27" iMac hard drive noise

I have a brand new 27'' with the ST31000528AS from Seagate.
After some research I found that there are other firmwares for it on the market with might offer AAM (to adjust the acoustic management) or improved Firmwares in general (Korean and Russian users reported that). Sadly, according to Seagate support, those are not for us. We can't apply them because Apple as an OEM partner has its custom firmware on it.
Maybe we should aks Apple to release an Update for the Firmware so we have control over the noise and can live better with this otherwise fast Harddrive.

Sorry about the above i pressed return by mistake. I turned it on this evening and it just clicked and started making that annoying noise every one has been describing. It is really annoying and when I shut it down it makes a loud clicking noise, it doesn't sound safe, like it's going to blow up or something.

If I bought this at Dick Smith (retail store here in Australia) do i have to take it back to them or can i take it to an Apple retail store?

It is such a new machine; sorry about the HDD noise, must be very upsetting 😟

Not sure about Australia as I am here in the UK. But over here, we can definitely take it back to the retailers in the first 12 months; I have never had a problem doing this.

I presume that Dick Smith must be a large chain, so they should replace it as it is so new. Just give them a call to be safe 😉

Or if you want to take it back to Apple, give them a call as well. I'm not sure if they would exchange it. Does anyone else know?

No, it is saying there are things inside like fans, optical drives and hard drives that have motors and motors make noise. So some noise is normal and expected, so get over it. 😉

A certain amount of noise IS normal. Because the iMac sits right in front of you, you can hear things that you wouldn't if it were, under the desk. Add in a very quiet room and you may be hearing things that are perfectly normal. Get over THAT.

If you think you are hearing something that ISN'T normal, take it in and get someone who listens to a lot of these things evaluate it.

Just don't expect them to be as silent as a tomb, in a cemetary, at midnight.

Your argument (and then in turn Apple's) is valid. But the thing is, there are solutions to make the HDDs silent, like AAM. Silent PC enthusiasts do it all the time. My former HDDs were much quieter. I could lay my ears on them and not here seeking noise. It all has to do with a good balance of AAM.
If we would get a Firmware patch that allows for AAM, as the official ones of Seagate most likely do recently, then Seagate owners could solve it by themselves.
iMac owner with WD HDDs should be able to adjust AAM anyhow.

Regret I didn't take the time to read all the 11-page, just too long. But allow me to add 1 point after skimming the first page.

There's a thermal sensor inside iMac, a special one made for the internal HD sitting next to it. So the fan will activate whenever the unibody case needs 'cooling'.

In case you are not aware, the fans are sitting at the bottom of unibody, one on left and the other on the right. They suck air in from bottom and hot air out on top. There are 2 heat sinks too, one above the fan on left and the other above the optical drive on right - so they are away from logic board which is just above the apple logo behind the screen. They dissipate heat throughout the unibody, so it can be very warm around the rim (top very hot while sides hot) Notice the bottom is pretty cool because air ***** in from there. You can actually feel it with you hands.

OK My guess is 2 possible answers (might be more) I can think of at this point to question about the fan noise or fans activating all the time.
1) unibody is too hot. Avoid blocking the fan inlet and free up some spaces around the body for ventilation.
2) thermal sensor is faulty or has bad contact. That is, it can't tell the body is cool and keep spinning the fan.

In both cases, the fans would mistakenly think the body is too hot and spin continuously.

May be anyone having problem with fan can look into the above. Hope my input helps.

Mine is quiet and I'm happy in the past few months. (keep it this way)
Late 09 iMac 27" 1TB Hitachi HDE721010SLA330 HD

suzkid wrote:
I just picked up a 27" iMac with the 1 T HD. I can hear the hard drive any time the computer is "working". Took the first one back to the Apple store and exchanged it, thinking I had a defective machine. The replacement makes the same noise.
Anyone else having this issue? Are these things supposed to be this noisy?

Got SICK of the horrible hard drive noise on my brand new iMac 2.93. I went and got a Western Digital WD10EARS 1 TB Green Drive and the disk write and read noise is GONE. I know I lost a little speed but could not handle the noise. The speed is very close to the Western Digital that came with the iMac.

