Should my new Mac Mini be this quiet?

[benwiggy]

Funny how there's one thread worried about the mini being too quiet, and another worried about it being too loud!

In the absence of any considered evidence of a design or production flaw, I'm generally of the opinion that Apple engineers, with degrees and experience in the relevant area, thought about such things for a fair amount of time, and there's no need for me to spend my time using utilities to monitor CPU temp, fan speed, memory usage, network requests, process launching, etc, etc -- when there's a perfectly good operating system to do that for me.

OF course, there's still the possibility of a Mac that went through the factory at "end-of-shift", which might have a unique problem. But, unless there is a noticeable, observable problem, (most of which are likely to manifest immediately or within the warrantee period), I'm inclined to advise: "Leave it, it'll probably be fine."

[randy98mtu]

Originally Posted by benwiggy

Funny how there's one thread worried about the mini being too quiet, and another worried about it being too loud!

In the absence of any considered evidence of a design or production flaw, I'm generally of the opinion that Apple engineers, with degrees and experience in the relevant area, thought about such things for a fair amount of time, and there's no need for me to spend my time using utilities to monitor CPU temp, fan speed, memory usage, network requests, process launching, etc, etc -- when there's a perfectly good operating system to do that for me.

OF course, there's still the possibility of a Mac that went through the factory at "end-of-shift", which might have a unique problem. But, unless there is a noticeable, observable problem, (most of which are likely to manifest immediately or within the warrantee period), I'm inclined to advise: "Leave it, it'll probably be fine."

I completely agree with you. For the general use of the machine, 90+% of people are going to surf the web, do some iTunes and iPhoto and perhaps some iMovie. If that's all you do, by all means, leave it alone and don't sweat it. That is precisely what Apple engineers designed it for.

I just think for those of us running Handbrake more than a few times a month or otherwise taxing the CPU for extended periods of time on a regular basis, keeping the machine cooler will result in longer life. Same goes for a car. If you run it at 90% frequently, it will not last as long. But there are precautions you can take to make it last longer.

[randy98mtu]

Originally Posted by randy98mtu

My 2012 i7 2.3 is dead silent in normal operation at about 50-55C. When Handbrake fires up, the temp goes to 100+ before the fans even BEGIN to ramp up. By the time the fans are helping it's at 104-105. They can only get it back down to 97-100. If I set the fans to 4500 before I hit go, temps will climb to around 90-92. I'm with others believing that the machine will last longer if it doesn't spend time at those temps. I currently have the machine sitting on it's side on a Twelve South backpack on my TBD. I don't think that helped at all. Next step is to remove the cover, install a filter and mount a fan on the backpack blowing at the bottom of the machine...

I discovered my biggest mistake was when I set the Mini on its side I had the power supply on the bottom so all that heat was going up into the machine. I flipped it over and things instantly got cooler. Now with handbrake running and the fans at 2400 with the cover off it settles in around 93C. If I turn the fans up to 4500 with the cover off it runs at 81C on handbrake. I'm much more comfortable with this. I'm still thinking about rigging up a 140mm fan blowing through a tube on the bottom of the computer with the cover off all the time. Someone posted such a setup in the "2011 Mini users; elevate your mini" thread.

[Exodist]

The Mac Mini bottum cover is designed to pull air from around the cover in front of the mini (area around the wifi antenna) and pull it around the system board and other components before being blow through the heat pipe out the back. Thats why there is the foam gasket seal on half the cover. Cooling the CPU may help extend its life, but its not the only thing to worry about keeping cool in that system. I am however shocked there isnt a better vent opening on the front of the bottom cover. I would consider drilling a few holes in the front part of the cover on the angled part allowing more air to travel into the system.

That being said. My Mini is cool and quiet. The fan however will crank up if I do some heavy media encoding. But the system never feels overly warm. I should download some software and test it for curiosities sake.