27" iMac hard drive noise

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Yes but at the very bottom of that page you see http://www.apple.com/imac/design.html

*Acoustics measured on standard 21.5- and 27-inch iMac systems. Acoustics may vary by configuration.

So they know not all iMacs are silent and just cheating users. Actually the most sad thing is the most cheap models are silent, but not BTO models!.

Replacing the drive on the same model will have no results, but you may get some dust under your screen glass - that is not good. That's all very sad for the money we've paid. Feel cheated. Especially because I asked that I want a silent computer before ordering.

here is the same discussions

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2803728?start=0&tstart=0

people have different HDs and the same problems

seems there is a common design flaw in aluminium iMacs, they just have nothing to prevent this rotational HDD noise amplified by the metal case.

here is an interesting post from another thread

from: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2803728?answerId=17598686022#17598686022

DizzDown,

Thanks for the suggestions. I think the USB flash drive sounds like what I will have to go for. The guy from apple care still hasn't got back to me. Here's the a link to an apple web page that I was directed to as part of his response to my noise issue. It basically shut the door on my complaint although I'm still completely unhappy at the overall situation. My argument is that as a previous mac owner I've hardly heard any noises from my machines; therefore, when I up graded my mac I in no way could expect it to make this level of grumbling noise and it gets in the way of my work when undertaking music taks. Also, I own 21.5 inch models at work that are vitually silent. Therefore, when I got mine at home I was shocked and unhappy at the level of noise coming from this thing's HD. I was watching live TV last night on it and you could clearly hear the taps and grumbles from the drive above the TV stream audio! Even now, as I'm writing this you I can hear the HD growling away. I bought a mac to get a mac, not to spend a fortune on a computer that sounds like my coffee perculator. Consequently, it's not acceptable.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3204?viewlocale=en_US

No problem Leo,

Just a thought. If you've recently bought an imac then you'll have the one of the models that they're currently advertising the fact that they're so quiet 'you hardly know it’s on' in the apple store website (see the link below). However, you obviously know it's on as, if it's like mine, it'll sound like a coffee perculator in the corner of your room? Or someone with a hungry stomach? I have the model before this one so I wasn't sure if the grumbling issue applied to the very new models.

If this is the case, then you could send a complaint to the same people that apple recently got into bother with by advertising the new ipad as 4G when in fact the places like the UK and Australia don't even have 4G and, even when they do, the ipad's 4G function will be incompatible with this anyway. So, apple have been forced to stop advertising the ipad as a 4G device. You'd need to do some reseach to find the name of the organisation but I'm sure you'd get this online very easily. I think in the UK it was The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

Might not get anywhere but could be worth a try.

Cheers,

Derek.

http://www.apple.com/uk/imac/design.html

Hello,

I have an iMac 27 , it had the 1TB seagate model ST31000528as and it made the 'grumbling' sound everytime. I havent got waranty or Apple care.

I use the Apple replacement program: http://www.apple.com/support/imac-harddrive/

Hi there I have been having the same problem with the hardisk noises on my 27 inch i 5 2.7 ghz mid 2011 model and i am working with a sata hardisc on mine. My grumbling is quite faint and apple say that it is normal operating noises that the hardrive prduces sometimes even when the computer is on but not being used,I mean i woudn't bother changeing the drive as I think its normal on what apple say but i suppose it depends how loud it is,If it is terribly loud then yer you need to get it sorted but I think for computes like these they should be all dead quiet.I am thinking of upgrading to a 500 GB SSD Drive as there is no moving parts and there for no noise can be prduced but they also increase the performance of your computer quite alot.

This is what Apple Say about it

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3204?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

There are hundreds of posts relating to noisy hard drives in 2010-2013 iMacs. From what I can see the following conclusions can be drawn:

Summary of 100's of complaints so far:

• The large 1-2 TB drives from Seagate and Hitachi (That Apple use) are the worst offendors.
• The noise is most commonly described as a (hungry stomach like) grumbing sound that occurs when the drive is read /writing - often when it the user is no iong anthing with mac.
• Apple have replaced a lot of drives due to the noise but there system won't allow replacements other than the problematic Hitachi and Seagate drives. So many people have had multiple drives replaced.

My experience / Hitachi's view

For comparison, my brothers and friends iMacs are silent as no doubt many millions of iMacs are. However, many aren't. So far my iMac went from being silent to noisy (Seagate) and has since had 3 Hitachi 2TB drives which were worse. I've also had the logic board replaced which has maybe improved the sound grumbling level but its still unnaceptable for anyone who isn't deaf or has paid the best part of £2k for a classy computer. On listening to an audio recording, Hitachi informed me in writing that the drive(s) noise was not normal and was due to an incompatibility with the logi board that Apple need to address with an update.

Can you imagine Steve Jobs or Johnathan Ive's saying it was in any way acceptable for a 27 inch iMac to be NOISY and really irritating and thus not suitable for work requiring concentration or worse for audio work like voice over recording. No, they would be as ****** off as we all are.

Apple need to sort this.

Let me add my two cents the issue:

I have the mid-2011 27" iMac 2.7GHz Core i5 with 8GB RAM and running OS X v.10.8.3. Never had excessive HDD noises or fan noises.

About two years ago, I took the machine into Apple to replace the 1TB drive that came with it as part of a recall. They replced it with a Western Digital drive WDC WD1001FALS-403AA0. After that event, still didn't have excessive HDD noises or fan noises.

About a year and a half ago, I used the iFixit Hard Drive Upgrade kit to add an SSD drive as my primary drive and made the 1TB drive that came with the machine a secondary drive. For the first six months or so, still didn't have excessive HDD noises or fan noises.

Starting last August, the computer developed a low hum / buzzing sound, something along the lines of speakers turned up too loud without any sound source. I thought my external JBL speakers were failing, unplugged them to see if that fixed it. Nope.

So then I pulled out the fans and inspected them. After removing some dust and other particles, I reinstalled everything and fired the machine back up. The sounds were still there.

I'd also like to add the following:

• Like someone said in an earlier post, the noise level increases when I turn up the brightness on my LCD. However, even if I turn the brightness all the way down, the sound doesn't go away. It just gets quieter.
• I've done all of the SMC and PRAM resets.
• I downloaded two separate fan controller softwares and, as far as they're concerned, the fans are all operating at their normal speeds and temps are all within standard ranges.
• Like a previous poster recommended, I manually turned all fans to their maximum RPM for 5 minutes and then back to default settings to see if that helped. Nope.
• Like a previous poster recommended, I tried ejecting the 2nd internal HDD (WDC WD1001FALS-403AA0) but the noise did not stop.

Any ideas...?