Mac Mini performance/noise/heat?

[motrek]

Looking at the teardown of the 2012 Mini, the heatsink and fan look like they are laptop-sized.

Does anybody know if this is enough to cool the 2.3GHz i7 model without generating a bunch of noise and/or limiting the performance, since the Turbo Boost feature overclocks less when the processor is hotter?

I'm a little worried because I will be doing some very processor-intensive stuff on the Mini at times, and I've read about how people are annoyed by the amount of noise put out by quad-core MacBooks under load.

[nsfw]

I tag along on this thread.. I have the 2011 i5 with 6630M/2 drives and the fan spin up is pretty maddening. I don't play games much so I sort of regret not getting the 2.3.
Anyways, wanted to see if any 2011 owners got a 2012 as well. Is the cooling better? I suspect the intel4000 runs cooler than the 6630m.

[stu.h]

I bought a 2012 Mac Mini with i7 quad 2.6ghz

I only surf

[xlii]

The 2012 mini is very quiet. So quiet you can't hear it until the fans get over 3000 rpm. I own the 2012 2.3 quad and the cpu is very powerful. The H4000 is fine unless you want to run graphic intensive games. There are other recent posts here covering this very topic.

[motrek]

Originally Posted by nsfw

I tag along on this thread.. I have the 2011 i5 with 6630M/2 drives and the fan spin up is pretty maddening. I don't play games much so I sort of regret not getting the 2.3.
Anyways, wanted to see if any 2011 owners got a 2012 as well. Is the cooling better? I suspect the intel4000 runs cooler than the 6630m.

Ooof, interesting. The 2011 i5 has a TDP of 35W and the graphics chip is estimated to be around 10W.

The 2012 i7 has a TDP of 45W... so under full load that should be a similar amount of wattage and it looks like the cooling system is basically unchanged... so your experience is kind of worrying me. :/

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Originally Posted by xlii

The 2012 mini is very quiet. So quiet you can't hear it until the fans get over 3000 rpm. I own the 2012 2.3 quad and the cpu is very powerful. The H4000 is fine unless you want to run graphic intensive games. There are other recent posts here covering this very topic.

How hard is it to get over 3000 RPM though? A lot of times I don't stress my computer but there are times when I do and I would prefer it to be quiet. I'm actually a little fanatical about quiet computing so this is concerning to me.

[spammerhamster]

Originally Posted by motrek

Ooof, interesting. The 2011 i5 has a TDP of 35W and the graphics chip is estimated to be around 10W.

The 2012 i7 has a TDP of 45W... so under full load that should be a similar amount of wattage and it looks like the cooling system is basically unchanged... so your experience is kind of worrying me. :/

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How hard is it to get over 3000 RPM though? A lot of times I don't stress my computer but there are times when I do and I would prefer it to be quiet. I'm actually a little fanatical about quiet computing so this is concerning to me.

I have the i7 with 16GB ram installed.

The only time the fan kicked into full gear was when I was importing 50Gig of photo's into iPhoto and watching a bluray-rip at the same time.

It didn't even break a sweat when playing the final level of starcraft 2 at high-graphics (my standard performance test thing on new machines )

[MatthewAMEL]

Well, that's just because you haven't done anything with it yet.

My i7 Mini peaks at 98c after running the AppleTV 3 preset in Handbrake for 3 hours. (2.6 i7, 8GB RAM, SSD)

MUCH hotter than my Late2009 iMac ever got.

[xlii]

Originally Posted by MatthewAMEL

Well, that's just because you haven't done anything with it yet.

My i7 Mini peaks at 98c after running the AppleTV 3 preset in Handbrake for 3 hours. (2.6 i7, 8GB RAM, SSD)

MUCH hotter than my Late2009 iMac ever got.

I've run handbrake a couple of times too. I use smcfancontrol to preset the fan to run a minimum 4000 rpm. You can hear it running but it is more like a whoosh... not as loud as I thought it would be... and not an annoying sound.

[motrek]

Originally Posted by spammerhamster

I have the i7 with 16GB ram installed.

The only time the fan kicked into full gear was when I was importing 50Gig of photo's into iPhoto and watching a bluray-rip at the same time.

It didn't even break a sweat when playing the final level of starcraft 2 at high-graphics (my standard performance test thing on new machines )

A video game might be a good overall performance indicator but I doubt it puts much load on the CPU, i.e., I can't imagine it utilizes every core/thread at 100%.

