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New iMac: Since when can you hear the fan?

gille1981 said:
I don't think so. I called apple 2h ago. They told me to go to another service point to get a second opinion. The next service point is 50km away. I told apple about my story, about I bought apple care ... they won't even consider taking the imac back because Lab9 said there wasn't a sound problem. So my situation is permanent. I have a noisy 5k imac and I cannot do anything about it. Thanks anyway for the feedback. Appriciate it.
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I would still call the customer protection and tell them that you were made aware of a fan-issue with the new iMacs on the Internet, but only realised that you are affected after the two-week return time frame and the local reseller seems to not recognise it as a problem. Can you make a recording of your fan, just so we can listen how yours sounds?

BTW: I am a bit surprised actually about how my replacement works out. Even under heavy load, or long gaming sessions, the fan does not spin up to full speed...have to check temperatures some time...
 
I just got my new iMac (i5, m395, 512 SSD) today and the fan did already showed that clicking noise when I was setting up the machine.
I worked as an IT specialized some years ago and know how a broken/not proper working fan sounds.. That sound comes definitely from the fan bearings, it`s like driving fast on a highway that has a road build out of pre-assembled blocks (just more quiet of course). The noise is just hearable when sitting in front of the iMac (facing a wall).

Apple already messed up with the shipping (normal shipping instead of Express, as ordered). I am really disappointed of the quality they deliver here for the money asked!
 
Believer83 said:
I just got my new iMac (i5, m395, 512 SSD) today and the fan did already showed that clicking noise when I was setting up the machine.
I worked as an IT specialized some years ago and know how a broken/not proper working fan sounds.. That sound comes definitely from the fan bearings, it`s like driving fast on a highway that has a road build out of pre-assembled blocks (just more quiet of course). The noise is just hearable when sitting in front of the iMac (facing a wall).

Apple already messed up with the shipping (normal shipping instead of Express, as ordered). I am really disappointed of the quality they deliver here for the money asked!
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Sorry to hear about that. I hope your replacement arrives soon. I would really like to know the cause of this issues since apparently so many people are affected. I can only assume that a small fraction of the affected people actually recognise the faulty systems and from these also only a few report on forums such as this. I guess it is a quite widespread issue. In light of this, I would advise gille1981 to talk to Apple support in a more pressing manner. ;)
 
AnTaR3s said:
Sorry to hear about that. I hope your replacement arrives soon. I would really like to know the cause of this issues since apparently so many people are affected. I can only assume that a small fraction of the affected people actually recognise the faulty systems and from these also only a few report on forums such as this. I guess it is a quite widespread issue. In light of this, I would advise gille1981 to talk to Apple support in a more pressing manner. ;)
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Thanks for your kind words.
I share your view, that only few people might recognize the defect fan and even fewer report online. To me it seems to be straight forward: There is a defective batch of fans or maybe a general problem with the fan Apple is using. As they had already multiple cases on this, they should be well aware of it.
 
AnTaR3s said:
I would still call the customer protection and tell them that you were made aware of a fan-issue with the new iMacs on the Internet, but only realised that you are affected after the two-week return time frame and the local reseller seems to not recognise it as a problem. Can you make a recording of your fan, just so we can listen how yours sounds?

BTW: I am a bit surprised actually about how my replacement works out. Even under heavy load, or long gaming sessions, the fan does not spin up to full speed...have to check temperatures some time...
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Hi, here is my audio: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rqs24362ao1ev0c/Audio-opname 2015-11-16 22-21-09.wav?dl=0
 
Torrin said:
To me, the fan/airflow sounds OK, no ticking.
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There is no ticking, just a louder constant stream of flow. My audio wasn't perfect (done via android phone) but if you turn it louder, it's the real noise. It's louder than the radio at our desk. I can hear it above the tv or radio. Very annoying.
 
gille1981 said:
There is no ticking, just a louder constant stream of flow. My audio wasn't perfect (done via android phone) but if you turn it louder, it's the real noise. It's louder than the radio at our desk. I can hear it above the tv or radio. Very annoying.
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Where did you do the recording? Right at the air outlet on the back? And was the fan going at idle speed (1200 rpm)? If it is louder than your radio at idle speed I would say there is something wrong.

I listened to the recording again, but it is difficult to tell how loud this really is. I can hear a hum in the background, as if there was some kind of resonance, f. eks. from a table. Did you try to eliminate any vibrations that might be transferred from the iMac to whatever it is placed on?
 
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The i7/M295X 5K iMac from 2014 was twice as loud (in terms of fan noise) as the 2013 model (source).

Fortunately the thermal output of this 2015 model is slightly lower than last year’s model, so this should be slightly alleviated. Fact is, the 5K iMac is still going to be considerably louder than earlier iMacs from 2012 or 2013.
 
Andreas222 said:
I think it sounds normal. Though I'm sure it can be audible in a quiet room.

