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How loud is your new iMac "24???

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0087215

Cancelled
Original poster
Sep 20, 2008
495
36
Hi guys,


I am a PC user who is thinking about changing his computer orientation and to pick up a new nice iMac "24 3,06Ghz. :)

But I've got one question for you, guys, so please, answer it.

How loud is your iMac (the newest models, 24 inch, nvidia graphic adapter)?
Is is really silent meaning that you cannot hear the spinning of the fans at all or do you hear them? I am really catchy to this kind of stuff and the fans which I can hear (even if they are really quiet) can drive me crazy. I am planning to work on my paper on this new iMac, so the silence is for me pretty important and cosidering the fact that the computer is integrated into the monitor (which is a very nice design as I must admit), I can imagine that working behind it can be pretty bad if it makes some noise.

Is your machine just quiet but you can hear the fans OR is it silent meaning you cannot hear any sound coming from it?

Thanks in advance!!!
 
Unfortunately I have to tell you that my iMac (new model, 24', nvidia) is far from being a truly silent machine. :(

I am in the same position than you, as that I spend long days in front of it (preparing lectures and writing up my dissertation).

I can clearly hear the main fan spinning (high pitch noise from the lower left) and I think the HD is adding to this with a lower pitch from the upper center. I can make out the noise even from 2-3 meters away in a quiet room. HD access as such is almost silent. Only if you listen very hard and Spotlight is doing its indexing can I make it out.

I even had the machine in for service and they claimed to have changed the main fan - same result.
I think that one is more likely to notices the noise, because it is emitted close to the head since the machine is an all-in-one.

People have mentioned that the previous Alu iMac was quiter than this model.
 
Detektiv-Pinky said:
Unfortunately I have to tell you that my iMac (new model, 24', nvidia) is far from being a truly silent machine. :(

I am in the same position than you, as that I spend long days in front of it (preparing lectures and writing up my dissertation).

I can clearly hear the main fan spinning (high pitch noise from the lower left) and I think the HD is adding to this with a lower pitch from the upper center. I can make out the noise even from 2-3 meters away in a quiet room. HD access as such is almost silent. Only if you listen very hard and Spotlight is doing its indexing can I make it out.

I even had the machine in for service and they claimed to have changed the main fan - same result.
I think that one is more likely to notices the noise, because it is emitted close to the head since the machine is an all-in-one.

People have mentioned that the previous Alu iMac was quiter than this model.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your replies, guys... That's namely what I thought too: the machine placed so close to the head must make the same amount of noise as a very silent desktop pc, but it can result in an afwul experience of annoying sound which is always close to you. You can hide your desktop pc away from your working place, but you cannot do the same with the iMac... Maybe I should buy the new MacBook Pro which will be released on 14th of October, but I am afraid the noise will be even more noticable.... :( don't know what to do at the moment.... I think that the silent computer doesn't exists and I am asking too much... I just have a dream... a nice dream that it can be realized....
 
0087215 said:
Thanks for your replies, guys... That's namely what I thought too: the machine placed so close to the head must make the same amount of noise as a very silent desktop pc, but it can result in an afwul experience of annoying sound which is always close to you. You can hide your desktop pc away from your working place, but you cannot do the same with the iMac... Maybe I should buy the new MacBook Pro which will be released on 14th of October, but I am afraid the noise will be even more noticable.... :( don't know what to do at the moment.... I think that the silent computer doesn't exists and I am asking too much... I just have a dream... a nice dream that it can be realized....
Click to expand...

Well, I can help you out with this one. I had the previous MacBook Pro for a while and while it was making fan noises like crazy when you put it into gaming mode, it was really, really silent when run just with an ordinary work load (webbrowser, mail agend, writing program, you name it...).

I think it had the fans disabled completely under light processor load and the only noise was coming from the small HDD, which might be replaceable by an SDD on the new model?!

That was what really started me about buying the iMac. To bad it did not live up to the promise in the noise department. Everything else is just fine...
 
Detektiv-Pinky said:
Well, I can help you out with this one. I had the previous MacBook Pro for a while and while it was making fan noises like crazy when you put it into gaming mode, it was really, really silent when run just with an ordinary work load (webbrowser, mail agend, writing program, you name it...).

I think it had the fans disabled completely under light processor load and the only noise was coming from the small HDD, which might be replaceable by an SDD on the new model?!

That was what really started me about buying the iMac. To bad it did not live up to the promise in the noise department. Everything else is just fine...
Click to expand...

Hmmm... thank you so much for your input! Maybe I should wait till the release of the new model of MacBook Pro...

Too bad all the happy stories of MacUsers screaming at every corner of the street how silent their iMacs are seem to be fake...

Can anybody else confirm the noise of the fans of iMacs? Maybe you had extremely bad luck with your model, Detektiv-Pinky? ;)
 
My 24inch is very quiet under normal conditions, althought not totally silent - close though. More quiet than any PC I've ever used by far.
 
0087215 said:
Hmmm... thank you so much for your input! Maybe I should wait till the release of the new model of MacBook Pro...

Too bad all the happy stories of MacUsers screaming at every corner of the street how silent their iMacs are seem to be fake...

Can anybody else confirm the noise of the fans of iMacs? Maybe you had extremely bad luck with your model, Detektiv-Pinky? ;)
Click to expand...

Yea, maybe. Hopefully. Maybe it is just me with my unreasonable high standards ;)

However, if you search the forum you will find others that had similar experiences and even returned their model.

Mind you we are not speaking about excessive noise here. I would guess it to be in the upper 20db range. If you are using it in an office setting it would be just drowned out by the normal background noise. However it becomes annoying having the machine up and running on a silent evening at home while everybody sleeps.

