Apple → Silly Question (maybe not)

I am likely going to pull the trigger on a loaded up iMac 27" in about 1 month. My current HP computer is about 5-6 years old with a couple of upgrades. I have a GTX 260 Superclocked video card in it, along with an upgraded powersupply (name brand, can't remember which one). Anyway, with a big fan on the PS and another big heatsink/fan setup on the video card, how does the iMac not really need any of this? Do the new products simply run cooler? Does the Apple system not generate as much heat (when gaming) that it doesn't need such elaborate fans/etc? My current computer isn't that loud, but my old one sure is. It has 3 big fans and a Zalman cooler on the CPU. I don't know what the db is of the two computers, but the old one is really loud. The current one I would say "normal". I haven't heard any noise coming from the iMac when I saw it in the store (albeit, it isn't a silent environment so maybe I couldn't tell in there).

Well a GTX 675MX MXM video subsystem is something you would or could find in a laptop. The cooling requirements simply are not the same as a full sized PCIe x16 GTX 670 or GTX 680,.....and naturally the performance isn't the same either,.....

Just make sure it's vented properly, and realize that they will run warmer than a desktop. Those new iMacs are sweet looking computers though...

makes sense...thanks guys.

Interesting. I just gave my Daughter my late 2010 iMac. Which I did notice a good deal of heat from the case. Not hot but quite warm.
I purchased a new iMac and it's interesting to note that I can't feel any significant heat around the the case. I can honestly say it's actually cool to the touch.

Not that it's the same computer, but, my i5 2.5Ghz Mini seems to run (to the touch) quite a bit cooler...and quieter than the older C2D 2.0Ghz Mini it replaced.................

well, i ordered my new 27" iMac on Saturday...should be ready to pick up in 3-4 weeks...it will be my first Mac...wish me luck.

Been there (last August). Still adapting (to some extent).

i have a couple of friends who have made the switch and their only regret was not doing it sooner...they told me to ignore the pain in paying for it (it wasn't cheap), but the said the high price of entry was worth it...plus, the store i bought it from is known in town for great service and support...they have sold Apple products since 1993 and many of the staff have been there for many years.

My entry into the Mac world was very rocky. Some 10 restores in the first two weeks. Then I found the culprit. I like that it's essentially Unix under the hood. Powerful command-line. Plus AppleScript is also cool for automating tasks. Some things are massively stupid and could use a little help from the Windows world, but you sort of get used to it.

My main beef with it is networking. It sucks. I have an Acer H340 NAS running Windows Home Server. Great little box. But SMB on the Mac *sucks*. It's a challenge to keep the connection alive, and it's pretty slow as well. When it's time to replace the NAS, I'll be looking into hardware from QNAP or Synology, which I think both support more Mac-ish network protocols.

I bought mine directly online from Apple. Members of my union get a discount, so between a fully-load 27" iMac and a 27" Thunderbolt display, I saved a little over $300. Not a huge amount, but I'll take it.

I have an HP MediaSmart EX490 WHS (v1 PP3) with about ~14TB of storage. OS X Lion destroyed the ability to backup Macs to the server using Time Machine but everything else seems to work fine.

Not that I think anything is wrong with QNAP or Synology solutions but have you considered just buying a Mac Mini as a replacement and connecting storage to it via something like USB 3 (external multiple bay enclosure)?

currently, i don't have a media server or anything like that...i think if i were to go that route in the future, a mac-mini is what my friends use and it seems to work well for them...i do have an HP SimpleDrive (or whatever they call their back up external USB drive) on my current system. I will likely use it with the iMac as my back up.

It is, parts-wise, a giant laptop. Also, there is lots of area to spread heat around with the aluminum casing and intelligent cooling system (fans run at variable speed).

I was mistaken earlier,....

I just checked and my HP MediaSmart EX490 WHS actually has over 20TB of storage which is a bit more then the "about ~14TB of storage" I thought it had before,....

There are only so many power outlets on a UPS. I'd rather just go with a real NAS. I wasn't all that impressed by the little I read about the Mini. Anyway, with any luck the replacement of my H340 won't be until 2-3 years from now.

Are you running Lion or Mountain Lion?

Running Mountain Lion now,...

My HP EX490 MediaSmart Windows Home Server has been running quite well for quite a long time (forget how long but its been years). It really is a great little tough machine. I have all my music on it and iTunes on individual systems get their music from the server. Recorded TV files from my dual dedicated Media Center systems upload to the server automatically. It all works rather well.

If I wanted to be sure to have better support for OS X though I would be keen to use Apple hardware. I don't much care for simple NAS boxes and prefer a more robust server.

I should be getting an old Mac Pro soon but I'm not sure how that will be used. My Wife can decide what she wants to do with it given that she is getting it from her place of employment,...

When it's time to upgrade (which will either be when the H340 decides to die, or when I wake up one morning feeling like getting new stuff), I'll see what's available out there. I could even end up just building my own box.

Looks like my SMB connections are more stable since I replaced the defective drive AND finished doing full backups to two external USB drives - maybe things got so "busy" down there that it killed the connection intermittently. I was hoping the colored wheel when downloading to a NAS drive would go away, but that's still there.

I'm surprised you can hook up so much storage to the EX490. Impressive.

The EX490 has 4x internal HDD bays, 4x USB 2.0 ports and 1x eSATA port with port multiplier support (up to 5x HDDs). I have two Mediasonic USB + eSATA ProBox 4x Bay Enclosures yielding a total of 12x bays for HDD storage. They are about ~$100 each and in theory I could add 3x more yielding another 12 bays.

WHS v1 PP3 only officially supports up to ~2TB HDD though so that is a limiting factor. I have several 3TB USB 3.0 HDDs (4x or 5x) and one 4TB USB 3.0 HDD I can't use with it.

My MacBook Air is the quietest computer I've had since the 1980's (the last time they came without fans). It does have a fan, but I have to hold my ear close to hear it.

A lot of chip development nowadays goes into reducing energy consumption -- mainly to extend battery life, but the side effect is that less heat is generated, thus requiring less cooling, in turn lowering energy consumption further.