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The new iMac is a lot noisier!
- Thread starter Darajavahus
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My 2017 4.2 GHz i7 iMac was more often noisy under load than my 2010 2.93 GHz i7 iMac. So overall, the 2017 was noisier, mainly because it ramped up the fan much quicker under load.
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I had the 2015 i7 iMac and the 2017 i7 iMac both 1TB ssd both with maxed out graphics card, under load the pitch is different but the 2015 was nosier than the 2017, which tends to not ramp up for me as much as the 2015 model. I had a chance to have them side by side before I sold the 2015 model. A lot depends on your hearing, the room you are in, background noise, ambient temperature and fan pitch. Also it's possible Apple uses different fans from different manufactures to fill orders, then if one manufacture has an issue the manufacturers can cover the short falls possibly.
Typo on my part, but I’m comparing against the 2010.
But the point was that although both are loud at max fan, the 2010 i7 was at max fan much, much less often.
A lot of people reporting noise differences are doing sequential evaluation, often separated by time. They listen to one machine then (sometimes days or weeks later) another machine. Few people like you have the same machines on the same desktop for concurrent tests.
I also had top-spec 2015 and 2017 iMacs side-by-side on my desk for months, both used heavily for FCPX rendering and transcoding. I really could not tell much difference in noise or how rapidly the fan ramped up. The 2017 model was 2x faster (that's 200%) in FCPX transcoding, but except for that there was no significant noise difference.
Before that I had a 2013 and 2015 top-spec iMac 27 on my desk, and the same situation existed -- no significant difference in noise. Thus I haven't heard much difference from 2013 to 2015 to 2017 i7 iMac -- when tested side-by-side with the previous machine under the same load.
This differs from the OP who said the new 2017 iMac was a LOT noisier than the previous iMac. In fact he was confused and was comparing a 2017 i7 to a 2015 i5.
In a previous post the same OP claimed the 2017 iMac consumed more power than the previous model, but the link he posted contains no such information: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/new-imacs-consume-20-more-power.2050508/
In fact the 2017 i7 iMac consumes less power than the 2015, which in turn consumes less power than the 2014. This is from Apple's page on power consumption and thermal output: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201918
So this entire thread was started based on a mistake by the OP, who had previously posted similar mistakes about the same subject. It is true a 2017 i5 iMac 27 will be quieter under high load than a 2015 i7 iMac 27, but that wasn't the OP's point in this thread or his previous thread.
The OP gets no credit just because a modified version of what he posted is right (namely an i5 under high load is quieter than an i7). There is a saying "even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile". If you post enough erroneous things eventually some variant of that will enter the same ZIP code as reality.
I suppose I’m lucky. I have the 4.2 i7 with 580 Pro graphics and the fan rarely rises above the standard 1200 RPM.
Since June I’ve heard the fans spin up in only a handful of times and under th following situations
Day to day and light creative stuff doesn’t do it on my unit. Web browsing, iTunes, Lightroom, photos, etc. photo editing in Pixelmator.
Heck I even gamed in VMWare just to see what it’s like (not great) with the VM using 4 cores and the fan only went to 1800 rpm.
Since June I’ve heard the fans spin up in only a handful of times and under th following situations
- Exporting a 1.5 hour video from iMovie
- Installing Windows in VMWare Fusion
- A rouge process that had crashed was using 250% CPU
Day to day and light creative stuff doesn’t do it on my unit. Web browsing, iTunes, Lightroom, photos, etc. photo editing in Pixelmator.
Heck I even gamed in VMWare just to see what it’s like (not great) with the VM using 4 cores and the fan only went to 1800 rpm.
Funn--I have the same machine and even minor work in LR results in the fan running loud. Annoying.
I now have a 2017 iMac free of charge because my 2014's m295x literally burnt the mac. Heatsink was apparently faulty among other things, and it literally burnt the device.
I was excited to get the 2017. "Finally an end to the high temperatures and loud fan" I thought.
Nope.
Now instead of a 99C GPU I have a 99C CPU.
God damnit, Apple.
I do have the 7700k yes.
I don't consider myself lucky because I wasted countless hours driving my 2014 imac back and fourth, reinstalling and backing up MacOS, and dealing with Apple on the phone.
If I didn't get frustrated at them when they suggested we replace the screen or logic board (for the 5th time) then they would have just kept replacing the same 2 parts over and over.
As we approached the 5th repair I was at the point where they were either going to give me a new iMac or I was either going to seek legal action, or cut my losses and sell the iMac as damaged, and never buy an Apple product again.
