It sounds like you have a really quiet environment. Anyway, I'm glad to hear your replacement doesn't have that clicking sound. I agree that that was your real cause for concern.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
2017 27" base model noisy fan?
- Thread starter Tjmckay4
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It sounds like you have a really quiet environment. Anyway, I'm glad to hear your replacement doesn't have that clicking sound. I agree that that was your real cause for concern.
Yeah, it's really quiet when everyone is in bed. That's probably why I stay up too late.... to enjoy the piece and quiet without the kids
Hi guys, and thanks for all the input about your fan noise and rpms on both the i5 base model and the i7 top model. It has been really helpful for me.
I have the 27” 2017 top model (i7@4.2GHz, 580, 512 SSD). I can confirm that this machine is running at 1200rpm at idle (taken from sudo spindump) and that the fan is clearly audible (even when I am sitting in front of it, not holding my war to it). When I am in a silent room and turn it on, I hear the fan coming on — it sounds like a constant „whoosh of air“ and it disappears either when I turn it off or when I open a window (drowned out).
Actually, I thought this was due to the high-powered configuration (i7 and 580 demanding more power than i5 and 570). Thanks to your thread, however, I have concluded that the smaller specced machines do have the swooshing sound as well.
Personally, I am annoyed at the not-so-silent iMac and I will have to see if I can get used to it.
As others have said: it has a beautiful screen.
Cheers!
I have the 27” 2017 top model (i7@4.2GHz, 580, 512 SSD). I can confirm that this machine is running at 1200rpm at idle (taken from sudo spindump) and that the fan is clearly audible (even when I am sitting in front of it, not holding my war to it). When I am in a silent room and turn it on, I hear the fan coming on — it sounds like a constant „whoosh of air“ and it disappears either when I turn it off or when I open a window (drowned out).
Actually, I thought this was due to the high-powered configuration (i7 and 580 demanding more power than i5 and 570). Thanks to your thread, however, I have concluded that the smaller specced machines do have the swooshing sound as well.
Personally, I am annoyed at the not-so-silent iMac and I will have to see if I can get used to it.
As others have said: it has a beautiful screen.
Cheers!
3,4 GHz i5, 8GB, Radeon Pro 570, 1TB SSD.
Same „problem“ here: Fans are audible while my iMac is idling, Fan Speed tool tells me that it's around 1200rpm.
When I contacted Apple Support, guy kindly asked me to make an SMC and NVRAM Reset, which didn't change anything. It seems like it's normal behaviour on all 2017 iMacs and the Apple Guys just didn't know ...
Same „problem“ here: Fans are audible while my iMac is idling, Fan Speed tool tells me that it's around 1200rpm.
When I contacted Apple Support, guy kindly asked me to make an SMC and NVRAM Reset, which didn't change anything. It seems like it's normal behaviour on all 2017 iMacs and the Apple Guys just didn't know ...
It is certainly not the case on all 2017 iMacs! Mine is completely silent at the 1200 rpm idle. As you probably know now, there are extensive threads on this forum about acoustic noise in 2017 iMacs. Many people have reported on the issue. Even those who are most concerned about noise are complaining about noise when under heavy load when the fans ramp up to higher rpm. General consensus is that all 2017 iMacs are very quiet at idle.
So it would appear that you have an issue with yours that Apple should be able to rectify - perhaps with a replacement of the fan.
So you are telling me, that when you are sitting in front of your idling iMac, and then shut it down, there is no perceivable change in volume at all?
Yes.
And this is in my quiet home office with the door and all windows closed. Furthermore, I am very much annoyed by noise. That is one of the main reasons why I purchased an iMac with an i5 processor and SSD.
Thank you both @colodane and @willmtaylor for chiming in.
This is enviable and just proves once again that I am not having much luck regarding the Apple device lottery.
This is enviable and just proves once again that I am not having much luck regarding the Apple device lottery.
I just unboxed an 27" iMac 4,2 GHz i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Radeon Pro 580 and now have the chance to compare the noise levels side by side with my 3,4 GHz i5, 8GB, 1TB SSD, Radeon Pro 570.
Both machines sound the same when idling. The fan doesn't whistle or crackle, but you can definitely hear it moving air.
It's not unpleasant, but definitely audible (the spectrum might be more like white noise instead of a resonant sound floor).
In my opinion, none of these machines seem to be an exception or a mechanically flawed iMac. I have a quiet home office and am doing these comparisons with the window shut.