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Originally Posted by MatthewAMEL

Well, that's just because you haven't done anything with it yet.

My i7 Mini peaks at 98c after running the AppleTV 3 preset in Handbrake for 3 hours. (2.6 i7, 8GB RAM, SSD)

MUCH hotter than my Late2009 iMac ever got.

Blech. 98C is very close to the maximum specified temperature for many Intel chips. Is the fan running at maximum speed at that temperature? Or did Apple just design it to run at that temp? I wonder if the turbo boost is limited because of temperature.

[MatthewAMEL]

Exhaust fans running at 5502RPM.

It sounds like a mini version of our Dyson vacuum.

iStat reports an average of 656% CPU for the last 8 hours.

Ambient reports as 46 (it's really 22c), CPU1 96c, CPU2 96c, GPU 57c.

CPU1 and 2 voltage is 39 watts.

[cmeisenzahl]

Can't speak to the i7, but my new i5 model is running 24/7 and is absolutely dead quiet and cool to the touch at all times.

[motrek]

Originally Posted by cmeisenzahl

Can't speak to the i7, but my new i5 model is running 24/7 and is absolutely dead quiet and cool to the touch at all times.

Interesting. Can you tell me what you're doing with it all the time? Handbrake? This might be a good reason to go for the cheaper model although it seems odd that the i5 is rated at 35W and is SO much quieter than the 45W i7. :/

[philipma1957]

Originally Posted by motrek

Interesting. Can you tell me what you're doing with it all the time? Handbrake? This might be a good reason to go for the cheaper model although it seems odd that the i5 is rated at 35W and is SO much quieter than the 45W i7. :/

the cheaper model is 2x slower at handbrake.

bottom line is i7 quad mac mini function follows form.

ie if it were .5 higher with a better heatsink and fan it would work better.

[Darby67]

Originally Posted by philipma1957

bottom line is i7 quad mac mini function follows form.

ie if it were .5 higher with a better heatsink and fan it would work better.

The Mini runs incredibly well and people every year open the same threads. You put the processor to task and it works hard and the fans kick up and do what they were designed to do and people still get freaked out.

There have been no threads anyplace that show that the Mini suffers in performance because it. Perhaps a few unqualified people that attempt to, poorly. The people that get annoyed know getting into it that they will get annoyed or they don't read the hundreds of the same threads that discuss this very thing and then start a new one.

[motrek]

Originally Posted by Darby67

The Mini runs incredibly well and people every year open the same threads. You put the processor to task and it works hard and the fans kick up and do what they were designed to do and people still get freaked out.

There have been no threads anyplace that show that the Mini suffers in performance because it. Perhaps a few unqualified people that attempt to, poorly. The people that get annoyed know getting into it that they will get annoyed or they don't read the hundreds of the same threads that discuss this very thing and then start a new one.

Not sure this has been discussed to death since the new 2012 Mac Mini has only been available for a couple weeks and it has new lower-power processors and a new fan design (particularly to do with fan blade spacing) so whatever you think has been discussed to death about previous models may be largely irrelevant now.

I certainly would not get "freaked out" if the fan spins up, or think that the Mini is overheating, etc. but as someone who prefers a very quiet environment to concentrate on my work, it is not simply irrelevant hysteria on my part to know how loud the new Mini is when it's under load.

[philipma1957]

Originally Posted by Darby67

The Mini runs incredibly well and people every year open the same threads. You put the processor to task and it works hard and the fans kick up and do what they were designed to do and people still get freaked out.

There have been no threads anyplace that show that the Mini suffers in performance because it. Perhaps a few unqualified people that attempt to, poorly. The people that get annoyed know getting into it that they will get annoyed or they don't read the hundreds of the same threads that discuss this very thing and then start a new one.

Please tell that if the mini was .5 inch taller with a bigger heatsink and better fan that it would run warmer doing handbrake or any heavy duty cpu job.

I can turn the cpu temp to the max in under 1 minute even if I pre max the fan out.

my i7 is running at low load in my home in space that is not truly enclosed.

the ambient temp is 111F


my house temp is 78f here are 3 shots that show it is not really that enclosed.

i now set the fan at max 5500 rpm ran the fan at max 3 minutes and took a screen shot I got all the temps to drop.

ambient is now just under 100f. it is 1:52 pm and I will start running cpu test. by 2:00pm my mini will be in a throttled state

[philipma1957]

well I am wrong hate that but I just ran a 15 minute test and could not throttle the mini,


I need to figure out why it throttled so easy 2 days ago.

this test used a lacie t-bolt as the osx drive.