Would be nice if we could tweak the fan speed to about 1000 rpm on idle..
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@Andreas222:

Any news concerning your replacement? Have things moved on?

My iMac was picked up by DHL last Friday and it was delivered in Cork on Monday. My contact at Apple Care placed an order for a replacement the same day, telling med that he expected clearance on Tuesday or Wednesday. Up to now I have not received any further notice. I called for a status update today, but they could not tell me more.
 
Hi all! I just got my replacement and did some tests. Everything looks better now.No performance issues, no spinning beach ball, no clicking sound on any of the fans (previously I had a problem with the fan on the left bottom).

So far, all good!
 
Torrin said:
@Andreas222:

Any news concerning your replacement? Have things moved on?

My iMac was picked up by DHL last Friday and it was delivered in Cork on Monday. My contact at Apple Care placed an order for a replacement the same day, telling med that he expected clearance on Tuesday or Wednesday. Up to now I have not received any further notice. I called for a status update today, but they could not tell me more.
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In my case, I have a woman from Apple Ireland on my case. I don't know if she can help me but you never know...
The recording was indeed not good. Here is a new one.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/oua6i5r9btg7izl/Audio-opname 2015-11-19 23-48-46.wav?dl=0
(volume high pls)
 
So I got my replacement yesterday and I thought for sure that I could hear the ticking on the new machine as well. In desperation I turned the fans up full blast and tilted the screen up and left it for like half an hour while I went to the store, then I tilted it screen down and left it for another half hour. I also ran handbrake for a while to get the temperature up. I had no idea if any of this would help or why it would help, but I figured maybe the fan needed some "breaking in".

Since doing this, I haven't heard anymore ticking. All I hear now, if the room is completely quiet, is a constant airflow through the vents, which I'm fine with. Most of the time I can't even hear that, since my refrigerator or something else is usually making a louder noise (I live in a one bedroom apartment).

If, however, I put my ear to the back of the machine close to where the fan is located, I can hear the fan and the sound of it has sort of a ticking characteristic to it, but I think this is just the normal sound characteristic of the fan, and I don't spend a lot of time hugging my computer anyhow.

So, unless something changes over the weekend I'll happily keep my replacement.
 
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My dad's loaded 27"er is totally silent in real world use , no matter what we do on it - hear no noise at all !!!

Overall : blown away

Speed is mind blowing , a real trip doing anything on it tbh :D
 
AnTaR3s said:
I assume you have the 2015 model?
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Yes

Got it just a few days ago - it's superb , easily the best mac I've ever used in 20 years , and that's from using mac pros , quadra's ( old days ) etc

The thing is silent and deadly !!!

Looks and sounds amazing too . 10/10 from me.
 
George Dawes said:
Yes

Got it just a few days ago - it's superb , easily the best mac I've ever used in 20 years , and that's from using mac pros , quadra's ( old days ) etc

The thing is silent and deadly !!!

Looks and sounds amazing too . 10/10 from me.
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Great! Nice to hear that! :) And you do not even hear an airflow in the background? Even if you get close to the bottom of the machine? Nothing?
 
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no , nothing at all

in normal use it's incredibly quiet !!!!

i don't play heavy games on it or anything else , my dad only uses it for iTunes and very basic surfing but so far it's amazingly silent , VERY impressed as i said ... :)

compared to a noisy ps4 and sky box most definitely
 
George Dawes said:
no , nothing at all

in normal use it's incredibly quiet !!!!

i don't play heavy games on it or anything else , my dad only uses it for iTunes and very basic surfing but so far it's amazingly silent , VERY impressed as i said ... :)

compared to a noisy ps4 and sky box most definitely
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I concur. Just got my 2015 retina iMac (4.0, 2tb fusion, 395x) over the weekend and in regular use its been as quiet as an iPad as far as I'm concerned. And I'm in a very quiet noise free space. Pretty impressive. My external drive is the only noise I can hear and when it sleeps everything is dead quiet. Can't say the same about the machine its replacing (2010 iMac 2.9 ghz, 295 ssd and 1 tb mechanical, don't remember the graphics card but it was the best you could get at the time). It was pretty quiet for the most part but the 2015 just destroys it in terms of quietness and just about everything else.
 
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I've got I7 2015 27inch iMac retina this past weekend. In super quite environment, I can hear faint fan noise. Then again, it's no where near like my PC with normal fan, however it does have fan noise compared to, say, iPad, which has no fan.
 
George Dawes said:
no , nothing at all

in normal use it's incredibly quiet !!!!

i don't play heavy games on it or anything else , my dad only uses it for iTunes and very basic surfing but so far it's amazingly silent , VERY impressed as i said ... :)

compared to a noisy ps4 and sky box most definitely
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I concur....

Buerkletucson on October 28 2015 said:
No problem with mine........pretty much silent all the time.
Only time I hear the fan is if I'm running some intensive apps then it will ramp up.
At 1200 RPM I can't hear it at all.
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