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I think it's a bad fan. I had purchased a store model at first before I ordered my BTO. The store one with the high tier one with the i7 and 5500XT and it make the EXACT same noise especially when listening to it on the right side of the computer and in the back. I returned it and ordered a custom one instead as I wanted the 5700XT GPU. The new one does not make this noise. My guess is that the store ones were all made earlier to fill the stores for people who want the lower priced entry models to take home the same day. The BTO ones are built as they are ordered so may have a different batch of fans.
Can you record how loud is your fan at idle ? What should I do ? Replace and hope for better ? I’m so angry because everything is perfect except this fan.


Mine is a custom configuration and I have the bad fan :/
I guess I had bad luck
Could you also record your fan and post video/audio here ? :)
 
I've returned my unit. I was offered a replacement, but I said no, since there's no guarantee that the new one will have a normal fan. I'll think over the weekend if I order a new one, or I get a Mac Mini till something new comes out.
 
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Can you record how loud is your fan at idle ? What should I do ? Replace and hope for better ? I’m so angry because everything is perfect except this fan.



Could you also record your fan and post video/audio here ? :)
I don't have access to my machine right now but it sound like your fan MINUS the clicking sound. It's that simple. It sounds like either the bearing in your fan is bad or the fan blades are off and is wobbling inside the cooling housing. It drove me nuts also and gave me the excuse to step up to a BTO instead.
 
I've returned my unit. I was offered a replacement, but I said no, since there's no guarantee that the new one will have a normal fan. I'll think over the weekend if I order a new one, or I get a Mac Mini till something new comes out.
Ohh, I see. Don’t buy Mac Mini, is so overpriced right now in my opinion :)


I don't have access to my machine right now but it sound like your fan MINUS the clicking sound. It's that simple. It sounds like either the bearing in your fan is bad or the fan blades are off and is wobbling inside the cooling housing. It drove me nuts also and gave me the excuse to step up to a BTO instead.
Ehh :( Right now I’m thinking about replacement. But I don’t know if it’s possible to keep this, get new one and send back one of them.
 
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I used my Apple Watch's hearing app to check decibel readings. Where I normally sit when using the iMac, the reading was 32 decibels. When it put it right next to the exhaust port, the reading was 38 decibels. When I'm sitting at the keyboard, the fan is inaudible to me, while the iMac is at idle.
 
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I used my Apple Watch's hearing app to check decibel readings. Where I normally sit when using the iMac, the reading was 32 decibels. When it put it right next to the exhaust port, the reading was 38 decibels. When I'm sitting at the keyboard, the fan is inaudible to me, while the iMac is at idle.

The 2020s are actually louder than my 2017 which I sold. I can clearly hear mine in my quiet home office for sure. Everyone's hearing is different and the noise "floor" of each room is different which strongly impacts a person's perception of noise.
 
Ohh, I see. Don’t buy Mac Mini, is so overpriced right now in my opinion :)



Ehh :( Right now I’m thinking about replacement. But I don’t know if it’s possible to keep this, get new one and send back one of them.

Call Apple up. They will work with you. They can have a specialist work with you to get you another machine and put a small hold on your credit card while you have the 2nd unit in your possession. There are plenty of people who NEED a machine for work and they understand that.
 
The 2020s are actually louder than my 2017 which I sold. I can clearly hear mine in my quiet home office for sure. Everyone's hearing is different and the noise "floor" of each room is different which strongly impacts a person's perception of noise.
That’s why I included decibel values.
 
Just wanted to report that my 2020 iMac (i7, 5700XT) is as quiet as my previous (2017 & 2019) iMacs, and temps look good so far.
 
Call Apple up. They will work with you. They can have a specialist work with you to get you another machine and put a small hold on your credit card while you have the 2nd unit in your possession. There are plenty of people who NEED a machine for work and they understand that.

I will try to do it tomorrow. Should I tell them about problem with fan ? I’m scary that they won’t understand it and they‘ll say me that it’s only my imagination.

