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2012 iMac ventilation

Gaming for hours in Wow on good/high settings (same for Diablo III) on my 21.5" with GT 650m has the machine consuming around 50-60watts and it is extremely cool to the touch. Hope this helps!

EDIT

I also want to point out that the hard drive stays around 30c too while gaming. This is great compared to the previous generation getting around 55c or higher! 😱 Maybe its the new design, maybe its the new and efficent GPU and CPU (less power = less heat), or maybe its the 54000 rpm speed, either way I am happy!
 
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turtlez said:
I am super hesitant to buy this iMac. My 2007 Macbook Pro already overheated 3 days after warranty expired and cooked the motherboard and GPU. Got a Mac Pro and it stays cool but when playing games my graphics card starts to whine a lot.

I kind of have no choice but to go with another Mac Pro or a PC really :\ fff Apple..
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Oh come on, Apple designs these products so they don't overheat. I had a ~2007 MacBook Pro and used it for CPU-intensive work and the fans did get loud and it did get hot but it never overheated or broke. If yours overheated then it was due to some kind of manufacturing defect (broken fan?) or user error. Maybe you were blocking the vents.

And of course your Mac Pro will get louder when the GPU fan spins up to play games, sounds like everything is operating 100% as expected and NOT overheating.

I would buy any Apple product today with 100% confidence that it won't experience any heat-related problems.
 
motrek said:
Oh come on, Apple designs these products so they don't overheat. I had a ~2007 MacBook Pro and used it for CPU-intensive work and the fans did get loud and it did get hot but it never overheated or broke. If yours overheated then it was due to some kind of manufacturing defect (broken fan?) or user error. Maybe you were blocking the vents.

And of course your Mac Pro will get louder when the GPU fan spins up to play games, sounds like everything is operating 100% as expected and NOT overheating.

I would buy any Apple product today with 100% confidence that it won't experience any heat-related problems.
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well you might have 100% confidence like I used to but I am almost at 50% right now with the issues that have risen up over the last 8 months. Started with my original Apple ram failing which for my Mac Pro 2008 model costs mega $. My Macbook Pro before that died 3 days after warranty. Apple seems to be focused on their iPhone, iPad, iPod range more than anything, the price seems to climb on refreshed computers, the competition is rising and Apple is still stagnant, os x is getting more bloated each version. There is probably others that I will think of later but this really annoys me.
 
turtlez said:
well you might have 100% confidence like I used to but I am almost at 50% right now with the issues that have risen up over the last 8 months. Started with my original Apple ram failing which for my Mac Pro 2008 model costs mega $. My Macbook Pro before that died 3 days after warranty. Apple seems to be focused on their iPhone, iPad, iPod range more than anything, the price seems to climb on refreshed computers, the competition is rising and Apple is still stagnant, os x is getting more bloated each version. There is probably others that I will think of later but this really annoys me.
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We were talking about overheating. Don't bring RAM failures into this. And also, RAM for a 2008 Mac Pro costs about $17 per gigabyte. It's not cheap but I'd hardly call that "mega $."
 
motrek said:
We were talking about overheating. Don't bring RAM failures into this. And also, RAM for a 2008 Mac Pro costs about $17 per gigabyte. It's not cheap but I'd hardly call that "mega $."
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costs $1000 for 32GB from OWC. Also heat issues lead to component fails that is why I brought it up
 
turtlez said:
costs $1000 for 32GB from OWC. Also heat issues lead to component fails that is why I brought it up
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I suppose that's about right but why in god's name would you replace all your RAM? Surely every single stick didn't go bad?

And heat is not the only possible cause of RAM failure. Actually, as any overclocker will tell you, if RAM gets too hot it will give you errors LONG before it actually permanently breaks. So if your RAM was really broken then heat almost certainly wasn't the cause.
 
JustMartin said:
Well, the world is just full of people who are more expert in heat generation and dissipation than Apple.
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There are definitely a lot of people in the world that could have done a better job in devices such as the rev.1 air than apple did.

That's why people here are weary of this new thin design of the imac when it comes to thermals.

It won't be the first time apple screws up thermals due to thinness.
 
kaellar said:
1. Not sure ANY heat issues lead to component fails.
2. Not sure if there were ANY heat ISSUES with your MBP.
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heat issues screw up hard drives a lot. If heat didn't mess with components their would be no fans or heat sinks would there? lol

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motrek said:
I suppose that's about right but why in god's name would you replace all your RAM? Surely every single stick didn't go bad?

