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iMac hard drives still noisy?

M

MikeVera

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 5, 2014
131
38
Hey guys,

I picked up one of the pre-configured late 2013 iMacs 27 inch (GTX 780).

I noticed that the hard drive is quite loud, has a "gurgling" sound.

I had seen threads on this forum in the past, (more like 2009-2010) about it, but hadn't seen much recently.

Does anyone that has the 1TB hard drive in the iMac hear their hard drive as well? Trying to find out if it's the "norm", or if they of the most part have it worked out by now.

When you have stuff going its not that bad, but if you like a quite office space, or are trying to work on something its kind of intrusive/irritating.

Mike V
 
N

Nismo73

macrumors 65816
Jan 4, 2013
1,157
970
On my fusion, I'm into the WD drive now since i'm at around 200+ gb total amount of storage, so I'll hear the drive grumble a little bit here and there, but it's not that bad.

I had a pure spinning drive late '12 iMac for a bit, so I've heard the hard drive noise a lot more constantly on that machine since it was always accessing it rather than a ssd like on the fusion. It was a little annoying since the iMac itself is pretty quiet and I use it normally in a quiet room.
 
M

MikeVera

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 5, 2014
131
38
Nismo73 said:
On my fusion, I'm into the WD drive now since i'm at around 200+ gb total amount of storage, so I'll hear the drive grumble a little bit here and there, but it's not that bad.

I had a pure spinning drive late '12 iMac for a bit, so I've heard the hard drive noise a lot more constantly on that machine since it was always accessing it rather than a ssd like on the fusion. It was a little annoying since the iMac itself is pretty quiet and I use it normally in a quiet room.
Click to expand...

Did it sound kind of like a stomach gurgling? LOL
 
redheeler

redheeler

macrumors G3
Oct 17, 2014
8,419
8,841
Colorado, USA
MikeVera said:
Hey guys,

I picked up one of the pre-configured late 2013 iMacs 27 inch (GTX 780).

I noticed that the hard drive is quite loud, has a "gurgling" sound.

I had seen threads on this forum in the past, (more like 2009-2010) about it, but hadn't seen much recently.

Does anyone that has the 1TB hard drive in the iMac hear their hard drive as well? Trying to find out if it's the "norm", or if they of the most part have it worked out by now.

When you have stuff going its not that bad, but if you like a quite office space, or are trying to work on something its kind of intrusive/irritating.

Mike V
Click to expand...

Doesn't surprise me, the mid 2010 has a very loud hard drive. Sorry I can't compare it to my newer iMac as it is SSD only and I wouldn't have it any other way.

That "gurgling" sound is just the hard drive accessing, in HDD only machines the accessing is constant.
 
C

cynics

macrumors G4
Jan 8, 2012
11,959
2,154
I can only hear a very high pitch whirl when the hard drives wakes from a sleep. And even for that I need the room to be dead silent. No other noticeable sounds can be heard.
 
A

andy9l

macrumors 68000
Aug 31, 2009
1,699
365
England, UK
redheeler said:
Doesn't surprise me, the mid 2010 has a very loud hard drive. Sorry I can't compare it to my newer iMac as it is SSD only and I wouldn't have it any other way.

That "gurgling" sound is just the hard drive accessing, in HDD only machines the accessing is constant.
Click to expand...

Yep. The mid-2010 iMacs are the loudest drives I've heard. Seagate. Never again. It was so bad I spent £350 on putting an SSD in mine to kill the noise.

They eventually got recalled, though.

You will still get gurgling on fusion drives. It's just fast moving parts.
 
redheeler

redheeler

macrumors G3
Oct 17, 2014
8,419
8,841
Colorado, USA
andy9l said:
Yep. The mid-2010 iMacs are the loudest drives I've heard. Seagate. Never again. It was so bad I spent £350 on putting an SSD in mine to kill the noise.

They eventually got recalled, though.

You will still get gurgling on fusion drives. It's just fast moving parts.
Click to expand...

I just checked the 2010 iMac and the hard drive is an original Seagate. :rolleyes:

They got recalled you say?
 
A

andy9l

macrumors 68000
Aug 31, 2009
1,699
365
England, UK
redheeler said:
Yup :p



Although I would much rather have an SSD in it anyway.
Click to expand...


It has a spare SATA slot on the MoBo, so you can just add one in. You can't swap the original HDD for a SSD because of a proprietary heat sensor. Basically if you did, the fans would be on full-blast from the minute you turn the Mac on until it shuts down.

I got an OWC SSD and it's literally stuck to the back aluminium panel (internally) and plugged in to the spare SATA. It wasn't easy.
 
redheeler

redheeler

macrumors G3
Oct 17, 2014
8,419
8,841
Colorado, USA
andy9l said:
It has a spare SATA slot on the MoBo, so you can just add one in. You can't swap the original HDD for a SSD because of a proprietary heat sensor. Basically if you did, the fans would be on full-blast from the minute you turn the Mac on until it shuts down.

I got an OWC SSD and it's literally stuck to the back aluminium panel (internally) and plugged in to the spare SATA. It wasn't easy.
Click to expand...

The heat sensors in a 2010 Mac mini are stuck to the hard drive with sticky tape. I'm pretty sure the 2010 iMac uses a similar external sensor.
 
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