Recent 27" iMacs are NOT silent

[uller6]

Just got a new 2019 iMac 27" (base model with SSD upgrade) for work. It's NOT silent whatsoever - even the idle noise is crazy loud, especially in comparison to my old 2012 iMac 21" that this machine is replacing. I've had a lot of macs over the years and this is definitely the loudest one since my old G5 tower.

 

[Lankyman]

I can't help thinking this really is a 'first world problem'.

 

[motrek]

I'm actually not, there's literally nothing you can say to make what I said incorrect. Fans cool the CPU and fans make noise. It's physics.

You're just desperate to be angry about something so I'm going to end our conversation.

I mean, if fans are necessary to cool a CPU, as you contend, then how do you explain that the 2015+ MacBook has literally zero fans?

Regardless of if I feel desperate or angry about anything, you're very obviously wrong, there's no way around that.
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Just got a new 2019 iMac 27" (base model with SSD upgrade) for work. It's NOT silent whatsoever - even the idle noise is crazy loud, especially in comparison to my old 2012 iMac 21" that this machine is replacing. I've had a lot of macs over the years and this is definitely the loudest one since my old G5 tower.

Glad another person notices the noise. I wouldn't call mine "crazy loud." Are you sure the computer is idle and the fan speed is 1200 RPM (i.e., the minimum)? You can use Macs Fan Control to check this, pretty good program.

If 1200 RPM is too loud for you (it was for me) then you can use this trick to lower it:

Silencing your iMac: Decrease Minimum Fan Speed to 1000rpm -

NOTE: This guide apparently only works up to Catalina and does not work on Big Sur. I finally replaced my hard drive in my 2015 iMac 5k with a Samsung 860 SSD. Not an easy decision since you need to … Continue reading →

ekartco.com

Going from 1200 to 1000 RPM makes a huge difference, more than you would expect from the numbers. I suppose it all has to do with turbulence across the vents or something?

 

[uller6]

Glad another person notices the noise. I wouldn't call mine "crazy loud." Are you sure the computer is idle and the fan speed is 1200 RPM (i.e., the minimum)? You can use Macs Fan Control to check this, pretty good program.

If 1200 RPM is too loud for you (it was for me) then you can use this trick to lower it:

Silencing your iMac: Decrease Minimum Fan Speed to 1000rpm -

NOTE: This guide apparently only works up to Catalina and does not work on Big Sur. I finally replaced my hard drive in my 2015 iMac 5k with a Samsung 860 SSD. Not an easy decision since you need to … Continue reading →

ekartco.com

Going from 1200 to 1000 RPM makes a huge difference, more than you would expect from the numbers. I suppose it all has to do with turbulence across the vents or something?

Thanks for the tip to reduce idle fan speeds! I definitely am annoyed by the sound of the fans, even at idle. “Crazy loud” is hyperbole, but it is noticeably louder than my old iMac and is the first one that I’ve heard over background office noise since the G5.

 

[motrek]

Thanks for the tip to reduce idle fan speeds! I definitely am annoyed by the sound of the fans, even at idle. “Crazy loud” is hyperbole, but it is noticeably louder than my old iMac and is the first one that I’ve heard over background office noise since the G5.

1000 RPM is so much quieter than 1200 RPM that I initially thought I couldn't hear it. Turns out I can still hear it, but it's at a level that I consider acceptable.

I was going to sell the computer at 1200 RPM, I had it listed on Craigslist for a couple days actually, but this fix made me feel okay about the computer and I took the Craigslist ad down.

I believe the guy who did the blog post about lowering the minimum speed just set his fan at a constant 1000 RPM, but I would configure Macs Fan Control to control the speed according to the CPU PECI sensor such that it ramps up starting at 60 and reaches max speed at 90. Don't want the internals to overheat under load, after all. Theoretically that shouldn't be possible because everything should throttle (and shut down if necessary) if it gets too hot, but if that situation can be avoided, might as well.

 

[chrono1081]

I mean, if fans are necessary to cool a CPU, as you contend, then how do you explain that the 2015+ MacBook has literally zero fans?

I wasn't going to reply but since it seems you lack a fundamental understanding of computers I feel I should explain (I'm not saying that in a snarky sense either).

The MacBook gets away with it because it uses a LOT less power than an iMac. The iMac is a much more powerful machine, has a discrete GPU, faster processor, etc. These components get a lot hotter than what is in the MacBook. The iMac is meant for a much higher workload which is why it needs a much more robust cooling system.

