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Airplane inside my i7

G

Gaijin de Moscu

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 25, 2006
111
0
Geneva
Hi, has anyone else experienced this?

When my new i7 is on my usual desk (where iMac 24" white stood silently before), it sounds like a dishwasher. Or a plane engine. The low, loud vibrating noise drives me so mad I snap. It penetrates my very brain and makes it vibrate. It's audible from another room.

In desperation, I raised my Mac and the sound stopped. I put it on the floor, and the machine is silent. Back on desk - airplane engine sound again.

What the heck? My desk has been perfect for all my other computers, what's so special about i7?

Anyone else has this?
 
It's hitting just the right frequency to make the desk, and anything else resonate.
 
Maybe...

Gaijin de Moscu said:
Hi, has anyone else experienced this?

When my new i7 is on my usual desk (where iMac 24" white stood silently before), it sounds like a dishwasher. Or a plane engine. The low, loud vibrating noise drives me so mad I snap. It penetrates my very brain and makes it vibrate. It's audible from another room.

In desperation, I raised my Mac and the sound stopped. I put it on the floor, and the machine is silent. Back on desk - airplane engine sound again.

What the heck? My desk has been perfect for all my other computers, what's so special about i7?

Anyone else has this?
Click to expand...


There are lots of posts along the line of, "is your Mac in Flight ABC123"? You seem to have Flight ABC123 in your Mac. Is the 27" really that big?

Seriously. If you put the Mac on the floor, how does it sound if you lie down on the floor next to it? At various distances? Left ear or right ear make a difference? Try getting someone else to lie down and listen to it.

Or maybe the i7 outputs just the right frequency to match your desk's resonant frequency.
 
Gaijin de Moscu said:
Hi, has anyone else experienced this?

When my new i7 is on my usual desk (where iMac 24" white stood silently before), it sounds like a dishwasher. Or a plane engine. The low, loud vibrating noise drives me so mad I snap. It penetrates my very brain and makes it vibrate. It's audible from another room.

In desperation, I raised my Mac and the sound stopped. I put it on the floor, and the machine is silent. Back on desk - airplane engine sound again.

What the heck? My desk has been perfect for all my other computers, what's so special about i7?

Anyone else has this?
Click to expand...

Just the perfect time and excuse for you to get a SSD.
 
Idea

Gaijin de Moscu said:
Lol, I tried. I even put the thing on a thick towel. Minimal effect...
Click to expand...

If you lift the iMac up literally one inch so it is no longer in contact with the table, does that make a difference? Is the sound coming from within the Mac? It must be resonating, I reckon.
 
peteyD said:
If you lift the iMac up literally one inch so it is no longer in contact with the table, does that make a difference? Is the sound coming from within the Mac? It must be resonating, I reckon.
Click to expand...

Yep, that makes a difference, as long as I hold it in my hands. But it's a solid wooden desk, which has never resonated before...

To produce this level of resonation, the hard drive must really be spinning out of balance, no?
 
My i7 is very quiet on my solid wood desktop. Quieter than the Dell that it replaced. Maybe yours was damaged in shipping.
 
GL2 said:
My i7 is very quiet on my solid wood desktop. Quieter than the Dell that it replaced. Maybe yours was damaged in shipping.
Click to expand...

I wonder. Maybe I should really ship it back. The thing is, other than the airplane noise, it's really a beautiful machine...
 
MyC2D also had a low vibration. Not as bad as yours but bad enough. I returned it.

Swapped for an i5. Much better.

Still can hear it access the drive (light thumping) but not a persistent vibration.

Gotta go back. Sorry.

That's why I have an i5. Did not want the hassle of returning an i7, despite it being faster.
 
Hm.. have you maybe tried putting another computer back on your desk and see if you have the same problem?

Maybe some screws on your desk need to be tightened, because the 27" iMac is heavier than the 24", obviously, so that maybe the problem.

but that's really odd that it does that.. at first when I started reading this, I thought that it was your computer, but if it's silent on every other surface but your desk, I'd recommend checking out your desk, see if maybe something fell out.
 
Scott6666 said:
MyC2D also had a low vibration. Not as bad as yours but bad enough. I returned it.

Swapped for an i5. Much better.

Still can hear it access the drive (light thumping) but not a persistent vibration.

Gotta go back. Sorry.

That's why I have an i5. Did not want the hassle of returning an i7, despite it being faster.
Click to expand...

Yes... maybe that's what I need to do, after all. Can't work cringing on the floor.
 
remember 10-15years back when computers had fans and really had the noise level of a hoover , maybe its that retro feel apple did want to create with the
iMac 27" i7 :rolleyes: , as there are lots of people complaining about its being loud , disturbing for people with to sensible ears ..maybe listen a bit loud music (something like electro black metal) for a couple month will help to lower the sensivity of your ears ..:D
no serious if you dont like the noise bring it back and like suggested get a i5

but i doubt it to be the harddrive as if people say get a i5 which seems to be quiet and has the same harddrive inside i get the feeling its the fan of the cpu that makes the noise , maybe just vibrating because its out of balance for some reason
i noticed this constant vroooom at my mates new 27" too ..he was not very happy about it
but he bought one of these huge glass desks and the noise level is ok now only a slight humming noise left
 
Gaijin de Moscu said:
Nah. It'll set me back another few hundred usd, void my warranty, will be small, and will force me to use noisy external drives... what's the point.
Click to expand...

You're wrong. It will NOT void your warranty. Where have you heard this foolishness from?
 
If it doesn't make excessive noise on the floor, then it is resonance of the desk it seems to me. So its not a noise so much as a vibration that the desk magnifies? That HD must be wacky-try an Apple store/maybe they will swap it out for you.
 
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