How bad is the fan noise on 2020 iMac when running multiple VMs?

[AAPLGeek]

Hi. I need a little help making a decision between an i5 Mini 2018 connected to a 4k display and a i5 iMac 2020. I'm looking for a machine that can run my basic MacOS workload along with multiple (usually 2) VM's 24x7. The mini is obviously going to be slower, but I'm MUCH more concerned about fan noise levels at both idle and load.

The VM's won't have anything too intensive going on, mostly just office apps and a browser with 10+ tabs. Would the iMac fan spin up beyond the idle 1200rpm in this scenario? I've seen a few posts mention that merely launching some heavy apps like PS, AI or FCP pushes the iMac fan past the idle 1200rpm which would honestly drive me nuts.

 

[uller6]

I have a 2019 27” i5 iMac in my desk at work. I run a windows XP and a windows 10 VM. I can hear the fan even when idle, and spinning up two VMs does work the computer reasonably hard. If fan noise is your enemy then i suggest a different option. My iMac Pro on my desk at home is significantly quieter, both at idle and at load. I haven’t used the 2018 Mac mini but I have an old 2012 mini, and it is quieter running VMs than the 2019 iMac 27.”

 

[AAPLGeek]

I have a 2019 27” i5 iMac in my desk at work. I run a windows XP and a windows 10 VM. I can hear the fan even when idle, and spinning up two VMs does work the computer reasonably hard. If fan noise is your enemy then i suggest a different option. My iMac Pro on my desk at home is significantly quieter, both at idle and at load. I haven’t used the 2018 Mac mini but I have an old 2012 mini, and it is quieter running VMs than the 2019 iMac 27.”

This is exactly what I was fearing. Fan noise at idle is honestly the worst thing a desktop can have, especially when it’s just inches away from your face.

I’ve been wanting the iMac 5k for a long time, but I guess I’ll just have to settle for the mini…

 

[ascender]

My M1 MacBook Air and Intel iMac Pro are the only two machines I can have running VMs in utter silence and with cool chassis'. If you can wait to get your workload running on an Apple Silicon chip I'd really recommend it.

The iMac was louder, but the Mini's fan was more persistent and would come on sooner in my experience.

 

[ascender]

Its probably also worth saying that not all VMs are the same and how you use them won't be the same so its really tricky to give an answer which will apply to all use cases.

 

[AAPLGeek]

Its probably also worth saying that not all VMs are the same and how you use them won't be the same so its really tricky to give an answer which will apply to all use cases.

Makes sense. I just wanted to get a general idea about iMac's thermal performance when running one or more Windows VMs with an average workload I described in the post above.

Don't want to end up with a machine where merely launching a VM for basic stuff starts to push the fan noise into annoying levels.

 

[petsk]

It’s easy to fix the fan noise, at least on 2017-2019 iMac’s. In the same thread there’s a fan fix for the 2020 model aswell.

My iMac 2019 is almost silent with the fan running at 1000 rpms instead of default 1200 rpms.

 

[gilby101]

This is exactly what I was fearing. Fan noise at idle is honestly the worst thing a desktop can have, especially when it’s just inches away from your face.

I don't notice the fan noise when my iMac 2019 is lightly loaded. VMs only make a difference if you don't have enough RAM or they are used intensively.

 

[Isamilis]

I don’t have iMac 2020, but my iMac 2010 was fried (CPU board) few years ago because I used VM for playing windows games (for my toddler). It was actually an accident where my kids forgot to shutdown VM for 3 days, and I found the display was blank and iMac stopped working.