elastic suspension makes a surprisingly big improvement but you probably can't fit it inside the tight case. i don't think you will be happy with any 3.5" drive. however since there is a 3.5" bay you will be able to fit a 2.5" in there for sure, you can buy 3.5" sized mounts for notebook drives. if...

I've got an Apple iMac and, although it's quiet compared to a stock PC, it's actually pretty noisy in a completely quiet environment. I really want to quiet it down. The fans are pretty quiet when idle, and I would estimate that around 60% of the noise comes from the hard disk. I can confirm this by...

A final word on this. Looking at pictures of Intel iMac disassemblies around the web, it appears the hard disk was mounted with the top of the drive (ie the label side) facing the BACK of the machine. On my iMac, the drive is the other way around. it's mounted top-side up. Additionally there's no wa...

The exact model of my drive is WDC WD2500JS-40TGB0. There's definatly no high pitch sound coming it, but according to my tests it is still probably the loudest component in the imac. I found an app that allows you to change the fan speed, and tried changing all 3. I did not notice a big change in t...

My 20" c2d imac came with a 250GB Western Digital, which does not have a whining sound. It's the most silent stock computer I've seen, but you can still hear it. Interesting that you have a different drive on an otherwise identical computer. Mine's a Seagate model. If you notice, Apple don't quote ...

If it's the hard drive in the thing that's making the most noise, then just replace the hard drive. That's probably much easier than building a custom enclosure. Just look at the Recommended section. You may also look into if there's someway to suspend the hard drive in your current enclosure. I've...

I'm thinking about adding a rubber pad covering the hard disk, to dampen the sound transmitted toward the user. This would sit on the disk, and then be covered by the screen. Here's a picture of an Intel iMac's innards. http://home.comcast.net/~woojo/DFFA53A0-F23D-4541-9015-481FD3B6532E/iMac_Disasse...

Well, first thing is to figure out that how much absorption material you have in the room. This is important because if you have very low room absorption you will have higher sound levels than in well dampened room. Specially first level echos should be dampened. The office the iMac is in is a bit ...

Thanks for the advice. I realized one additional problem with creating an enclosure is that I wouldn't be able to hear the speakers built into the iMac... I'm learning more and more about quieting the machine, though. For example, a lot of noise was caused by vibrations from the hard disk, travellin...

I'm new here, so apologies in advance if I seem naive :) I've got a new 20in iMac. As a rule, the new iMacs are quiet. But I work in a strange home office that seems to amplify noise. I used my laptop in here for the first time a week or two ago, and realized that the machine wasn't actually silent,...

Rather annoyingly, the new hard disk is sending vibrations through the iMac base and into the desk below. This is generating additional noise! :roll: As I mentioned, in terms of silent computing, the iMacs have some fundamental design flaws. But I'm not licked yet! I've improvised a solution involvi...

Hello, What size and brand was the noisy drive? And what size iMac and model is it? The iMac was a 20in 2.16GHz Dual 2 Core model. The drive was a Seagate Barracuda 7200.9, 250GB (ST3250824AS). There's an Apple logo on the drive's label so I'd guess it's from a batch specially made for Apple. I'd b...

A week or so ago I posted here about my two-month-old iMac, and its noisy hard disk. The drive emitted a high-pitched whine, the same quality as an electric drill, except that it was only just audible. Sadly it made using the iMac impossible for me. It was stressing me out. To cut a long story short...

I suspect the only thing I can do is replace it with a different model. Are there any notoriously quiet hard disks around? iMacs use SATA2. There are quieter SATA 2 hard drives out there, but I'm not sure if you can just move the operating system over like in a PC. Macintosh is notorious for making...

I got an iMac just before Xmas. It's by far the quietest desktop computer I've ever owned. It's got a 2.16Ghz Core 2 Duo processor. To cut a long story short, the computer had a low whirr, which was acceptable and even soothing. Over recent days the noise has become thinner and more whiney. Still d...

My dad has a CoreDuo iMac and it is very quiet except for an annoying case fan (right lower corner). Realistically, don't think I can do anything about it, but disappointing given the cost of these Apple iMacs. http://www.kodawarisan.com/imac_intel/imac_intel01.html To be fair to Apple, my iMac con...

I got an iMac just before Xmas. It's by far the quietest desktop computer I've ever owned. It's got a 2.16Ghz Core 2 Duo processor. To cut a long story short, the computer had a low whirr, which was acceptable and even soothing. Over recent days the noise has become thinner and more whiney. Still da...