Late 2013 imac Hard Disk noise

[propower]

I have one of the 27" i5 model from the Apple Store. It is great but I love silence. I hear a constant low whirring from the imac but i can't tell if it is just the low speed of the fan or the 1TB spinning disk (I would say it is located about a third of the way up on the left hand side when looking at the machine) . I am happy to do a CTO with the SSD option if this noise is the spinning disc - but i can't tell. I tried booting to an external SSD and unmounted the internal drive but the noise is the same.

Its not bad but I am a freak about these kinds of sounds... Can any one give input as to if they can hear the internal drive spinning or better yet with the SSD option they can only barely hear the fan

Thanks!
-Lee

 

[kakasnarta]

Hi
I have same model and can hear same low whirling noise it's hardly noticeable think it's properly the fan but not sure myself ... But at least you not alone lol ..... Kaka

 

[pcfarrar]

Its not bad but I am a freak about these kinds of sounds... Can any one give input as to if they can hear the internal drive spinning or better yet with the SSD option they can only barely hear the fan

Set the harddrive sleep time to something short and then wait for it to go to sleep. If the sound stops its definitely the drive. What is the make of drive installed?

 

[Serban]

its the fan. Alwasy can be heard on late 2012 models..but only when is absolute silence or the fan get over 1800rpm

 

[Insar]

late 2012 iMac 27 has two SSD without HDD. Rotation of the fan constantly about 1200 rpm, I can't hear the fan noise

 

[propower]

Set the harddrive sleep time to something short and then wait for it to go to sleep. If the sound stops its definitely the drive. What is the make of drive installed?

I set it to sleep hard drive when possible and unmounted it but it never stopped.

I put my ear to the back and it does appear to be where the hard drive is (looking at the teardown from ifixit). I also used istat to ramp up the fan and that was a different sound - nicer actually -- it equalled the Whirr sound around 1800rpm. I got the imac to try it for the ProAudio loading I am doing and even the i5 is doing great versus my 2012 i7 mini. The fan doesn't even go up at all with 70% cpu load running for hours.

It has been a couple of years since I even had a spinning drive (except in NAS). I think its the drive ... If any one has a better way to get it to truly go to sleep (it always shows in Disk Utility even when unmounted) I would give that a try...

Thanks - I know I am nut case BTW

 

[kakasnarta]

Hi again been reading the replys just bit worried now ... Ok so if it's the hard drive spinning and not the fan does it mean we have both got faulty hard drives or is this just normal to hear it spinning all time thanks .... Kaka

 

[kakasnarta]

When your talking about sleep mode for hard drive what does this actually mean can you still work on comp jut can't write or something like that ... Hope this whirling is nothing serious only fan ... Thanks kaka

 

[jg321]

I have one of the 27" i5 model from the Apple Store. It is great but I love silence. I hear a constant low whirring from the imac but i can't tell if it is just the low speed of the fan or the 1TB spinning disk (I would say it is located about a third of the way up on the left hand side when looking at the machine) . I am happy to do a CTO with the SSD option if this noise is the spinning disc - but i can't tell. I tried booting to an external SSD and unmounted the internal drive but the noise is the same.

Its not bad but I am a freak about these kinds of sounds... Can any one give input as to if they can hear the internal drive spinning or better yet with the SSD option they can only barely hear the fan

Thanks!
-Lee

I'm the same as you - a freak about these kinds of sounds, which is why I opted for the 256GB SSD only. I currently have a 2011 MBP with an SSD only, and even though the fan is constantly spinning at 1000 RPM, I can't hear it in my silent room.

I'll let you know what the new iMac is like when it arrives. Hopefully just as quiet as this MBP (i.e. silent at the distance I am away from it). I doubt it's a fault, HDDs are just noisy IMO. The Toshiba one that came out of this and is now in an external enclosure is very loud (500GB, recently replaced from the 320GB that this came with stock), and for this reason I got rid of my [custom] Fusion drive setup.