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09 Mac Pro power supply at 75º Celsius

Cynicalone

Cynicalone

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jul 9, 2008
3,212
0
Okie land
I woke up this morning started going threw my emails, and listening to a couple of podcasts. Took a look at iStat and found the power supply at 75º C. This seems exceedingly high. This is the list of all the apps I have open this morning...
  • Safari
  • iTunes
  • last.fm
  • Mail
  • iChat
  • Address Book
Absolutely nothing processor intensive on that list. Is anyone else see's numbers like this from their power supplies? Maybe I haven't been paying attention and the iTunes/QT bug is also stressing the Power Supply?
 

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Can you check to see if the fan is physically working properly and nothing is obstructed? Maybe shine a flashlight in and check to see dust has accumulated?
 
Fans appear to be fine. I'm going to quit iTunes and see if it drops off, then I'll know if it is just part of the iTunes/QT bug. If it doesn't drop off then I'll open it up take a look at the dust inside.
 

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I'm not sure… I don't seem to have the iTunes/Quicktime bug. Currently iTunes is on and I've just finished encoding a video.

FWIW here's a screenshot of mine…

Just curious… do you have dual optical drives by any chance?

I can only think of obstruction, a fail fan, or a broken thermal sensor.

 
Yes two optical drives.

After 20 mintues without iTunes I'm down to 60º Celsius. So it must be the QT/iTunes bug.
 

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Cynicalone said:
Yes two optical drives.

After 20 mintues without iTunes I'm down to 60º Celsius. So it must be the QT/iTunes bug.
Click to expand...
What kind of load was on the PSU at this temp?

Assuming that not much else is running, that's high. Full load, it's acceptable, but not otherwise, as they're typically designed for a target of 55C for safety(the area alphaod's is hovering).
 
nanofrog said:
What kind of load was on the PSU at this temp?
Click to expand...

The same as before minus iTunes. Mail, Safari, Address Book, iChat, nothing that should load an 09 Mac Pro.

After 1 hour it was down to 50º just idling.

Now I have Aperture open and iTunes playing in the background and we are back up to 61º and 67º and climbing.
 
Cynicalone said:
The same as before minus iTunes. Mail, Safari, Address Book, iChat, nothing that should load an 09 Mac Pro.

After 1 hour it was down to 50º just idling.

Now I have Aperture open and iTunes playing in the background and we are back up to 61º and 67º and climbing.
Click to expand...
Hard to say, without other '09 system owners posting PSU temps at idle, then with iTunes (or any other app that uses Quicktime X).

It does seem to be running hot to me though, as idle should be cooler (~45C or so ideally). The iTunes (Quicktime X) mess is odd, and it's effects on the PSU unknown. It's rather close here, given the location of the PSU (higher ambient than 25C, which is where the 45C figure is derived).

Either way, a PSU in the upper 60's C is too hot IMO. PSU's don't use heatsinks on the regs for that high a temp, even with forced air cooling. Forced air was done to reduce the heat sink costs, as fans are cheaper than the aluminum profile needed for natural convection cooling. It's expected ambient (intake air) will be higher than 25C as well, and forced air makes more sense in this case as well.
 
Well, under super-duper full load, my 2008 MP power supply runs at 53C and 60C (two temp probes) and never goes above that (600rpm PS fan).

Not sure how relevant that is with it being a different model, but that does seem pretty darn high,
 
lannister80 said:
Well, under super-duper full load, my 2008 MP power supply runs at 53C and 60C (two temp probes) and never goes above that (600rpm PS fan).

Not sure how relevant that is with it being a different model, but that does seem pretty darn high,
Click to expand...
The PSU's in the '08's and '09's are very similar (same power rating), so it's applicable IMO (improvements in efficiency, which means the '09's should run a tad cooler for the same load :eek:).
 
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