iMac 27" - how quiet is it?

[GimmeSlack12]

Thanks, but that is subjective. One man's quiet is another man's noisy!

Is it as quiet as a MacBook Air for instance?

Can you hear the hard drive spinning at idle?

Subjective is the world most people live in, in regards to noise. I'm an acoustical engineer so I'm quite used to people having a poor reference to the world of sound.

Here's a quick rundown (all of these are at 5 feet away):
0 - 20 dB (this computer doesn't exist)
21 - 40 dB (nearly all current Apple computers exist in this range)
40+ dB (a computer with a very loud hard drive, external hard drives)

50 dB (a person whispering)

 

[Macman45]

Virtually no fan noise at all...even when HB is running I can hear the fan, but it's not loud or distracting at all.

 

[Santabean2000]

If you need absolute silence, try getting a Mac mini, a long Thunderbolt cable, TB Display and wireless keyboard/trackpad.

This is what I'm planning once my iMac retires in a few years, (but more so for security than noise).

 

[stevefo]

I've had my Late 2012 27" base model since Monday. The only time I can barley hear the fan (thats if I sit there and try to listen for it) is if it's absolutely quiet in my room with the door closed and my ceiling fan off and in the middle of the night when there is no surrounding noise. It's the quietest computer I ever owned in 43 years. I owned a late 2012 mac mini(returned it to get the imac)and I could not hear the fan at all. I did hear the hard drive spinning.

 

[bembol]

I can't hear ****. LOL

It's very quite.

 

[bidwalj]

It's fairly quiet. I can hear the fans when the room is dead silent but that's with any machine that has a fan.

Also for those bothered by the hd noise, it's not that hard to swap in a ssd. It looks harder than it really is. I was able to swap it out and I'm no pro.