 

[motrek]

I wasn't going to reply but since it seems you lack a fundamental understanding of computers I feel I should explain (I'm not saying that in a snarky sense either).

The MacBook gets away with it because it uses a LOT less power than an iMac. The iMac is a much more powerful machine, has a discrete GPU, faster processor, etc. These components get a lot hotter than what is in the MacBook. The iMac is meant for a much higher workload which is why it needs a much more robust cooling system.

Go back and look at your post from Monday. You didn't say anything about computers as powerful as the iMac. Direct quote: "Expecting a computer to be silent is just silly and unrealistic." This is wrong.

 

[Glockworkorange]

So I have a pretty quiet office at home and I have good hearing and I value silence when I'm trying to focus on something. The office can get down to 29 or 30 dB at night.

For the past ~8 years I've had a Mac Mini which I put on the outside edge of my desk, on the floor. If it wasn't under load, I literally could not near it. I did a test once where I had a friend turn it either on or off when I wasn't in the room, then I'd go into the room and guess if it was on or not. It really was just guessing and I was only right about 50% of the time.

The Mini was getting long in the tooth though and I'd been thinking about a 27" iMac for the past 2-3 years, but didn't pull the trigger because I thought the noise from having the fan right in front of me would be annoying.

So I did a bunch of research and there are about a million posts on various forums about how the iMac is virtually silent if it's not under load, with a lot of people saying they can't hear it at all, that it's literally silent, etc. etc. etc. Finally I found a YouTube video of a guy reviewing his iMac and showing that it didn't move his SPL meter app when he turned it on. (The app only showed integers, BTW...)

So I got up the courage to finally get an iMac (with an SSD of course), after years of on-and-off handwringing, and it is NOT SILENT AT ALL. It is very quiet. According to my SPL meter app, it raises the volume at my listening position from 29 dB to 30 dB. By any standard, that is very quiet. If anything else in your vicinity is making any noise, that thing is probably louder than an iMac. Many settings will have ambient noises that drown out the sound of an iMac, like the HVAC system in many offices, etc.

But, it is not silent. And moreover, the character of the noise isn't super great. If you put your ear close to the fan vents, the noise it makes is a not-unpleasant whoosh. But that sound interacts with various surfaces, such that at a normal seating position, it doesn't sound nearly as nice. I suspect that the... aesthetic?... decision to point the fan vents at the iMac's stand doesn't help. I imagine the stand acts as sort of a partial horn.

Anyway, I just wanted to get on the record in case there are other people out there like me who value silent computing and want to know just how silent an iMac REALLY is. Because again, there are a lot of people claiming that it's silent. And I can see why they might think that. But different strokes for different folks, and in my opinion, if you value truly quiet/silent computing, you should really think two (or three) times before getting an iMac...

I’ve never seen someone so fixated on sound; not judging, just interesting.

 

[motrek]

I’ve never seen someone so fixated on sound; not judging, just interesting.

Oh yeah. Probably seems unusual to most people. But, silent (and exceptionally quiet) computers are kind of a big deal. There are several companies that exist only to produce PC components for such computers, probably more than a dozen companies that will assemble such computers for you (and manufacture some custom components that they might use), and several web sites that are devoted to reviewing, and telling people how to build, silent PCs. This whole sub-industry wouldn't exist if there weren't a lot of people like me who are annoyed by some fan noise. (And, to be fair, there are other reasons why you might want a silent computer, like if noise from a computer might be picked up on audio recordings, or disturb equipment in a lab.)

 

[Fishrrman]

The OP obviously never used a Mac g4 MDD tower...

 

[motrek]

The OP obviously never used a Mac g4 MDD tower...

If we're going to have a "who has owned (or just used) the loudest computer" contest, I'm definitely going to win. Several years ago I owned a 1U rack-mounted computer that could be heard clearly when it was on a different floor of my home and behind two closed doors. With the fans on their lowest setting, I would guess that it was louder than two average hairdryers. So, no, I haven't used that particular Mac G4 computer, but I'm not impressed.

~20 years ago, CPU manufacturers didn't put that much effort into power efficiency, so a desktop processor alone would typically use 60+ watts at idle. Couple that with the fact that temperature-controlled fan speeds weren't really a thing yet, and pretty much any computer you could buy was several times louder than an iMac. I owned several such computers. That's just how things were.

