I ended up buying @mark’s old 2019 iMac. Display is definitely nice, shame Apple never put display in on these. Now I just have to stop my overwhelming urge to get 128GB of cheap RAM put in. *

* Before anyone "but OMG Intel", I knew what I was getting myself into. I've never had an iMac before and wanted to try it and its 5k display. I can always flip it in 3-6 months for what I paid for it.

I've seen a number of folks talking about fan noise on the 27" iMacs but this 2019 isn't bad at all. I've heard it a couple times when really pounding on the CPU but probably wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't listening for it. Right now I've had all cores pegged for about 10 minutes and its sitting at 90C with fans slightly above idle but inaudible.

It might be throttling itself big time, but whatever its a ton better than the 2018 Minis that hit 100C and max fan if you just look at them funny.

@paul

Seriously, the proper fix is to open up that thing, clean it from all the dust inside and put some proper thermal paste [my go-to choice is MX-4 if you want an "install and forget" solution that lasts 5+ years amd has always worked for me on everything]...

But then again #Apple managed to make a #Laptop where the #SATA cable dies...

Something even the cheapest "#ChinaShit" didn't manage...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUaJ8pDlxi8&t=1343s

@paul Seriously, #iMac|s are prone by design to die a slow and painful death by self-induced hyperthermia unless they get maintained well and regularly...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdwDvz47lNw&t=279s