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Recent 27" iMacs are NOT silent

edib said:
The rattling noise I hear is more subtle than yours, as I have to bring my ear very close to the back of the enclosure, right side. It sounds exactly like an old spinning platter hard disk. I can't hear the same noise from my sitting distance, just the noise generated by the moving air through the vents. My old 2017 i5 was quiet in that regard, both at 1200 rpm.
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I’m kind of relieved to find this post as I was starting to think I was going crazy. I can hear the platter-style rattle from the back of the vent, and a little from the right side, but the reason I even thought to check the back of the vent was because in certain situations, and in certain conditions I can ever-so-slightly hear it from my sitting position. The fan also makes a rattle when starting up from being off (i.e. when the computer's asleep or shut down).

I'm well past the return window so my options at this point would be to either try to convince Apple to replace it or take it in to the Genius Bar. Both of which would require more down time than I can afford.

It's very subtle, even with my ear up to the vent, and I think I can live with it. Just makes me a little concerned about the long term. Is this something that could potentially develop into a bigger issue or is it more likely to just stay this way?
 
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People tend to be dramatic when £3400 is spent on a machine and it doesn't match the promise of Apple's marketing.

Azrael.
 
This is how suggestible some people are. I was on an AV forum the other day and someone was complaining about the fan nosie in a particular make of PVR (Personal Video Recorder). Within minutes three other people posted that they too could hear this fan noise and it was most annoying. This was quickly followed by red faces all round when it was pointed out the PVR did not contain any fans and relied on passive cooling. Mind you one poster still inisted they could hear fan noise. :oops:
 
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Well. If you're on the iMac and trying to run ZBrush on even a modest scene you get the annoyance of a pulse fan every so often. Even my 2012 iMac didn't suffer that ignominy.

Unless you go to the preferences interface and press the 'stop the fan' button.

Geeze.

Azrael.
 
mj_ said:
No it's not. It's quiet. So quiet in fact that you personally can't hear it. So, to rephrase that statement: your 2019 27" iMac is completely silent to you. Other people more sensitive to noise, such as @motrek or myself, will most certainly disagree. It's been proven time and again that iMacs are not and under no circumstances completely silent. Incredibly quiet and at the very verge of inaudibility? Yes, absolutely. Completely silent? No, absolutely not.

Absolute and unequivocal statements like this throw many people off resulting in quite a few disappointed users whose expectations of allegedly completely silent iMacs have not been met.
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The iMac 2020 is deathly silent. Anyone expecting a completely silent computer is uninformed at best (unless we are speaking of the Commodore 64). Most people using this phrase completely silent know exactly what it is inferred. You should not blame the nuances of English on the speaker.
 
My 2020 27" i7 is silent at the moment and usually is. However on boot earlier it came on with fans a blow'n All 8 cores were involved with something. It turned out to be "accountsd" after 5 minute of hard fans I restarted and the offending operation is no longer there and she is silent.View attachment 962581
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Screen Shot 2020-10-03 at 8.27.54 AM.png
 

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Azrael9 said:
People tend to be dramatic when £3400 is spent on a machine and it doesn't match the promise of Apple's marketing.

Azrael.
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Can you point me where Apple said the iMac is silent under all processing conditions? It's simply unreasonable to expect a computer with a fan to be completely silent at all times. Buy the fanless version.
 
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AZREOSpecialist said:
Can you point me where Apple said the iMac is silent under all processing conditions? It's simply unreasonable to expect a computer with a fan to be completely silent at all times. Buy the fanless version.
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Nobody is talking about all times. :p

Did anyone say that? :p


But a £3400 computer should be able to cope with a low polygon dog. :p

Azrael.
 
fhopper said:
My 2020 27" i7 is silent at the moment and usually is. However on boot earlier it came on with fans a blow'n All 8 cores were involved with something. It turned out to be "accountsd" after 5 minute of hard fans I restarted and the offending operation is no longer there and she is silent.View attachment 962581View attachment 962578View attachment 962577
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FYI, there was an article last week here on how to resolve this issue. Just letting you know in case accountsd goes off the rails again.
 
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Having lived with our new 2020 for a few weeks now…

From the normal seated position, I don’t hear it nor my iMac Pro. For my wife’s work, it’s quiet as any simile you wish to insert.

However, when I run any of my test projects on it, the fans start to rise to the point that you can hear them working along with airflow turbulence. Ok, not like the roar that my 2010 would get while while it still had a WD Black inside (never again!) but noticeable enough to be annoying.

Contrast running far more intensive projects on my iMP… well… there is no comparison. Which is too bad. I was hoping that I could make a 5700 XT work for me and perhaps order up a 10 Core with 8TB storage onboard.

Nope. Instead I ordered another iMP with a Vega 64X and 4TB onboard. Thanks to the Refurb Store, I bumped up to 18 Cores and 128GB RAM for less than $2,000 over the price of a maxed out 10 core, 8TB 2020 + 128GB OWC RAM. If I was foolish enough to consider Apple RAM for the 2020, the iMP I ordered would be $260 less. Yikes!

For those who haven’t priced, a maxed out 2020 w/ Apple supplied RAM is $8,828.00 not including AppleCare and Tax. Yea, I’ll take the 18 Core iMac Pro 128GB Vega 64X 4TB that’s priced less, thank you.
 
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For those who are, like me, annoyed by the mechanical noise of the fan at idle (the faint platter-disk-like sound), it seems like it’s mostly reflected off the stand in front of the back vent. I’ve attached a piece of plush microfiber cloth so that it covers that part of the stand and it’s made the quality of the noise much better.
 
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neuralengine said:
For those who are, like me, annoyed by the mechanical noise of the fan at idle (the faint platter-disk-like sound), it seems like it’s mostly reflected off the stand in front of the back vent. I’ve attached a piece of plush microfiber cloth so that it covers that part of the stand and it’s made the quality of the noise much better.
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You know? That’s what we need: Quality noise.

Seriously, that’s a great observation. I’ve posted about sound absorption panels on the wall behind the iMac but hadn’t considered reflection off the stand, too.

There are many creative ways to deal with that.
 
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I would love to see the age ranges of the people complaining about iMac 2020 noise.
 
Can you recommend the new iMac for use as always-on server and workstation?
I am imagining running Vmware Fusion 24/7 and sleeping in the vicinity of the iMac.
CPU/GPU Loads of vmware guests is negligible

Or do you think the fan will be blowing very loud?
 
Lankyman said:
What do you reckon, no one over 40?
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there are two factors in play I believe.

1. The older people may not be able to hear as well as the younger ones.
2. Or most likely, younger users who do not appreciate the history of computers also do not apprciate the progress made and are looking for unicorn pee and elf cakes.

so yes, no one over 40. :D
 
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4743913 said:
there are two factors in play I believe.

1. The older people may not be able to hear as well as the younger ones.
2. Or most likely, younger users who do not appreciate the history of computers also do not apprciate the progress made and are looking for unicorn pee and elf cakes.

so yes, no one over 40. :D
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Having owned a mirror door G4… (for those who don't get that, Google is your friend)

cant-hear-846x564.jpg
 
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4743913 said:
there are two factors in play I believe.

1. The older people may not be able to hear as well as the younger ones.
2. Or most likely, younger users who do not appreciate the history of computers also do not apprciate the progress made and are looking for unicorn pee and elf cakes.

so yes, no one over 40. :D
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Ahh, the joys of hard drives sounding like a madman crunching potato chips non stop while the power supply fan runs at its one speed (full).

I think my Commodore 64 and Tandy Color Computers were fanless though.
 
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