iMac - fan speeds and noise? Temperature?

[Peter Crowder]

Hi,

I've had my aluminium iMac 2.4Ghz/20" for about 3 weeks now and I'm *sure* it's gotten a bit louder over the 3 weeks! I can hear it quite clearly at night - not nearly as distracting as my PC, but sat about 2ft away from it, I can definitely hear the fans blowing. I've wondered if it's me getting used to the noise and hearing it far more clearly than I did, but I'm not sure! Is this noise normal?

Incidentally, my temperatures (when running MSN, Firefox, EyeTV) are usually about 44-47*c for the CPU and a bit higher (low 50*c's) for the GPU. I know these to be normal, however the fans are always (whether the temperature is high or low) turning at their default speed - 1200/1200/900. Again, is this normal or should they really be throttling down lower?

Thanks for listening to the rantings of a possibly paranoid switcher!

 

[Dmac77]

I have the same problem with my iMac, and i took it to the Apple Store and the y kept it for a week and when i picked it up, they pretty much said that it was normal and is no worse then the ones in the store. There is really nothing you can do about it. If you ever have to take it in for something else ask them if they can open it up and clean it out, it's probably dust/smoke that causes the fans to run.

Don

 

[Eidorian]

I noticed the new Aluminium iMac fans idle at a higher speed then the slower 800 RPM of my white iMac.

 

[wazgilbert]

I find it's highly unusual if the fans ever get off the defaults of 0DD:700 HDD:1200 CPU:1200. Often when doing some intensive tasks and the temps start to edge up, I increase the minimum speeds using SMCfancontrol.

 

[faxao]

Cooling down the iMac

I also find smcfancontrol extremely useful to cool down cpu&hd at times when they get particularly hot due to overload (photoshop, video decoding etc). Other than that the three fans stay always at 700-1200-1200 rpm.

 

[Detektiv-Pinky]

Hi,

I've had my aluminium iMac 2.4Ghz/20" for about 3 weeks now and I'm *sure* it's gotten a bit louder over the 3 weeks! I can hear it quite clearly at night - not nearly as distracting as my PC, but sat about 2ft away from it, I can definitely hear the fans blowing. I've wondered if it's me getting used to the noise and hearing it far more clearly than I did, but I'm not sure! Is this noise normal?

Incidentally, my temperatures (when running MSN, Firefox, EyeTV) are usually about 44-47*c for the CPU and a bit higher (low 50*c's) for the GPU. I know these to be normal, however the fans are always (whether the temperature is high or low) turning at their default speed - 1200/1200/900. Again, is this normal or should they really be throttling down lower?

Thanks for listening to the rantings of a possibly paranoid switcher!

I had / have the same problem. I took it in for repair and they switched the main fan (lower left side, below the speaker) and also exchanged the logic-board, because it failed some test. It took almost 2 weeks to repair.
Result: the Mac is as 'loud' as before. I can clearly hear the fan blowing and the HDD humming...

So I guess it is 'normal' and I have to get used to it - too bad for a computer system that uses notebook technology. My temperature readings are a bit lower than yours, but the fan speeds are the same.

 

[Peter Crowder]

Hi,

Thanks for your replies everyone. The noise is by no means annoying compared to what I've put up with from my laptop and desktop before now, and having researched operating temperatures for each component, they're performing well within specification.

Thanks again!