emac for the ears

It hums reasonably quietly, I have a maxstor HD that is louder.

It'll be a bit louder that your old iMac, but it's a small price to pay for the upgrade.

I have an original 700 eMac, the newer machines may have different fans to deal with the higher temps on faster processors.

I'd go look at one in a store if you can (I know that isn't the best of environments)

The eMacs are great machines for the money, you'll not be disappointed.

 

It's louder than your iMac, but that's because the iMac is silent... I think that's a great question & one I was concerned with as well... As someone said above, it's not as loud as some external HD's I've had as well...

It's not excessively loud, but there is a constant sound there... I got used to it right away & actually find it soothing... This computer is in my office, so it kind of signifies "time to be productive" in my sub conscious mind, if that makes any sense... lol...

I say go for it, the little noise is a small price to pay for the value & performance you get in return, imho...

 

I have a Demo Emac at my store(an older model though) if the noise is a problem you can get H&K Soundsticks to drown out all ambient noise...like my wife...

 

The college i go to just got nine of the new emacs and they are pretty silent and they run 24/7. Recommended if you cannot afford a more powerful pmac or imac

 

My university has a lab with 22 eMacs running 24/7. When I walk into the room, the only thing I hear is the fan blowing in the projector that's mounted to the ceiling. I was surprised that the eMacs didn't make that much noise.