My next exploit is to get the exact same model that came with the iMac the Western Digital WD1001FALS from Fry's Electronics and see if it has the same noise factor as the one that came with the iMac.

If not I will replace the Green Drive with it.

Hi Guys
I treated myself to brand new iMac 27inch iCore5.
All my excitement gone when the grinding noise started, which drives me insane. We have 2 iMac at home (less than 8 months old), none of them making the noise.
I dont mind it when I play music, but when working at home and need to be in silent environment - it drives me potty. Called Apple and got replacement. Same problem. Called Apple again and they are not aware of any problems with noise, when I mentioned 11 pages of posts on Apple forum - they were surprised and call it isolated incidents. !!!
Funnily when I called sales line today and pretended I want to buy new iMac and asked if there any known issues I have been told that it is the quietest iMac ever. Again when I have mentioned posts above - been informed that Apple will be happy to exchange hard drive for me.
Where is the logic here? They expect me to pay £1600 for new machine just to have hard drive replaced within 7 days. Madness.
Decided to return mine and get my money back.
Now dilemma - I have no computer. Going back to Macbook Air.
Considering maybe MacBook Pro and Cinema Display, but I need 1TB....

Any ideas?

suzkid wrote:
I just picked up a 27" iMac with the 1 T HD. I can hear the hard drive any time the computer is "working". Took the first one back to the Apple store and exchanged it, thinking I had a defective machine. The replacement makes the same noise.
Anyone else having this issue? Are these things supposed to be this noisy?

I tried all 1 TB Western Digital Drives. The "Black" Models all displayed the noise when reading and writing. The ONLY silent Western Drives were the Green Drives. Settled for a 1 TB WD10EARS with 64 MB Buffer. Apple System Profile only shows 32 MB Buffer and no Rotational Speed. It is pretty close to the WD That came with the iMac 2.93 except it is Dead Quiet.

This leads me to believe the Western Digital "Black" is just a noisy Drive. At least in the retail arena. I wonder if Apple has a specific Firmware they apply to the drives to quiet them down.

Going to have my Certified Apple Repair Station order a replacement WD and see if it is noisy.

Well - they are isolated incidents - of the 11 pages of reports of hard disk noise here, only about one page has been written since the launch of the iMac model you have... Hardly a flood.

It seems to me, your best bet would be to get a SSD disk for your machine (as large as you can afford - but it won't be the 1TB you want) which is absolutely silent as there are no moving parts, and then get a network drive (such as Apple's Time Capsule or any external drive you can plug into your router) which you can then hide away from where you work. You'll then have perfect silence. 🙂

Thanks Paul. Good advice I might concider. The problem I have is that my time machine holds 600gb of back up with essential files like music And pictures.
I could get iMac with ssd drive and external hard drive to keep and access my back up but that's going back to square one as external hdd are noisy.

I had a mild grumbling noise with my iMac. My friend got an iMac as well (mid 2010) with SSD and his was quiet, even though he had a 1TB ATA as well...

Anyhow, I returned my iMac and got the 27" with SSD, so let's see if that makes a difference. Obviously, I didn't get the SSD just for the noise issue, but the other benefits, too.

I have returned mine today. John Lewis was really good. Took it back and issued refund straight away.
But they dont offer SSD option, dont think Apple is either. 1TB SSD?
So weighting my option now....and pushing my MacBook Air with 128 SSD to the limit

I hrve a 21.5 Inch iMac (late 2009) with a Western Digital WD1001FALS I cannot hear the drive at all, it is very quite, yet I have heard the 27" version which sounded very loud, I was very disappointed. I was wondering if its acoustics, has the 27" iMac got maybe a greater amount of space inside for noise to be amplified so the same drives can sound so loud, I know we cannot be sure but is that possible? I am just throwing this in as I want to buy a 27" i7 for myself and pass this 21.5 on to my wife but after having a near silent iMac I am just wondering if its that simple, acoustics of the 27" is bad an amplifies the sound through the larger body. If they are all that nosey it looks like waiting for next year to see what Apple bring out otherwise.

I have tested 27inch icore3 at John Lewis and its dead silent, problem is I want i5 quad-core and two I had are noisy. So I suggest get it from reputable reseller (JL offers 2 years warranty against 1 year Apple's) so if you not happy with it you have 28 days to return it.