~15 years ago, Intel and AMD started becoming more power-conscious, computers started having more temperature sensors, variable fan speeds became commonplace, and people in general became more interested in quiet/silent computing. You could go to any Fry's and buy PC cases that were specially designed to be quiet, with larger and slower fans that were vibration-damped (i.e., rubber-mounted), with rubber grommets for mounting hard drives, etc. etc. I built a computer that used 85W idle and had two rubber-mounted 120mm fans (CPU and exhaust) that would spin at 650 RPM idle and the loudest thing in the computer was the hard drive, since unfortunately SSDs weren't really a thing at the time.

Nowadays there's no earthly reason why you should be able to hear a desktop computer when it's idle. Think about how quiet MacBooks are when idle, and then quadruple the size of their heatsinks and fans. Put that on the floor next to your desk and anybody would struggle to hear it. But somehow Apple makes the 5K iMac which is clearly audible when idle, even though the most powerful models only use ~70W idle. Great.

So I guess the question is, instead of wondering why a little fan noise bothers me, I wonder why it doesn't bother you, when it would be straightforward for Apple to make computers that are [almost] completely silent.

 

[kschendel]

We have a new 2019 iMac (all SSD) and I would agree that it's very quiet, but audible. It's definitely louder than my desktop, but then I spent a lot of money making the desktop as close to silent as possible; I can't hear it at all from 2 feet away and low/medium load. I can hear the iMac but it's a quiet fan whirrr. Maybe I'll fiddle with the fan control thing. My wife is the main iMac user and she's not fan noise sensitive, so it's not a big deal.

Fan noise is a strange thing anyway. The stock case fans in one of the basement computers are extremely quiet, except that one has a soft tick-tick-tick at low to medium speed, and if I had to sit next to it all the time I'd have to replace it. The flip side is a Thermalright CPU cooler fan on a different machine, which is clearly audible but has a soothing and unobtrusive hum that really isn't a problem. Very subjective stuff.

 

[motrek]

We have a new 2019 iMac (all SSD) and I would agree that it's very quiet, but audible. It's definitely louder than my desktop, but then I spent a lot of money making the desktop as close to silent as possible; I can't hear it at all from 2 feet away and low/medium load. I can hear the iMac but it's a quiet fan whirrr. Maybe I'll fiddle with the fan control thing. My wife is the main iMac user and she's not fan noise sensitive, so it's not a big deal.

Fan noise is a strange thing anyway. The stock case fans in one of the basement computers are extremely quiet, except that one has a soft tick-tick-tick at low to medium speed, and if I had to sit next to it all the time I'd have to replace it. The flip side is a Thermalright CPU cooler fan on a different machine, which is clearly audible but has a soothing and unobtrusive hum that really isn't a problem. Very subjective stuff.

Agree. How distracting/annoying a sound is doesn't have much to do with its objective volume in decibels...

I think the other thing is that an extremely quiet thing has the potential to be super annoying because your ears/brain might struggle to "lock on" to the sound and then just keep trying...

Also, with the iMac, another thing is that the fan is physically very close to you, so if you change positions relative to the computer, you will hear a noticeable and distracting change in volume and sometimes a bit of a change in pitch (I assume depending on how the sound is reflected). This was pretty annoying to me with the fan at 1200 RPM because I frequently lean forward/back and rotate around in my chair when I'm working...

In any case, I'm glad that the computer is basically silent (to me) at 1000 RPM. I've decided to keep the iMac and sell my Mac Mini. My only concern going forward is that the hacks I'm using to decrease the fan speed won't work with upcoming versions of macOS...

 

[Wolf1701]

Haven't tryed the 1000 rpm myself... I settled with some sound absorbing foam panels behind and under the iMac.

 

[Lankyman]

I think some users should try suffering with Tinnitus for a week and they'd never complain about noise from the iMac again.

 

[Wolf1701]

I think some users should try suffering with Tinnitus for a week and they'd never complain about noise from the iMac again.

so kind, if you find this thread useless why bother to reply? Ah yes, the old fashioned flame

 

[Lankyman]

so kind, if you find this thread useless why bother to reply? Ah yes, the old fashioned flame

I have made a number of replies. I could ask why are you being so sensitive to any perceived criticism? I do suffer from Tinnitus as it happens. I also have the 2019 27inch iMac FD model which I find to be quieter than our 21.5 inch mid-2011 iMac full SSD - go figure.