And heat is not the only possible cause of RAM failure. Actually, as any overclocker will tell you, if RAM gets too hot it will give you errors LONG before it actually permanently breaks. So if your RAM was really broken then heat almost certainly wasn't the cause.
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i had 6, down to 4 because SD DIMM requires pairing. I need more than 6 these days (since 2008) so I am aiming for 16+
 
turtlez said:
heat issues screw up hard drives a lot. If heat didn't mess with components their would be no fans or heat sinks would there? lol

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i had 6, down to 4 because SD DIMM requires pairing. I need more than 6 these days (since 2008) so I am aiming for 16+
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I had a Dish Network 622 DVR satellite receiver that was on for 6 straight years with the harddrive running continuously. You could literally fry eggs on top of the box. I think it was a 160 GB harddrive. Never had an issue with it. I am not sure what the harddrive technology was but I was continually amazed it never failed. Recently replaces with Cisco 7050 IPTV DVR box with 500 GB harddrive. Runs much cooler and the harddrive is turned off when the box is not in use.
 
turtlez said:
heat issues screw up hard drives a lot. If heat didn't mess with components their would be no fans or heat sinks would there? lol
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HDDs - ok, I agree. But that isn't what I meant. The CPU/GPU, and many-many components (actually, almost any except the HDDs) can handle any temps to 105C. You may think you could fry some eggs on your mbp, but its components are feeling pretty comfortable since they work in their normal temps range.
 
pizzapappa said:
Are your imacs completely silent? I hear my fan constantly. Not loud, but the sound is still there.
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Mine is completely silent. It is a new 2012 21.5" base model. I got it on the first day available in store. Since then, I never turned it off. It's so quiet, I hope the CPU fan is really running and it's not my hearing problem.

Seriously, if I hear any fan noise, I would return it rightaway to get refund. I jump ship from PC makers to Apple because Apple computer is the most quiet in the industry, not for OS X. By the way, I run bootcamp Windows 7 only. Maybe this is the reason my iMac is quiet.
 
apple-win said:
Mine is completely silent. It is a new 2012 21.5" base model. I got it on the first day available in store. Since then, I never turned it off. It's so quiet, I hope the CPU fan is really running and it's not my hearing problem.

Seriously, if I hear any fan noise, I would return it rightaway to get refund. I jump ship from PC makers to Apple because Apple computer is the most quiet in the industry, not for OS X. By the way, I run bootcamp Windows 7 only. Maybe this is the reason my iMac is quiet.
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If you never hear the fan that means you are using the computer the right way. Under the right load your fans will kick on. Nothing wrong with that.
 
53x12 said:
If you never hear the fan that means you are using the computer the right way. Under the right load your fans will kick on. Nothing wrong with that.
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I hear mine constantly, even when its idle in the desktop. Tried smc and the fans where running at 1400rpm (good, bad?) turned them up to 2200 and then they where like whisteling
 
pizzapappa said:
Are your imacs completely silent? I hear my fan constantly. Not loud, but the sound is still there.
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If I am playing games and I put my ear on the other side of the monitor and I have no sound playing and am in a silent room, I can tell the fan is spinning. Besides that extreme case I do not hear anything under normal conditions.
 
Just called apple and told them basically what I told you guys. Just said that I can hear the fan even under zero load. The guy guided me thru some basic steps, like activity monitor and whatnot. I told him that maybe its just me being overly sensitive, being a quite expensive machine. But no problems whatsoever. As of now I have a new iMac on the way.

Love the apple customer service!
 
pizzapappa said:
Just called apple and told them basically what I told you guys. Just said that I can hear the fan even under zero load. The guy guided me thru some basic steps, like activity monitor and whatnot. I told him that maybe its just me being overly sensitive, being a quite expensive machine. But no problems whatsoever. As of now I have a new iMac on the way.

Love the apple customer service!
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If you are used to "normal" PCs then an iMac might seem silent to you. And if you work in a relatively loud environment like an office building then it might be literally impossible to hear an iMac.

But the fact is that it does have a fan that spins constantly, and a hard drive that will usually be spinning, so it is not absolutely silent.
 
motrek said:
If you are used to "normal" PCs then an iMac might seem silent to you. And if you work in a relatively loud environment like an office building then it might be literally impossible to hear an iMac.

But the fact is that it does have a fan that spins constantly, and a hard drive that will usually be spinning, so it is not absolutely silent.
Click to expand...

I told them that it might just be me whos being overly sensitive but they still wanted to replace it. So... Why not.. Maybe it will be more quiet. Maybe not.
 
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