very first version of a product having problems like this. But I don’t think it’s too much to ask for the issue to be addressed in some way over the next three years which include three more revisions of the product.