Recent 27" iMacs are NOT silent

[motrek]

...
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...

Eh? I was replying to your post, not Lankyman's. I agree that we don't need to talk about this any more, though.
[automerge]1580065000[/automerge]

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.

It's an interesting data point, thanks for sharing it, but also potentially misleading to people who:

- Might have better hearing than you do
- Might work in an environment with less ambient noise than you do
- Might be more picky about how loud things are than you are

If you go back and read my original post, you will see that I bought an iMac on the basis of forum commenters like you, saying that their iMacs are practically silent. And I was sorely disappointed. So for you to keep saying that yours is silent, that might just potentially mislead more people into buying a computer that they will be disappointed with.

Also, there have been meany people on this thread who chimed in to say that their 5k iMacs are clearly audible when idle. Surely you've read these posts. So when you continue to post that your iMac is almost totally silent, it seems like you're just posting an admission that your hearing isn't very good. I'm not sure why you would keep doing that?

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.

That information is frankly irrelevant. I have no doubt that all of your previous computers were louder. But I don't see how the computers you've owned in the past are relevant when we're discussing how much noise one particular model of computer makes.

 

[Zdigital2015]

I don't know if you're mocking me with the iPad Pro suggestion. I need a real computer, running MacOS.

It's not impossible to have a Mac setup that's basically silent. The Mac Mini makes a small amount of noise, but it can be relocated. When I put my old Mac Mini on the outside edge of my desk, on the floor, I can not hear it. I would be surprised if anybody could.

If you want a Mac setup that's literally silent, that's doable too. My 2015 MacBook Pro is semi-passively cooled. When it's idle, or close to idle, the fan is literally not spinning.

So it's not like what I'm wishing for is unreasonable or not realistic or not solvable. The only tricky bit is getting a Mac to quietly drive a 4K monitor in HiDPI mode, really. But it's not like 1440p monitors are unusable. Not as nice, but not unusable.



I don't really do anything graphically intensive so I don't really care about GPU performance. As for CPU performance, the 2015 iMac that I bought isn't really meaningfully faster than the base-model Mac Mini these days.
[automerge]1578691508[/automerge]


There are a lot of people who claim that iMacs are silent when idle. A lot of people on this thread, even. As I mentioned in my first post, I wanted to create a thread to counterbalance that sort of misinformation.

Also, I didn't expect the iMac to be literally silent. I knew it had a fan. The only question was, would I be able to hear it or not. It's possible that I would not have been able to hear it. I had a MacBook Air for years and it had a fan that was constantly spinning at 1200 RPM and I couldn't hear it. But the iMac is much louder.



Nitpick: there are also semi-passively cooled computers where none of the fans spin unless temperatures necessitate it. It's actually pretty easy to build a PC that's literally silent under most conditions.

The easiest way to get rid of the exhaust fan noise is to get some decent acoustic foam (Auralex) and place it behind the iMac. This works especially well for iMacs that are close (within 12”) of a hollow wall as the bouncing of the sound off the wall tends to accentuate the noise. This is my go to before I worry about any software or hardware hacks.

 

[motrek]

The easiest way to get rid of the exhaust fan noise is to get some decent acoustic foam (Auralex) and place it behind the iMac. This works especially well for iMacs that are close (within 12”) of a hollow wall as the bouncing of the sound off the wall tends to accentuate the noise. This is my go to before I worry about any software or hardware hacks.

I wonder if you couldn't get most of the benefit by cutting and fitting a piece of acoustic treatment to run down the inside and base of the stand. I have to imagine that a lot of the sound of the exhaust is being reflected off the base of the stand.

In any case, running the fan at 1000 RPM has been a pretty great solution for me, and my temperatures at that speed are all great. I recommend you give it a shot if you're at all interested. It's not nearly as hacky as it originally sounded to me when I first read that guy's blog post about how to do it.

 

[Lankyman]

Eh? I was replying to your post, not Lankyman's. I agree that we don't need to talk about this any more, though.
[automerge]1580065000[/automerge]


It's an interesting data point, thanks for sharing it, but also potentially misleading to people who:

- Might have better hearing than you do
- Might work in an environment with less ambient noise than you do
- Might be more picky about how loud things are than you are

If you go back and read my original post, you will see that I bought an iMac on the basis of forum commenters like you, saying that their iMacs are practically silent. And I was sorely disappointed. So for you to keep saying that yours is silent, that might just potentially mislead more people into buying a computer that they will be disappointed with.

