Computer background noise

[Dave2002]

I tend to find computer background noise, even if some might consider that low, distracting. I have in the past had to use many desktop computers with noise levels which to me might just as well have been similar to a jet taking off.

In the last decade or so I have tended to favour Apple computers for this reason. Perhaps things get worse if one has a room which is very quiet, but a very new 27 inch iMac is noisier than I'd hoped. In fairness it's pretty quiet, but I have had machines (not many) which were quieter.

Solutions - 1. play music or listen on headphones while using the computer - though that might not be ideal for serious concentration. 2 - maybe putting sound absorbent material nearby could make a difference too. I suspect that a hard desktop to stand the machine on reflects the noise.

For comparison, I think my 13 inch MacBook Pro is almost silent, until it starts to heat up and the fan kicks in.

For serious work with a lot of documents the screen size on the 27 inch iMac is brilliant, though - which is why it was obtained in the first place.

[Frances_iom]

if you have control over the workspace place the processors in an adjacent room or make an acoustic barrier - an organ builder told me that he uses stacked thick paper magazines around blowers to silence the noise as we all know how pernickity organists can be !

[Stunsworth]

I sit around 2 feet from a Mac Mini when listening to music, and have never heard any noise from it. Maybe it's my hearing that's at fault.

[MrGongGong]

Many years ago when I first bought a laptop and tried unsuccessfully to find out data on the ambient noise of various machines.
In my experience my macbook is very quiet until it gets hot then the fan is fairly noisy but quieter than any windows laptop i've used.
The real solution is to have physical separation as used in most studios these days.

SSD will make a big difference I think

[Pianoman]

Yes I have to say my ssd macbook is all but silent, and the fan has never come in yet, though I don't do any video editing or really heavy stuff on it. In old pc days I just resorted to my Sennheiser HD 25s to block the lousy 'hair dryer' noise out

[richardfinegold]

Some audio companies that modify pcs to create high end audio servers remove the fans. I am not sure what they replace the fan with.

[Dave2002]

SSD will make a big difference I think

I think probably not. The new machine is SSD only, so I guess it's the fan(s) used for cooling all the electronic stuff for the memory, processor and video card which are causing the noise. Perhaps a lower spec machine would actually be quieter, though it's not quite obvious. A few other lesser iMacs we have lying around are quieter. If an i5 or other lower spec system would have been quieter, in retrospect I'd have ordered that instead. It's hard to know though in advance. My MBP has an i7 and it's very quiet until it starts to do real work, or run Flash!

I agree with Steve that Mac Minis are usually very quiet.

Re fanlesss systems, some use massive heatsinks - some very strange looking designs. Usually need more space inside the box for that.