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Cooling in the new 2020 27" iMac?

same fan issue with my iMac 2020 i7 + 5500xt. Its fan at 1200 rpm is certainly audible when there is no surrounding noise. Fine to use it during the day, but at night when all things are quiet, this fan noise is simply annoying. And when I hear it I just cannot unhear it anymore.

Not sure if this is bad luck with my particular unit or maybe my ears are too sensitive. Wish they allow us to tune the fan speed down to 1000 rpm.

Other than this, I LOVE this machine!
 
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cczhu said:
same fan issue with my iMac 2020 i7 + 5500xt. Its fan at 1200 rpm is certainly audible when there is no surrounding noise. Fine to use it during the day, but at night when all things are quiet, this fan noise is simply annoying. And when I hear it I just cannot unhear it anymore.
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I'm afraid of that, I'm sensitive to noise. Would i5+5300 be a better choice?
 
cltd said:
I'm afraid of that, I'm sensitive to noise. Would i5+5300 be a better choice?
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the minimum fan speed of all current iMAC is 1200. I was talking about the idle noise at this fan speed, not when iMac was under load. So i5+5300 shouldn't be any better.

I do read in this post that people found large variation of the iMac idle fan noise. That's why I trying to replace with the hope for a "better" unit
 
I've just got my first imac, very happy with it apart from the fan noise, im in my early 40's so i was hoping one bonus of that :) is that i wouldn't be able to hear the fan much...but i can hear it very clearly even when i go 4-5 meters away, its a lot louder than im used to as ive always built my own machines. There is nothing else on in the room though and its quiet outside.

I do think ive got pretty good hearing though, I might be able to live with the noise because its pretty stable, on the desktop when im doing nothing or when its streaming from youtube ive not noticed any difference, I've not put it under load yet but that is going to be a rare occurrence so its mainly the idle noise which is important to me. I called Apple and they very quickly said they would send me another machine, so i will see if its any better.

Mine is the i5 3.3 and base graphics
 
There really must be either a QC issue with the fans or they are sourcing different venders.. my 2020 i7/5500 XT is silent, I do have good hearing and in a silent room I have to have my ear right up to the back vent to hear remotely anything
 
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I hate to say, but it looks like the fan that is in the 5700XT model is in the 5300 model, and that's the same fan that is in every model since 2015 and probably before, we must remember Apple is cheap. I think it's a sensitivity to the sound. I'd care a lot more if I didn't happen to get noise cancelling headphones before I picked up the new imac, they help a lot as I tend to keep the thing going at full blast while I'm gaming in windows. When I take the headphones off I can hear the jet about to take off, but that is a reassuring sound: it's staying cool!
 
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CheesePuff said:
There really must be either a QC issue with the fans or they are sourcing different venders.. my 2020 i7/5500 XT is silent, I do have good hearing and in a silent room I have to have my ear right up to the back vent to hear remotely anything
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Yeah, it must be the frequencies the fans are emitting or it’s right against a wall and it’s reflecting the sound or something. I would not be able to hear my iMac’s fan at idle from 5 meters / 15 feet away.
 
Today I installed the MacPorts version for Big Sur and all the ports I need on my iMac late 2014 and my iMac 2020. All in all, compiling some big libraries took several hours with high CPU load most of the time.

First of all, it was impressive how much faster the 2020 iMac is compared to the old one. Regarding the fan noise with high load, I could not detect an significant difference between the two iMacs. Maybe the noise frequency of the 2020 iMac iMac is somewhat lower, but not much. Without load booth iMacs are inaudible, at least for my not so young ears ;)

Hearing the fan for such a long time I was wondering, if such a high CPU load for several hours could cause some long term damage to the iMac (beside fan wear and sucking in more durst, which booth probably is more of a theoretical problem...)
 
Brand new imac 2020 TWO TIMES FAN PROBLEM!
came with fan noise at startup. Ok when in use. After repair, fan noise at startup fix, but now some sound when in use...... Comes and goes. Have done smc reset. It works for some minutes and then starts again, but it also can disappear just like that. Both times its the sound of the blades, kinda like bumping into something. This second time its like a low rrrrrrr. Happy that I have sound recording.
Returned one with the retina screen, that one did not have any fan issues.
 
I've had my 2020iMac since late September. We've moved house since acquiring it, so room acoustics and ambient temps are all different

Since new it's had a tendency to get hot and the fan noise compared to the other two iMac's in the house is atrocious.
It's louder than external RAID enclosures with big fans.

I was concerned about it at first and installed TG Pro, an app that monitors the temp sensors around the machine.

they were regularly getting to 100 degrees Celsius on the 8 CPU cores when there was moderate to high load.

I called Apple support and they told me it was fine.

It has shut down a few times for no reason that I can fathom, but only once while I was at the keyboard.

