Loaded Mini - Actual tests. HOT CPU

dasx · Nov 4, 2012

thedenethor said:
Edit: Upps sorry I can only say that 2010 and 2011 covers are compatible. I do not have 2012 to test.

For the rubbers yes they did the job. It s not %100 silent but good enough. You can't hear the fans from 3-4mt while Plex or Dvblink doing real time transcoding. Fans are at 3000 rpm. If you need 2000-2500 rpm you may need higher hills. Will do the test during night since the environment more silent. After that test I'll make my conclusion.

What about temps? It'd be interesting to see the actual difference in the highest temp.

For example after 1h of Handbrake:
Not raised: 105ºC
Raised 2cm: 98ºC
Raised 5cm: 87ºC

^^^^Made up.

I'm thinking about just taking the bottom cover off and replace it with a dust filter glued to the borders with something easy to remove later on. That way I don't have to spend $30+ in a bottom cover + shipping, drilling it and all. Plus bigger hole should mean better ventilation, lol.

Bottom removed + some cm of raising should do a great job. I can definitely try that out for less than $10.

thedenethor · Nov 4, 2012

I tried CPU Burn-In for %50 CPU load under windows. Temps was 82 fan @3900. I think I need more height.

frank4 · Nov 4, 2012

I'm using the "Fan Control" utility from developer Lobotomo - it's different from the smcFanControl app. This utility is "set and forget" so you don't really need to fiddle with it or manually adjust fan speed when running a heavy workload. Fan speed is set to start rising above idle 1800rpm at a "lower threshold" temperature 50C and hits maximum speed (about 5500rpm) at the "upper threshold" 80C. I can set the lower threshold from 40C to 60C and the upper threshold from 70C to 90C. Setting both thresholds higher will result in less cooling and reduced fan noise.
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23137/fan-control

My impression is the standard Mac cooling lets the CPU get quite hot before it cranks up the fan.

2011 base 2.3 Mini is in the standard setup sitting on a desk with bottom cover on. I'm thinking of putting the mini on a hidden shelf under the desk with an air vent hole under the Mini (or maybe on a "grid wire" type shelf) but it seems to already cool itself adequately with this Fan Control app.

HandBrake runs about 75C on a 25 minute DVD rip, and about the same on a 1 hour batched conversion of several video files. HandBrake nearly maxes out all CPUs so it is probably the biggest load this computer will ever have.

doboy · Nov 4, 2012

philipma1957 said:
lost cost and nice look this will lower temps!

http://www.amazon.com/Småland-Böna-...F8&qid=1351975276&sr=8-3&keywords=ikea+trivet

Hey, that's what I got at Ikea for hot pans.

Snowcake · Nov 4, 2012

Best program to get maximum temperatures!

If you wan't to know the max temp your CPU can get, you should test it with *IntelBurnTest, Intel uses linpack for testing their cpu's. IntelBurnTest uses linpack. (*IntelBurnTest is only available under windows.)

You are not only getting max temps, but it is also the best stability tester.
So run it 20 passes with full memory. Then you know you have a stable Mac at these temps. If not, you should replace your Mac Mini for another Mac Mini under warranty. A mac/pc has to be stable.

dasx said:
What about temps? It'd be interesting to see the actual difference in the highest temp.

For example after 1h of Handbrake:
Not raised: 105ºC
Raised 2cm: 98ºC
Raised 5cm: 87ºC

^^^^Made up.

I'm thinking about just taking the bottom cover off and replace it with a dust filter glued to the borders with something easy to remove later on. That way I don't have to spend $30+ in a bottom cover + shipping, drilling it and all. Plus bigger hole should mean better ventilation, lol.

Bottom removed + some cm of raising should do a great job. I can definitely try that out for less than $10.

Very inportant! What is your room temperature? I'd like to know, because in summer it can be very hot here.

@Everyone: Can you all please tell the max temps with the room temperature?

And what about the people running the 2012 2,5-GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-processor? How are your max temperatures and room temperature? Since these CPU's are 35w against 45w for the quads.

dasx · Nov 4, 2012

Snowcake said:
(*IntelBurnTest is only available under windows.)

AAhhhhh... only if Windows was bootable from an external hard drive. I'm not going to install Windows in my internal. Ever. (well... who knows but... I don't intend to at least)

Snowcake said:
Very inportant! What is your room temperature? I'd like to know, because in summer it can be very hot here.

EDIT: OK, ended up looking at it.

Room temp: 23.8ºC (75ºF). Put the thermometer where the Mini gets the air from and it read 26.1ºC (79ºF). A lot!

