The new iMac is a lot noisier!

[ecp77]

Congrats with your new rig. You will not regret getting the i7.

When the new iMacs were announced I started to follow the discussions in this forum without registering as a user. Well, discussions... actually, in some cases it was interesting to learn more about some users' individual thought processes as I was in the same situation... looking at users like EugW. ;-)
This forum was very helpful for me, so thanks to everyone here!

I was on a Late 2008 MBP before, had upgraded RAM to 8 GB and replaced the HDD with a 1 TB Samsung Evo 840 SSD. Of course, this solution only worked for so long because for the most time I was using my work computer.

So when finally the latest iMac update was announced I knew I would get a new Mac. Actually, I had just been waiting for this update. I do photo and video editing, office work, some scientific and statistical analyses, run a virtual machine, play video and audio etc. Not the hardest tasks one can imagine but I wanted a computer that is really snappy. And who knows what will be in the future...

I had not expected this but actually the decisions in the buying process were really tough. Finally, I decided to get the 2 TB SSD. 1 TB would have been ok for now but I like to have a true all-in-one solution with no external devices (maybe except for an external drive for large video files) and in 1-2 years or even sooner I would need an external drive. For example, a portable 1 TB SSD would be a) not really inexpensive, b) significantly slower than PCIe flash, and c) not as elegant as a real AIO. So, this 2 TB SSD upgrade was really expensive but especially with APFS on the horizon I think it was worth it. I plan to use this iMac for at least 5-6 years and I just can't imagine I will be happy with a HDD in such a computer over all these years. Additionally, if I should sell the Mac one day, a large SSD (>512 GB) will be what people want. I should mention that I am a researcher at a university so I get an educational discount. However, I have to admit that this upgrade was pretty expensive.

With my decision for the 2 TB SSD, the high-end model with i5 7600K and Radeon Pro 580 was the only option. I decided to upgrade to the i7 7700K. Not because I think I really need it at the moment but I just don't want to regret choosing the i5 one day. Currently, I mostly shoot JPG and 1080p... yet, I will be shooting and editing more and more RAW and 4K in the future. I also think that, in the next years, software will make better use of more cores/threads. I have followed the heat/fan noise discussion very closely. However, in the end, I decided to go for the i7. I don't expect fan noise during normal use... and in those moments when I need max performance the fans will spin for a reason... I can live with that and appreciate the speed. My only other option would have been the i5 7600K which also might not be a completely cool and silent solution while not being much faster than the 7600. So I decided to go for the i7 which definitely has a higher performance, single-core and multi-core.

I went with the standard 8 GB RAM configuration and additionally got a Micron Crucial 32 GB kit (2x16) from Amazon Germany for under 210€. Not the 'for Mac' version but this should be fine considering the positive reports in this forum.

The iMac has arrived on Friday but I didn't have time to set it up. Will give you an update when I had the chance to play with it a little bit. Just wanted to say thank you for your opinions and also wanted to share my thoughts. ;-)

 

[EugW]

Congrats with your new rig. You will not regret getting the i7.

Heh. I returned it and got the 7600/575 combo.

I decided to chase silence instead of CPU performance.

 

[Ethosik]

I think I will just go with the i7/2TB SSD. If the i5 is cooler and quieter, but my FCPX exports take a much longer time, it won't be worth it. People seem afraid of the heat the i7 generates, but that is why the fans are there and loud. It won't damage it. I am pretty sure 6-cores means nothing for what I do since my 2016 laptop beats my 2010 Mac Pro by such a large margin.

 

[Lando555]

Unless you really need the iMac today, the iMac Pro is a much much better product for you, especially looking at life span, you're already spending a lot of money on it and the Pro is going to _significantly_ faster for not a lot of more money.
I'm buying an iMac looking at 2-3years before selling it (and I only pay ~55% of retail, but even then it's quite expensive in Sweden), and even in that time the progress will have moved quite a bit, especially on the GPU side of things.

I like the way you are thinking. ;-) But EugW is right: The iMac Pro is way overkill for me. I mean I was thinking about it for a nanosecond but only because I would not be able to justify an iMac configuration that is almost as expensive as the iMac Pro. Performance-wise I would never need an iMac Pro. And considering that I would want a 2 TB SSD in the Mac Pro as well, the iMac Pro configuration would be 40-50% more expensive than my iMac configuration (depending on the price for the SSD upgrade in the iMac Pro).
In addition, I was desperately waiting for the iMac update. The last year on my MBP wasn't that much fun and I regretted not getting the Late 2015 iMac when it was released more than once. I guess this experience is the reason why I didn't want a compromise in my configuration now. ;-)

iMac Pro is way overkill for him.

