i never owned an imac are they quiet?

[orangezorki]

I bought a 24" iMac back in the early days of the Core2Duos (white plastic case). I had to return it and its replacement because of an annoying, ticking noise every 5-10s or so, which I think was due to the hard drive. It wasn't loud at all, and indeed the computer was very quiet. But for me, it was very distracting as the noise was coming from where I was looking and focusing my attention on. If it had been coming from a tower on the floor under the desk, it wouldn't have been a problem at all.

Now, about five years later, I am considering an upgrade and love the idea of the 27" iMac, but does anyone know if this may still pose a problem, especially if I spec the SSD+HD combo?

Thanks,

David

 

[vodouman]

I bought a 24" iMac back in the early days of the Core2Duos (white plastic case). I had to return it and its replacement because of an annoying, ticking noise every 5-10s or so, which I think was due to the hard drive. It wasn't loud at all, and indeed the computer was very quiet. But for me, it was very distracting as the noise was coming from where I was looking and focusing my attention on. If it had been coming from a tower on the floor under the desk, it wouldn't have been a problem at all.

Now, about five years later, I am considering an upgrade and love the idea of the 27" iMac, but does anyone know if this may still pose a problem, especially if I spec the SSD+HD combo?

Thanks,

David

I use a 27" iMac and sleep in the same room as it. Rarely turn it off. She's quiet as a ninja

 

[turbobass]

I'm sitting in a room full of them and I can't hear a damned one.

Anyone who's telling you that the harddrives are loud has got to be trolling. Yes, technically it may make some noise in the sense that technically an ant has a weight.

 

[Don Kosak]

I have a 1 month old 27" iMac i7 with 2TB 7200rpm hard disk as well as the SSD.

In ordinary use (coding, browsing, Pages, Numbers, iPhoto) the iMac is silent. In order to hear any noise, I need to put my ear physically on the computer itself. Needless to say, it's difficult to type in that position -- so for all intents and purposes, I would say my iMac is silent.

I have to top of the line video card (with 2gb ram) that probably puts off some heat when fully engaged. When I play high end games, I can hear the fan softly blowing air. Even then, the iMac is much more quiet than my MacBook (which sounds a bit like a space-heater blowing) when playing the same games.

The fan in my older 24" iMac was slightly louder.

I was worried about noise when initially looking at the iMac. I nearly didn't get the 2TB drive because of concerns that I'd hear spinning, clicking, whirring all day long. As it turns out, my fears were unfounded.

I would suggest that the one or two people who called us names and said that their iMac was loud should make an appointment at their local Apple service center and get them fixed. They'll be much happier once they've seen how quiet an iMac can be.

 

[heliocentric]

What are louder the 500gb hard drives or the 1tb hard drives ?

 

[jsolares]

I'm sitting in a room full of them and I can't hear a damned one.

Anyone who's telling you that the harddrives are loud has got to be trolling. Yes, technically it may make some noise in the sense that technically an ant has a weight.

I'd say you're the one trolling, so i'm guessing those don't have a seagate drive in them, mine's a ST31000528AS and it is a bit loud. i'm not sure if i'll get applecare and if i don't, i think i'm going to install an SSD to replace it.

 

[qap]

Wirelessly posted (Opera/9.80 (iPhone; Opera Mini/6.1.15738/25.823; U; en) Presto/2.5.25 Version/10.54)

The OP is not asking if the imac is silent (which is not possible), he want to know how quite it is.

I had my imac for 2 months now with SSD, and have just changed back to stock hard drive again. I've set the fans to the lowest rpm on normal use which is very quiet, and not distracting at all in a quiet room.

The hard drive makes around the same noise as any other hard drives of its size and speed. But since the imac’s hard drive is only few feet in front of you rather than sitting in a tower farther away, the noise is a bit louder.

I don’t think you will find any other quieter machines on the market that can match the imac’s performance and form factor.

in a quiet room i can hear the fans with the machine mostly idle, and when you load the CPU well it's not quiet at all.

If you need something really quiet you need a water cooled computer with SSD, or a noisier room/office , the noisiest part of my iMac is the hard drive (under light load), and then the fans (under high load)

I agree with you, the fans are audible also at idle with only the SSD like me (a very soft ffffrrr)! Expecially in thede 2011 models that the right fan-optical drive fan spins 150rpms more than the 2010-2009 models (1150rpm vs 1000rpm) but is not disturbing, you need to be concentrated to ear it from 50-60cm (the minimun distance for the 27 screen).

