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iMac M1 - Little fan noise

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dani31

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 15, 2012
15
5
Hello to all,

I received my iMac 24 M1 a few days ago, I'm very happy with it except that I can hear a small noise of blowing at the chin level.

As I'm a bit of a maniac, I'd like to ask you if you've noticed this too?

I had understood that it was totally silent.

It is very quiet but it makes a little noise anyway.

I have the version with two fans, and I don't do anything special, just go online.

Here is the information with Macs Fan Control :



Thank you.
 
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Frixos

macrumors 6502
Nov 17, 2020
253
281
dani31 said:
Hello to all,

I received my iMac 24 M1 a few days ago, I'm very happy with it except that I can hear a small noise of blowing at the chin level.

As I'm a bit of a maniac, I'd like to ask you if you've noticed this too?

I had understood that it was totally silent.

It is very quiet but it makes a little noise anyway.

I have the version with two fans, and I don't do anything special, just go online.

Here is the information with Macs Fan Control :



Thank you.
Click to expand...
Did you buy the base? It only has one fan and will be more audible than the mid-model and up which has 2 fans.
 
F

Frixos

macrumors 6502
Nov 17, 2020
253
281
Apple_Robert said:
I am not positive but, it looks like the OP's picture is showing two fans. Maybe the OP is in a silent room and just sensitive to any noise.
Click to expand...
Oh I didn’t even see the photo. Yeah, you’re probably right.

I believe there’s an app you could use to control the fan speeds. If you’re bothered when you don’t use high stress applications, you could safely lower the RPMs to minimize the noise.
 
G

Gregintosh

macrumors 68000
Jan 29, 2008
1,923
553
Chicago
How warm is it in your room? I notice that if I use my MacBook outside or in a warmer place it will spin up the fans faster and run much hotter than if I was using it in a well air-conditioned room.

I would imagine it would be the same for the iMac, if your ambient temperature is warm even light activity like web browsing and video watching might warm it up enough to where the fans need to kick in.

The second thing to consider is your ambient noise levels. If you are in a room that has a running fan, air conditioner, people talking, street noise coming through the window, etc. probably fan noise from your computer will be drowned out. But if you are in a perfectly silent room with everything off, you will hear everything.

I feel like 2,500 rpm should not be very audible in typical circumstances, but might be so if you have great hearing and in a silent environment. No computer is truly silent if it has any fans.

I would *NOT* use software to manually disable the fans or lower them. You could end up running your computer too hot and doing some damage or facing other stability issues. Be very careful if you will pursue that kind of thing.
 
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dani31

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 15, 2012
15
5
Thanks for your answers guys.

I'm in a quiet room, and it's not hot in this room right now.

The "min and max" values of macs fan control correspond to the manufacturer values of the fans? Or the values they have already reached on my machine?

The fans are supposed to run all the time even when the processor is not being used too much?

On the activaty monitor the processor is currently 92% free.

Maybe other people could take a screenshot of the fans on their iMac M1 with Macs Fan Control to compare?

Thank you.
 
Last edited:
4sallypat

4sallypat

macrumors 601
Sep 16, 2016
4,034
3,782
So Calif
Yes, the fans spin all the time - just like my M1 Mini which spins at a low rate that I can't hear it.

My new M1 iMac is very quiet and I never hear it either.

M1 Mini fan:
Screen Shot 2021-06-06 at 8.29.08 AM.png
 
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DeltaMac

DeltaMac

macrumors G5
Jul 30, 2003
13,757
4,583
Delaware
Unless those various YouTube videos said that an audio level meter shows no difference when recording fan noise levels with the iMac on or off, then "totally silent" is just an opinion, and not an absolute statement.
And, your ears are different from those other testers (better than my ears, for sure)
 
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Gregintosh

macrumors 68000
Jan 29, 2008
1,923
553
Chicago
Probably it's all about the ambient noise. He said his room is quiet. I am sure if he opened a window or introduced some ambient noise the fan noise would become imperceptible.
 
