The fan should not be loud. It sounds like the fan has become un-lubricated.
~

A year later it started up again so I just lubricated it myself.

Anyway... lubricate the eMac fan, and I bet it will improve significantly.

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The sound isn't anything like bearing whine or friction though. You could dip the spindle in oil and it probably wouldn't make a difference. What it does sound like is a vacuum suction pulling air through the relatively fine fins on the heat pipe. You could also say that some of us will find them louder than others considering we're used to machines being completely silent. That's also possible.