I received my new (late 2013) 27" iMac yesterday. I am very thrilled with it, but I have to admit the fan noise is a little more than I had hoped for. I ordered mine with a 256GB SSD for two reasons - Speed and noise reduction. I mean the fans aren't loud at all, but they are there so I notice them. They aren't really audible unless there is dead silence in the room. I am very sound sensitive so I'm sure I am making a big deal over nothing. My 2012 Macbook Air makes about the same amount of fan noise. Just curious what others have to say, especially those of you with straight SSD models.
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How Noisy is your iMac?
- Thread starter SteelBlueTJ
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I've had my Late 2013 27" iMac for 3 weeks now and I've not noticed any noise from it at all. I purchased mine BTO with 256GB SSD as well and I'm glad I did because it's quiet and quick!
I'm also sound hypersensitive
I can hear all manor of high pitched sounds very easily that others can't even hear. Something to do with the fact i spent 10 years of my life dj-ing in very loud night clubs with even louder monitor headphones on.
I can hear the typical buzzing on refrigerators, LED panels and fans.
I've had 2 iMac 27" BTOs recently and both have had the same level of fan noise, a mute wisp. I too was hoping for silence but it is quiet enough.
The only issue i have is i can hear the LED array whistle and crackle depending on the brightness. It is worse at low brightness where power is restricted.
I can hear all manor of high pitched sounds very easily that others can't even hear. Something to do with the fact i spent 10 years of my life dj-ing in very loud night clubs with even louder monitor headphones on.
I can hear the typical buzzing on refrigerators, LED panels and fans.
I've had 2 iMac 27" BTOs recently and both have had the same level of fan noise, a mute wisp. I too was hoping for silence but it is quiet enough.
The only issue i have is i can hear the LED array whistle and crackle depending on the brightness. It is worse at low brightness where power is restricted.
I got my Late 2013 iMac with the same 256 GB SSD and for all practical purposes, it's completely silent. I can hear the fan, but only if the room is dead quiet and I really really listen for it. On the other hand, the noise from my spinning hard drive Time Machine is really noticeable now. I'm thinking I'm going to want to replace it with an SSD model.
I can hear my fan also if the room is dead quiet and I really concentrate on it, but that is very rarely a situation I find myself in.
There is a difference between "silent" and "I don't hear it." The iMac certainly makes a small amount of noise. After all, there are electronics which in of themselves make noise, and a fan that runs 100% of the time.
It is, for most people, inaudibly quiet. But it does make sound. And if you have a dead silent room, depending on your sensitivity to noise you might hear it.
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No it isn't.
I understand that people are often very pleased with their new iMacs and I do think the thermal design that enables heat to be dissipated with low fan speed is remarkable.
But they are NOT siilent. None of them are. If you have an SSD-only iMac, then anyone with good hearing can easily hear the background whoosh of airflow when using the iMac in a quiet room. And with any sort of internal hard disk, you can hear that too.
They are remarkably quiet and unless you are very sensitive and need to use it in a very quiet environment (for example as a music-server for a classical music hifi fan), then the noise will likely not be an issue. But I just want to keep this in perspective for anyone who has not yet purchased and might expect a silent computer. They are not silent. I really do not know why people keep saying they are.
Mine is silent except in heavy duty tasks...Handbrake, BRD rips and Logic X will make the fan audible.
OP, Have you tried re-setting the SMC?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
If that fails to cure the problem, then I'd get it back to Apple...It shouldn't run that way unless you have a lot of heavy duty stuff going on.
3.5GHZ i7 with 256 SSD - audible but acceptable for me
32dBA at operator position with this piece of foam along the bottom. 0.5dB louder without it (small number but the fan noise reflecting off the stand and desk is clearly heard.. Background room noise is 30dBA. Nothing is silent except outer space
Better to say one does not hear it than to say it is silent
32dBA at operator position with this piece of foam along the bottom. 0.5dB louder without it (small number but the fan noise reflecting off the stand and desk is clearly heard.. Background room noise is 30dBA. Nothing is silent except outer space
Better to say one does not hear it than to say it is silent Attachments
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I can definitely hear it in my quiet room. Sometimes there is a sound that seems like an extremely faint sort of clicking/grinding thing.. probably what another poster referred to being something to do with the display at less-than-max brightness.
Anyways, overall I'm pleased with it.
Anyways, overall I'm pleased with it.
Agreed with this. 21.5" SSD-only. I can hear the fan when the room is silent, but it's very very quiet. If I had the window open that noise would be louder.
My 21.5 I bought in August 2013 is quiet as a mouse. Of course I do not put it under high stress with a lot of video and picture editing either.
3.5GHZ i7 with 256 SSD - audible but acceptable for me
Nothing is silent except outer space
Ha! Ha!
I agree... However, it sounds more quiet when you hear your lovely "heavy metal" music...
My imac 27'' i7 sounds like a Royal Royce engine
Mine's fairly "loud" for my taste. The first one I had made this rattling noise, which was highly annoying. The replacement doesn't do that but it, too, is somewhat noisy in that the fan is constantly audible and so is the hard drive.
I returned my 27" with 3TB Fusion Drive because the HDD noise was just too much after 4 months of Mac Book Air usage. It was a kind of ambient electrical hum that was fairly quiet but unpleasant. I set the HDD to spin down and the noise reduced by about 80%. The remaining 20% of the system fan was still audible but wasn't an unpleasant sound, a very quiet "whoosh" of moving air. More soothing than annoying, but still audible.
Just out of curiosity what did you get instead? Have you received it yet? Did it fix your noise issue?
Bizarre comment. Even when idling and under no load at all, your iMac is not dead silent, or even close.
It is quiet, I am sure. But it's not silent.
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Depends on how loud your environment is. If there is background noise from e.g. a refrigerator or central heating pump or whatever then that might drown out the Mac.
Sure when you test it in a studio/lab you can classify it as slightly noisy. In the real-world, the dBs this pumps out are so low that you can classify it as negligible, in other words you don't hear it, aka dead silent. Sure you may hear it roaring up when you're running Metro 2020, but even at that point you'll be listening to the TV, music, or your GF nag on about something.