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dani31

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 15, 2012
15
5
It is certain that by opening a window it will be much more difficult to hear the ventilation.

In a quiet room and at about 50cm from the computer I can hear this very very light breath.

On my iMac from the end of 2012 I could not hear anything (the ventilation was running slower than on this iMac M1, surprising when you know that the M1 chip is supposed to be low power consumption).
 
L

leman

macrumors Core
Oct 14, 2008
19,521
19,677
The machine has fans, these fans are almost always on and so it's not surprising that you might hear them. Maybe you have very keep hearing and are sensitive to the frequencies that this particular fan makes. However, it is also possible that your machine has a slight defect and that the fan is louder than it should be. Can you measure the noise using your phone or something?
 
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dani31

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 15, 2012
15
5
For this reason I would have liked someone who has the same iMac with two fans to confirm that he hears a small breath in a quiet environment at about 50cm.

On the phone you would not hear the noise because it is very weak, it is a very weak wind noise.
 
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quarkysg

macrumors 65816
Oct 12, 2019
1,247
841
dani31 said:
It is certain that by opening a window it will be much more difficult to hear the ventilation.

In a quiet room and at about 50cm from the computer I can hear this very very light breath.

On my iMac from the end of 2012 I could not hear anything (the ventilation was running slower than on this iMac M1, surprising when you know that the M1 chip is supposed to be low power consumption).
Click to expand...
I think you can't hear the 2012 iMac because the fan is blowing air out of a long vent and the the fans are quite a distance from the vent. I guess the air-flows are probably less turbulent.

From pictures of the M1 iMac teardown and from Apple's videos, it looks like the fans are blowing air out of a lot of small holes and the fans are just above the holes. This likely creates a lot of turbulent air flows and you're likely hearing the fans whistling?

I must say your hearing is very good if you can hear the fan noise tho.
 
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dani31

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 15, 2012
15
5
I have good hearing but my friend also hears the noise, but she told me that she has to concentrate to hear it :D
 
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0906742

Cancelled
Apr 11, 2018
2,313
613
dani31 said:
For this reason I would have liked someone who has the same iMac with two fans to confirm that he hears a small breath in a quiet environment at about 50cm.

On the phone you would not hear the noise because it is very weak, it is a very weak wind noise.
Click to expand...
I'm sure it won't be completely silent that way. I can even hear my M1 Mini fan and it has only one larger fan and it is spinning lower rpm, so I can imagine two smaller fans in iMac making sound, just like the one in MacBooks that have cooling fan and when it is spinning.
 
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Chancha

macrumors 68020
Mar 19, 2014
2,312
2,139
We have an executive whose desk sits in a HiFi / audio listening room setting which is dead silent by default due to audio absorber treatments. He also needs a large-ish (27") display. Initially we deployed a 16" MBP + an OWC pro dock and got huge complaints, both units have active fans and they are very loud even at idle. Then we swapped him an iMac 27", noise is noticeably less (the Intel iMacs with single fan idle at about 1200rpm), but that is still audible and much more so when the Mac runs stuff, even just Chrome. Finally we settled him with an M1 Air + passive type-C hub and then the older 27" external monitor, only then we managed true "silence".
 
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EntropyQ3

macrumors 6502a
Mar 20, 2009
718
824
dani31 said:
I have good hearing but my friend also hears the noise, but she told me that she has to concentrate to hear it :D
Click to expand...
As others have said, the Macbook Air is your best option, although I’d check out the MacMini as well. It seems to be better cooling wise than the dual fan 24” iMac, nevermind the single fan model (Ack! Pfft!).
How noise is perceived depends a lot on the environment. And what standards you have. And even your hearing though that doesn’t seem to be the major determinant.
I have a five-bay NAS that I keep disconnected due to noise, and I’ve seen it described as ”silent”. Five 3.5” inch drives plus a couple of enthusiastic fans determined to keep everything cool don’t qualify as silent in my home though!
When it comes to noise, online opinions don’t count for much.
 
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