Also, there have been meany people on this thread who chimed in to say that their 5k iMacs are clearly audible when idle. Surely you've read these posts. So when you continue to post that your iMac is almost totally silent, it seems like you're just posting an admission that your hearing isn't very good. I'm not sure why you would keep doing that?



That information is frankly irrelevant. I have no doubt that all of your previous computers were louder. But I don't see how the computers you've owned in the past are relevant when we're discussing how much noise one particular model of computer makes.

But surely you making the counterpoint that you find the iMac noisy could be just as confusing and misleading to potential buyers, or had you not considered that? What makes you right and me wrong?

 

[motrek]

But surely you making the counterpoint that you find the iMac noisy could be just as confusing and misleading to potential buyers, or had you not considered that? What makes you right and me wrong?

Not really. Read my original post to this thread. I carefully qualified everything I said. I said the 5k iMac is very quiet. I gave actual SPL meter readings. I said most people likely wouldn't be able to hear it if they have anything else going on like an HVAC system. I never said it was noisy, those are your words, and actually kind of the opposite of what I said.

Your posts don't contain any sort of this useful information. All we can gather from your posts is that you have a [probably kinda loud] NAS in the same room as your iMac, so how would you even be able to tell how loud the iMac is, and also that you suffer from (or have suffered from) tinnitus, so it's unclear how well you'd be able to hear an iMac even if it was loud. So I'm not saying that my posts are right and yours are wrong, but I think it's pretty obvious that your posts are much less useful to anybody else.

 

[1204949]

Let me join this conversation.

I currently own a 2017 21.5" i5 3Ghz iMac. The fan spins at 1200 rpm at idle, CPU temps hover at around 35C and I cannot hear a thing when sitting in front of the PC... pardon me, Mac. Only if I turn the Mac around and move my ear close to the fan exhaust at around 5-7 cm away from it I'm able to hear the fan - but still very quiet.

Then I ordered a brand new 2019 27" i5 3.7Ghz iMac. And while my 21.5" was sitting beside it, I turned the new machine on and immediately heard the difference: The fan is very audible. It sounds similar to a rotating 2.5" HDD so at first I feared I had ordered the wrong model with a 1TB FD - but no, it's the SSD only model.

Then I thought, well maybe it's going through software installations and therefore the fan was spinning at a higher rpm. But later I checked and the fan was also spinning at 1200 rpm and CPU temperatures where virtually identical to my 21.5" iMac at around 35-36C.

In fact, my new iMac can easily be noticed while sitting in front of the Mac at a normal distance.
I've returned it to Apple. Currently I'm waiting for the replacement machine. Let's see how this one will fare. Could it really be that Apple uses different suppliers of fans?

 

[pugxiwawa]

Let me join this conversation.

I currently own a 2017 21.5" i5 3Ghz iMac. The fan spins at 1200 rpm at idle, CPU temps hover at around 35C and I cannot hear a thing when sitting in front of the PC... pardon me, Mac. Only if I turn the Mac around and move my ear close to the fan exhaust at around 5-7 cm away from it I'm able to hear the fan - but still very quiet.

Then I ordered a brand new 2019 27" i5 3.7Ghz iMac. And while my 21.5" was sitting beside it, I turned the new machine on and immediately heard the difference: The fan is very audible. It sounds similar to a rotating 2.5" HDD so at first I feared I had ordered the wrong model with a 1TB FD - but no, it's the SSD only model.

Then I thought, well maybe it's going through software installations and therefore the fan was spinning at a higher rpm. But later I checked and the fan was also spinning at 1200 rpm and CPU temperatures where virtually identical to my 21.5" iMac at around 35-36C.

In fact, my new iMac can easily be noticed while sitting in front of the Mac at a normal distance.
I've returned it to Apple. Currently I'm waiting for the replacement machine. Let's see how this one will fare. Could it really be that Apple uses different suppliers of fans?

I am having the same issue. I got 2019 5k base model from Costco with 1 TB fusion drive, but I'm booting off external Samsung X5 and even unmounted the internal drive so the fan should not need to be on. Like you, I can clearly hear the sound of the fan constantly spinning. I have a 2015 iMac model with Fusion drive as well right next to it so I can compare. The fan on 2015 model is dead silent. I'm a little lost on what the issue might be, thinking about returning to Costco or asking for exchange with Apple.

 

[motrek]

...
In fact, my new iMac can easily be noticed while sitting in front of the Mac at a normal distance.
I've returned it to Apple. Currently I'm waiting for the replacement machine. Let's see how this one will fare. Could it really be that Apple uses different suppliers of fans?