Nice, USB 3 Gen 2, but I see that drive requires 10 Watts power. People with MacBooks are reporting flakiness with that drive, I suspect due to power delivery, as the flakiness increases when the MacBook is low on power.

The USB 3 Gen 1 Samsung T3 drive only needs 3.5 Watts. People get about 430 MB/S out of that. I’ll either get that, or else hold off for a Samsung T5.

Actually, these 3 drives (SanDisk Extreme 900, Samsung T3, Samsung T5 - hopefully with USB 3.1 Gen 2) were the alternatives I had considered before finally deciding for the internal 2 TB SSD. Of course, both 512 GB internal + 2 TB external and 1 TB internal + 1 TB external would have cost me less than the internal 2 TB SSD. Yet, it's not like these alternatives are really cheap. And you get less speed and less comfort.

Congrats with your new rig. You will not regret getting the i7.

Thank you!

I think I will just go with the i7/2TB SSD. If the i5 is cooler and quieter, but my FCPX exports take a much longer time, it won't be worth it. People seem afraid of the heat the i7 generates, but that is why the fans are there and loud. It won't damage it. I am pretty sure 6-cores means nothing for what I do since my 2016 laptop beats my 2010 Mac Pro by such a large margin.

Yes, that's what I was thinking.

 

[tozz]

I think I will just go with the i7/2TB SSD. If the i5 is cooler and quieter, but my FCPX exports take a much longer time, it won't be worth it. People seem afraid of the heat the i7 generates, but that is why the fans are there and loud. It won't damage it. I am pretty sure 6-cores means nothing for what I do since my 2016 laptop beats my 2010 Mac Pro by such a large margin.

Actually, the i7 will down clock to base speeds, which means the thermal output is higher than the cooling capacity of the iMac, though this isn't a new thing, it has regularly been the case. I'm always a bit skeptical when you design cooling systems like this, I know for a fact that the 7700K can run on max speeds for hours and hours, as long as you remove the heat properly.

 

[Lando555]

Heh. I returned it and got the 7600/575 combo.

I decided to chase silence instead of CPU performance.

In fact, your (and some other users') earlier posts led me to the i7 while your more recent posts didn't change my decision.
Really, I found your opinions, research and tests extremely helpful. For instance, when deciding between the i5 7600K and the i7 7700K, I learned from you that the 7600K is not that much faster than the 7600 and at the same time not that much cooler than the 7700K. So from my perspective, the major decision is between the 7600/575 combo and the 7700/580 combo. I chose the latter and I really hope everything will be just like I have imagined.

 

[tozz]

In fact, your (and some other users') earlier posts led me to the i7 while your more recent posts didn't change my decision.
Really, I found your opinions, research and tests extremely helpful. For instance, when deciding between the i5 7600K and the i7 7700K, I learned from you that the 7600K is not that much faster than the 7600 and at the same time not that much cooler than the 7700K. So from my perspective, the decision is between the 7600/575 combo and the 7700/580 combo. I chose the latter and I really hope everything will be just like I have imagined.

The 7600k is _a lot_ cooler than the 7700k, the previously posted toms hardware article puts it a good 20degrees celsius below the 7700k.

 

[Lando555]

The 7600k is _a lot_ cooler than the 7700k, the previously posted toms hardware article puts it a good 20degrees celsius below the 7700k.

I know. But I think the real difference is between the 7700K and the 7600. So I understand EugW's decision when absolute silence is a must. I hope I will be happy with my decision. Unfortunately, I won't have time to set up the new iMac before the next weekend... I guess this will be an interesting endeavor anyway, coming from this Late 2008 MBP & Mavericks. ;-)

 

[snap01]

my iMac came early (supposed to be Monday but arrived yesterday). It's the i7 with 1tb SSD.

Still testing it but it seems to be pretty quiet. Just did a test export of 120 RAWs (80gb each) into 16bit tiff. Took about 8min. CPU running at 5-700% and couldn't hear any fans kick in. I can only hear the fans if I put my ear to the exhaust port on the back of the computer.

If you have an owc thunderbay, the iMac is way quieter than that. The thunderbay is noticeable from several feet away and borderline too annoying. I ran the test both with the thunderbay on and off.

