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iMac in bedroom? How loud is it?

G

GrantMeThePower

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 12, 2011
114
0
Hi guys, first post.

I've been a windows user for my whole life. I wouldn't call myself "very" advanced, but i've built my fair share of boxes. Gaming, HTPC, you name it. I've sort of given up hope that it will ever run the way i want it to. Smoothly. There are always contradicting updates and sleep/standby problems, wake up problems...half the time is spent just making it work and, in the immortal words of Danny Glover, I'm getting to old for this $h!t

That leads me to a Mac. One of my major uses is photo managment and photo editing. I still use CS2, so i'm not on the bleeding edge and its a hobby not a profession, but it is one i enjoy and when i get a new computer i'm sure i'll update the software as well.

I'm leaning toward an iMac over a Macbook Pro becasue i think i would like the larger screen, and the increased power (once the update comes along).

I'm trying, though, to figure where to put it in my house. I've never had such a large monitor before (they were always either my tv itself, or a laptop) and i live in a small home.

One thing i was thinking about was using it in the bedroom. Does anyone do that? How loud does it run? How about when it is sleeping? Is it really silent?
 
GrantMeThePower said:
Hi guys, first post.

I've been a windows user for my whole life. I wouldn't call myself "very" advanced, but i've built my fair share of boxes. Gaming, HTPC, you name it. I've sort of given up hope that it will ever run the way i want it to. Smoothly. There are always contradicting updates and sleep/standby problems, wake up problems...half the time is spent just making it work and, in the immortal words of Danny Glover, I'm getting to old for this $h!t

That leads me to a Mac. One of my major uses is photo managment and photo editing. I still use CS2, so i'm not on the bleeding edge and its a hobby not a profession, but it is one i enjoy and when i get a new computer i'm sure i'll update the software as well.

I'm leaning toward an iMac over a Macbook Pro becasue i think i would like the larger screen, and the increased power (once the update comes along).

I'm trying, though, to figure where to put it in my house. I've never had such a large monitor before (they were always either my tv itself, or a laptop) and i live in a small home.

One thing i was thinking about was using it in the bedroom. Does anyone do that? How loud does it run? How about when it is sleeping? Is it really silent?
Click to expand...

Asleep it's completely silent. While on, it's close to it.
 
I live in a small apt and my wife and I both have our 21.5 mid 2010 iMacs side by side in the bedroom which is 12x14. Quiet, real quiet. I had a 8 fan Full size tower setup that sounded like a Huey helicopter. Big change once I switched. You can feel free to put it in your room. The audio from it is also quite satisfactory to my needs for ambient music while sleeping.

Rest assured it is a quite machine

Mike - models I have listed below

GrantMeThePower said:
Hi guys, first post.

I've been a windows user for my whole life. I wouldn't call myself "very" advanced, but i've built my fair share of boxes. Gaming, HTPC, you name it. I've sort of given up hope that it will ever run the way i want it to. Smoothly. There are always contradicting updates and sleep/standby problems, wake up problems...half the time is spent just making it work and, in the immortal words of Danny Glover, I'm getting to old for this $h!t

That leads me to a Mac. One of my major uses is photo managment and photo editing. I still use CS2, so i'm not on the bleeding edge and its a hobby not a profession, but it is one i enjoy and when i get a new computer i'm sure i'll update the software as well.

I'm leaning toward an iMac over a Macbook Pro becasue i think i would like the larger screen, and the increased power (once the update comes along).

I'm trying, though, to figure where to put it in my house. I've never had such a large monitor before (they were always either my tv itself, or a laptop) and i live in a small home.

One thing i was thinking about was using it in the bedroom. Does anyone do that? How loud does it run? How about when it is sleeping? Is it really silent?
Click to expand...
 
I have my 24" in my bedroom. I would say it is around 2 meters away from my head when I'm laying on my bed. The fan makes a slight sound when it's running but it's not bad, you can barely hear it. When it's in sleep mode, there is absolutely no sound at all (RAM is the only component that is powered and it needs no fan).
 
It is completely silent while in sleep, virtually completely silent while in use, unless you're doing some intensive stuff for a while, and the fans have to pick up. CS2 isn't that intensive.
 
GrantMeThePower said:
One thing i was thinking about was using it in the bedroom. Does anyone do that?
Click to expand...

i for one.

How loud does it run?
Click to expand...

hardly noticing it. doing a lot of movie conversions over night which tends to make the fans spin up occasionally but, from a certain distance (2 meters) it's hardly noticeable.