There were some big video files being converted from one format to another and some big files being moved from one external drive to another and zap!

I have since started logging temperature info and have a small external fan pointed across the back of the machine. The internal fan maxes to a very noisy 2700rpm frequently.

The older two machines can do the same work with no detectable noise and only somewhat elevated temperatures. It just takes ten times as long.

this is a common job for these machines.

I'm concerned that this frequent high-temperature running will shorten something major's lifespan.

Any advice would be appreciated.
 
I am just glad I went for the iMac Pro after reading these comments. I would have hated the noise of the iMac 2020.
 
It depends o what you are doing with it.

I have the 2020 iMac with 10 core CPU and 5700XT. While doing my normal daily work I or photo editing, which I do a lot, I can not hear anything. The fans ramp up when compiling large software packages (and when installing a new version of XCode ;)). Prety much the same as with my 2014 iMac with 4 core i7.

When you are doing a lot of CPU intensive stuff the iMac Pro was probably the better choice.
 
? The reason you don't hear the fan at idle is either really bad hearing, or more likely because of high ambient noise.
 
You guys hearing fan noise are you monitoring your temps? My new I5 2020 has never gotten above 35C. But I haven't pushed it extremely hard either. I hear nothing.
 
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My new 2020 5K iMac with i7 & 5700XT is running unusually hot. I still have 10 days to start a return. I suspect it's because of indexing but can't see nothing on the activity monitor. For example, CPU PECI was at 94 Celsius degree when I took this screenshot. Other than that, it runs continuously between 70-90 degree.
 

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ondert said:
My new 2020 5K iMac with i7 & 5700XT is running unusually hot. I still have 10 days to start a return. I suspect it's because of indexing but can't see nothing on the activity monitor. For example, CPU PECI was at 94 Celsius degree when I took this screenshot. Other than that, it runs continuously between 70-90 degree.
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Indexing wouldn't make it run that hot. There's something wrong with your system.

Have you tried a clean install of the OS?
 
petsk said:
? The reason you don't hear the fan at idle is either really bad hearing, or more likely because of high ambient noise.
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Can you please repeat that, I didn't get it first time........
But seriously, didn't you forget to add the 'tongue-in-cheek' smiley to your comment?
I have excellent hearing and I've never been aware of any fan noise at idle when working on my 2020 iMac.
On reading this thread and especially your comment I had to get my ear closer to the machine to check further.
Yes there is a very faint sound which I certainly wouldn't waist my time to quantify, which could no longer be detected when moving back to my normal workplace. The rear cover is 7" away from the wall. The iMac is on a rigid desk that cannot vibrate. There was no measurable ambient noise and as I live in the countryside my environment generally is as quite as the proverbial harvest mouse.
I then called my wife to 'lend an ear'. She too was adament there was no noise to sensibly comment on. She too has good hearing, so in conclusion I'm afraid we'll have to take your massively over-generalized comment as little more than hot-air. ;)
I hasten to add that yourself and some others here may possibly have a hearing disorder known as hyperacusis - an increased sensitivity to sound and a low tolerance for environmental noise. This tends to be an under researched area and for those who genuinely do suffer should be careful before pointing the finger directly at the iMac.
 
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CooperBox said:
Can you please repeat that, I didn't get it first time........
But seriously, didn't you forget to add the 'tongue-in-cheek' smiley to your comment?
I have excellent hearing and I've never been aware of any fan noise at idle when working on my 2020 iMac.
On reading this thread and especially your comment I had to get my ear closer to the machine to check further.
Yes there is a very faint sound which I certainly wouldn't waist my time to quantify, which could no longer be detected when moving back to my normal workplace. The rear cover is 7" away from the wall. The iMac is on a rigid desk that cannot vibrate. There was no measurable ambient noise and as I live in the countryside my environment generally is as quite as the proverbial harvest mouse.
I then called my wife to 'lend an ear'. She too was adament there was no noise to sensibly comment on. She too has good hearing, so in conclusion I'm afraid we'll have to take your massively over-generalized comment as little more than hot-air. ;)
I hasten to add that yourself and some others here may possibly have a hearing disorder known as hyperacusis - an increased sensitivity to sound and a low tolerance for environmental noise. This tends to be an under researched area and for those who genuinely do suffer should be careful before pointing the finger directly at the iMac.
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Thank you!
Either people like him have the disorder you mentioned or a disorder with their iMac that makes the fans run too much.
Either way, neither is normal or typical.
 
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I think the disorder is rather the wax you have in your ears. Try cleaning your ears once in a while. ?
 
petsk said:
I think the disorder is rather the wax you have in your ears. Try cleaning your ears once in a while. ?
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Seeiously, if your mac is as loud as you attest, I think theres something wrong with it. It may be nothing very critical, but its not normal.
 
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