Haven't tried any video exports.

 

[hfg]

If you have an owc thunderbay, the iMac is way quieter than that. The thunderbay is noticeable from several feet away and borderline too annoying. I ran the test both with the thunderbay on and off.

How was your experience connecting the Thunderbay ( IV or 4?) to the new iMac, and what cable did you use?

If it is the Thunderbay fan you are hearing ... try one of these:
Noctua NF-B9 Bevelled Blade Tips SSO Bearing Fan
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0014I9K30/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[propower]

Don't want to double post but here is a link to a related thread where I detail that the i7 is performing so much better for Audio work that I will almost certainly have to stick with it! Throughout all the testing so far - only video rendering has ramped fans. All audio work including Audio stress tests (with Turbo OFF) has been peak of about 70degC. I am hopeful that from the Fan POV that day to day recording and editing will all be 1200 RPMs.

i7-7700K vs. i5-7600K for Logic Pro X

 

[snap01]

How was your experience connecting the Thunderbay ( IV or 4?) to the new iMac, and what cable did you use?

If it is the Thunderbay fan you are hearing ... try one of these:
Noctua NF-B9 Bevelled Blade Tips SSO Bearing Fan
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0014I9K30/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm using the cable that came with the enclosure. I just attached it with apple's tb3 to tb2 adapter. No issues so far.

I will check it out the fan. I didn't think of replacing it since it was already supposed to be the "quiet" version.

 

[Ethosik]

Actually, the i7 will down clock to base speeds, which means the thermal output is higher than the cooling capacity of the iMac, though this isn't a new thing, it has regularly been the case. I'm always a bit skeptical when you design cooling systems like this, I know for a fact that the 7700K can run on max speeds for hours and hours, as long as you remove the heat properly.

So is the i7 pointless then? It still has more threads than the i5 even if it is down clocked.

 

[tozz]

So is the i7 pointless then? It still has more threads than the i5 even if it is down clocked.

Not at all, it's still faster in threaded tasks, you're just paying for something that isn't going to be fully used, which might be perfectly fine, again, it's still faster for threaded and short lived tasks

 

[thekev]

What the point of having the top of the line iMac having the worse sound levels. People buy the i7 to increase the usable lifetime of the iMac.

It doesn't increase the usable life. I really hate it when people spread that kind of nonsense, because it encourages others to make bad purchasing decisions.

 

[looking4anotebo]

anyone know what percentage increase in performance the i7 is over the best i5 in something like FCPX?

 

[EugW]

anyone know what percentage increase in performance the i7 is over the best i5 in something like FCPX?

Dunno about Final Cut, but it is up to a 30% performance improvement in other video encoding benchmarks.

 

[tozz]

anyone know what percentage increase in performance the i7 is over the best i5 in something like FCPX?

I would estimate ~30-40% on exports, in general (culling, color adjustments, editing, etc) use you won't see much of a difference since a lot of FCPX is GPU accelerated (and they have the same GPU).

 

[DRuser]

Any Davinci Resolve (14) users out there?

I was wondering what would be the best pick for this. At the moment I'm in between 7600/575, 7600k/580 and 7700k/580. The first and foremost issue I like to address with the upgrade (from a Macbook Pro 13 late 2013) is realtime playback for 4k h.264 based footage. It is most of the time shot in 24p. I do some light to medium grading work on it. I have no problem to have the fan kicking in while exporting as I can just go away and let it do it's job. What really annoys me is a fan that goes off in editing and grading work. Unfortunately the video reviews I was able to find are talking about fan speed only when it comes to very high CPU load during transcode or export. This is different from editing/grading work where you get such high loads only for shorter periods of time.

Any advice would be highly appreciated.

 

[EugW]

Interesting. I am doing a Handbrake h.265 HEVC encode on my 2010 2.93 GHz iMac Core i7 870. Even though the CPU is pegged with 750% to 780% usage for the 8 threads, the fan hasn't gone to max after about 10 minutes. The CPU fan is now up to a reasonable 1600 rpm which is audible but not objectionable. Room temp is around 21C. CPU heatsink temp 70C. (I don't have a CPU temp option on this model.) The fan speed has been slowly creeping up, but the emphasis is on "slowly".

On the 2017 Core i7-7700K iMac, the fan would have gone to max in less than 30 seconds. It encodes much faster though.

