My iMac 24" Nvidia 8800 3.06GHz is completely silent...not a noise coming from it. When I play 3D games like Spore and Flight Simulator X, the fans do kick in, but you can ONLY hear them if there is NO sound coming from the computer and the room is almost completely silent...then you hear very quiet fan noise, but it only gets loud if you put your head right on the machine. I have used Photoshop and Indesign on this iMac, and the fans do not kick in when I use them.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How loud is your new iMac "24???
- Thread starter 0087215
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
My '07 24 inch is almost silent but not completely. Its against a wall though so some bouncing my occur. There is a faint audible hum (ear against) from the lower left corner, which I take it is a fan. Its all about perceptions really as if you notice a noise, it will always seem to be louder than it is, mostly in your mind. Was it this noisy before? Is it on the way out?
I am having the same problems with my new car. Listening out for things that aren't there or normal maybe because of paranoia. 😀
I am having the same problems with my new car. Listening out for things that aren't there or normal maybe because of paranoia. 😀
my 24 inch imac aluminum is nice and quiet, unless i push it with a game, but realistically, i also have the game sound effects, so it doesn't make a difference.
just see what kind of background processes you're normally running. as long as you're not encoding video, it should be silent.
just see what kind of background processes you're normally running. as long as you're not encoding video, it should be silent.
My 24" is not completely silent, the only thing I can hear is the hum from the hard drive. The drive makes no seeking noises as fas as I can hear. Also, I can't really hear the fans, just the hard drive.
So, not COMPLETELY silent, but still very silent. My 17" Intel iMac did make less noise though.
So, not COMPLETELY silent, but still very silent. My 17" Intel iMac did make less noise though.
Yea mine is completely silent, but it does make some noise when the DVD drive starts spinning.
Alright guys!
One hour ago I received my iMac 24 3,06 Ghz. And... it is going back!!!
I've already arranged the taking back procedure and this baby is going back to Apple. Reason: it makes noise.
I shouldn't have listened to all stories of those who told me that iMacs were completely silent. it is not true.
This machine standing on my table, 40cm from my ears, makes a hum, a deep annoying hum. The fans are spinning around and create an uncomfortable enviroment if you want to work in silence.
It is huge, had amazing screen.. sooooo big... 🙂... But... I needed silense which I cannot find in iMac... Sorry, Apple... I am keeping the new iTouch 32gb, but the iMac is leaving...
I am a topic starter and now I can say to all of you, guys: iMacs are not dead silent and not as silent a falling leaf... The make noise... And because the screen is so close to your head, it makes the noise 10 times as annoying as a noise of a normal PC. However generally speaking, it is a very quiet machine.... in comparence with other pc's...
See you later fellas.. But I am going to wait till 14-10 and buy a new MacBook Pro which must be silent..
Cheers!!!
One hour ago I received my iMac 24 3,06 Ghz. And... it is going back!!!
I've already arranged the taking back procedure and this baby is going back to Apple. Reason: it makes noise.
I shouldn't have listened to all stories of those who told me that iMacs were completely silent. it is not true.
This machine standing on my table, 40cm from my ears, makes a hum, a deep annoying hum. The fans are spinning around and create an uncomfortable enviroment if you want to work in silence.
It is huge, had amazing screen.. sooooo big... 🙂... But... I needed silense which I cannot find in iMac... Sorry, Apple... I am keeping the new iTouch 32gb, but the iMac is leaving...
I am a topic starter and now I can say to all of you, guys: iMacs are not dead silent and not as silent a falling leaf... The make noise... And because the screen is so close to your head, it makes the noise 10 times as annoying as a noise of a normal PC. However generally speaking, it is a very quiet machine.... in comparence with other pc's...
See you later fellas.. But I am going to wait till 14-10 and buy a new MacBook Pro which must be silent..
Cheers!!!
Detektiv-Pinky
macrumors 6502a
Thanks, 0087215, I am sorry you had to go through all this trouble to find out that the iMac is not a silent machine, but I am quite grateful that you can confirm my own impressions. (Sometimes one starts to wonder if it is you or them, when suddenly a lot of people start talking about 'silent' 😉 iMacs)
There are obviously huge differences in noise-perception. I have no air conditioning at home and turning AC OFF is the first thing I do when I sleep in a hotel. All air conditioner I have known are louder than the iMac - so maybe this solves the riddle of people talking about silent iMacs - ambient noise level...
Thanks for your reply too, Detektiv-Pinky.
This iMac is a great machine: it is so huge and so fast. But the noise which it makes is a big issue for me. I guess the ambient noise is what influences people's perception concerning the silence of iMacs.