You're not the first person I've read about returning a 5K iMac because it was loud enough that they thought something might be wrong with it. I suspect it's working as designed, so on one hand I feel bad about the time and effort and expense (on your part and Apple's part) of exchanging a product for the same exact thing, but on the other hand, maybe this will help Apple get the message that they need to make these things quieter.

As for why the 21.5" iMac might be quieter than the 27" iMac, I suspect that almost all of the noise produced by these computers is due to turbulence and almost none of it comes from the actual fans themselves, i.e., the motors and bearings and so forth, so the supplier of the fans kinda doesn't matter.

If you look at the iFixit teardowns of the two computers, the heatsinks and fan shrouds (and their orientations) are similar but still a little different.

Also, if you lower the fan speed on the 27" iMac from 1200 RPM to 1000 RPM, it makes a HUGE difference, much more than the 20% that you might expect. So I think that must mean that there's a significant amount of turbulence somewhere at 1200 RPM whereas it's just smooth airflow at 1000 RPM...
[automerge]1580166084[/automerge]

I am having the same issue. I got 2019 5k base model from Costco with 1 TB fusion drive, but I'm booting off external Samsung X5 and even unmounted the internal drive so the fan should not need to be on. Like you, I can clearly hear the sound of the fan constantly spinning. I have a 2015 iMac model with Fusion drive as well right next to it so I can compare. The fan on 2015 model is dead silent. I'm a little lost on what the issue might be, thinking about returning to Costco or asking for exchange with Apple.

I've read posts on other threads about people returning 5K iMacs because they thought theirs must be defective because it was too loud, but the replacement iMacs seem to be invariably just as loud. Some guy even exchanged his iMac twice, and all three units were equally loud.

So I wouldn't get my hopes up that an exchange unit would be quieter.

But, if you want to drive the point home with Apple, every return or exchange costs them money, so...

 

[Lankyman]

Well thank goodness for my advancing years then because to me my 2019 27inch FD iMac is almost silent. However, I asked for my wife’s opinion (her hearing would put a bat to shame). She asked me what she was supposed to be listening for. When I told her she simply shook her head, ‘no she remarked it’s almost silent’. She uses our 2011 iMac and said that is much noisier (SSD no HDD). I’m one happy bunny.

 

[LiE_]

I've been following this closely because I've got a base spec (with upgraded SSD) 2019 5K iMac enroute from Apple. I had an 2019 i9 iMac last year but that had a faulty fan that mad a clicking noise (original thread here). I returned that immediately and got a Mac mini.

The Mac mini I have recently sold as I do really like what the 5K iMac offers, but if it's too noisy at idle I'm not sure I can live with it. My only option after that would be to build a custom PC.

I will report back. I'm very particular about noise, I returned quite a few GPUs from my external GPU due to coil whine and spent quite a bit on making the Razer Core X silent as it had a noisy fan and PSU.

 

[ginhb]

It might vary some between machines. I have a 2017 5k iMac with a SSD inside, and it is SO quiet, I thought the fan wasn't even running until I put my ear closer to it. And I'm someone who likes to keep that room virtually silent at times, especially in the early morning. No ambient sound. And my hearing is normal. Couldn't be happier with the computer.

 

[mmomega]

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

I can tell mine is on, even without noise. That CPU puts out gobs more heat than my regular iMac.

I recently swapped my office iMac Pro and i9 iMac due to this, I have a rather small office where my partner and I work. Even with the iMac Pro casually playing YouTube on a 2nd screen, that room gets extremely warm.
Identical setup with i9 iMac, easily 7-10degrees F cooler in that space by mid day.

Oh I understand 18 cores produce more heat than 8, but until I get a secondary air conditioning system installed in that office. That 18Core is staying home.

 

[vinegarshots]

I can tell mine is on, even without noise. That CPU puts out gobs more heat than my regular iMac.

I recently swapped my office iMac Pro and i9 iMac due to this, I have a rather small office where my partner and I work. Even with the iMac Pro casually playing YouTube on a 2nd screen, that room gets extremely warm.
Identical setup with i9 iMac, easily 7-10degrees F cooler in that space by mid day.

Oh I understand 18 cores produce more heat than 8, but until I get a secondary air conditioning system installed in that office. That 18Core is staying home.

Glad I only have an 8 core version, I guess
If I put my hand on the back by the air vents, it barely even feels warm.

 

[mmomega]

Glad I only have an 8 core version, I guess
If I put my hand on the back by the air vents, it barely even feels warm.