The problem is not the fans or the hd noisy, also the psu makes noisy and all the eletrical things, the problem is the iMac has all of these things in front of you, right at the "ears line" so it's more noisy...

Also my APC Smart makes a costantly soft fzzfzzzfzz sound due to check the Power line but is down under the table and 1 meter from me, and for that it's not audible, if I put it near the iMac I can listen and it should be disturbing!

And a watercooled PC is noisy because it has the fans and the water pump but if you put it at the groud level the noise is not audible!

 

[AndyTNZ]

I have to say that my new 27" 3.4 GHz i7 iMac suffers from very irritating excessive CPU fan noise. The CPU is running at normal temps and the CPU fan is running at normal speed as reported by smcFanControl ...... but it really splutters along and ruins the iMac experience for me. It sounds like a continuos low level football rattle and it's quite audible at idle in a normal study with average ambient noise levels.

I've enjoyed all my previous Apple products (iPods, iPhones, iPads etc) but having made the big move from PC to Mac and splashed out on a fully loaded BTO iMac I find my future brand loyalty under pressure for the sake of a $5 fan and better quality control on a NZ$5,500 machine.

 

[antonis]

27" 2010 model i7, one of the most quiet machines I've ever had or used. I can only barely hear the HD during very late night hours where there is a total ambient silence. And this is not even the reason I got it at first place, since noise is not a big issue for me (I had a pc for years so...).

 

[Wreckie]

Compared to my old PC, which was a true leafblower, my new 27" iMac is in other class. Only sound I hear is HDD clicking, which I consider normal, it is very small sound though. Can't hear fans at all. Anyways, going to change HDD to SSD in few years, when prices are more friendly.

 

[Spike88]

My 2010 iMac is near silent. Even with its 3 x internal fans increased by 200 RPMs (from its factory default), it is near silent. Compared to my HP Laptop unit (re: the tornado), my iMac is like listening to a mouse sleeping on cotton balls. Very, very quiet. If the iMac can be heard across the room, then something is physically wrong with it.

.

 

[jigsb007]

Well I've got a 21.5 2010 and a 27 2011 and they are both very quiet.

I would say, forget about noice, just buy BOSE QC15 and you will be find. but just go for MAC..

 

[EricT43]

Very quiet. I used to be able to hear my PC running from the other side of the house, between the PSU fan, CPU fan, GPU fan, and case fans. The iMac is barely audible, and since I usually have Pandora or a game going, I can't hear it at all.

 

[Schranke]

Don't have an iMac yet.
What i understood some of you say was that an iMac with SSD and HHD.
The HHD will go into "sleep" when it hasn't been used for some min.
My only worry is how much the 2nd drive run i.e. the HHD.
I am planing to get 1 with SSD and HHD, were SSD ofc are for system and apps, and HHD will be for file storage + shared drive for the house (2xMBP and 1 Windows)

 

[azurehi]

You are being disrespectful by accusing us of misleading. I have no reason whatsoever to lie and I'm not in any way misleading anybody. I can't hear any noise on my iMac and that's the truth. I suggest that you edit your post, it is VERY DISRESPECTFUL.

You and Rodney Dangerfield should get together

 

[frank4]

I've read that the iMac is designed to be partially convection cooled because Steve Jobs disliked noisy computers. Hot air rises. You can see that room air would naturally go in the bottom and be drawn up over the hot parts to cool them and the heated air would emerge at the top vent. So the fans are normally not required to work very hard.

 

[bushman4]

Extremely quiet. Even more so if you got it with an SSD

 

[heimbachae]

I've owned my iMac for about a year and a half and only really heard it loud twice. Once was during startup, it had to go through the whole initializing fans, and then once again a few weeks ago when I was encoding downloaded Boardwalk Empire episodes into proper iTunes format.

Every now and again I can hear it, but it's one of the quietest machines I own.

 

[weckart]

Mine is a 2011 model and not affected by the Seagate recall, but hums noticeably. This might be amplified by the wooden desk it rests on, which may be resonating in harmony with the iMac. Not sure if it is the hard drive spinning or the power unit humming but either way, it is hard to ignore in a quiet environment. I have stuck a small towel under the iMac to dampen the sound and that has helped a bit. A thick rubber mat might work even better.

 

[deuk1219]

It all depends.
I have a quad-core 27" 2010 iMac.
It literally runs silently, when just browsing on the internet, listening to music, watching movies.
You can start to hear the HD running when you use some other heavy programs, such as video chatting, video editing, playing games.