Recent 27" iMacs are NOT silent

[motrek]

Now that I think about it, I've already mentioned at least twice on this thread that Apple laptops are quieter than these 5K iMacs.

The solution has been staring me in the face, so to speak. I can buy a laptop, connect it to a 4K display, and use it as a desktop. The display won't be as nice as an iMac's but I'm sure a nice one would get me 90% of the way there, and the setup would be silent.

 

[Lankyman]

I've got a cracking good fix. Buy a synology NAS and place it on the floor at the side of your desk. I very much doubt you will hear any noise from the iMac in future.

 

[mj_]

The solution has been staring me in the face, so to speak. I can buy a laptop, connect it to a 4K display, and use it as a desktop. The display won't be as nice as an iMac's but I'm sure a nice one would get me 90% of the way there, and the setup would be silent.

That's the LAST thing you should do, because they tend to get obnoxiously loud when connected to an external HiDPI display. The only Apple laptop that stays dead silent is the 12" MacBook because it doesn't have a fan, but you will definitely hear the fan of the 13" and 16" models (the latter much more so than the former). There's multiple threads around these forums detailing that issue, and I've experienced it myself.

I'm basically in the same boat. I am extremely sensitive to noise, which is why I need my computers to be dead silent when I'm trying to focus on something. Long story short: 2016 13" MacBook Pro was dead silent when out and about (fan was off almost all of the time) but noticeable when connected to an external 4K display (fan was spinning at low to medium revs). 2015 15" MacBook Pro was quiet yet not silent when out and about (the two fans in this one are always spinning at 1,200 rpm) but drove me bonkers when connected to the same 4K display as the fans were constantly spinning at 5,000-6,000 rpm even when idling on the desktop. 2017 12" MacBook dead silent because it lacks a fan. 2019 MacBook Air was quiet but I could hear the fan spinning regularly, and it exhibited the exact same behavior as the 2016 13" MacBook Pro when connected to an external 4K display.

I, too, now have a 27" 2017 iMac in my office because it turned out to be the best solution. Just like yours it's almost silent and the fan is barely noticeable. I consider it acceptable enough. I would use the 2017 MacBook but its GPU is too slow to drive a 4K display in scaled resolutions smoothly.

 

[vinegarshots]

My iMac Pro is dead silent. Can't even tell it's turned on if the screen is off

 

[xgman]

My iMac Pro is dead silent. Can't even tell it's turned on if the screen is off

Same here. Can't imagine they wouldn't use this cooling setup down the line. Well hopefully..

 

[motrek]

My iMac Pro is dead silent. Can't even tell it's turned on if the screen is off

Err, isn't it actually usually turned off (or sleeping, anyway) when the screen is off?

Mine is, so obviously it's dead silent.

The fan doesn't spin up until 3-5 seconds after the screen turns on, on mine.

 

[vinegarshots]

Err, isn't it actually usually turned off (or sleeping, anyway) when the screen is off?

Mine is, so obviously it's dead silent.

The fan doesn't spin up until 3-5 seconds after the screen turns on, on mine.

Display sleep is separate from system sleep. You can adjust either in system preferences.

 

[motrek]

That's the LAST thing you should do, because they tend to get obnoxiously loud when connected to an external HiDPI display. The only Apple laptop that stays dead silent is the 12" MacBook because it doesn't have a fan, but you will definitely hear the fan of the 13" and 16" models (the latter much more so than the former). There's multiple threads around these forums detailing that issue, and I've experienced it myself.
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Ugh. Thanks for the heads up. I have a 2015 13" MBP, I'll try connecting it to a 4K display later today.

I believe the way Apple does scaled resolutions is to render the desktop at twice the logical resolution, then scale it down (if necessary) to the display's physical resolution.

If the physical resolution is twice the logical resolution (on both axes) then obviously no scaling needs to be done. But I imagine it's pretty taxing to a GPU to render 5K of content and scale it down to 4K many times per second. So I guess it shouldn't be a huge surprise if MacBooks get hot and loud (and slow) when doing this.

I appreciate the simplicity of how Apple does HiDPI, but at the same time it does seem pretty hacky and slow compared to just being able to render the logical resolution directly to whatever physical resolution you want. I mean, they did all the work to render the logical resolution at 2x, why not 1.5x...
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Display sleep is separate from system sleep. You can adjust either in system preferences.

In Catalina, I don't see a way to control this separately on my iMac. But I think my point still stands, if the display is off, then the computer might actually be asleep, so it's not much of a brag if you can't hear it. I also can't hear things that are completely inert.

 

[Juicy Box]

Mine is, so obviously it's dead silent.

Display sleep is separate from system sleep. You can adjust either in system preferences.