I've got a very quiet room because I made it so in order to be able to study and to concenrate better. But now this huge thing is making this noise (which is not hard and not afwul, but always present) and it is driving me crazy. It is certainly a design thing: iMacs are in fact computers built in the screens which are always on your table near the head. If this machine made such a noise standing on the floor 1-2 meters away from me, it would be perfect.
I should probably have listened to you, Detektiv-Pinky, but I really wanted to know whether iMacs were that silent as most users told me.
I hope MacBook Pros will be much quieter. You let me know that it is the case. I really hope so. I will be able to live with a much smaller screen than this beauty standing in front of me, it must only be silent.... That's what I like....
We'll see.... I'll keep you informed, guys...
eXan
macrumors 601
Hmm. Try to find a quieter desktop computer, well except for Cube lol
And MBP is a lot louder than iMac when its not sitting idle. When idling they are similar.
southerndoc
Contributor
My 24" 2.8 GHz iMac is nearly silent. I can hear it if I get really close to it when I'm doing everyday tasks (running Safari, iTunes, Mail, and Fusion/Vista at the same time). If I start doing anything demanding (video), I can hear the fan crank up. It's still pretty quiet in my opinion. Maybe I'm deaf... I just paused iTunes and listened. I could BARELY hear it. I used my sound level meter I use for calibration of my home theatre receiver. It read "LO" (<30 dB).
It's going to be hard finding a computer that has a fan that puts out <20 dB of noise.
It's going to be hard finding a computer that has a fan that puts out <20 dB of noise.
The Macbook Pro probably won't be any quieter. I can hear my Macbook when it's running at the slowest 1800rpm fan speed (ie, computer is idle), and it only has one fan, i think the Macbook Pro has two.
TBH the iMacs are silent enough that I think you are either a) being pedantic, or b) just simply expecting too much.
Good luck finding an absolutely silent Mac, the only way to get a computer that's much quieter than an iMac would probably be to go for a fanless, water-cooled PC with a solid-state drive. Which would be nowhere near as fast, and more expensive than, the iMac.
Want real silence to write a report on? Use a pen and paper.
TBH the iMacs are silent enough that I think you are either a) being pedantic, or b) just simply expecting too much.
Good luck finding an absolutely silent Mac, the only way to get a computer that's much quieter than an iMac would probably be to go for a fanless, water-cooled PC with a solid-state drive. Which would be nowhere near as fast, and more expensive than, the iMac.
Want real silence to write a report on? Use a pen and paper.
Detektiv-Pinky
macrumors 6502a
Hi 0087215, a word of caution here, I can only speek from my own experience and this only comprises of the 2.0 Ghz Core2Duo MBP. A lot of people complained about the very first CoreDuo MBP that had noises coming from the power-inverter for display illumination (who would have thought...) and a very peculiar fan regulation (mooh-ing) of the MBP. However I found the model I used very quiet during normal operation (I did not tax it with games or virtualisation tasks). So hopefully Apple keeps up the good work with the next model and makes the HD user accessible so that one could also swap it with an SSD if necessary.
The good thing with the MBP is, that you could invest in a separate Display, Mouse and Keyboard and put it away under the table. Maybe you should also include the Mac mini in your considerations. That is probably the direction I would take now if I would start from scratch.
Have a look at the environmental specs from Apple (which are outdated for some models - it lists only the previous generation iMac, which people have reported to be quieter than the current one):
http://www.apple.com/environment/resources/specs.html
wazgilbert
macrumors regular
What you need is a Macpro in a different room. Then you can treat the display and kyb and mouse as a dumb terminal.
you could do this with any generic computer, but what a fuss for peace and quiet compared to an 'almost' quiet all in one. ho hum.
I feel compelled to ask, have you used a pc / laptop in the last 10yrs? because most sound like tornados compared to apple kit.
Hi Detektiv-Pinky,
The link you gave is very useful. I couldn't find it myself... Sadly enough there is no information about noise levels of MacPro and MacAir, but as I uderstood from those specifications the MacBook is the most quiet machine (about 17dB). I used a MacBook White of my mate and it was silent.... I couldn't hear any fan spinning around.
Nice thing to know is that the noise levels of MacBooks Pro and iMacs are identical (about 20dB). Hmmm, that's not really what I am looking for.
So, thanks again. Probably I should think about buying a MacMini and using it with an external monitor. The Mac Mini is really quiet (also 16-17dB I guess) and if it stands under the table, it will practically be impossible to hear that little thing. But the problem is that those Mac Minis are pretty weak computers to work on: I will be able to work on my papers, but making music in Logic Studio 2 or creating videos will be ver difficult if not impossible.
