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Noise level of the new iMac

R

rainydays

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 6, 2006
886
0
Hi,

There seem to be a few people already in possession of the new iMac so I'd like if any of you could comment on the noise level, because that's what's worrying me about the new thinner casing.

How is the noise level compared to the previous model? Does the noise level increase when doing CPU intensive tasks?

Thanks.
 
I'd love to know this as well. Noise is my #1 priority with a new Mac. My mini is nearly dead silent 95% of the time, and I'll expect the same in a new machine...
 
I am sitting in front of a 20" right now and it is extremely quiet. I can't hear it at all.

I am about to copy a movie to the HD using Handbrake in a sec, so I'll see if it makes noise during that. So far, all I can hear is the optical drive scanning the disk. It's not noisy or anything, that just shows how quiet the rest of the computer is.
 
ya -- my G4 is like a wind tunnel --- i just ordered the 24 inch 2.8 --- would love to have a silent machine compared to that WIND TUNNEL
 
Update, I am currently using from between 124% - 140% of the CPU and noise is a NON-ISSUE. This thing is incredibly quiet, I'm having a hard time hearing anything at all on this thing. Very impressive!
 
Porshuh944turbo said:
I am sitting in front of a 20" right now and it is extremely quiet. I can't hear it at all.

I am about to copy a movie to the HD using Handbrake in a sec, so I'll see if it makes noise during that. So far, all I can hear is the optical drive scanning the disk. It's not noisy or anything, that just shows how quiet the rest of the computer is.
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks for the info. If you get a chance I'd love to hear how loud it is when running it really hard without the optical drive... like playing a game or using handbrake with an already ripped DVD (and playback an HD clip in full screen at the same time). That kind of stress testing type thing.

The more I look at the new iMac, the more I like the design. I was NOT a fan of the old iMac. The shrinking of the chin and the addition of the black border really work for me. Now that we're going to be turning the office into a nursery I'm liking the idea of an iMac (or two) for our new computer to keep cable clutter down in our new dining room turned office/sitting room. :p
 
Porshuh944turbo said:
Update, I am currently using from between 124% - 140% of the CPU and noise is a NON-ISSUE. This thing is incredibly quiet, I'm having a hard time hearing anything at all on this thing. Very impressive!
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot! I can order one with confidence now that I know that I'll have something that's usable for music production (which my MB isn't because of the noise).
 
Are we sure the new iMacs are the Merom variant? I thought the 2.4GHz and 2.8GHz gave away that they were the Desktop class versions.
 
Porshuh944turbo, does the new 20 inch have a nice screen, like one that can display 16.7M colors and not a cheap-ass TN-based screen which needs to dither? :)
 
i used my 24 2.4 all night. transferring 20,000+ raw images while installing CS3 and Lightroom, while importing my old library of 7,000+ songs and i didn't hear any noise whatsoever. totally silent.

ps: while doing all this i still got a geekbench score of 2232 and when i stopped doing these processes it got 3372, that is with only one gig of ram right now too.

and for those who fear the glossy..... it is wonderful. so much better than the mbp/mb gloss because of the glass. the whole time i worked on the system i did not notice that it was glossy.
 
Personally, I like the screen. I was always a fan of the matte screens that Apple used for so long, but this thing is gorgeous. There will be glare if you have a window behind you or something, but either move your desk or get used to the glare I guess. It would have been nice to have a matte option I think, but I would have had a hard time not going with the glossy screen because it is just stunning to look at.
 
Porshuh944turbo said:
Personally, I like the screen. I was always a fan of the matte screens that Apple used for so long, but this thing is gorgeous. There will be glare if you have a window behind you or something, but either move your desk or get used to the glare I guess. It would have been nice to have a matte option I think, but I would have had a hard time not going with the glossy screen because it is just stunning to look at.
Click to expand...

i agree. sexiest computer i have seen. love it.
 
Fan noise (I think)

I am not sure if this is normal but my new 24" has what I think sounds like a slightly "rattly" fan noise coming from somewhere near the mid to lower righthand side. Has anyone else experienced this?
 
Glad to hear that it's quiet. Mine should be delivered later on today or Tuesday. Was just wondering about the noise level, since I'm gonna be coming from the 1.66 Core Duo mini in my sig, which is silent.
 
Higher CPU usage

You might want to check the noise level when the CPU is doing more work.
No need to rip DVDs, there is an easy way to simulate higher CPU use by
opening two Terminal windows and typing in each one:

yes > /dev/null

...and pressing Enter. Two separate Terminal windows, each one with this
command, for each CPU core. Now observe CPU usage in Activity Monitor :)

Of course when you quit the Terminal the CPU usage will get back to normal.
 
pazreal said:
I am not sure if this is normal but my new 24" has what I think sounds like a slightly "rattly" fan noise coming from somewhere near the mid to lower righthand side. Has anyone else experienced this?
Click to expand...

Yes. And for that reason I wouldn't even nearly call this a quiet machine. The fans humming is all right but that drrrrrrrrrrrrrrr sound is annoying. Of course I haven't tested any other iMacs so I don't know if it's normal...
 
I did this test as soon as i received my iMac on thursday and noise level remained the same throughout (yes i used yes > /dev/ null). The only thing you hear is this silent hum but thats it. No rattling, no buzzing...nothing just a silent hum.

The iMacs are very quiet more quiet than the G5 ones
 
pazreal said:
I am not sure if this is normal but my new 24" has what I think sounds like a slightly "rattly" fan noise coming from somewhere near the mid to lower righthand side. Has anyone else experienced this?
Click to expand...

From what I've heard so far, only two people have mentioned this (you and the other guy in this thread). So I would think that it isn't normal.
Could be that one of the fans are unbalanced. You should have it checked.
 
I think I'm going to visit the apple store tomorrow and ask about this noise and try to compare to the ones that are on display. Sucks that I probably have to change to a new one and install everything again ^^' Oh well.
 
Miharu said:
I think I'm going to visit the apple store tomorrow and ask about this noise and try to compare to the ones that are on display. Sucks that I probably have to change to a new one and install everything again ^^' Oh well.
Click to expand...

If you have an external drive, just make a backup image of your OSX install with SuperDuper, then restore the backup on the new computer. It takes a while depending on how much you have on your disk, but at least you can do it without any interaction.
 
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