iMac 27" - how noisy?

Hi NULCGI,

Thanks for your feedback! Yep, desk surface is clean, and it started right out of the box, so it was not a scenario where it was working properly and then began to collect dust and dirt..

What is interesting is this noise was consistent on BOTH of my 2tb iMacs, but did not occur on either of my 1tb iMacs.. When I spoke with the Senior Apple Technical Advisor regarding my first 2tb iMac, he thought it was a bad sensor, but to happen on two separate iMacs? Hmm...

Hi edrush001:

The beefier machine arrived a week ago. Drive is 2T Hitachi. It grumbles, although it doesn't seem to grumble as much nor quite as loud.

Machine with 1T Seagate is on its way back to Apple now.

Will report more after I work with the Hitachi a bit/give it a little time.

Would like to be sure my ear, so sensitized to the Seagate noise, is really only hearing the Hitachi and only the Hitachi.

At first blush, I'd recommend maxing out the RAM capability and hoping for a 1T WD drive.

More later --mbm

Seninolesfan: Did you find a way to fix the sound issue ? I am having the same problem with my iMac that just arrived 😟

I own an iMac 27", Core i7, upgraded to 8GB of memory. Mine is dead silent when working on it, but I hear the airflow very silently when I play games on it (on Win7 bootcamp).

It was more noisy at the beginning as I heard the hum of the hardrive. Remember those are 7200rpm drives, so be careful how you put your iMac on your desk: if you put them on hard desks the Hd "hum" will be emphasized by the desk as its being transported right through the iMac desk stand. My solution: I put a very flat mousepad underneath and bingo, it was gone.

Another tip: when your imac is standing close to the wall put a post-it note on the wall about 10 inches above the heat slit (where the air is fanned out). When the fans ramp up due to heat you will see the post-it note flapping in the "air", so you know they are spinning on full (mine do when I play heavy duty 3d games).

Otherwise I never notice the machine is turned on. I love this one, best investment so far as I can run both worlds on a fast machine.

I am contemplating buying a new 27" iMac to use it
as a combined file server and
external display for my MB Pro 13".

Are you able to use a 27" iMac as an external display??



I was told that I could NOT use it as an external display for my Mac Mini. Would love to hear how you set yours up so I can do the same.