In Catalina, I don't see a way to control this separately on my iMac. But I think my point still stands, if the display is off, then the computer might actually be asleep, so it's not much of a brag if you can't hear it. I also can't hear things that are completely inert.

I haven't used Catalina, but based off of this:

I think if you choose "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off" option, another slide bar will appear choosing when your computer will sleep.

In older OS versions, there where two slide bars, one for Display and one for Computer/System. I assume that with Catalina, Apple changed this.

 

[vinegarshots]

In Catalina, I don't see a way to control this separately on my iMac. But I think my point still stands, if the display is off, then the computer might actually be asleep, so it's not much of a brag if you can't hear it. I also can't hear things that are completely inert.

Just to clarify further, it is still dead silent when the display is turned on, too. The only time I've ever heard the fans spool up was under EXTREME GPU load when I was using my Oculus Rift in Bootcamp

The iMac Pro has a different cooling setup than the normal iMac, though. Might have something to do with it.
https://www.imore.com/imac-pro-vs-imac-5k

 

[motrek]

Just to clarify further, it is still dead silent when the display is turned on, too. The only time I've ever heard the fans spool up was under EXTREME GPU load when I was using my Oculus Rift in Bootcamp

The iMac Pro has a different cooling setup than the normal iMac, though. Might have something to do with it.
https://www.imore.com/imac-pro-vs-imac-5k

You say dead silent but that's literally impossible. All iMacs have fans that spin all the time when they're on, and that makes some noise. There's no way around that.

I believe that you're probably in an environment with enough ambient noise that you can't hear your iMac, so to you it's effectively silent, but that doesn't mean the computer itself is dead silent.

 

[vinegarshots]

You say dead silent but that's literally impossible. All iMacs have fans that spin all the time when they're on, and that makes some noise. There's no way around that.

I believe that you're probably in an environment with enough ambient noise that you can't hear your iMac, so to you it's effectively silent, but that doesn't mean the computer itself is dead silent.

Believe what you want , but if I can't hear something from a normal operating distance without putting my ear up against the housing, then I consider it silent.

EDIT: And no, it has nothing to do with ambient noise blocking the sound from the iMac Pro.

 

[motrek]

Believe what you want , but if I can't hear something from a normal operating distance without putting my ear up against the housing, then I consider it silent.

EDIT: And no, it has nothing to do with ambient noise blocking the sound from the iMac Pro.

Dead silent is an absolute, objective description. It doesn't really matter what YOU can hear or can't hear, that would make no sense.

A deaf person can't say that a jackhammer is dead silent just because they can't hear the jackhammer.

I believe that YOU can't hear your iMac from a normal operating distance, but if I could hear it, then that means it's not dead silent.

 

[vinegarshots]

Dead silent is an absolute, objective description. It doesn't really matter what YOU can hear or can't hear, that would make no sense.

A deaf person can't say that a jackhammer is dead silent just because they can't hear the jackhammer.

I believe that YOU can't hear your iMac from a normal operating distance, but if I could hear it, then that means it's not dead silent.

I highly doubt you could hear it either. I am very, very sensitive to visual and audio stuff. Had to return two plasma TVs back in the day because the buzz from the plasma cells discharging interfered with my viewing.

You already said MacBooks are quieter than your iMac. I can guarantee the iMac Pro is quieter than a MacBook.

 

[Wolf1701]

Or his fan is dead and he can hear anything: he can only see his iMac melting

joke aside, there is a fan and is running at 1200 rpm in idle, so there is no discussion: some noise is expected and normal. After some time you get used to it, and I suspect that even the dust on the fan and/or the grids can contribute, after a while, in lowering the noise (experienced the same on an iMac 2014).

 

[Juicy Box]

Like I said before, silent can be very subjective when discussing electronics.

I can hardly ever hear my Late 2012 with the i7, except when it is under a very heavy load.

But, I do have a multi-drive external RAID drive under my desk which would probably cover the iMac's noise for most people.
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The iMac isn't silent, but it might seem silent to many people.

 

[motrek]

I highly doubt you could hear it either. I am very, very sensitive to visual and audio stuff. Had to return two plasma TVs back in the day because the buzz from the plasma cells discharging interfered with my viewing.

You already said MacBooks are quieter than your iMac. I can guarantee the iMac Pro is quieter than a MacBook.

Ah sorry I didn't catch the distinction you were making between an iMac and iMac Pro. It's easy to believe that an iMac Pro is significantly quieter than an iMac when idle considering that it's a completely different cooling system. I don't think I'll ever find out personally though, considering the prices for iMac Pros. I can still guarantee that the machine is not dead silent since it does have a fan that spins all the time.

 

[vinegarshots]

Apple actually lists the dB test results for the iMac Pro at "operator position" as 13dB.