Go and talk to the Apple guys. Maybe they let you try one out before you buy... (Please keep me posted if you do, just in case it IS just my machine)
 
They tell me my iMac has fans, but I still don't believe it. Occasionally you'll hear a little sound when the hard drive does something, but mine is otherwise dead quiet.
 
Thanks for your replies, guys! I think I will wait till the 14th of October and see... Then I will decide what to buy: a new MacBook Pro or an iMac.

Detektiv-Pinky said:
Go and talk to the Apple guys. Maybe they let you try one out before you buy... (Please keep me posted if you do, just in case it IS just my machine)
Click to expand...

I will, Detektiv-Pinky... I've been to several Apple stores here in Holland, and the iMacs and MacBooks seem to be so quiet. I guess it is because of the ambient noise in this kind of stores, you cannot really see how silent a machine is till you bring it home and discover that it sounds like a jet engine...

We'll see... Thanks everybody, more answers on my question are always welcome...
 
My iMac is a week old -- has the 8800GS and its totally quiet. I can't hear anything running, including the fan.
 
Thx fellas...

jameskohn said:
Either I've gone deaf, or my 24" 3.06 iMac is totally silent. NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS.
Click to expand...

I want to buy the same model as you have. Don't you also hear anything if you work in office applications or do some processor/graphic intensive work (photoshop, Logic Pro music creation)???? I'd like to know it because I can imagine that the fans then kick in and make afwul sound...
 
I bought my iMac right after it's available on apple.com. It's dead silent I can tell. My parents' Toshiba notebook is way nosier than my iMac, which I cannot believe.

I used to have the infamously noisy MDD and PowerMac G5, this iMac really gives me a smile on.
 
I own a 20" iMac and frequently use a friend's 24"...the only fans I've ever heard are the ones on the ceiling. :D If you're in the market for an extremely noisy Mac, try the Macintosh 128K like I did when I was about 8 years old. Damn, that thing sounded like a B-52!!! :D
 
Picked up my 24 inch iMac two weeks ago. It's completely silent; the only time I hear any sound being emitted from it is when I put a CD in and it spins up.
 
That's interesting.

You know what I've noticed. People who always say that have a silent iMac, have only 500GB harddrive in it. It is a bit weird, but I can imagine that the 500Gb harddisk counterparts have more space and thus a higher temperature when they function.

Can it be true, guys? If it is, I rather pick up a 500GB version of an iMac and will use my extern 1TB harddrive as a storage device.
 
0087215 said:
That's interesting.

You know what I've noticed. People who always say that have a silent iMac, have only 500GB harddrive in it. It is a bit weird, but I can imagine that the 500Gb harddisk counterparts have more space and thus a higher temperature when they function.

Can it be true, guys? If it is, I rather pick up a 500GB version of an iMac and will use my extern 1TB harddrive as a storage device.
Click to expand...

Got a 500GB drive in mine, its a Western Digital WD5000AAKS, almost silent.

Left my iMac on overnight, walked into the room this morning and I couldn't hear a thing, I had turned off sleep as it was doing it's first time machine and it really was on. I have external hard drives louder than this whole computer!!!
 
Compared against any PC I've ever had it's darn near silent. When I first got it, plugged it in for the first time and hit the power button, I thought it wasn't working :p. Really. They are very, very quiet. I bought an external hard drive to back up to and I keep it turned off when it is not actually backing up my Mac. Reason? It's just too loud.....

Enjoy a machine made with true quality.

Rich :cool:
 
I know there is already another thread about this, but as I haven't found a real answer there and it fits perfectly: Does it make any noise difference if you chose the ATI 2600 card or the NVIDIA GeForce with your iMac? I read an online review which stated the ATI as "very quiet" and the NVDIA as "silent" or something like that - I don't remember the exact wording, but there was made a difference like that. (Note: This was NO iMac review, but a review only of different graphic cards.) So, can anybody confirm noise difference between these two cards (resp. their fans) in the iMac? Is the iMac with the ATI 2600 louder than an iMac with the NVDIA card? As I want to buy the first configuration, some statements like "My iMac with the ATI 2600 is deadly quiet" would be encouraging ... :)
 
Thanks for all your replies... I am about to order my first iMac tomorrow, but still worry about the noise issue. I love the absolute silence.... :(
 
0087215 said:
Thanks for all your replies... I am about to order my first iMac tomorrow, but still worry about the noise issue. I love the absolute silence.... :(
Click to expand...
A MacBook Air with SSD HardDisk might be what you need. No moving parts = no noise (unless you push it, of course).

BTW, I'm the same boat - I like my computers to be silent, and sold a G4 tower a few days after buying it because it was simply unbearably noisy.

I'm strongly considering an iMac presently, as a Mac Pro is a) overpriced and b) not silent enough and my MacBook Pro is quite noisy when it's either warm in the room or I feel like a little Spore. :D
 
I have the 24" 3.06thing, with a 8800 card and a 750gig hdd.

It is not silent, there is always a fairly audible fan going. It may be the HDD. It is a PITA. It can be heard across the room. It is very disappointing.

When I got it at first, it was absolutely dead silent. Nothing was audible. Then it went noisey after a month. Fan running all the time at 1200rpm. Took it back, it was replaced, but the replacement was instantly noisy. I didn't take the 2nd one back as it's a chore to lug it back to the store.

Maybe the 500gig would have been silent. Don't feel I've wasted my money, but having use previous iMac without a sound, I feel the recent 24" alu's are a step backwards.

Best of luck
 
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