GoCubsGo · Nov 4, 2012

I don't think the tests are silly at all. Huge performance improvement for sure.

xlii · Nov 4, 2012

dasx said:
AAhhhhh... only if Windows was bootable from an external hard drive. I'm not going to install Windows in my internal. Ever. (well... who knows but... I don't intend to at least)

EDIT: OK, ended up looking at it.
Room temp: 23.8ºC (75ºF). Put the thermometer where the Mini gets the air from and it read 26.1ºC (79ºF). A lot!

Before I run handbrake I use smcfancontrol to ramp my fans up to 4000rpm. Then I start handbrake. I find that ramping up the fans before the machine gets to 200 F keeps it at least 10 - 15 degrees F cooler than if I let OSX decide to ramp up the fans. On my mini when running handbrake OSX doesn't ramp up the fan until the temperature gets to 200 F.

Snowcake · Nov 4, 2012

dasx said:
AAhhhhh... only if Windows was bootable from an external hard drive. I'm not going to install Windows in my internal. Ever. (well... who knows but... I don't intend to at least)

Windows 8 can be installed on external drives.

EDIT: OK, ended up looking at it.
Room temp: 23.8ºC (75ºF). Put the thermometer where the Mini gets the air from and it read 26.1ºC (79ºF). A lot!

Thank you.

The average maximum temperature in Barcelona in July is 81°F/27°C and the average minimum temperature is 66°F/19°C.

I am curious how your Mac Mini's temperatures are doing during summer.

Little question: What is that black stripe on the front of the Mac Mini?

StevenT42 · Nov 4, 2012

Snowcake said:
Little question: What is that black stripe on the front of the Mac Mini?
Image

That's the DVD/CD drive from the 2010 mini.

k.alexander · Nov 4, 2012

What's the accepted temp range for a CPU? And does anyone know what the very high limit/critical temp is?

philipma1957 · Nov 4, 2012

k.alexander said:
What's the accepted temp range for a CPU? And does anyone know what the very high limit/critical temp is?

ivy bridge is 105 c for constant run

sandy bridge is 100c

Snowcake · Nov 4, 2012

philipma1957 said:
ivy bridge is 105 c for constant run

sandy bridge is 100c

TJUNCTION is 105 for all the cpu's in the Mac Mini line.

http://ark.intel.com/products/64900/Intel-Core-i7-3615QM-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz

JamSandwich · Nov 5, 2012

I suspect Apple deemed 90-95 as the acceptable under-load temperature range for these chips. Using Handbrake (about a 20-min encode), that's been about where temperatures have been peaking (and fairly stable) -- according to iStat measurements.

I'm always skeptical of those kinds of temperatures, so for my own interest I checked out what result I could get with smcfancontrol. Maxing out the fan at 4400RPM (I believe), temperature maintained around 82C under full load on a slightly longer encode, although I may have seen an 87C in there at one point.

This is all using the new midrange (i7 2.3GHz) configuration. Overall pretty satisfied so far. Will dig into gaming performance a little bit in the coming days and post in the relevant threads.

dasx · Nov 5, 2012

jessica. said:
I don't think the tests are silly at all. Huge performance improvement for sure.

Thanks!
Yes. The performance improvement is amazing.

xlii said:
Before I run handbrake I use smcfancontrol to ramp my fans up to 4000rpm. Then I start handbrake. I find that ramping up the fans before the machine gets to 200 F keeps it at least 10 - 15 degrees F cooler than if I let OSX decide to ramp up the fans. On my mini when running handbrake OSX doesn't ramp up the fan until the temperature gets to 200 F.

You mean that maybe the automatic control of the fans let the CPU get too hot and then it's too late to cool it down? Might be a possibility, but that would be a great mistake from Apple imo. Yeah, maybe 1 minute at 100% won't even get the CPU at 85ºC therefore the fans won't have to kick in badly, but if you plan to encode or do something like that... Then the fans kick in too late (always trying to be as silent as possible) what apparently means the CPU has to end up throttling itself.

Snowcake said:
Windows 8 can be installed on external drives.

Sure, but AFAIK they're not bootable in a Mac from external drives.

Snowcake said:
I am curious how your Mac Mini's temperatures are doing during summer

My room temp during summer is the same as during winter if not lower. During winter the heating does its job while the AC does it during the summer.

I think though that as I said where I Have the Mini now there are too many things heating the atmosphere up. Will have to try a different location in a more ventilated place.

philipma1957 said:
ivy bridge is 105 c for constant run

sandy bridge is 100c

As Snowcake says...

