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fporoli · Sep 20, 2006, 07:17 PM

I am not sure if it's only because of my harddrive (500 Gb) but the noise is a deep continuous and clearly noticeable sound. I don't feel really vibrations. Is anybody else experiencing the same? Is the 250 Gb version quiet in idle mode?

mduell · Sep 20, 2006, 08:32 PM

The extra 250GB shouldn't make the drive any louder.

I'd guess a deep continuous sound is some part resonating with the fan or drive vibration.

acX · Sep 20, 2006, 08:57 PM

Originally Posted by fporoli

I am not sure if it's only because of my harddrive (500 Gb) but the noise is a deep continuous and clearly noticeable sound. I don't feel really vibrations. Is anybody else experiencing the same? Is the 250 Gb version quiet in idle mode?

I'll find out later tonight when I power up my 20" Core 2 duo. It has the 250GB Hard drive. I'm sensitive to the noise too. A while ago, I bought a 17" 1.8 G5 iMac ( rev A or B, I think ), but I returned it because I did not like the fan noise.
I have been using a 1.42 G4 Mini since then.

ac

Eug · Sep 20, 2006, 09:24 PM

Hmmm... My 24" with 500 GB is almost silent.

I wonder if it's an individual unit thing, or if it's because it's easier to cool a 24".

RoyW · Sep 20, 2006, 10:28 PM

Originally Posted by Eug

Hmmm... My 24" with 500 GB is almost silent.

I wonder if it's an individual unit thing, or if it's because it's easier to cool a 24".

Like Eug my new 24" iMac with its 500 GB Harddrive is silent unlike my 20" iMac which does have a continuous fan sound which at times can get pretty noisy.

keithwan · Sep 20, 2006, 10:46 PM

i had a iMac 20inch for a few months now, its only a small humming noise from a fan. Have u ever comparing it to a PC?

Dark_Lotus · Sep 20, 2006, 11:29 PM

I have a 20" and it is completely silent all of the time. Burning and ripping cd's is another thing though.

acX · Sep 21, 2006, 07:48 AM

I have my 20" Core 2 Duo setup now. It has a low speed fan running that I can notice, but it is very quiet. Nowhere near as loud as the rev B iMac G5 fan that used to ramp up.
My external Firewire hard disk is louder than this iMac.

The iMac fan is also quieter than the G4 Mini fan when it comes on. When I was doing the firewire transfer from the Mini to the iMac, the Mini fan drowned out any sound from the iMac.

Eug · Sep 21, 2006, 08:38 AM

Originally Posted by RoyW

Like Eug my new 24" iMac with its 500 GB Harddrive is silent unlike my 20" iMac which does have a continuous fan sound which at times can get pretty noisy.

Which 20" iMac do you have?

My 20" G5 iMac has a low humming noise, but that's not surprising, given the G5's power utilization. I would have expected most Intel Core Duo 20" iMacs to be quieter though.

RoyW · Sep 21, 2006, 11:59 AM

Originally Posted by Eug

Which 20" iMac do you have?

My 20" G5 iMac has a low humming noise, but that's not surprising, given the G5's power utilization. I would have expected most Intel Core Duo 20" iMacs to be quieter though.

I have the Rev. A G5 20" iMac and under any type of heavy use such and copying and burning a DVD it can get a little noisy fan wise. Of course all that noise pales in comparison to my Dual 1GB QuickSilver.

jamil5454 · Sep 21, 2006, 02:00 PM

My 20" Core 2 Duo is silent nearly all of the time. The only times I hear the fans come on is when I'm in Windows playing a game (and then I have to put the volume on mute to hear them). Besides, when the fans do come on, it's very subtle.

Although one time my fans randomly ramped up to full speed when I ran CoreDuoTemp, but a restart fixed the issue.

WizOSX · Sep 21, 2006, 09:44 PM

Can anyone comment on the 17" Core 2 Duo re: noise? I'm currently sitting the fence between the 17" and the 20" and am curious as to whether one is noisier, quieter.

Actually the 17" is really all that I need since I am going to run it with an external monitor all the time. But my external monitor is 1680x1050 which perfectly matches the 20" iMac's resolution so I can do mirroring--which means no mouse disappearing off the corner of the screen and also that the VRAM doesn't have to be split in half unnecessarily.

selowitch · 11:55 PM

See also this thread.

Since the Apple Store shipped my Core Duo 20" iMac nine days before they announced the Core 2 Duo 20" iMac, Apple was gracious enough to swap the former for the latter (truly great customer service, I must say).

I have to admit that my first reaction to the newer machine was that the hard drive did indeed seem noisier — and this was without having seen anything like this thread on the subject to prejudice that impression.

A mite worrisome.

Originally Posted by mduell

The extra 250GB shouldn't make the drive any louder.

Well, you're right in the sense that all things being equal, a 250GB drive and a 500GB drive with otherwise identical characteristics should have no difference in noise level; however, if I understand correctly (and I'm not an engineer or anything like that), it seems to me that any individual drive can have a noise problem if, for example, the head is misaligned or if a bad boot sector is present.

fk51785 · Sep 22, 2006, 11:38 PM

I just received mine today and mine is very quiet.
I absolutely love mine.

selowitch · Sep 22, 2006, 11:56 PM

Originally Posted by fk51785

I just received mine today and mine is very quiet.
I absolutely love mine.

Oh, yeah! I love mine, too. I just don't want it to die on me.

Parky · Sep 23, 2006, 05:50 AM

I had an iMac G5 20" and the fan noise drove me mad.

My 24" iMac on the other hand is virtually silent, generally all I here is the disc as it accesses data.

