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mylifewasalie

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 15, 2014
7
0
Hello everybody!

I bought a new Macbook Air last week and it is amazing. This was the first time I bought an Apple product in my life and I was a little bit of skeptical about Apple products since some people hate them. Not gonna lie, I also thought that Macbooks are overrated.

I don't hear the fan noise, which is a great thing. I've been using a Sony Vaio for three years and I literally smashed it into pieces because of the fan noise because it was driving me crazy.

Now I am thinking about buying an iMac.

Is iMac as silent as Macbook Air, too?

I'll buy it with an SSD disk.
 

firedept

macrumors 603
Jul 8, 2011
6,277
1,130
Somewhere!
As quiet as can be. The only time I really hear anything coming from my iMac is when I am rendering video. Then the fan will kick in. Still not annoying and not like some jet engine going off. Most times I do not even notice it.

The iMac is a pretty quiet machine, especially the new ones. My late 2012 is in the basement office which is dead quiet, so I would take notice to any sounds. My external drives make more noise.
 

mylifewasalie

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 15, 2014
7
0
As quiet as can be. The only time I really hear anything coming from my iMac is when I am rendering video. Then the fan will kick in. Still not annoying and not like some jet engine going off. Most times I do not even notice it.

The iMac is a pretty quiet machine, especially the new ones. My late 2012 is in the basement office which is dead quiet, so I would take notice to any sounds. My external drives make more noise.

Thanks for your answer.

I won't be rendering any video, I am a web developer, I only use Sublime Text, Google Chrome, XAMPP and sometimes Photoshop. My requirements are quite low but since I have a bad history with Sony, I am trying to be cautious with every computer I buy.

I am buying it then.
 

yjchua95

macrumors 604
Apr 23, 2011
6,725
233
GVA, KUL, MEL (current), ZQN
Thanks for your answer.

I won't be rendering any video, I am a web developer, I only use Sublime Text, Google Chrome, XAMPP and sometimes Photoshop. My requirements are quite low but since I have a bad history with Sony, I am trying to be cautious with every computer I buy.

I am buying it then.

A word of advice. Don't use Chrome, it's a resource hog and runs badly on OS X.

For your case, the 2.7GHz 21.5" with Iris Pro and a 1TB FD/256GB SSD would do you fine.
 

mylifewasalie

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 15, 2014
7
0
A word of advice. Don't use Chrome, it's a resource hog and runs badly on OS X.

For your case, the 2.7GHz 21.5" with Iris Pro and a 1TB FD/256GB SSD would do you fine.

I know, I am just too comfy with chrome. If Safari performs better, maybe I switch in the future.

Thanks for the tip.
 

firedept

macrumors 603
Jul 8, 2011
6,277
1,130
Somewhere!
Thanks for your answer.

I won't be rendering any video, I am a web developer, I only use Sublime Text, Google Chrome, XAMPP and sometimes Photoshop. My requirements are quite low but since I have a bad history with Sony, I am trying to be cautious with every computer I buy.

I am buying it then.

You will be just fine with what you are doing. I run MAMP Pro, Coda2, Adobe CS6 Master Collection, Parallels with Windows 7 and test most of my web design work in all the browsers with no issues. I use Firefox as my main browser with Chrome being my second choice.

I am running a 27" i7 3.4GHz 24GB RAM 1TB Fusion Drive. So I do have an iMac to handle my needs. You will love the iMac. It is a very good machine and does a very good job. With the SSD it will be lightning quick. If you go with the 21.5", just make sure you get the RAM you want upfront as it is not upgradable later, like in the 27".

Enjoy your Macs!
 

Sassers

macrumors member
Dec 10, 2012
45
3
About two years ago I succumbed to the Apple magic. I wish I hadn't wasted so many years with the other guys! One thing that stands out to me about the Apple OS is just how simple and elegant everything works together; that along with the overall build quality and attention to detail.

I don't do too much on the iMac (Photoshop, some 3d rendering, some games) but in the 2 years I've owned it, I think the fan has kicked in maybe twice, and not very loud at all.

I don't think you'll regret purchasing the iMac :)
 

jordanm86

macrumors regular
Oct 21, 2011
231
52
Thanks for your answer.

I won't be rendering any video, I am a web developer, I only use Sublime Text, Google Chrome, XAMPP and sometimes Photoshop. My requirements are quite low but since I have a bad history with Sony, I am trying to be cautious with every computer I buy.

I am buying it then.

I'm a digital/print/web designer so I use mine with Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Coda 2, MAMP and it is very quiet.

It's a single fan and at the moment it is running at 1200rpm whilst web browsing, checking emails, coding and grabbing assets from photoshop.

Like the previous commenter, I only ever hear fan noise if rendering a video.
I've been playing Lego Marvel Superheroes (in the app store :D) too using a ps3 controller, runs smooth, no noise :D

I know a few folk have said don't use chrome as your main browser but I still use chrome as I prefer the dev tools over safari's dev tools.

I occasionally have a blip where chrome will freeze or hang but not often (granted it's not as stable as Safari but it's still ok).
 

chromedome45

macrumors newbie
Oct 3, 2012
29
0
Just picked up a late 2013 iMac 21.5 2.9 GHz Quad core w/1TB HDD 8GB RAM and the NVidia 750 graphics card. It was an open box item at Best buy. So got it at a fairly reasonable price. It is a stock model although I would like to upgrade it to 16GB RAM. Actually was cheaper than a new iMac 2.7 GHz with the Iris Pro. I recommend this model over the 2.7 because of the NVidia graphics card. And as already mentioned it is super quiet! :)

And have it running Yosemite Beta 3 in a separate partition on the main HDD. :D
 
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