Snowcake said:
TJUNCTION is 105 for all the cpu's in the Mac Mini line.

http://ark.intel.com/products/64900/Intel-Core-i7-3615QM-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz

It's gotta be 105ºC as that's where the CPU starts to throttle itself down.

JamSandwich said:
I'm always skeptical of those kinds of temperatures, so for my own interest I checked out what result I could get with smcfancontrol. Maxing out the fan at 4400RPM (I believe), temperature maintained around 82C under full load on a slightly longer encode, although I may have seen an 87C in there at one point.

This is all using the new midrange (i7 2.3GHz) configuration. Overall pretty satisfied so far. Will dig into gaming performance a little bit in the coming days and post in the relevant threads.

Max fan speed is 5500rpm I believe.

So the 2.3GHz is cooler then. Good to know. I think my Mini needs a new location. Where I have it now there's no much air renovation and it's surrounded by wood on one side and a hard drive running 24/7 on the other, plus another hard drive sticked to the wood beneath it. lol

dazey · Nov 5, 2012

I have a 2012 i7 2.3 and although I am also seeing high reported temperatures, these never seem to make sense as the mini remains cool to the touch and I haven't got the fan to 3000 yet (despite running cpu test to max out all cores), it is in a cold room though. The hard disk tends to register temps of 22-26˚C (so pretty damned cold)but the 'ambient' sensors are around 40˚C. I have had the processors up close to 100˚C but everything is still cool with fans quite slow.

k.alexander · Nov 5, 2012

dazey said:
I have a 2012 i7 2.3 and although I am also seeing high reported temperatures, these never seem to make sense as the mini remains cool to the touch and I haven't got the fan to 3000 yet (despite running cpu test to max out all cores), it is in a cold room though. The hard disk tends to register temps of 22-26˚C (so pretty damned cold)but the 'ambient' sensors are around 40˚C. I have had the processors up close to 100˚C but everything is still cool with fans quite slow.

This is exactly what I've observed. Let Aperture churn through my 50k library overnight. When I woke up, 6 hrs later, it was still going at it. The mini was barely luke warm to the touch. Didn't look at the temps though. Btw, can anyone ever hear the fan on this thing? The only thing I hear is the HD. These things are REALLY quiet.

dasx · Nov 5, 2012

k.alexander said:
This is exactly what I've observed. Let Aperture churn through my 50k library overnight. When I woke up, 6 hrs later, it was still going at it. The mini was barely luke warm to the touch. Didn't look at the temps though. Btw, can anyone ever hear the fan on this thing? The only thing I hear is the HD. These things are REALLY quiet.

My external drives (I got two of them plugged in 24/7) do more noise than the Mini when fans are below ~ 2500-3000 rpm.

JamSandwich · Nov 5, 2012

dasx said:
Max fan speed is 5500rpm I believe.

You might be right. The exhaust fan is controlled using the "optical disc drive" slider in smcfancontrol, which offers a maximum adjustment up to (IIRC) 4400, so it might be a limitation on the software's end.

Regarding heat, I found the actual case to be at its warmest on Day 1, when I ran a few minutes of games just to test things out. Maybe related to both processor and integrated graphics under heavy load?

Anyhow, I'm happy that by manually adjusting the exhaust fan I seem to be able to keep temps lower. I'm not sure it's necessary, but it's a nice ability to have.

philipma1957 · Nov 5, 2012

Snowcake said:
TJUNCTION is 105 for all the cpu's in the Mac Mini line.

http://ark.intel.com/products/64900/Intel-Core-i7-3615QM-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz

2011 minis use sandy bridge and 2012 minis uses ivy.

like I said 105c for ivy

http://ark.intel.com/products/64900/Intel-Core-i7-3615QM-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz

and

100c for sandy http://ark.intel.com/products/53469/Intel-Core-i7-2670QM-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_10-GHz

i gave for both as this thread has mentioned the 2011 and the 2012 mini

Snowcake · Nov 5, 2012

philipma1957 said:
2011 minis use sandy bridge and 2012 minis uses ivy.

like I said 105c for ivy

http://ark.intel.com/products/64900/Intel-Core-i7-3615QM-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz

and

100c for sandy http://ark.intel.com/products/53469/Intel-Core-i7-2670QM-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_10-GHz

i gave for both as this thread has mentioned the 2011 and the 2012 mini

You are right. I meant to say: TJUNCTION is 105 for all the cpu's in the current Mac Mini line.

Loaded Mini - Actual tests. HOT CPU

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