iMac 21,5 late 2012, Fusion drive noise

a harddisk have a buffer of memory

maybe 16MB

a fusion drive is the same animal apart from it also have a big flash buffer apart from that it's just a rotating magnetic plate wich because of the retation most likely 7200 rpm as in revolutions pr minut which would make some noise

if you want 100% silence I think you need to buy a SSD which is like a big fusion drive minus the harddisk bit

Your suggestion to go all SSD for noise doesn't make much sense. Some drives are noisier with more vibration just spinning than others. I hear absoutely nothing from the WD drive in mine.

I fail to see how some discs being noiriser then others makes buying a soundless solution not making sense

it's like saying since bacon comes with various fat levels not eating bacon to loose weight don't make sese

The SSD does the vast majority of the work, so in my machine, I only rarely hear the clicking of the heads of the mechanical hard drive.

Bur even with an all-SSD option, the fans will run sometimes.

There's still a motherboard and display that generate some heat, and need a fan.

Most conventional drives are noiseless when installed. It's the exception that isn't. Going all SSD is, for most purposes, much too small and far too expensive. And many SSD brands are not ready for prime time. If it weren't for these important considerations, then I would endorse your solution, which just seems to have been thrown out without giving it much thought.

Elbfrosch,

I've got a similar problem with the exact same iMac configuration - there is a constant ticking of the HDD in the background.

And for some reason simple things like scrolling a web page in Safari will trigger HDD activity with higher noise levels, as if the OS is reading or writing something to disk all the time.

The idle noise is not too bad, but with an active HDD the noise levels are enough to make using the iMac in a quiet room uncomfortable.

Loud reader clicking is never a good sign... You should post that problem in a new thread.. As for the rest of the conversation, everyone here seems to have forgotten that whether you have an ssd or an hdd, you still have an hdd fan in the case, and this part is producing the constand whurring noise... You can verrify this by using SMC fan controll, and changing the different fan speeds to see if the nature of the noise changes...

Heyy,

I had this problem too with the same specs. Constant buzzing from start-up, stopped when I put the cam on and when scrolling in Safari. I was told to take it back to the store straight away, where they had a quick listen and sent it packing back to Ireland.

Hi,

let me share my experience:

I had a similar problem with my new 27'' late 2012 iMac with 1 TB fusion drive and 16GB RAM. There was a consistent noise as if the HD was permanently working. All functions and HD checks were normal. The HD started even buzzing when scrolling a website - sounded like a trapped fly.

I brought it back and they exchanged the HD: Better, but still not to the standard expected from this high-end machine. I brought it back a second time, thinking I was overly sensitive, asked them to check again and was even willing to upgrade to a SSD if the technician would call this "normal".

They exchanged the HD for the 2nd time, and also the LCD display and:

🙂 it is gone - completely gone ! 🙂

And it appears overall performance of the machine is faster than before.

Hope it helps, if someone has similar doubts as I had.

Cheers

JK