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It varies from manager to manager I would imagine, but I was in your shoes once, way back when. After the 3rd or 4th time of attempted fixes, they offered me a new machine. I didn't have to complain at all. I counted myself lucky, since it was a newer model, with a faster CPU. Mine was just a spec update though, from a 2009 to a 2010. Your 2017 is a much bigger upgrade than my 2010 was.
However, maybe I'm biased into thinking I was lucky because I got a few extras: They changed my 4x2 GB RAM to 2x4 GB RAM, leaving me room to upgrade the RAM even further in the new machine. They also didn't ask for my old keyboard and mouse back, so I got an extra one of each, and they also pulled the drive out of the old machine and handed me that too.
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That's weird about the RAM. The first machine they offered me was a 2017 i5 with a fusion drive. I asked for the i7 with SSD since my current iMac has that and they said yes no questions asked.
A little voice in the back of my mind says maybe they are eager to not piss off the 2014 iMac owners because they're scared of the retention issue causing a class action against them.
If you search for imac image retention and thermal throttling issues, nearly all the results you'll find are related to the 2014.
iMac i7 user at home and work for months. Still no noise complaints from me. Yes, it spins up when you hammer it. Even then it's so much quieter than many other machines I've used. I expect a computer to make noise when I hit it with my workload, so perhaps I'm just easier to please than others.
Lower RPM would increase longevity as far as bearings are concerned. I suspect it's to keep the CPU as cool as possible with as little noise as possible. I can't hear mine at idle, and I'm sensitive to noise. Either there is sample variation or difference in placement that affects the acoustics of the fans.
Don’t get me wrong: I bought the i5 7600 and I am absolutely happy with that product! I just realized playing Civ 6 that even this mid range configuration can move close to 90 degrees C until the fan jumps up and I was just wondering why Apple doesn’t increase the fan a bit earlier to avoid this rather high (or maybe not?) temperatures (and to decrease the RPM at idle since for the 7600 cpu that would most likely be possible). Anyhow, thanks to this thread I have adjusted the fan speed by myself so I am feeling saver with lower temps. Probably the CPU will now be fine but the iMac will die of rapidly aging fans
Just use Macs Fan Control - problem solved. I used it for 5 years with my late 2012 iMac (and overclocked the 680MX GPU @ 250/375), and had 0 problems.
I started with Macs Fan Control which is also good but I am now using TG Pro which enables to set an individual temperature / RPM curve. Just doesn’t allow to reduce min RPM if I recall correctly. This way my max core temps stay around 75-85 degrees C which I assume should be fine even for extended usage.
[doublepost=1521273618][/doublepost]Thanks to everybody who contributed in this forum / thread. If I had known earlier how to manually configure the fans and temps I might have even gone for the i7 in the first place. But as I said for my use the i5 is also fine.
[doublepost=1521273618][/doublepost]Thanks to everybody who contributed in this forum / thread. If I had known earlier how to manually configure the fans and temps I might have even gone for the i7 in the first place. But as I said for my use the i5 is also fine.
I was considering the 21.5" with i7 for making music in Logic Pro X, but was worried the screen would be too small.
I can hook up a larger 27" HD screen to use as a larger screen with it if I wanted right?
Does the 21.5" feel small? I'd been making music on a 15" MBP.
Yes, you can hook up an external screen. Although it's fair to say there is nothing in the market like the 5K display in this price range.
21.5'' is an improvement over 15'', but for desktop standards it's quite small.
@propower is very happy with the 7600K i5 for Logic use, and I'm happy too. It's an i5, but it's as powerful as an i7 from previous gens. If you compare benchmarks there is a 30% difference between the 7600K and the 7700K in multithreaded.
IMO for audio the i5 is the better choice as it produces less heat and performance is sufficient for many workflows. If you need a lot more performance than the 7600K for your workflow, the 7700K won't work for you either. In that case I would wait for the new Mac Pro, or get a Windows box and use a different DAW.
Thanks for the advice. I'm 100% set on Logic Pro X. I love Logic Pro 7 and there are so many improvements in Logic Pro X that I want to experience, plus I love the workflow in Logic for me...it just works well and once I get the hang of it I can pump out ideas really fast. Like 10-12 demo tracks in a day no problem once I get going. I never could do that when I used FL Studio before. Now...these are just demo ideas and not always full tracks so obviously they don't take as long to make but Logic is amazing for workflow, so I'm 100% set on that.
I'm thinking the i5 will most likely be good enough for what I'm doing but I'd be doing various genres of music. Hip hop/rap beats, Synthwave, 80's synth pop, new wave, French House, Liquid drum n bass, video game music, and other random EDM stuff...some minimal tech/house, and whatever else pops into my head, so it's difficult for me to judge just how many tracks I'd need for each song but for the hiphop rap beats I know an i5 will be enough, but that is only like 25% of my music.