I am going to run it with the internal hdd as the booter .

and i am going to run it with the usb3 as the booter.

a fast guess is it will pass using t-bolt the internal but not the usb3.

to mods sorry for double post but I want to show the screen shots

[philipma1957]

to mods my apologies for consecutive posts but i really want to show test results.

So okay I ran the usb3 as the booter and the system overheated and froze right around the 10-11 minute mark. my take on it is usb3 uses more of the cpu. I will do a third set of tests with the internal oem hdd as the booter.

My guess is it will pass.

Still my point is .5 inches taller with a bigger heatsink and better fan none of this would happen.

Apple truly has put out a product that is designed wrong if ideal function was number 1 priority.

In this case running handbrake at 100 percent for hours without throttling will not be doable for all.

So if you push that mini on handbrake it will throttle in some cases.

Anyone that has it in a Home theater rack will need more air. Or a very cool home or both.

[Darby67]

Your photos don't really show much in the way of overheating, perhaps a simple crash would explain it. How long did it take you to reboot after your "overheat"?

Originally Posted by philipma1957

to mods my apologies for consecutive posts but i really want to show test results.

So okay I ran the usb3 as the booter and the system overheated and froze right around the 10-11 minute mark. my take on it is usb3 uses more of the cpu. I will do a third set of tests with the internal oem hdd as the booter.

[philipma1957]

Originally Posted by Darby67

Your photos don't really show much in the way of overheating, perhaps a simple crash would explain it. How long did it take you to reboot after your "overheat"?

about 3 minutes. I do agree that it was a usb3 crash. could be usb3 will not work well under heavy cpu loads.


I then started a oem hdd test it is running now. I am about 16 minutes into this oem hdd test run. I have a high temp of 216 so far. no crash so it may be that usb3 is not as stable for osx drive.

I am 27 minutes into test I have not gone above 217 f which is 102.67 c .


well at the 30 minute mark it has begun to throttle. no longer running 100% mostly running at 83 to 95 %

so for me this means I will use a cooling solution I will mount it on a fan blow air into the black disk spot which I will remove and place in the oem box.


I will say this much if you have your mini on an open desk in a room about 72f you may not be able to repeat this issue.

My house temp was 77.9 to 78.6 f a bit warm.

If your mini is buried in a ht rack it will be worse off then my test. a 1 hour handbrake will result in a throttled cpu.

[dasx]

Originally Posted by philipma1957

I am 27 minutes into test I have not gone above 217 f which is 102.67 c .

CPU throttle starts at 105C, right?

Any idea why it isn't throttling while it did a couple of days ago?
(I haven't done any further tests yet.)

[ant69]

what software do people recommend for getting these stats such as cpu temps, fan speeds etc - thanks!

Ant

[Jayrcee]

Originally Posted by ant69

what software do people recommend for getting these stats such as cpu temps, fan speeds etc - thanks!

Ant

iStat works pretty well.

[Belfast01]

My 2006 Mac mini has worked well with a cinema monitor until today. When I turned it on this morning however, the monitor screen remained blank. I want to know what is wrong. Can anyone help me?

[MarcelEdward]

Originally Posted by motrek

Not sure this has been discussed to death since the new 2012 Mac Mini has only been available for a couple weeks and it has new lower-power processors and a new fan design (particularly to do with fan blade spacing) so whatever you think has been discussed to death about previous models may be largely irrelevant now.

I certainly would not get "freaked out" if the fan spins up, or think that the Mini is overheating, etc. but as someone who prefers a very quiet environment to concentrate on my work, it is not simply irrelevant hysteria on my part to know how loud the new Mini is when it's under load.

Yes it is true, the mac mini should be very quit. It is annoying when the fan kicks in. And then it is hard to find a desent solution. You could try to turn it putting it vertical on the floor, what actually works putting it vertical drops the temperatures a bit and the extra meter distance between your ears and the mac mini fans will make the fan noise more or less acceptable. I gues we can just hope the 2013 mini will have a larger case giving it room for perhaps 2 fans and with an external power adapter, a mini wich will make no noise at all regardless of how intensive the tasks are running on the mini.