And say "operator position" is a foot away; if I have it pushed a foot farther back on my desk than is considered "normal," that cuts the decibels down to about 7dB.

If you want a reference for how quiet that is, this video does a good job of demo-ing it (scroll down the page).

https://www.sylvane.com/blog/how-loud-is-a-decibel/

 

[motrek]

Apple actually lists the dB test results for the iMac Pro at "operator position" as 13dB.

And say "operator position" is a foot away; if I have it pushed a foot farther back on my desk than is considered "normal," that cuts the decibels down to about 7dB.
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That's interesting but anechoic measurements don't really tell you everything about how a thing will sound in the real world. Decibels are basically additive, i.e., the iMac is adding some amount of sound to your environment. The scale is logarithmic so it's not just ambient sound pressure + 13 dB, but if you think "my room has an ambient SPL of 30 dB so anything less than that will be impossible to hear," that's not how things work.

Absolute SPL readings also don't capture the character of a sound. Human ears and brains hear different sounds differently and can adjust to different levels of sound, like how your eyes can adjust to see in the dark. Just because a sound can be very quiet, even almost silent, doesn't mean it can't be noticeable and annoying.

An interesting experiment is to play a song on your computer SUPER quiet, like, so quiet that it only registers as a 0.2 or 0.3 decibel increase over ambient volume on an SPL meter. Just looking at decibel numbers it seems like you probably shouldn't be able to hear the song at all, but it's usually pretty easy to hear the song (and pretty annoying to listen to because you can't hear it very well).

 

[Lankyman]

Just put some ambient noise into the room which will mask any noise coming from the already whisper quiet 2019 iMac 2TB FD. I like a quiet environment but some folk take things to the extreme. My Synology NAS has a noticeably louder fan than any Mac and that runs 24/7.

 

[Juicy Box]

I like a quiet environment but some folk take things to the extreme.

Yeah, it happens.

People have different priorities and preferences.

Considering the OP has done multiple sound tests with the iMac and the older Mac Mini, I think that the OP might be going to the extreme with this, but if that is what they want, I won't knock em for it.

I am sure there are plenty of things that are priority to me that other would not consider important.

The OP has to just keep trade-offs in mind. If they want the power, performance, and the display of an iMac, maybe a little bit of extra noise might be worth it.

This thread kind of reminds of negative reviews I always see about performance summer tires for cars.

I always see reviews where people praise the performance of this class of tires, but give it a negative review or recommend not to buy due only to the road noise generated by the the tires.

I think to myself, why would they even consider a summer performance tire if road noise is an issue? Why not just stick with a touring A/S tire?

But, people priorities things differently. I think that is the case with the OP and wanting a more quiet computer.

 

[mj_]

Just put some ambient noise into the room which will mask any noise coming from the already whisper quiet 2019 iMac 2TB FD.

How exactly does increasing ambient noise help in reducing overall noise levels to create a dead-silent work environment?

 

[Juicy Box]

How exactly does increasing ambient noise help in reducing overall noise levels to create a dead-silent work environment?

It doesn't reduce the noise, it just masks other noise such as a fan on a computer. Kind of like noise cancelling headphones.

 

[motrek]

It doesn't reduce the noise, it just masks other noise such as a fan on a computer. Kind of like noise cancelling headphones.

So, the idea is to cancel the noise of a spinning thing (iMac fan) by adding the noise from some other spinning things (hard disks and so forth). Doesn't seem like a legit plan.

I don't think I'm crazy for wanting a silent (to me) computer. My old Mac Mini setup didn't have as good of a monitor but I couldn't hear it. My new iMac has a better monitor but isn't silent. It's not obvious to me that one trade-off is inherently better than the other.

 

[Juicy Box]

So, the idea is to cancel the noise of a spinning thing (iMac fan) with the noise from some other spinning things (hard disks and so forth). Doesn't seem like a legit plan.

Well, it works for many, but maybe not for you.

I remember reading about office buildings that were built using geothermal heating and cooling (no fans) pumping artificial HVAC sound through out the office space to help the office workers deal with the type of annoyances that you are having, such as fans from computers.

Besides, it doesn't need to be something with moving parts, you could always get a white noise machine.

Give it a try, it wouldn't hurt anything.

I don't think I'm crazy for wanting a silent (to me) computer.

I don't think you are crazy either, but maybe not being realistic.

If you want something silent, you can always get an iPad Pro, but this comes back to trade offs again.

It's not obvious to me that one trade-off is inherently better than the other.

That is something you need to figure on your own.

I personally would choose performance over quietness, but that is just me.

Getting a new Mac Mini with a nice display would probably help with the noise, but if you want the performance, then you are probably going to need an eGPU, which might make some noise.