My conclusion is, that people just seem to have very different hearings or sensitivities to perceiving noise. I am an audio engineer myself and am coming from 2016 MacBook 12" (fanless) and a water cooled, also fanless Hackintosh, so my expectations were very high ... as was the paid price for these machines.
I am going to return them both, get my money back and wait a year or so to see what the modular Mac Pro will be like.
With the Mac Pro 2013, I could at least hide it somewhere behind the table and just get longer cables to not hear the (also very quiet) noise floor, but with the iMac, you are sitting close to a spinning fan which never stops (!) even if the temperatures are very low. So even if the iMac is just displaying the desktop, not indexing anything, the fans are spinning with around 1200 rpm.
So if there are people out there who are searching for an inaudible Desktop Mac, I hope these "acoustic observations" can help you with your decision!
Best regards
Both machines sound the same when idling. The fan doesn't whistle or crackle, but you can definitely hear it moving air.
It's not unpleasant, but definitely audible (the spectrum might be more like white noise instead of a resonant sound floor).
In my opinion, none of these machines seem to be an exception or a mechanically flawed iMac. I have a quiet home office and am doing these comparisons with the window shut.
My conclusion is, that people just seem to have very different hearings or sensitivities to perceiving noise. I am an audio engineer myself and am coming from 2016 MacBook 12" (fanless) and a water cooled, also fanless Hackintosh, so my expectations were very high ... as was the paid price for these machines.
I am going to return them both, get my money back and wait a year or so to see what the modular Mac Pro will be like.
With the Mac Pro 2013, I could at least hide it somewhere behind the table and just get longer cables to not hear the (also very quiet) noise floor, but with the iMac, you are sitting close to a spinning fan which never stops (!) even if the temperatures are very low. So even if the iMac is just displaying the desktop, not indexing anything, the fans are spinning with around 1200 rpm.
So if there are people out there who are searching for an inaudible Desktop Mac, I hope these "acoustic observations" can help you with your decision!
Best regards
Thanks for your comparison! I wish I could have done the same as the 14-day return window just wasn't enough time to spend with a computer. At least I know getting a higher spec iMac would have produced the same ambient noise from the fan.
That is a factor of course, but another factor is that not all CPUs are built the same.
In the overclocking world people look for good CPU batches which handle heat better. There have been reports of the i7 7700K being a lottery too which may cause huge differences in heat spikes. See this thread: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3525430/7700k-heat-questions.html
Also, did you get an SSD instead of the fusion drive? Mechanical drives are noisy.
I'm not saying you are wrong, but since I've seen many audio and music guys getting the i5 models with SSD and declaring them dead silent I'm a bit skeptical. I will be receiving the i5 580 later today and will post my impressions as an audio engineer / music producer and noise sensitive person.
I cant speak to the 2017 imac model, but i do know this, when i had one of the harddrives removed in my 2011 imac and the fans ramped up because the heat sensor wasnt attached to anything anymore, the fans ran constantly at very audible levels. I took it back into the Apple store asking them how it could be fixed. They said it sounded normal for the age of the machine...which was complete nonsense. Complete nonsense from the mouths of idiots. So dont let them feed you, its normal levels if its not. I eventually got the issue resolved outside of Apple, so good luck to you.
@bolandross I got my i5 580 and you either have faulty machines or you really have truly exceptional hearing.
On idle I can only hear the fan if I get my head behind the iMac or if the room is dead silent. And I mean dead silent: no night crickets, no cars 1km away, no wife watching the tv on another floor, etc.
I consider myself very picky with fan noise and I'm super satisfied with this machine so far.
On idle I can only hear the fan if I get my head behind the iMac or if the room is dead silent. And I mean dead silent: no night crickets, no cars 1km away, no wife watching the tv on another floor, etc.
I consider myself very picky with fan noise and I'm super satisfied with this machine so far.
That sounds like a problem, as the minimum (at idle) should be right around 1200 rpm. You don't say when you bought your iMac, or how long this has been going on, or what you mean by "set on 1800rpm," but if you're still under warranty it may be time for a trip to Apple.
How is the noise-comparison between the 27-inch iMac and the 21.5-inch model? Is one of the two quieter than the other or are both the same? I'm refering to the two base-models with Core i5 and SSD.
I think the primary noise complaint is about the i7. My i7 ramps up for a bit during peak load, but it's not really signficant to me, as my 2007 was regularly roaring much louder with any load at all.