iMac 27" - how noisy?

I think seeing in the system profiler, mine is 1TB

My HD is constantly making noises even if I am not doing anything - quite frustrating.
Steve

Yes....I guess it has to do with available inventory...both are however 1TB.

+is there any way to find out what imac 27'' has which drive (seagate vs. hitachi) inside before purchase ?+

No, not a new one. Only if you can buy one that's already out for display. It would have to be powered on to check System Profiler for the information. I don't believe an Apple Store would sell one that way, but a computer dealer probably would if it was already unboxed.

+Why are they doing this? Is this normal?+

Yes, it is Apple's normal procedure to use multiple suppliers for component parts. As far as I know, it is the goal of every producer. Purpose is to maintain competitive pricing, and to avoid potential disaster from being tied to only one factory or one business.

My stock iMac 27 C2D is so quiet that I have to put my ear right against the computer to hear anything unless the hard drive is working. Even then, it's a very, very quiet hard drive. It's a Western Digital. Unfortunately, I'm returning it for refund when my i7 comes. I hope the i7 is as quiet as this C2D and doesn't have the flickering/blackout video that the C2D has.

dicktwi wrote:
My stock iMac 27 C2D is so quiet that I have to put my ear right against the computer to hear anything unless the hard drive is working. Even then, it's a very, very quiet hard drive. It's a Western Digital. Unfortunately, I'm returning it for refund when my i7 comes. I hope the i7 is as quiet as this C2D and doesn't have the flickering/blackout video that the C2D has.

keep us in the loop. i am quite curious to find out how the C2D compares to the i5/7 in terms of noise floor.
thanks.

My i7 is very quiet. I've never heard the HD or fans even when pushing it...

i5, very quite with zero heating problems.

I personally have the i5 iMac w/ the 1TB Seagate drive. I am beginning to find the hard drive's sound to be quite annoying. It's constantly ticking away even during idle or extremely light use. I had a 5 year old Dell laptop that I replaced with this beautiful new machine and it was dead silent.

Every iMac I have ever used in school has been dead silent. Why do these have to be so loud? It sounds like older computers how you would constantly hear them reading and writing.

I also don't recall hearing the HD like this for the first day that I used it. It seems to have gotten slightly louder unless I am just noticing it more now.

Message was edited by: Ryan51287

Not necessarily so.. I have a white 24". Sure, if you put a DVD in to play or burn etc. it makes noise. Also a very mild not very loud chatter once in a while from the HD. But the fans never are that audible. I suppose if I put my ear to it I can hear something. Also the rare times when the fans rev up past 4000 or so you can hear them, but that doesn't happen that much on this one. Just to reality check, I just opened CS3, opened a 60 MB photo and ran some actions and filters. CPU usage got very high, but the fans did not get audible.

So I guess it depends on what one counts as "quiet". I consider mine pretty quiet, much more so than my much newer MBP which the fans can be quiet, but which the fans rev up much louder than my iMac.

The fans are nearly dead silent. Everything is.... except for this obnoxiously loud HD.

If I were transferring files or something else work intensive like that I would understand but it's intermittently reading/writing at all times and has to be one of the loudest HD I have heard from my experience with computers.

I really think that from all the answers obtained, it has to do with the Seagate drives. Id I had to buy a new iMac, I would definitely request to be sure (by opening the box in the Apple Store if required) that the drive in the iMac is not a Seagate. The noise difference is really obvious.

Actually, the iMac i7 I've just received is VERY noisy. It has a constant fan humming, very loud and annoying, driving me quite mad.

I've reinstalled the OS, reset the PRAM, zero effect.

If you call to apple can you get them to order an imac which specifically will not contain a seagate? I think that would be impossible..

One thing though, perhaps it would be possible to get them to give a free upgrade to a 2TB drive? Is seagate also supplying 2TB drives or has anyone had any issues with a 2TB drive?