Ian

imitchellg5 · Sep 23, 2006, 11:20 AM

What??? I can't hear you! Oh your iMac's fan is loud!? So is my iMac G5s, it can't possibly be worse than you Core 2 Duo :/

phantonym · Sep 23, 2006, 01:15 PM

If you read the forums at SilentPCReview.com, you'll see that 500 GB drives are considered to be very noisy. I have a 20" C2D iMac with a 250 GB drive, and it's very quiet. It's not silent, but the sound it makes isn't uncomfortable in any way (I once had an iMac G5 and it was so noisy that I had to get rid of it.)

::maroma:: · Sep 23, 2006, 02:02 PM

Originally Posted by phantonym

If you read the forums at SilentPCReview.com, you'll see that 500 GB drives are considered to be very noisy. I have a 20" C2D iMac with a 250 GB drive, and it's very quiet. It's not silent, but the sound it makes isn't uncomfortable in any way (I once had an iMac G5 and it was so noisy that I had to get rid of it.)

Do you have a direct link to this article?

And can anyone confirm or deny this claim? I would love to know if the 500GB HD is significantly louder than the 250GB HD.

ginoledesma · Sep 23, 2006, 02:24 PM

I got the 17" iMac Core 2 Duo and I couldn't really tell if its loud. My only basis for comparison would be an eMac and an Intel P4-based PC and neither is louder nor quieter than the iMac.

phantonym · Sep 24, 2006, 06:38 AM

Originally Posted by ::maroma::

Do you have a direct link to this article?

And can anyone confirm or deny this claim? I would love to know if the 500GB HD is significantly louder than the 250GB HD.

Just browse the Silent Storage forums. Remember, though, that the case of the iMacs isolates noise very well, so a 500 GB drive would probably sound much more noisy in standard PC case. Also, iMacs doesn't have the same problems with resonance that PC cases tend to have.

Eug Wanker · Sep 24, 2006, 10:27 AM

My 500 GB is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3500641AS, which is supposed to be fairly quiet.

It's certainly quiet enough for me. In fact it's the quietest drive at idle in this test:

It's not overly quiet when transferring according to that test, but it's fine for me. It's certainly not like those uber loud drives you'd get 3-4 years ago.

mjarski15 · Sep 24, 2006, 06:36 PM

Just got my 20" iMac with the 500 gig HD yesterday, so far I haven't noticed any HD noises and overall I would say that the machine is just as quiet as my older ibook. Beautiful machine, the screen is really bright and crisp.

kmkkid · Sep 25, 2006, 09:47 AM

My 20" iMac core duo is nearly silent. The fans seem to make a little more noise (faint hum) a few months after buying it, but this could also be cause I just left a noisy job, and my hearing might just be getting better. The HD is only audible when it's doing some major writing to the disk, and even then it's faint.

brokenjago · Sep 25, 2006, 06:03 PM

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

It's certainly quiet enough for me. In fact it's the quietest drive at idle in this test:

Which test?

ingo · Oct 5, 2006, 06:49 PM

Hi there,

Just received my new iMac, 20 inch, 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB SDRAM, 250 GB HD

I guess I'm one of the unlucky ones:

http://nachbaur.org/imac.mp3

The fan noise seems to be ok; however, there is this other noise in the back, an annoying hum, which is sometimes louder, sometimes less audible. I'd say the sound is similar to the one of a helicopter flying above your house. Is this normal?

Thanks for your help!

::maroma:: · Oct 5, 2006, 07:37 PM

Originally Posted by ingo

Hi there,

Just received my new iMac, 20 inch, 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB SDRAM, 250 GB HD

I guess I'm one of the unlucky ones:

http://nachbaur.org/imac.mp3

The fan noise seems to be ok; however, there is this other noise in the back, an annoying hum, which is sometimes louder, sometimes less audible. I'd say the sound is similar to the one of a helicopter flying above your house. Is this normal?

Thanks for your help!

I doubt that's normal, it sounds like a fan vibrating or rubbing on something to me. It would drive me nuts. I'd send it back.

phantonym · Oct 6, 2006, 03:57 AM

Originally Posted by ingo

Is this normal?

If this is normal, my excact same kind of iMac is abnormal.

Zkatz007 · Oct 13, 2006, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by ingo

Hi there,

Just received my new iMac, 20 inch, 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB SDRAM, 250 GB HD

I guess I'm one of the unlucky ones:

http://nachbaur.org/imac.mp3

The fan noise seems to be ok; however, there is this other noise in the back, an annoying hum, which is sometimes louder, sometimes less audible. I'd say the sound is similar to the one of a helicopter flying above your house. Is this normal?

Thanks for your help!

I couldn't hear the MP3 file because my frickin' iMac G5 is so loud!

Teacher · Oct 13, 2006, 11:54 PM

I have had my core 2 duo 17" 250GB for about a week now and I love it. There is absolutley no noise at ll at any time!

ingo · Oct 16, 2006, 06:04 PM

Hey guys,

thanks for your help! I called Apple Customer Support and they picked up my iMac a few days ago. Got a call today - apparently the logic board was defect and that was somehow the reason for the noise. Well, they'll send me a new iMac in the next few days...

ChasingApple · Oct 17, 2006, 04:41 AM

I swear Apple users have the most sensitive ears. There are moving parts in these gentlemen! YOU WILL hear some sort of sound emanating from your Macs, please get over it. If it sounds like a bloody leaf blower then something is wrong, but a low fan sound or HD access sound is normal. Cmon people! You live in sound proof barrier rooms or something?