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RiMac: Fanspeed & Noise

When I first got my riMac and used migration assistant to migrate all my data from a backup of my previous Mac, the riMac's fan was running high all the time. 2100rpm, so loud I could hear it across the room.

After trying various tips (SMC reset, fixing permissions, etc) to no avail, I did a complete wipe and reinstall of Yosemite from a thumb drive. That is, I installed a copy of Yosemite that was downloaded from the App Store, not the Yosemite that came on the riMac. Then I used migration assistant again to bring over my backed up stuff. Fan noise was gone. Now my fan runs at 1200 rpm, which is completely silent. What a difference 800rpm makes.
When pushing the GPU in games, yes, the fan ramps up, but otherwise it's silent for my normal use with work, photos, etc.
 
Yes it runs the fan more often now. There isn't much you can do except get used to it. I'm not going to stop multitasking so I don't hear the fan come on and off. Wouldn't make much sense.

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thagomizer said:
When I first got my riMac and used migration assistant to migrate all my data from a backup of my previous Mac, the riMac's fan was running high all the time. 2100rpm, so loud I could hear it across the room.

After trying various tips (SMC reset, fixing permissions, etc) to no avail, I did a complete wipe and reinstall of Yosemite from a thumb drive. That is, I installed a copy of Yosemite that was downloaded from the App Store, not the Yosemite that came on the riMac. Then I used migration assistant again to bring over my backed up stuff. Fan noise was gone. Now my fan runs at 1200 rpm, which is completely silent. What a difference 800rpm makes.
When pushing the GPU in games, yes, the fan ramps up, but otherwise it's silent for my normal use with work, photos, etc.
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Your fan will eventually ramp right back up again after a bit of time in all likelihood. During sessions of TM and Spotlight for instance.
 
tillsbury said:
Completely so. The only noise I can hear right now is the fairly quiet PSU fan on my 3d printer, which is in the next room. SSD only. If you have a fusion drive obviously you'll hear that above everything.
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There's this huge misconception that fusion makes the system noisy. It's simply not true. Apple has excellent sound dampening in the iMac via the mounting method, and unless you stick your ear to the Mac you're not likely to hear anything but the fan when it ramps up under load.
 
WilliamG said:
There's this huge misconception that fusion makes the system noisy. It's simply not true. Apple has excellent sound dampening in the iMac via the mounting method, and unless you stick your ear to the Mac you're not likely to hear anything but the fan when it ramps up under load.
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Misconception? I can hear it very well without putting my ear up against the computer.
But it does vary with different macs though. Some are humming louder than others. There has been a couple of iMacs where I've barely heard it, others where it's a pretty annoying hum.
 
rainydays said:
Misconception? I can hear it very well without putting my ear up against the computer.
But it does vary with different macs though. Some are humming louder than others. There has been a couple of iMacs where I've barely heard it, others where it's a pretty annoying hum.
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I can tell you this: That may be true, but it's not normal. It shouldn't hum, and you've heard them where they're quiet! The fan in my 2012 iMac and my 2014 RiMac is louder (if it can be called loud) at 1200rpm than the fusion drive Hard Disk in both.
 
just updating here, my imac is going back to apple. i don't care whether apple or people think it's "normal", but 40 db of fan noise during simple gaming that sounds like my water boiler is too much. also, the air is getting hotter and dryer as the fan always spins at 2700 rpm while gaming and gpu heats up to 107C.

that's the 4th imac since 2001 but by far the loudest. can't be normal.
 
My first iMac. I got the i5 with standard graphics and 1tb Fusion drive.
My experience is very positive, I only noticed the fan when I tried a game on it, but even then it was hardly noticeable.

I don't notice the hard rive at all,

Being used to a PC tower with a noisy fan and hard drive continuously whirring away I have to say the iMac is a vast improvement.
 
Steveatesh said:
My first iMac. I got the i5 with standard graphics and 1tb Fusion drive.
My experience is very positive, I only noticed the fan when I tried a game on it, but even then it was hardly noticeable.

I don't notice the hard rive at all,

Being used to a PC tower with a noisy fan and hard drive continuously whirring away I have to say the iMac is a vast improvement.
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a voice of reason. ;)
 
FredT2 said:
SSD only is NOT "completely silent". It's not loud, but the fan is running and I can hear it.
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Thank you. Some sense at last. No iMac is silent. Period.

It's a remarkable feat of engineering and its cooling system is to be admired. That it can keep the machine running cool with barely a whisper of noise is remarkable. It's really great.

But it is NOT silent.
 
I am sympathetic to both sides of this discussion but I am still not sure if there is disagreement about the meaning of 'silent' or if there's some variation in the SPL for the 5k iMac.

