1 year old mini + dust bunnies

[indg]

it's been a year since i've physically moved my 2010 mini. unplugged everything and flipped it over to swap the ram and saw a lot of dust buildup around the rim of the bottom circle base toward the back side where the fan is.

upon removing the base cover i saw quite a bit of dust buildup in the back half where the metal grate is. used compressed air to blow everything clean, though in hindsight i probably should have used a dustbuster/vacuum to suck out the dust.

in any case, if you haven't looked at the bottom of your 2010 mini for over a year, now might be a good time to take a look down there. you don't want dust blocking the intake vents. likewise check the rear outtake vent for any dust buildup.

 

[accessoriesguy]

Generally computer towers should be cleaned once every 2 years.

But laptops and compressed mini computers, need to be cleaned out once every year.

Or so is my rule of thumb I recommend. So your fans keep running correctly and to reduce excess heat from the dust.

 

[DisMyMac]

Might want to cap unused ports too.... or does that trap too much heat?

I appreciate the optical caps on some cables. It's worth protecting those outlets.

 

[Tulpa]

Might want to cap unused ports too.... or does that trap too much heat?

If a computer is depending on the ports being empty to keep from overheating, that's a serious design problem...

 

[Snips]

I opened up my 2010 Mac mini that had been on constantly since November the other day. It's in a typically dusty home environment, and I was expecting the worst...

Actually I was very pleasantly surprised. A little dust build-up on the fan itself, and on the rear vent, but inside was very clean indeed.

I used to have a PC in the same spot, and that would build up dust on the internals to a gross level

YMMV.