I've got my new iMac 27" with i7 yesterday. I've selected the 1TB hard drive. It's my first iMac, but I think that the hard drive is quite noisy. Especially compared to my 13" MBP (2010). Other people having this issue?
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27" iMac hard disk is noisy
- Thread starter DennisMadsen
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It all comes down to luck. I had a noisy seagate HDD, swapped it for another seagate HDD, and the one I have now is completely quiet, not a sound.
If you know it's going to bother you, dont wait like I did. Enjoy you computer, when mine made noise, I didn't even like using it. Now I love it.
If you know it's going to bother you, dont wait like I did. Enjoy you computer, when mine made noise, I didn't even like using it. Now I love it.
Mine is sometimes noisy but otherwise its OK. I think every iMac I have seen has this issue. I don't know why... 
I also have a 27" 2011 iMac and my HD is virtually silent certainly in comparison to my external HD that sounds like a jet spooling up sometimes.
I think the problem is that iMacs tend to be so quiet anyways that any sound however slight gets noticed more than a PC where the fans are blowing like crazy.
I think the problem is that iMacs tend to be so quiet anyways that any sound however slight gets noticed more than a PC where the fans are blowing like crazy.
make sure you don't have a CD/DVD in the drive if you don't need to. Those tend to be quite loud when being read/written to and can be confused with hard drive noise
I also have a 27" 2011 iMac and my HD is virtually silent certainly in comparison to my external HD that sounds like a jet spooling up sometimes.
I think the problem is that iMacs tend to be so quiet anyways that any sound however slight gets noticed more than a PC where the fans are blowing like crazy.
Yeahr, I was thinking something like that. All my other PCs had the same HDD sound when using the drive - but not as notable because of fans. Just wondering that the HDD noise is louder then the fans in the iMac.
The 1TB HDD seems to generally (although not exclusively) be a Seagate Drive. Since the refresh in 2009 many people have complained about the fact that this drive seems to constantly "rumble / gurgle" away even when the iMac is seemingly dormant. I had this issue and it irritated me so much I returned the iMac and upgraded to the 2TB drive - this is generally an Hitachi drive and doesn't suffer from this distracting noise.
For those that say HDD's are a mechanical media and therefore will make a noise I would totally agree - however this particular Seagate drive model is very odd - it sounds almost like your stomach is constantly rumbling. Considering the effort Apple went to keeping Fan noise low it seemed an odd choice of HDD to install as it destroys any notion of a quiet iMac.
For those that say HDD's are a mechanical media and therefore will make a noise I would totally agree - however this particular Seagate drive model is very odd - it sounds almost like your stomach is constantly rumbling. Considering the effort Apple went to keeping Fan noise low it seemed an odd choice of HDD to install as it destroys any notion of a quiet iMac.
The hard drive model in my new iMac is: WDC WD1001FALS-403AA0. It is hard to decide, if I should contact Apple and send my new machine back - or just live with it. All HDD in my other PC have the exact same noise on activity - the only difference is that this device has no other noise, and because of that, I notice it.
When I'm writing here, it is very silent. But if I eg. starts Pages or Numbers, I can hear the HDD spinning - or what it is. Is that normal?
When I'm writing here, it is very silent. But if I eg. starts Pages or Numbers, I can hear the HDD spinning - or what it is. Is that normal?
My 2009 iMac HD 1 TB is very quiet. Here is the model - ST31000528ASQ - looks like they are using a different brand in the 2011 version?
That is a WD Caviar Black HD, I put the exact same drive in my iMac and it is a noisy drive when accessing, it reminds me of the WD Raptor drives I used to have in my MacPro.
The WD Caviar Black range is WD fastest range of 7200rpm drives, they have a 64Mb cache along with a few other enhancements. I think the speed of the drive equates to the noise your hearding. I have recently put the 2TB WD Caviar Black drive in my iMac and this one makes the exact same noise, they are just noisy drives but take heart in knowing you have one of the fastest 7200rpm drives out there.
Above are some of the useful posts I received when I raised the same issue about a 2010 27" i5 I recently bought.
I can't stand it, after paying nearly £1200, so I'm sending mine back and am going to wait for a SSD refurb to turn up. More expensive still, but to me an outlay this large needs to be not unpleasant to use.
(Please forgive the double negative, it's not meant to be representative of my mood!
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