We experimentally investigate the noise properties of a homemade 586 MHz mode-locked laser (MLL). The variation of the timing jitter versus the harmonic order is measured, which is consistent with the theoretical analyses. The dominant contributions to the timing jitter are detailedly studied by analyzing the phase noises at different harmonic frequencies. For low-order harmonics, the intensity noise and relative-intensity-noise-coupled (RIN-coupled) jitter mainly contribute to the timing jitter, while for high-order harmonics, the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise makes the dominant contribution. Then we find that a higher output ratio has an obvious improvement on reducing the timing jitter and suppressing the phase noise because of the shorter pulse duration and lower net cavity dispersion caused by the higher output ratio. Finally a comparison of the noise performance between the MLL and a commercial signal generator is made, which shows that the optically generated radio-frequency signal (OGRFS) has a lower phase noise at high offset frequencies, however the higher phase noise at low offset frequencies leads to a higher timing jitter than the commercial SG.