My iMac is from official shop Apple.com/pl. I heard amazing things about Customer Service from Apple in US. I hope that I won’t be disappointed in Europe.
 
I will try to do it tomorrow. Should I tell them about problem with fan ? I’m scary that they won’t understand it and they‘ll say me that it’s only my imagination.

My iMac is from official shop Apple.com/pl. I heard amazing things about Customer Service from Apple in US. I hope that I won’t be disappointed in Europe.
I think Apple’s returns policy should be the same in your country. Only in China is it more restrictive from my understanding due to cultural norms in that region regarding purchases and returns. Just call them and explain your situation. And yes, Apple USA will refund for ANY reason.
 
Hey guys,

Very interesting conversation.
I'm planning to get the new iMac 27", with i9 and 5500XT (Smallest). I'm quite concerned about heat issues.
I wonder which one runs cooler, i7 (3.8GHz 8-core) vs i9 (3.6GHz 10-core). The i9 has 200 Mhz lower settings, but adds two more cores, so which one will produce more heat, I wonder.

The main issue I see, is why should I pay £400 to upgrade to i9, when it will be throttled down due to the heat anyway? What's the point?

Has there been any review to break down the temperatures and fan noises in the new iMac?

Many Thanks
 
Hey guys,

Very interesting conversation.
I'm planning to get the new iMac 27", with i9 and 5500XT (Smallest). I'm quite concerned about heat issues.
I wonder which one runs cooler, i7 (3.8GHz 8-core) vs i9 (3.6GHz 10-core). The i9 has 200 Mhz lower settings, but adds two more cores, so which one will produce more heat, I wonder.

The main issue I see, is why should I pay £400 to upgrade to i9, when it will be throttled down due to the heat anyway? What's the point?

Has there been any review to break down the temperatures and fan noises in the new iMac?

Many Thanks

It depends on what you're doing.

If you run an 8 core rendering non-stop with the 5500XT at full tilt the fans will kick in. The machine is going to get heat.

It's an AiO.

The iMac will throttle to some degree. The high end gpus perform better but are down clocked for a reason. Thermals.

Apple should have put better cooling in the 'single tiny' fan iMac. But this is nothing new. But this is the best performing iMac ever.

If you push it for the performance. Fans. Heat.

Most of the time it's cool. It depends on what you're doing with it.

Running it as a render farm 24/7...with certain workloads are going to push it. Others will be well within it's gamut.

My iMac is cool aluminium to the touch.

All iMacs that I have had run hot if you you push them constantly. The older ones got really hot to the touch.

Doing 2D art isn't a big deal. 3D rendering on a several minute benchmark on Blender is.

Azrael.
 
Temperature is the independent variable.

Clock speed is the dependant variable. It varies in function of the temperature.

Knowing that, there are no configuration that will run at lower temperature in tier-3 iMac. They will All run hot.
 
Yeah. I never met an iMac that didn't run hot when pushed.

Anything 2D. Should be fine.

But heavy duty rendering workloads.

Cars. Computers. What do they sound like when you push them.

What do people sound like when you push them. Lol.

They get hot and angry.

My iMac is only human...

Azrael.
 
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10 cores and the 5700XT 16 gig of VRAM. The iMac's finest hour?

PowUR.

But it comes at a price.

The Intel cpu is hot. The AMD gpu is down clocked.

I sent a picture to a mate. And he was amazed how thin it was. He asked...

'...er...where's the gpu?'

Made me somewhat rational for a moment. (Only for a moment...)

I like Mac OS. But Apple could have democratised the cooling solution for iMac buyers with at least the iMac Pro style cooling. They're as accountable for that as Intel for hot cpus and AMD for last year gpus with mid-range perf'.

Imagine what this iMac would have been like with an Ampere in...or an RDNA2? (...and an iFridge on the back of it to keep it cool.)

Azrael.
 