 

[motrek]

I have made a number of replies. I could ask why are you being so sensitive to any perceived criticism? I do suffer from Tinnitus as it happens. I also have the 2019 27inch iMac FD model which I find to be quieter than our 21.5 inch mid-2011 iMac full SSD - go figure.

Wishing tinnitus on other people is not "criticism."

I tried using a 27" iMac in the ~2010 timeframe. Sold it after a week because it was too noisy. Couldn't figure out why it was so damn noisy for the first couple days. Then I worked out that any sort of sunlight on the machine would cause the fan to spin up to almost half its maximum speed. Probably a combination of the sunlight heating up the aluminum directly, and the automatic brightness control feature causing the screen to become brighter and use more power and produce more heat.

Since the 2012 (?) redesign, the screens seem to require much less power.

Just looked it up... the 2010 iMac uses ~145W when idle whereas the 2015 iMac uses ~65W idle. So I guess the 2010 model was right on the threshold where any amount of activity or increase in screen brightness would cause the fan to spin up. No wonder your 2011 model is louder than your 2019 model.

 

[_Skyfire_]

Wishing tinnitus on other people is not "criticism."

And bending the words of a person just so you can feel offended...is not kind

That you had to mischaracterize Lankyman 2 times just to write this one sentence is pretty hilarious :

• He did not "wish tinnitus" on anyone
• Nor did he critique you, but mentioned his comment was "perceived as criticism"

 

[Wolf1701]

And bending the words of a person just so you can feel offended...is not kind

That you had to mischaracterize Lankyman 2 times just to write this one sentence is pretty hilarious :

• He did not "wish tinnitus" on anyone
• Nor did he critique you, but mentioned his comment was "perceived as criticism"

1) true
2) oh please, 'perceive' his other replies in this thread

3) can we just talk about the theme and not feed the troll?

noise in iMac 2019 is there, there is a fan running at 1200 rpm, point. You can't hear this noise or it doesn't bother you? Ok, good.

You can hear it and bother you? That's a problem for you and you want to talk about solutions. Also good, no?

Just repeat and repeat again that is not a big noise or first world problems, that you have had worst experiences, etc, doesn't help to solve the OP problem.

 

[_Skyfire_]

1) true
2) oh please, 'perceive' his other replies in this thread

3) can we just talk about the theme and not feed the troll?

noise in iMac 2019 is there, there is a fan running at 1200 rpm, point. You can't hear this noise or it doesn't bother you? Ok, good.

You can hear it and bother you? That's a problem for you and you want to talk about solutions. Also good, no?

Just repeat and repeat again that is not a big noise or first world problems, that you have had worst experiences, etc, doesn't help to solve the OP problem.

Gotcha didn't realize he had posted previously. On it's face this looked like 2 people unfairly ganging up on someone who just shared their perspective with suffering from tinnitus

(Actually kinda surprised those earlier posts of his were not deleted for being off-topic. IMO a mod should come here and just nuke all the extraneous ****)

 

[Fishrrman]

This thread is about ready for the mods to move it to the "wasteland" area...

 

[motrek]

And bending the words of a person just so you can feel offended...is not kind

That you had to mischaracterize Lankyman 2 times just to write this one sentence is pretty hilarious :

• He did not "wish tinnitus" on anyone

"I think some users should try suffering with [a disease] for a week" is the dictionary definition of wishing a disease on somebody. Yes, just for a week, but still.

• Nor did he critique you, but mentioned his comment was "perceived as criticism"

Riiight... ? He said it was perceived as criticism, I said it was not criticism. I wasn't bending any words here.

 

[_Skyfire_]

"I think some users should try suffering with [a disease] for a week" is the dictionary definition of wishing a disease on somebody. Yes, just for a week, but still.



Riiight... ? He said it was perceived as criticism, I said it was not criticism. I wasn't bending any words here.

The criticism part, I can't even... But I really encourage you to have another look at that dictionary of yours

However honestly I have NO idea why you would want to make that post and feed the troll, especially after seeing my latest msg. This was already put to bed...

 

[Lankyman]

The fact that I own the exact model you are referring to and as far as I am concerned it's almost totally silent hardly makes me a troll for pointing that out. If you find it noisy then it's a mystery to me, but believe me when I say this is the quitest computer I have ever owned and I can go back over 20 years and many computers.