The 18 core, idling for the most part, definitely is high warm to hot air coming out. It is quiet just hot.
I almost want to put a thermometer directly behind the vent on both model, doing the same workload to measure temps coming out. Hmm

 

[motrek]

The 18 core, idling for the most part, definitely is high warm to hot air coming out. It is quiet just hot.
I almost want to put a thermometer directly behind the vent on both model, doing the same workload to measure temps coming out. Hmm

Sounds like something's not right to me. Have you confirmed that the machine is mostly idle via Activity Monitor?

No matter how many cores you have, they shouldn't be using much power at all when idle. The 6700K in my iMac is one of the hottest processors Apple ever put in a 5K iMac but it still only uses 1W when all the cores are idle, i.e., it runs cool enough that it would barely be warm to the touch...

You should get a Kill-A-Watt and check how many watts the machines are actually using. I've been meaning to do that with my iMac but haven't gotten around to it.

EDIT: Just measured my iMac.

Late 2015 5K iMac with SSD and i7-6700K

Idle, screen off = 21W
Idle, screen at 0% = 29.5W = +8.5W
Idle, screen at 50% = 41W = +20W
Idle, screen at 100% = 59W = +38W

CPU loaded, 0 threads, screen at 50% = 41W (i.e., idle)
CPU loaded, 1 threads, screen at 50% = 68W = +27W
CPU loaded, 4 threads, screen at 50% = 128W = +87W
CPU loaded, 8 threads, screen at 50% = 139W = +98W (CPU has 4 cores)

So, when the computer is idle and the screen is at 50%, it puts out about as much heat as a weak incandescent light bulb.

 

[LiE_]

Took delivery of my 2019 base model 5K iMac today. I was curious about the noise from the fan, and to be honest yes it can be heard, but it's a very low noise. I can understand if you were in a totally silent room and this was the only source of noise that it would be distracting to someone who is sensitive to it.

For me it's totally acceptable level of noise. It reminds me of the low noise my radiator makes when the central heating is on and the water is flowing through, very low and and easily forgotten about.

During the day when I'm working I always have music on, and also live next to a busy road so that generates more noise.

 

[1204949]

So I received the replacement iMac today which I also sent back again.

The fan was a bit more quiet than the first iMac but even worse now, it was emitting a high pitched whining noise while running. My room is very quiet and I can easily make out these types of noise even when sitting in front of the iMac. Needless to say that to me it was unbearable imagining to work in front of this machine while being constantly exposed to this whine

There seems to be some variation between the different SKUs. Maybe I got unlucky with the two I tried. The serial numbers where very similar so it might haven been a bad batch.

Nonetheless, I'm giving up on the 27" model for now. My 2017 21.5" model is totally silent and I'm not going to pay big money for a downgrade (in noise).

 

[motrek]

So I received the replacement iMac today which I also sent back again.

The fan was a bit more quiet than the first iMac but even worse now, it was emitting a high pitched whining noise while running. My room is very quiet and I can easily make out these types of noise even when sitting in front of the iMac. Needless to say that to me it was unbearable imagining to work in front of this machine while being constantly exposed to this whine

There seems to be some variation between the different SKUs. Maybe I got unlucky with the two I tried. The serial numbers where very similar so it might haven been a bad batch.

Nonetheless, I'm giving up on the 27" model for now. My 2017 21.5" model is totally silent and I'm not going to pay big money for a downgrade (in noise).

Sorry about the whine. Sounds like a case of coil whine from the electronics somewhere. Definitely not what it's supposed to sound like, obviously.

I share your pain re: the 27" model. Lowering the fan speed to 1000 RPM worked well for me. If that wasn't an option, I would have resold the computer by now. (In fact, I did have the computer listed on Craigslist for a couple days before I gathered up the courage to try the fan speed hack.)

I don't really understand Apple's need to force all-in-one computers on a large part of their customer base.

 

[_Skyfire_]

Sorry about the whine. Sounds like a case of coil whine from the electronics somewhere. Definitely not what it's supposed to sound like, obviously.

I share your pain re: the 27" model. Lowering the fan speed to 1000 RPM worked well for me. If that wasn't an option, I would have resold the computer by now. (In fact, I did have the computer listed on Craigslist for a couple days before I gathered up the courage to try the fan speed hack.)

I don't really understand Apple's need to force all-in-one computers on a large part of their customer base.

I think it has to do with the aesthetics and market research on Apple's part. How they have implemented the AIO, most people don't want to go back to an ugly desktop after trying an iMac. Consumers are just more firm with getting a beautiful & minimalistic design instead of just focusing on the specs

There's a wide market of PC's out there if you don't like Apple's implementation. IMO tho Apple is taking the exact right approach here

 

[uller6]

And I use the same 2019 5K model every day and can hear the noise. It bothers me. I don't have a Db meter to measure actual sound levels, so my analysis is subjective. But, in my opinion, the 2019 is a lot louder than any of my machines from previous years.