I never owned an iMac, but someone on the mac forums claims having a desk fan blowing form behind into the iMac chassis can help significantly, since aluminium absorbs heat well, but needs help to release it. I know it's a bit excessive having an external fan, but for higher workload, it is an option to turn it on.

Has anyone tried it?

Regarding usage, I'm not in graphic design, nor editing. I'm a coder, and will mainly use the machine for coding. Now you may thing this is not a big deal, but building on Xcode or running unit tests cranks up the CPU to 100%. I did a test with a friend and the machines with a higher core were able to build faster on Xcode.

I have right now a MacBook pro 2.7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7.

I have recently started with Android development and the emulator in Android Studio is very resource hungry and not well optimised. It runs on software acceleration and really cranks up the CPU. I was hoping having a faster machine with a proper graphic card, can help the emulator.

Right now it's so bad, I can't leave the emulator running and have to close it via Activity Monitor.

So my main question is, does i9 make sense for me or i7 enough?

Thank you,
 
That sounds ridiculous. Having to put a fan on the back of the iMac. If it gets that bad. Perhaps send it back.

The one thing I have noticed. Is the fans starting up just by me loading up Z-Brush.

The ambient heat of my attic studio is around 22 degrees.

But. Fans? Just for loading up Z-Brush. My old rig never did that. Not even for rendering in Z-Brush.

What was strange. They did the same for Blender. (Again. Which my old iMac never did.)

The cooling thing will be an ongoing investigation. The 2020 is still quite new.

The i7 8 core will be enough. If you're on a quad core. Expect a significant boost.

More investigation on the cooling with the iMac models. Software. Hardware tiers etc.

Azrael.
 
Things like ambient heat can affect the cooling fans if it gets really warm in a room environment.

But it had to get really warm for my last iMac to do that...and for it be pushed hard with the software.

But my last iMac wasn't packing a ten core and a 5700 XT.

The current model. Perhaps others can chime in with 'warm' work environments and see if the fans kick in.

Azrael.
 
So my main question is, does i9 make sense for me or i7 enough?

I am a software developer to and I took the i10, mainly because the cores are usefull when running multiple VMs at the same time.

I still have to test the i10, but assume it will be like my 2014 i7: While editing the Mac is nearly silent, when compiling the fans kick in. As this is only for a few minutes once in a while it does not bother me, time to get a coffee.

For compiling really big projects probably the Mac Pro or iMac Pro would be a better choice.

When comparing the 8 or 10 core for software development you will probably not notice a difference, in theory the additional cores of the i10 could be used but that is probably to small a differennce to notice.
 
When comparing the 8 or 10 core for software development you will probably not notice a difference, in theory the additional cores of the i10 could be used but that is probably to small a differennce to notice.
I wouldn't say this. Compiling something big enough with 2 more cores can be significant, or multiprocessing a CPU intensive vector task can also have a significant speed bump.
 
I wouldn't say this. Compiling something big enough with 2 more cores can be significant, or multiprocessing a CPU intensive vector task can also have a significant speed bump.

Sure, when the compiler does a good job at parallelization the i10 would be faster. But I doubt that it is so much faster than the i8, that it makes a noticable difference in the small or average projects (I personally do not care if compiling my project takes 15 or 13 minutes, both is annoying) , but it will be measurable.

In big projects even small speed changes can make a significant noticable difference.

But I still think that the i10 is a good option, as there are other tasks beside compiling.
 
Sure, when the compiler does a good job at parallelization the i10 would be faster. But I doubt that it is so much faster than the i8, that it makes a noticable difference in the small or average projects (I personally do not care if compiling my project takes 15 or 13 minutes, both is annoying) , but it will be measurable.

In big projects even small speed changes can make a significant noticable difference.

But I still think that the i10 is a good option, as there are other tasks beside compiling.

I think you mean i9, which has 10 cores?
 
Sorry, yes, the i9 with 10 cores, to many numbers and it is late evening here in Germany ;)
 
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