[ofsomeone]

Should I worry about the noise coming out of my recently purchased iMac fp? I have been told that the iMac was a "virtually" silent machine, whatever that means. I realize that compared to a PC the thing is a better in dealing with noise, but nowhere near silent. Anyone here have an iMac and could tell if this is right, should the fan run nonstop? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[ofsomeone]

No one here has an iMac?

[Nobody]

I have an iMac, and only when I throw in a CD does it start to get loud, but that is mostly the CD Drive. Other than that its quiet.

[my58vw]

All the imacs I have seen are quiet.

[Scoot65]

I'm running a 17" iMac 800 and it is very quiet, almost silent. I can only hear the fan when the room is totally quiet.

[ofsomeone]

So is your iMac's fan is on all the time? My concern is why from the time I turn it on to put it to sleep the fan is running, normal?

[Scoot65]

Yep. My iMac's fan is on all the time. From as soon as the Mac boots until it is shut down. I guess it's normal.

[ofsomeone]

Ok that makes me feel better, thanks. This is my first iMac G4 and was told that they were "silent", well that's not completely true. I find that the G3 fan-less were silent, the G4 are superior but not silent. I have been asking this question around this forum and no one would just tell me if the fan ran all the time, until now, thanks. I would have compared it with another iMac but down here (Lafayette, LA) macs are few.

[Scoot65]

No problem, pleased I was of some help to you

[swhitset]

I would not worry too much, but I feel that I must correct one small point. The fan should not run "All The Time" the fans on the FP imacs run at several different speeds and should at times of low use quit all together depending on system temp.

[ofsomeone]

How sure are you about this? That was my concern, but a couple of people I have talked to have told me that their iMac fans run "all the time". Maybe the lower MHz models would kick off/on? I have the 1 Ghz iMac and it's fan is on from boot to shut down, it was a reconditioned buy hence my concern. I don't have Apple Care so I should call and figure this thing out before my 90 day warranty expires!

[swhitset]

Mine is an 800 Mhz model, and the fan is off or at least on low speed very often. I don't have personal experience with the 1 Gig imacs. I will do some asking around.

[Macpaul]

My 17" iMac's fan runs all the time except when sleeping. It's considerably quieter than my old G4 tower, but nonetheless it runs.

[ofsomeone]

All I can think of is that the 1GHz(and higher) iMac fan runs all the time and the lower MHz iMac stops/starts. This is only a guess.