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Cooling in the new 2020 27" iMac?
- Thread starter miretogo
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Ok. My office is dead quiet... only me in it so it must be the HDD masking the noise. I have a ’20 on order so will be interesting to see if I can hear the fan. Had a play with my ‘17 and I can hear the fan at 1250RPM so there’s not much between minimum speed and when it becomes audible.
Roxy.music
macrumors 6502a
🙁I just got a note posted to my door saying that there was a £20.30 customs charge? Did you have to pay customs charges? They say free shipping on there. I am really peed off about that. 🙁 🙁I only bought it because it was cheap, whether or not it will be worth 83 pounds is another thing. I would have paid more for one with good reviews if I had known
Yeah.. I get that. 🙂 Will be interesting to see if the fan is audible on the '20 when it arrives. If it is then it must be the HDD that is masking the noise on the '17 I have.
ondert
macrumors 6502a
yes I paid custom fee too. It depends on your country and the country where the package comes. Haven’t you ordered something overseas before?
mj_
macrumors 68000
You can lower idle RPM to ~950rpm on an iMac with a trick:
Install smcFanControl, then open Terminal and copy and paste the following:
Afterwards, launch (or relaunch) MacsFanControl (it's important to launch or relaunch it after you've modified SMC, otherwise it won't be able to detect the new minimum), set your fan control to manual and adjust the values for start and maximum temperature to your liking. There's a noticeable difference between 1,200 and 950rpm, and it made a huge difference for me.
do this - they are very good. I was in the same situation and got a 1tb. Very fast
Some of the decrease will be GPU I suspect. Some will be the removal of the HDD.
There is no reason why “make it quieter” would have been a goal for this iteration. If anything I would say it’s likely they would want to avoid making it quieter so that they can use that as a marketing angle for the future Apple Silicon replacements.
So when I look at the tear down video is the CPU where the back vent is? Does the fan blow air towards the cpu then it exits out the back vent?
Roxy.music
macrumors 6502a
Yes, I have and from China but have never had to pay a customs fee. And if they had said I might have to pay them. I would not have bought the item. I have put this on forums and people have said it is the luck of the draw whether they would have them it seems I have been one of the unlucky ones like you. I won't buy anything from China again. Just a matter of interest how much did you have to pay.mine £20.30 that is a lot for something that only costs 62.75? I have been told customs fees in the UK are one of the highest. I dare say they will go higher when the UK finally leave the EU. I have asked the seller if he will refund me 10 pounds towards the customs fee.
That would be better for both of us.when the post office sends it back to them they will be charged the fee.
xgman
macrumors 603
Look at OWC TB3 drives. Some extremely fast. There is a reason you have two TB3 lanes in the imp!
quagmire
macrumors 604
The fan blows air towards the heat sink which is then blown out the back vent. Yes the CPU is close to the vent because that is where the RAM is which there is a limit to how far RAM and the CPU can be apart before it effects performance.
The CPU and GPU transfer the heat they generate to the one heat sink via heat pipes. Since one heat sink is responsible for the cooling of both the CPU and GPU, having both loaded at 100% will be interesting to see how it effects performance as the heat sink gets heat soaked from both and how much thermal throttling there is.*
* Of course this was always the case with the 2012 era design of the iMac and this was always the cooling design for it. Just becomes more of an issue as the heat output of these chips have gotten higher and higher.
yellow_lupine
macrumors member
41.1 dBA and 100 °C at max CPU load... as always... thanks Apple -.-
Thanks for posting this insightful review. I wonder if the fans ran at full throttle when the CPU reached 100 °C degrees. If not, maybe a manual fan settings via Macs Fan Control could possibly keep it cooler. However, the high noise level indicates a high fan speed.
Anyway, it shows that Apple did not magically improve the cooling.
I wonder how much cooler/quiter the i7 version is. I also wonder how much cooler the Radeon Pro 5700 (without XT) is. With this "old" cooling system, I won't choose the hottest/loudest options.
Curious if you put a fan blowing out from the back vent would it provide better cooling? Thinking the hot air is no longer directly benefiting from the fan which is before the heat sink.
MisterAndrew
macrumors 68030
I know that. They bumped up the specs for the base price by eliminating the original base configuration. Same thing they've done with other macs.
The cooling in my late 2014 I7 with the x295 is horrible. It is quiet at idle, but even if I am doing a zoom session my fans really spike up. I really want to upgrade but don't want a repeat of the problems. I would probably get the base video card in the new one since I mainly just watch some VLC or youtube videos and do not game or anything.
Tax and customs for goods sent from abroad
VAT, duty and customs declarations for goods received by post or courier - paying, collecting your goods, getting a refund and documents.
It sounds like the total you paid was less than £135, if so then you shouldn’t have been charged. How much was the declared value on the parcel (that’s what’s used to calculate the customs charge amount initially).
Also, it’s not up to the vendor to state that there may be customs charges. It should be known by purchasers that HM Gov always wants their blood money.
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LiE_
macrumors 68000
Doesn't seem to work on my 2020 iMac, I've used this method before on a 2019 iMac. When I run the SMC command I get an error:
/Applications/smcFanControl.app/Contents/Resources/smc -k F0Mn -w 0fa0
Error: SMCWriteKey() = e00002bc
I suspect T2 isn't playing nicely.
Fred Zed
macrumors 603
Tax and customs for goods sent from abroad
VAT, duty and customs declarations for goods received by post or courier - paying, collecting your goods, getting a refund and documents.www.gov.uk
View attachment 943891
It sounds like the total you paid was less than £135, if so then you shouldn’t have been charged. How much was the declared value on the parcel (that’s what’s used to calculate the customs charge amount initially).
Also, it’s not up to the vendor to state that there may be customs charges. It should be known by purchasers that HM Gov always wants their blood money.
I mailed a baseball cap with a declared value of $20 to the UK. They still charged handling fee of £5 and also custom fees of approx £1.75. That was two years ago. I believe you for charged VAT.
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How hot does the display and the housing get? I have a 27" mid 2010 i3 and I can feel the heat sitting in front of it. Can't hold my hand on top of it.
Roxy.music
macrumors 6502a
It is a lot less 62.75 to be presice .But if i buy on ebay they do mention there might be a charge. If they had mentioned it i would not have bought it.know not to get anything from that site again.I am going to leave it tell the post office will have to send it back ,and say to the seller i tried to pay but they had all ready sent it back.And ask for a refund.It is very cheap for what it is .I only got it because someone here had bought one and said it was good.I had never heared of the make and it is not sold on Amazon.Genrally i like to see reviews of stuff before i buy it. Yes you are right there TiggrTooTax and customs for goods sent from abroad
VAT, duty and customs declarations for goods received by post or courier - paying, collecting your goods, getting a refund and documents.
View attachment 943891
It sounds like the total you paid was less than £135, if so then you shouldn’t have been charged. How much was the declared value on the parcel (that’s what’s used to calculate the customs charge amount initially).
Also, it’s not up to the vendor to state that there may be customs charges. It should be known by purchasers that HM Gov always wants their blood money.
i take it you are from the UK..Plus the fact there was a 2.75 coupon which was not taken off the order.I thought that as a good well gesture he would give me a refund of 10 towards the charge.Rather than the agro of geyying it back.
Expat: Warwickshire lass and now an American living in the mid west. You can take the girl out of England, you can never take the England out the girl!