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You can or cannot hear your iMac 2012 at idle

N

Nismo73

macrumors 65816
Original poster
This is in a quiet room...

So I'm trying to understand (before I go insane) what people are saying that their iMac is "silent", or I've even seen people say "I can't hear it unless I put my ear to it"

As in you can't hear it at all??? I mean, I'm in a quiet bedroom and I do hear it a little bit. It's mostly air noise with a little hint of fan whirl (I mean a tiny bit) If I turn on a little Awesome 80's iTunes music at low volume, it drowns out the iMac idle sound. For it to have an i7 and 680mx graphics chip in it, I'm not sure I could build a PC with fans that is this quiet though...

I would call a Macbook Air that I use silent unless the fan starts to go up in rpm. But my iMac at 1200rpm makes some little bit of sound, but others don't...😕
 
At idle in a quiet room I can hear my fan run. If I stick my head close I feel like I can hear my fans turn or a low level tick. So mine sounds almost exactly like yours. I hope that's normal.
 
I'm in a room with loud construction next door and I still hear it. It is much much quieter than my MBP 2007 though. My ears are also trained to hear noise as by profession I review earphones, headphones, headphone amps, etc. There is no such thing as a silent iMac. Quiet, sure, but silent? No.
 
I can't hear mine when the room is totally quiet. I sit like 2 feet away from it. I hear the ever slight hum of my UPS instead.
 
I think I'd only be able to hear mine if the room was completely silent. I cannot hear it over the refrigerator compressor which is in the next room....in other words it's in a very quiet room, and I cannot hear it. If there is any regular house noise, you won't hear anything. On my 2008 black MacBook, I heard the fan all the time. It was quite annoying. This machine is a dream!
 
I share my office with two guys on very noisy PCs. I cannot hear my iMac at all. Even if I place my ear to the screen, I only hear the loud PCs 12 feet away.
 
This thread is pointless. The iMac 2012 is quiet, - not silent, - but quiet. Whether YOU can hear it is dependent on a variety of factors. I can hear mine if paying attention, but if there are other things going on in my house then I can't.
 
In a quiet room the only noise I can hear is the airstream comming out of of the back of my iMac (fan speed 1200). If I turn on some music or my Lenovo thinkpad I cannot hear my iMac at all (27', i7, 8GB, 675, 3TB Fusion).

@ all the posters who stated, that their 2012 iMacs makes no noise: Is there no warm air comming out of the back of your iMacs?
 
My late 2012 iMac is silent. I cannot hear anything. The quietest machine I have ever owned. When I turn off the display and return a few hours later I have to try and remember if I have shut it down or merely turned off the display. 😛
 
If I put my head on it, I can hear it. If I am rendering 1080p video in Adobe Premiere, I can barely hear the fan tick up if I really focus on it. At all times though, my HVAC system is louder if I'm sitting a normal distance from the machine. The PS3 that sits 6 feet away is much louder.

My work Dell laptop is much louder. The 27" iMac is the quietest machine I have ever owned.
 
I have never heard my iMac (21.5" late 2012)! But then, I never hear my wife telling me to take out the garbage!😀
 
These are so quiet, it's a question of environment, hearing, placement, etc. I can hear the fans, but my office is very quiet. If the external backup drive wakes up, it's louder than the iMac. Launch iTunes or Spotify and you'll forget all about it. 🙂
 
Nope gonna say I still can't hear it. I move my desk the other day and 'put my ear' to the back of it 😉 but hey then was the only time I could hear it. Maybe I'm just slightly deaf? I don't know but all I'm saying is I can't hear MY iMac at all under normal / idle use. Even when using music tools or video work, still don't really think I can hear it then.
 
Mine is pretty silent. I have to struggle to hear it. However isn't everybody's hearing ability different so I'm not sure what this thread is going to prove. As far as I'm concerned mine is great as I can't hear it. If you sat here maybe you would think different.
 
My late 2012 iMac is in a very quite room. I can't hear it whether it's idle or in use. It is by far the quietest computer I have ever owned. If I put my ear right up to the back of it, I can hear a very slight fan noise - but I literally have to place my ear right on the back of the unit. The unit is up against a wall as well on a desk, so if there were any sound it would definitely reflect right back at me.
 
fan noise

this is my second 27 inch iMac.the first had fan noise and then it would not boot up one morning after 2 weeks old.sent it back just got another and fan noise the same.you can hear it ,it is loader than my 2009 imac for sure.it does annoy me as i can here it when i am working .think it is the very thin case which is the problem..they dont make um like they used to 😡
 
I can definitely hear my i5 27" iMac but it's very quiet. It's a very quiet whir, mainly airflow, not much fan noise. As others have said on this thread, it really depends on if there is other ambient noise in the room. It's unrealistic to expect the computer to be dead silent, as cooling is definitely necessary under any computing load. And if I have any external drives connected or sound coming out of the computer, I can't hear it at all. I wouldn't worry too much about it, honestly.
 
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