So... I will have to think about.
I guess I had too much expectations from the Mac machines. I made my previous pc almost silent using the best parts for building it, but I really don't want to fall back and use Vista again after seeing the beauty and quality of MacOSX. I think it is very possible that I will configure another pc for my needs which I will isolate from any weird sounds and will work on it will the end of the days. And believe me, I soooo don't want to do that.... 🙁`
Detektiv-Pinky
macrumors 6502a
Hi 0087215, the iMac specs in the Apple document are for the previous model (the first generation aluminium). People have noticed that the current model is noisier than the previous one - I just don't know by how far...
From what I have heard is the little Mac mini quite a capable machine (except for the graphics) and is really late for an update. So hopefully Apple is addressing this soon.
I think Apple is not really to blame. As you rightly note, in order to get a completely quiet system you have to custom build it. For mass produced systems, Apple can still be considered to be very good compared to others: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article693-page1.html
Maybe you need to look at building you own 'Mac': http://www.efi-x.com/index.php?language=english
Good luck for your quest. My last almost-silent computer was a PowerBook 3400c, 10 years ago. The graphical unit and processor didn't need fans. (But the hdd and cd-unit made up for the quietness...)
But nowadays, anything which is not a netbook has a fan. Anything with a decent processor and/or graphic card has a fan. I think even cell-phones will have a fan soon (ok, just kidding here... 😀)
You'll certainly hear the sound of a MBP. And also of a Mini (which has quite some limits when if you push it, esp. with the video). When playing HD movies from my macbook to the TV, I am annoyed by the fans (and the laptop is 5 meters away, the tv sound is on).
Well, good luck again, but I'll be curious about the specs of your final set!
A.
But nowadays, anything which is not a netbook has a fan. Anything with a decent processor and/or graphic card has a fan. I think even cell-phones will have a fan soon (ok, just kidding here... 😀)
You'll certainly hear the sound of a MBP. And also of a Mini (which has quite some limits when if you push it, esp. with the video). When playing HD movies from my macbook to the TV, I am annoyed by the fans (and the laptop is 5 meters away, the tv sound is on).
Well, good luck again, but I'll be curious about the specs of your final set!
A.
wazgilbert
macrumors regular
Thanks for all your replies, guys. Especially Detektiv-Pinky.
I can do nothing than agree with you, Detektiv-Pinky, on everything you are saying.
Do not get me wrong: I love the way iMacs are built (and other macintosh hardware too), I really do. They are very solid and because the hardware is made to work in one configuration, the macbooks and imac are in fact faster than the equivalent pc's with the same specs.
I have also been thinking about getting one of those Efi-x cards, but i prefer the original macintosh computers with 100% support of the MacOSX.
I am now typing on my new iMac which is going back to Ireland in a couple of days, but man... it is a real beauty!!! Apple is not to blame at all. Now I love not only the macintosh systems, I also love the Apple Support: those people on the line were really friendly. It was a great experience to go through. Who could have ever believed this?! 🙂 It is true.
Probably I expected too much from this machine. The noise which it makes is not that bad, I only keep hearing the constant "hum" and vibrations of my desk. It is not so nice, I have to admit.
I just see that Detektiv-Pinky understands what I am talking about. I have now even started to think that maybe I am more sensitive concerning the noise issues and I guess I certainly am.
Now after this amazing purchase I want my next computer to be a mac. Checking macintosh systems in the Apple Store led me to the conclusion that none of them makes noise, but it is not true because the ambient noise there is pretty bad. I just want to hope that MBP (which are about to be released) are silent when it comes to working with office application and surfing on the web. Detektiv-Pinky stated that the MBP he had worked on, was silent (not just quiet, but silent), so there is still some hope for me. I need silence during my studying and working, but when I create some stuff in iMovies etc. the machine can produce some noise... it is very normal....
Hmmm... I guess I should wait and see...
Of course, I can build my new pc with silent parts, but, guys, I am in love with macs now and prefer to stay working on them. OSX is amazing...
🙂 it is all about decisions, my friends... But this one is hard to make....
I have the exact same model as you and there is always a humming coming from my iMac, I can certainly tell when it's on if I'm in the room.. It's not really loud but it's noticeable and my fans are running normal speed. Sometimes it will pick up and be a bit louder and sometimes when I go into folders I haven't been in for ages it will make a right racket and take a few seconds to show up all the files.
I can't be bothered taking it in for service because:
1. It's too big
2. My nearest Apple Store is about 70 miles away.
3. My Apple Store is in the middle of a shopping centre, so it's quite a walk with it too..
4. I'm only 14 and it's hard convincing my parents that this small noise is a problem.