 

[derohan]

Interesting. I am doing a Handbrake h.265 HEVC encode on my 2010 2.93 GHz iMac Core i7 870. Even though the CPU is pegged with 750% to 780% usage for the 8 threads, the fan hasn't gone to max after about 10 minutes. The CPU fan is now up to a reasonable 1600 rpm which is audible but not objectionable. Room temp is around 21C. CPU heatsink temp 70C. (I don't have a CPU temp option on this model.) The fan speed has been slowly creeping up, but the emphasis is on "slowly".

On the 2017 Core i7-7700K iMac, the fan would have gone to max in less than 30 seconds. It encodes much faster though.

Can someone design/create an aftermarket case/cooling replacing the crappy chassis that is... the iMac/iMac Pro ^^
Thinking it's also time to cut up my rMBP for extra vents

 

[Ethosik]

I would estimate ~30-40% on exports, in general (culling, color adjustments, editing, etc) use you won't see much of a difference since a lot of FCPX is GPU accelerated (and they have the same GPU).

Since I am getting one as primarily a FCPX export and edit computer, is the i7 highly recommended? I am still not sure how my 2016 laptop can beat my 2010 Mac Pro on export times.

 

[tozz]

Since I am getting one as primarily a FCPX export and edit computer, is the i7 highly recommended? I am still not sure how my 2016 laptop can beat my 2010 Mac Pro on export times.

When you say beat, are you talking about h.264 exporting? The reason then is simple, hardware accelerated CPU encoding. I think even a simple MacBook dual core low voltage would beat your Mac Pro, as long as it follows the encoding profiles supported by the CPU.

 

[cynics]

anyone know what percentage increase in performance the i7 is over the best i5 in something like FCPX?

It's impossible to say for certain because your projects requirements for export will play the biggest roll. I would expect 5-30% better export performance with the caveat of 30% being "in theory".

Make sure your have plenty of RAM if use FCPX a lot and definitely if you use it professionally. I don't know if its improved since I used FC but I had to turn background rendering off due to lack of RAM. In program performance would suck, once I upgraded from 8 to 24gb it was fine.
[doublepost=1499121304][/doublepost]

Any Davinci Resolve (14) users out there?

I was wondering what would be the best pick for this. At the moment I'm in between 7600/575, 7600k/580 and 7700k/580. The first and foremost issue I like to address with the upgrade (from a Macbook Pro 13 late 2013) is realtime playback for 4k h.264 based footage. It is most of the time shot in 24p. I do some light to medium grading work on it. I have no problem to have the fan kicking in while exporting as I can just go away and let it do it's job. What really annoys me is a fan that goes off in editing and grading work. Unfortunately the video reviews I was able to find are talking about fan speed only when it comes to very high CPU load during transcode or export. This is different from editing/grading work where you get such high loads only for shorter periods of time.

Any advice would be highly appreciated.

Are you using Resolve currently? If so what are the spec of the system you are using?

Personally I would risk fan noise if my specific reasoning for buying an iMac was color grading 4k video with Resolve and get the 580. The 580 has 8gb of vram whereas the 575 has 4gb of vram. With Resolve 4gb of vram falls into the "you'll probably be ok with most 4k video editing" territory.

And to be honest with that specific task in particular I'm not sure if the 575 wouldn't ramp the fans up too. Might be worth minimizing the duration of fan noise with the 580. I'm not sure about that though. The reason I say it is because the 2013 iMac has similar cooling system as the 2017 and while they aren't identical with similar task my nVidia 775m (75w TDP) can increase the fan to 1600 RPM. The 575 has a TDP of 120w and the 580 is 140w.

Before buying anything I would visit Blackmagic and/or Davinci Resolve specific forums. I think its more likely you'll find Mac users there then you'll find Resolve users here.

 

[DRuser]

Are you using Resolve currently? If so what are the spec of the system you are using?

Thank you for your thoughts! I'm currently editing on a Macbook Pro 13 late 2013. As you can imagine this is only possible with lots of transcoding, working with proxies, reducing the playback resolution and rendering, rendering, rendering... it is awful. No matter which iMac I'll choose it'll be way better, that's for sure. However, as I had the opportunity to work with an iMac 7600k/580 for a few days I also became aware of how spoilt I am when it comes to fan noise. This is a non-issue on my laptop and something I can hear constantly on the iMac. Even at the base 1200rpm. So I just want to make sure to pick the system that provides the best balance between noise and performance for my needs. A system that is most of the time off the fans base speed is not an option for me.