 

[motrek]

I think it has to do with the aesthetics and market research on Apple's part. How they have implemented the AIO, most people don't want to go back to an ugly desktop after trying an iMac. Consumers are just more firm with getting a beautiful & minimalistic design instead of just focusing on the specs

There's a wide market of PC's out there if you don't like Apple's implementation. IMO tho Apple is taking the exact right approach here

Well, I like macOS much more than Windows or Linux, but aside from that, I'm forced to use macOS for my work, so actually I can't buy a PC instead.

Which is a real bummer, because AMD's processors are much better than Intel's at the moment, Nvidia's graphics cards are much better than AMD's, and you can get tons of RAM and huge SSDs for a small fraction of what Apple charges for upgrades.

I don't know why I torture myself like this, but every few weeks I go to Newegg and fill up my shopping cart with components for a PC I'd like to build... right now it looks like ~$1300 will get you a PC (albeit sans monitor) that's arguably more powerful than a $5000 iMac Pro. Sigh.

 

[fuchsdh]

I find it funny that people think the iMac is like an iPad with no fan in regards to noise. There is a fan always spinning at a minimum of 1200 rpms, so there will always be noise. If there is no other sound in the room, you will hear it. Most rooms have other ambient sounds that drown out the fan noise. Anybody that thinks an iMac is silent is a fool.

I've never really heard people talk about how quiet they are either, because they definitely ramp up under load.

The iMac Pros are much quieter overall, and that's the only time I've seen people asserting their silence.

 

[_Skyfire_]

Well, I like macOS much more than Windows or Linux, but aside from that, I'm forced to use macOS for my work, so actually I can't buy a PC instead.

Which is a real bummer, because AMD's processors are much better than Intel's at the moment, Nvidia's graphics cards are much better than AMD's, and you can get tons of RAM and huge SSDs for a small fraction of what Apple charges for upgrades.

I don't know why I torture myself like this, but every few weeks I go to Newegg and fill up my shopping cart with components for a PC I'd like to build... right now it looks like ~$1300 will get you a PC (albeit sans monitor) that's arguably more powerful than a $5000 iMac Pro. Sigh.

I feel you. I might also consider switching to a PC *gasp* if a good AIO was available at a steep discount from the iMac price. Currently tho, I find that marketplace is not developed enough, Apple hold a very dominant lead.

You just won't find the combo of a ~5K screen, high specs, aesthetics & a good price from anyone else. The Surface Studio has come closest but it's even more expensive than an iMac...other companies really need to up their game!

 

[LiE_]

Took delivery of my 2019 base model 5K iMac today. I was curious about the noise from the fan, and to be honest yes it can be heard, but it's a very low noise. I can understand if you were in a totally silent room and this was the only source of noise that it would be distracting to someone who is sensitive to it.

For me it's totally acceptable level of noise. It reminds me of the low noise my radiator makes when the central heating is on and the water is flowing through, very low and and easily forgotten about.

During the day when I'm working I always have music on, and also live next to a busy road so that generates more noise.

So a little update.

Last night I was on my iMac, it was late so I didn't have any music playing and the road was quiet outside. The fan noise was a little intrusive. So I had a little play around with setting it to 1000rpm which did help. The Mac fan control app is good but doesn't allow you to set a fan curve which isn't ideal. This means the fan would ramp up with the fluctuations in temp.

Interestingly the system default for the fan keeps the fan almost always at 1200rmp even when the CPU temp hits high 70s.

I've pretty much explored all other options within Apple and have to conclude there is no perfect solution. I had a 2018 Mac mini connected to the new 23.7" LG Ultrafine, and the iGPU was woeful. I tried the 13 MBP connected to the same monitor, the fans were constantly on at a level I wasn't comfortable with. The iMac has a constant 1200rpm fan even though it's capable of running at 1000rpm. I could stretch to the 16 MBP but I wouldn't have enough budget for the AppleCare and don't need portability.

I love macOS a lot, so a Windows desktop isn't an option, neither is a hackintosh as I don't want the hassle.

 

[Lankyman]

This thread could run forever but I doubt Apple will do anything about this so called 'noise issue' when it only affects a miniscule number of Mac users worldwide (I haven't seen anything that would lead me to believe the contrary). Therefore I think the only option for those who can't put up with it is to source a different type of computer.