How about when it is sleeping? Is it really silent?
Click to expand...

yes, extremely. my MBP (which downloads the movies) is noisier.
 
mines completely silent it sits across the room from my bed about 7-8 feet away and i cant here it at all if your doing processes you might hear some noise but when asleep its dead quiet
 
My iMac (see sig) is definitly very qiet, I would say almost not noticable except in complete silence. Also the fans kick in much later than on a Macbook due to the larger aluminum body which makes a great heatspreader. I can run an intensive Pro Tools session with many virtual instruments parallel to 2 Logic sessions without any noticable noise.

I'd say the iMac is as qiet as performance gets in an out-of-the-box desktop computer.
 
Awesome! Thanks for the responses, guys.

I'm thinking the bedroom may be the way i have to go with it, though I'd rather do work on the computer in the living room. i just dont think i have the space outside of the bedroom. You have eased my concerns with the sound, which was an issue with a DVR i had in there before. The box would constantly make noise.
 
GrantMeThePower said:
Awesome! Thanks for the responses, guys.

I'm thinking the bedroom may be the way i have to go with it, though I'd rather do work on the computer in the living room. i just dont think i have the space outside of the bedroom. You have eased my concerns with the sound, which was an issue with a DVR i had in there before. The box would constantly make noise.
Click to expand...

Yeah you should be good. Even if the iMac starts whirring with age, it's an excuse to make some racket in the bedroom ;)
 
GrantMeThePower said:
I'm thinking the bedroom may be the way i have to go with it, though I'd rather do work on the computer in the living room. i just dont think i have the space outside of the bedroom.
Click to expand...

Since you have such a small living room, maybe you should consider sleeping in it and live in the sleeping room instead :p

Anyway, sleeping with the Mac is a must, always :)
 
We have a 24" iMac in the bedroom. As far as noise, I cannot hear it for the birds in the trees outside our house.

We have amplified speakers on is so we can here the TV and movies that we occasionally watch.

Looking at a new one?????

Consider this ........

My 24" iMac is 4 years old and we are looking to upgrade. I was excited thinking about getting a new 27" iMac, then I had a thought.

Why not by a new Macbook Pro, and add an eternal monitor say about 30" to it.

This way I can pick the screen I like best for photo editing as I do a lot of that and have the portability of the Macbook Pro.

Sure that will cost a little more than a new iMac, but ever try carrying an iMac around in a brief case? :D
 
Recent iMacs are usually quiet unless you are driving them hard and the fans come on, but I was unlucky, re noisy Seagate hard drive problem; most Seagate batches are quiet but, in my case, it's not something I could sleep through, being a bassy rumble rather than the chatter you might be used to with some desktop computer hard drives. It is still audible with foam-type earplugs. Again, as people say above, unless you get unlucky, it is quiet in regular use.
 
GrantMeThePower said:
Hi guys, first post.

I've been a windows user for my whole life. I wouldn't call myself "very" advanced, but i've built my fair share of boxes. Gaming, HTPC, you name it. I've sort of given up hope that it will ever run the way i want it to. Smoothly. There are always contradicting updates and sleep/standby problems, wake up problems...half the time is spent just making it work and, in the immortal words of Danny Glover, I'm getting to old for this $h!t

That leads me to a Mac. One of my major uses is photo managment and photo editing. I still use CS2, so i'm not on the bleeding edge and its a hobby not a profession, but it is one i enjoy and when i get a new computer i'm sure i'll update the software as well.

I'm leaning toward an iMac over a Macbook Pro becasue i think i would like the larger screen, and the increased power (once the update comes along).

I'm trying, though, to figure where to put it in my house. I've never had such a large monitor before (they were always either my tv itself, or a laptop) and i live in a small home.

One thing i was thinking about was using it in the bedroom. Does anyone do that? How loud does it run? How about when it is sleeping? Is it really silent?
Click to expand...

I use my mac in my bedroom it is so quiet i forget its on sometimes. The only thing you should focus on is the external hardrive. (assuming you're using it for back up etc) I have the WD My Book and its pretty quiet also. :)
 
You'll have no qualms about it being in the bedroom.

I was in your situation, windows user my whole life, and recently purchased my first mac this past January 2011.

You won't be disappointed. it has to be the quietest computer I've owned. Before I had a dell that was quiet as well, but this iMac is DEAD SILENT!

I used to have a gaming rig with a ton of blue LEDs and 6 fans on it one of them being 80mm, that was not fun, especially when trying to sleep.
 
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