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Fusion Drive Noise?

jinyoungkim7

jinyoungkim7

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 14, 2010
119
8
Maryland, USA
Just received my brand new 27in 5k iMac with 3.3ghz i5, 2tb fusion drive, 395 graphics card, 8 (soon to be 16) gb ram. It seems like there is a fan or spinning sort of sound that is fairly audible even while doing nothing. Even while I leave the iMac idle the sound is there. I only filled it up with around 20gb. Is the fusion drive supposed to be this loud or are your computers silent while in idle?
 
My iMac (M395/2 TB flavor) is whisper quiet, I really don't notice any sound.
 
Hmm, I been playing Fallout 4 on the Windows side and I haven't notice any sound (which I find a little unusual). Maybe you have an application running in the background that you are unaware of?
 
Late 2015 5k iMac with 2TB fusion drive and very quiet.
 
Last edited:
jinyoungkim7 said:
Just received my brand new 27in 5k iMac with 3.3ghz i5, 2tb fusion drive, 395 graphics card, 8 (soon to be 16) gb ram. It seems like there is a fan or spinning sort of sound that is fairly audible even while doing nothing. Even while I leave the iMac idle the sound is there. I only filled it up with around 20gb. Is the fusion drive supposed to be this loud or are your computers silent while in idle?
Click to expand...

I have the same problem with my 1 TB fusion drive iMac. Did you sloved the problem?
 
mstrk said:
I have the same problem with my 1 TB fusion drive iMac. Did you sloved the problem?
Click to expand...

Hey I never really solved the problem and I've taken it into the Apple Store and they said it is supposed to be like that. I think I was overthinking it though. I never really notice it anymore. It might not even be the fusion drive, to be honest.
 
It won't be the "Fusion Drive" as such. Fusion uses a Flash drive (which will be totally silent), and a regular spinning HDD, which will be no noisier than any other spinning drive. More likely, you're hearing the fan.

I have a Late 2013 27" iMac with Fusion. The only significant sound comes not from the iMac, but from the external drive I use for Time Machine backups. Granted, my hearing isn't what it used to be...

Sometimes, your work area can amplify the sound made by your computer and/or external drives - a desktop can sometimes function as a resonator. If that's happening, sometimes moving the stuff around a bit will change the nature of the sound.
 
First I thought that it was the fan. So I brought it to the apple store for a repair and they said to me that there was nothing to repair, the machine was "perfect".

After two days I brought it again and I said that it was the fusion drive, it must be. Because it was fairly audible. And they didn't even accept to look at it for a second time and they said that all the Fusion Drive iMac's the same "problem" had.

I don't know what to do but I think that the only solution is to use it with music :)

(Sorry for my bad English, greetings from Brussels)
 
mstrk said:
Because it was fairly audible.
Click to expand...
It might be that the hard drive's bearings need to get seated. I know my hard drive is fairly quiet, but I can see apple not considering it an issue. The computer, specifically hard drive is operating as expected, though I can certainly empathize about how annoying a sound could be.
 
Drive noise is a bit of a pot-luck thing. I have a Mac Pro (4,1) which was basically silent new. After a year, one drive died, and I replaced it with the same model bought from Apple -- and it was a lot noisier. (Seek noise, fortunately, not so much spin noise.) Now, 6 years later, I replaced all the drives with new WD Blacks and the ones I got are close to dead silent -- yet many of the online WD Black reviews complain about how noisy they are! One of the two new WD Blacks has some audible bearing hiss, luckily not a problem when the box is closed up; the other is inaudible even when my ear is next to it.

I'm afraid that you most likely got a drive that's at the upper end of noise tolerance. Your best bet is to not notice it any more. :) If you still have apple care, second best is to ensure that it fails (!) and get a replacement.
 
Noise in HDD could varies and depend on background noise. If you are in a completely silent room, then I believe there should be some noise coming out of it.
 
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