At 1200 RPM I can hear the sound of moving air (only) if I dip my head to within 3-4 inches of the bottom of the screen where there are vent holes. At 2ft away I can't hear anything, and my son, who like all 12-year-olds has superhuman hearing, can't either. It's a personal decision to call that silent or not, I guess.
 
Chippy99 said:
Thank you. Some sense at last. No iMac is silent. Period.

It's a remarkable feat of engineering and its cooling system is to be admired. That it can keep the machine running cool with barely a whisper of noise is remarkable. It's really great.

But it is NOT silent.
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So what verbiage to you approve of if someone can't hear anything from an iMac... silent is obviously not approved by your standards.
 
leenak said:
So what verbiage to you approve of if someone can't hear anything from an iMac... silent is obviously not approved by your standards.
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"If a tree falls in a forest..."

Just because you can't hear it doesn't mean it's completely silent. And according to Apples own acoustic measurements it's not silent.
 
rainydays said:
"If a tree falls in a forest..."

Just because you can't hear it doesn't mean it's completely silent. And according to Apples own acoustic measurements it's not silent.
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Silent to me is I can't hear it. So I'll say "it is completely silent to me", is that better? :)
 
5iMacs said:
I am sympathetic to both sides of this discussion but I am still not sure if there is disagreement about the meaning of 'silent' or if there's some variation in the SPL for the 5k iMac.

At 1200 RPM I can hear the sound of moving air (only) if I dip my head to within 3-4 inches of the bottom of the screen where there are vent holes. At 2ft away I can't hear anything, and my son, who like all 12-year-olds has superhuman hearing, can't either. It's a personal decision to call that silent or not, I guess.
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Unless one has a faulty fan (some exhibit a sort of throbbing noise) then they are all pretty much the same and they are all not silent, as per Apple's specs.

I thihk this disagreement about whether they are "audible" or not is down to where your iMac is sited and what ambient noise there is.

If it's in free space and you have central heating or other low level sounds, you're unlikely to hear it. But if you are in a very very quiet (I hesitate to say silent!) small office - perhaps with a wall behind your iMac that reflects the sound - then anyone with good hearing will be able to hear it at normal working distances, dead easy.
 
Chippy99 said:
Not much. Can you hear the Boeing 777 London to Boston right now? Is it Silent?
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I am sitting 15 inches from my iMac. How is that comparison the same?

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Chippy99 said:
But if you are in a very very quiet (I hesitate to say silent!) small office - perhaps with a wall behind your iMac that reflects the sound - then anyone with good hearing will be able to hear it at normal working distances, dead easy.
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I used to sit in a small, very quiet office. I'd hear the fluorescent lights, the constant stream of air from the AC but those were sounds I eventually would tune out. I have pretty good hearing and actually have little patience for noise (which is why I was in the small, quiet office).

Right now, there is no wall behind my iMac so if there is a quiet hum from the short distance from the back of it, it is not being reflected back at me.
 
leenak said:
Right now, there is no wall behind my iMac so if there is a quiet hum from the short distance from the back of it, it is not being reflected back at me.
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Interesting. I haven't received mine, but there will be a wall behind it. A piece of acoustic tile back there will absorb some of the sound.
 
Chippy99 said:
Unless one has a faulty fan (some exhibit a sort of throbbing noise) then they are all pretty much the same and they are all not silent, as per Apple's specs.

I thihk this disagreement about whether they are "audible" or not is down to where your iMac is sited and what ambient noise there is.

If it's in free space and you have central heating or other low level sounds, you're unlikely to hear it. But if you are in a very very quiet (I hesitate to say silent!) small office - perhaps with a wall behind your iMac that reflects the sound - then anyone with good hearing will be able to hear it at normal working distances, dead easy.
Click to expand...

This is a great insight, I never thought to explore that possibility. Just a little experimenting and it's clear that there is a *lot* more fan sound coming off the back of the case.
 
Last edited:
Some fan noise not much

Most of time I hear nothing. Today I was doing an Airdrop and web surfing and the fan kicked in. Not so bad, didn't last long... but definitely audible. I even played some Diablo III in 5K and the computer was almost dead silent. I have a 3TB Fusion 4.0ghz and a m295 graphics card.
 
leenak said:
I am sitting 15 inches from my iMac. How is that comparison the same?
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I wasn't making a comparison. I was merely demonstrating to you that "I cannot hear it" does not mean "it is silent".

It doesn't matter how close you are sitting. It's making a noise. That you can't hear it does not change this fact.
 
Cape Dave said:
I have the 512GB SSD, the 295x, 8GB Ram and the core i5.

I surf and email and like that. I have not been able to get the fan to ramp up at all. Very happy with the sounds of silence of this computer.

Super impressive.

And I am merciless when it comes to the silence of my computer.

I work at night and require silence.
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Still good?
 
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