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New iMac: Since when can you hear the fan?

VanNess said:
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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Agreed. I have the exact same config as you (except 3TB fusion) and it's almost completely silent. In fact I haven't heard it yet.
 
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Andreas222 said:
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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Thanks for the detailed update, Adreas222.
Having the same problem, I agreed with apple on a priority replacement of my current iMac with the ticking fan issue. In my case I can hear it also sitting in front of the iMac. It occurred in the vary beginning (when setting up the iMac), but became less and less. However, if I utilize the iMac`s CPU, the ticking returns and becomes very hearable.

I hope your new iMac keeps running smooth, I will write an update when I got the replacement next week.
 
Believer83 said:
Thanks for the detailed update, Adreas222.
Having the same problem, I agreed with apple on a priority replacement of my current iMac with the ticking fan issue. In my case I can hear it also sitting in front of the iMac. It occurred in the vary beginning (when setting up the iMac), but became less and less. However, if I utilize the iMac`s CPU, the ticking returns and becomes very hearable.

I hope your new iMac keeps running smooth, I will write an update when I got the replacement next week.
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Please keep us posted. I got a new one after retuning my old (backlight bleeding) I have the exact same issue you are describing. When it's full throttle it's start ticking. Could be the HD disk or so? Every sec, it ticks really annoying.

Looking forward to your "new" experience. My fan is also still very active, you can hear it running whole time.
 
One thing I can tell for sure is that my iMac is near silent especially right next to my WD USB HDD. In fact, the whirling sound bothers me enough to consider getting a SSD drive.
 
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My M395 based 5k iMac is virtually silent. I really don't hear anything from it at all. I'm very happy with it. My Drobo DAS is a noisy beast that I sometimes shut down, just so I can enjoy the peace and quiet :)
 
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-nickx- said:
You mean the HD sound, does it tick every second? I'm waiting for an exchange.
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I've had computers that its hard drive ticked, annoying to be sure. FWIW, my Drobo hard drives tick when I think they either wake up or got to sleep.
 
Got my second replacement iMac on Friday and FINALLY the ticking noise is gone. The airstream noise is still louder than I would want it to be, but I can live with it.

So yes, it is possible to get a machine that does not have the ticking issue. But I have not yet seen any late-2015 iMacs that are completely inaudible to those with good hearing.
 
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How do you check the fan-speed?

I just received my iMac. It's just a constant whir, but I can definitely hear it. It's louder than my Macbook from 2010, for sure. Possibly related, I have yet to upgrade the RAM if that makes a difference... I have 8gb of ram in the iMac Late-2015 vs 16gb of ram in the Macbook Mid-2010.
 
penniless said:
How do you check the fan-speed?

I just received my iMac. It's just a constant whir, but I can definitely hear it. It's louder than my Macbook from 2010, for sure. Possibly related, I have yet to upgrade the RAM if that makes a difference... I have 8gb of ram in the iMac Late-2015 vs 16gb of ram in the Macbook Mid-2010.
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I have also been getting a constant whirring sound from my iMac sound these couple of days. It's loud enough that I can hear it in a silent room.

I don't mind ignoring it, but I would like to know if that is a sign that my iMac (2011 27" version) is about to kick the bucket?
 
Torrin said:
Got my second replacement iMac on Friday and FINALLY the ticking noise is gone. The airstream noise is still louder than I would want it to be, but I can live with it.

So yes, it is possible to get a machine that does not have the ticking issue. But I have not yet seen any late-2015 iMacs that are completely inaudible to those with good hearing.
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Good to hear you finally got a good machine! Out of curiosity, if you put your ear to the back of it (actually on it) can you hear any ticking? About 10-15 cm on either side of the Apple logo is where I hear it on mine. Like I said, it doesn't bother me since I can't hear it in normal use, but I kind of worry it might break over time if there's a bad bearing or something.

Other than that I've had my replacement for a while now and I'm super happy with it! It's crazy fast and the screen is amazing. The sound, though audible in a quite room, hasn't bothered me at all. The only time I've heard the fans spin up over 1200 rpm is when I've tried some gaming on higher resolutions, which is not what I usually do.


@Believer83 Thanks! Please keep us posted when you get your new machine as well. I hope it works out well.
 

My iMac is making a weird sound too. Its not every time so I can't really reproduce it. Tilting the screen for a few minutes or a restart works fine.
 
Andreas222 said:
Good to hear you finally got a good machine! Out of curiosity, if you put your ear to the back of it (actually on it) can you hear any ticking? About 10-15 cm on either side of the Apple logo is where I hear it on mine. Like I said, it doesn't bother me since I can't hear it in normal use, but I kind of worry it might break over time if there's a bad bearing or something.
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The ticking is definitely gone. I cannot hear it, even when putting an ear to the rear enclosure (what I did hear - with my ear on the back of it - when I fired up this iMac one of the first times, was a very faint beep - beep - beep like sound from the inside, but I have not heard it ever since).

As someone here wrote earlier, the airflow sounds kind of "rough" and uneven, as if the outlet grid was generating air turbulences. It is tolerable for normal use, but I have to reconsider my original plan to use the iMac for audio recordings with acoustic baroque instruments, placing it IN the recording room. I have not done any extensive testing yet, but I am afraid the fan noise in some situations might be audible in the recordings.

penniless said:
How do you check the fan-speed?
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With programs like smcFanControl and iStat Menus you can both monitor and manually adjust the fan speed.
 
Fortunately I can't hear the ticking but the fan is always running since the start at 1200 rpm, and the airflow is always audible.
 
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AppleHater said:
One thing I can tell for sure is that my iMac is near silent especially right next to my WD USB HDD. In fact, the whirling sound bothers me enough to consider getting a SSD drive.
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Most 2.5" HDDs are pretty quiet as well. My Samsung M3 is much quieter than the iMac's internal HDD (which I would call borderline hearable). Unless I hold my ear right next to it, I can't hear it at all.
Obviously you can't expect speed way beyond 100MB/s.
 
Haha, so the clicking noise is back for me after 2 months of using the replacement :D Does anyone want to share the pain?
 
It's kind of curios. I am writing this message with the iMac and there is no ticking going on currently. Sometimes it returns, but I have not been able to figure out under what conditions.
 
Try to stress it! If I were you I would not replace it again as the process is a pain but I would visit an Apple Store and ask them to open and fix it in front of me.
 
Finally, my replacement iMac arrived this week. The replacement is defect free, meaning there is no additional sound from the fan besides the normal noise of the air stream itself. I put the CPU and GPU to the max for 1 hour, but all happened was the fan to go up to 2700 rpm.

So anyone who has a noise of a defective fan, claim a proper iMac, but don't expect it the iMac to be totally silent, there will always be a fan running..
 
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