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You can or cannot hear your iMac 2012 at idle

WilliamG said:
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.
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But but some are louder than others, and if you have a silent one youre cooler :)
 
If I lived in a house that was so quiet I could hear the iMac running, I'd move.

Get a life, iMac noise is nothing!
 
WilliamG said:
How can you know that for sure? Surely the individual's hearing is the key factor, wouldn't you say?
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Yes I would say that was definitely true but there have been reports of bad fans in iMac's. So there are people using them thinking that this sound level is normal and others living with a cool quieter machine :) being quiet does make them cool lol

As a question can anybody hear there hdd spin up on startup? that is not cool.
 
Can't hear mine. Even when I put my ear up to it. Granted I haven't pushed it real hard yet. We'll see once I get into some real heavy MINECRAFT, lol, or something maybe a little more demanding... :rolleyes:
 
For me the noise / fan is a big problem. I use the iMac for graphic design, and spend many hours in front of it. The last two generations of iMacs that I have owned, were what I would call "dead silent". The new 2012 is not.

My configuration is the 27 inch, 3,2 i5, 3TB Fusion drive model with 2GB graphic card. I'm not sure whether it's the i5 processor or the fusion drive causing the noise / fan. But it's on even in idle, so I'm leaning towards the processor.

The first machine I received in the middle of december. The replacement came early January - still with loud fan. The third I got in the end of January - and it also has the problem.

However - I've heard two base models of the 27 inch, which were silent, and the air coming out from behind wasn't as powerful as the model I have. So I support the more demanding models might have more air ventilation/fans coming out causing them to sound louder in the thin design.

I'm currently considering whether I should keep my 3rd replacement, or try getting the base model. I have spoken with Apple support many times -they have all confirmed they should be silent. However - since the machines are still new, I doubt they have much knowledge regarding whether it's normal behavior or not. I can only compare to the previous generations.
 
larzy said:
The first machine I received in the middle of december. The replacement came early January - still with loud fan. The third I got in the end of January - and it also has the problem.

However - I've heard two base models of the 27 inch, which were silent, and the air coming out from behind wasn't as powerful as the model I have. So I support the more demanding models might have more air ventilation/fans coming out causing them to sound louder in the thin design.

I'm currently considering whether I should keep my 3rd replacement, or try getting the base model. I have spoken with Apple support many times -they have all confirmed they should be silent. However - since the machines are still new, I doubt they have much knowledge regarding whether it's normal behavior or not. I can only compare to the previous generations.
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The thing is, whether it's the 27 base or high end, they're both running at 1200rpm, and I don't think there's a different fan channeling setup between the two to account for hearing noise in one type and not the other.

I called Apple and talked to a tech, said hearing some noise was normal...
 
Nismo73 said:
The thing is, whether it's the 27 base or high end, they're both running at 1200rpm, and I don't think there's a different fan channeling setup between the two to account for hearing noise in one type and not the other.

I called Apple and talked to a tech, said hearing some noise was normal...
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The only thing switching to another model might do is get back a little bit of the cash he spent on the high end unit.
 
I can hear a slight whirring noise if I put my ear to it, otherwise... ambient sounds in the room are all louder.
 
So is it normal to hear air rushing sound in the 27 inch imac , or should it be silent??? Is it worth a return to hear a low air blowing sound???
 
Tbdbuckeyeitl said:
So is it normal to hear air rushing sound in the 27 inch imac , or should it be silent??? Is it worth a return to hear a low air blowing sound???
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No. If you're in a silent room and your computer is working hard you might hear some very light air movement from the fan. Unless it sounds like a hair dryer it's probably normal.
 
Fotomatt, thanks for the response. No it's not normal or no don't take it back? Mine sound like streestfolds audio on page one? Does his sound normal. Thanks.
 
Mine is completely silent - much quieter than my 2009 iMac in fact.

I do some video encoding and the old iMac would get quite noisy with the fans going at full speed after a few minutes of encoding. The new iMac doesn't make any noise and doesn't appear to spin up its fan at all doing the same tasks..Im very happy.
 
I returned mine to the post office yesterday and its on the way back to Apple.
 
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Mine is totally silent (Fusion, upgraded video card the works etc) when in light duty use. But it DOES make a 'brrrrp' sound when it gets woken up. Bugs me a bit but nothing to worry about.
 
Does make noise...

My 27" late 2012 iMac, (i7, 680MX, 32 Gb Ram, Fusion Drive) does make A LOT of noise when I play games on the best settings! I mean the fans go BANANA! (i assume it's because of 680mx) Which of course means the GPU is at its best. (it's normal) But I only notice it when i mute the computer. So it's not a problem.

When I don't play games, its nearly impossible to hear. I can hear it when everything else is silent.
 
Mine has an annoying beeping noise which is audible in a quiet room. It is one of those sounds that you miss at first and then you tune into it and it gets very annoying.

I can here the fan on mine as well (I7, 3TB Fusion, 680MX) but only when there is no other noise going on. It is the quietest computer I have owned by some margin (apart from the beeping on mine!)

I have had two of these now and the fan has been exactly the same on each. The next replacement should arrive today, so I will be able to see if there is any difference with that one.
 
As I also wrote in this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1516643/

my new iMac (I got it a couple days ago) also has a strange sound (that is similar to some electrostatic discharge) coming from time to time and I don't know what can be the cause.

You can hear this sound just when there's a complete silence in the room, otherwise it's impossible to hear. Apart from this sound my iMac is veeeeeery silent and I can hardly hear the fan.

I have the 27 inches, i7, 680MX, 768GB SSD version with 32GB RAM.
 
I didnt notice it the entire first week I had it. I ran a memory test since I upgraded the memory and thats the first time I really heard it. Its close to the mac air though at idle being almost 0 sound. really amazing considering the hardware in the imac. there is no way I could build a pc with equal hardware and have it this quiet. I have a analog desk clock that actually "ticks" louder then the imac.
 
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