2011 iMac HD temp

[macdudesir]

First of all, i would like to say that this isnt one of those ahh the back of my iMac is hot...I know all about the aluminum being a heatsink. I actually have real temps. During the day, browsing the internet in safari my hard drive temp goes up to 52C and stays there until the iMac sleeps for a while. It idles around 48C which is high for idle...when i play a game it goes up to 56C at which time the fan ramps up to 1300rpm or 1500rpm then it stays there for the next hour even if i quit the game...i know that temperatures over 50C for a long time are not good for a hard drive...and temperatures over 55C for a long time is pushing my luck...I keep the A/C on 68F and i get these temps...my brother turned off my A/C and played starcraft for 5 hours without ever looking at the temps...who knows how hot the iMac or the room temp got, with the A/C off ive noticed this room can hit 80F...the iMac shut down on him and i think it was because of the heat...the machine im on is a 2.7GHz quad core i5 27" 2011 model with nothing upgraded...it has a 1tb western digital drive in it...S.M.A.R.T. status is verified right now...but when i do a disc permissions check, i get this this message, "Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAgent" has been modified and will not be repaired.
". Does that mean that my drive is failing? or is it something not to be worried about...also, to my fellow iMac owners, what are your HD temps, do you think i should be worried about this? Other than the hard drive all temps seem to be fine...i've included a screen shot of iStat during a stress test of my iMac. Thanks in advance!

 

[iMikeT]

Normal, especially considering how hot your room gets.

 

[philipma1957]

you may have this hdd


http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/internal-storage/barracuda-7200-kit/


in the 1tb size



http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_barracuda_7200_12.pdf


spec sheet says 60 c max

so download istat menus pay the 16 bucks for a single or 25 for family set the fans higher. or hope the running at 55 c won't kill it. my 1tb in my imac is 17 months old still works.

I have run the hdd around 122 f for about 11000 hours active. Smart software says I have 11000 hours on the drive with no bad sectors. now what is 122 f in c ? About 50c. so 11000 hours at 50c and i am good.

 

[macdudesir]

room temp

Normal, especially considering how hot your room gets.

Not trying to be rude hear...but i did mention that i keep my room at 68 and thats the temp it was at when i did that stress test..i said it can get to 80F when the A/C is off which it was when my brother played starcraft and it shut off.

 

[macdudesir]

Wd

you may have this hdd


http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/internal-storage/barracuda-7200-kit/


in the 1tb size



http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_barracuda_7200_12.pdf


spec sheet says 60 c max

Thanks for your reply but i know i have a Western Digital hard drive because the serial number starts with WD-WCA...

 

[basher]

Normal, especially considering how hot your room gets.

I don't think I'd consider 80F hot for a room. In Arizona I set my thermostat on 80F and my hard drive temps at idle are 102F(or 38.8C).

Not sure what to tell the OP. If the machine is shutting down it's probably because the CPU has hit its thermal shutdown point or there's some other underlying issue.

OP, I've got the Hitachi 2TB drive in my iMac along with an SSD.

 

[macdudesir]

HD or GPU temp?

I don't think I'd consider 80F hot for a room. In Arizona I set my thermostat on 80F and my hard drive temps at idle are 102F(or 38.8C).

Not sure what to tell the OP. If the machine is shutting down it's probably because the CPU has hit its thermal shutdown point or there's some other underlying issue.

OP, I've got the Hitachi 2TB drive in my iMac along with an SSD.

Thanks...i dont think it was the CPU hitting the thermal threshold because ive stress tested this machine and it barely goes over the temp as seen in the istat pic i posted, can the hard drive or GPU temp cause a shutdown? Im reinstalling starcraft from my time machine backup to play it and heavily monitor the temp. I'll post back later on what i find out.

 

[basher]

These are the temps I'm getting after 90 minutes of SC2.

Not sure if the GPU overheating can cause a shutdown. I did notice that my CPU fan is running about 300RPM slower than yours. Are you moding the fan speed. Mine are at stock settings.

Some claim that fans running at a lower RPM do a better job at wicking away heat. Except when you're overclocking your CPU and/or GPU.

 

[macdudesir]

hmmm...

These are the temps I'm getting after 90 minutes of SC2.

Image

Not sure if the GPU overheating can cause a shutdown. I did notice that my CPU fan is running about 200RPM slower than yours. Are you moding the fan speed. Mine are at stock settings.

Some claim that fans running at a lower RPM do a better job at wicking away heat. Except when you're overclocking your CPU and/or GPU.

Thanks for your reply. I do not mod the fans. The screenshot i posted was during a stress test where the CPU was pegged at 100% on all cores for 30 min. I just played SC2 for about 20 to 30 min and constantly looked at the temp...HD actually stayed around 52C...CPU went up to 42C...GPU reached only 72C...no fans sped up...However, im not a hardcore starcrafter lol, i dont really play games on my computers, except WoW i know my way around that game to say the least. I've seen WoW get the temps up more than SC2 did...but maybe that was my lack of starcraft knowledge. i leave most games to my xbox and ps3...I bought the computer for video editing which it does great but my brother after seeing the specs wanted to play games on it so i figured why not...he plays SC2 a lot and probably has more going on in the game than me and my no SC2 knowledge combined with having to use my left hand as my right is broken...thanks for posting your temperatures and giving me something to compare mine to...looks like your HD...of course...is lower than mine but for everything else i seem to be the lower one...i cant ask my brother to play it now because he is in vegas...i will see if he will play for me and let me watch the temps when he gets back..thanks for all your help guys!

P.S. What is your display brightness at? ive heard because the hard drive (and the rest of the components for that matter) is close to the screen...display brightness can dramaticlly change the internal temps...i had my brightness at about 3/4 during SC2...i keep it around 1/4 when browsing websites like Macrumors because it seems to be easier on my eyes. I will test that tomorrow as it's almost 4:45AM where i am...Thanks again.

 

[Spike88]

I'm in the crowd of "keep it cool". And, with a 'proactively keep it cool' need. Just like I keep my Tow Vehicle's transmission cooler by installing an aux ATF cooler as well. Keep it cool and in the long run, the item (like a vehicle transmission) lasts much longer.

IMO... IMac's "too hot" safety switches cannot be trusted. When the iMac shuts down from "heat overload", the internal damage is already done. Just like when a vehicle dash light (re: "too hot" light) comes on, the internal damage is already done as well. And, this is assuming this "last resort" safety switch feature is properly working. If that last resort switch is off by 10C settings, you've over cooked the HDD or other internal parts. And, you didn't even reactively realize it...

With this mind (and your situation), I would simply install 3rd party fan control software, increase the fan speeds (slightly higher above factory default) and every month, "tweak" these fan RPM settings - until a nice balance of fan speed and internal heat readings are obtained.

If wondering, I installed 3rd party Fan Speed control software within my iMac and it runs great. This minor customization keeps its insides cool. Just like I like to "keep cool" on extreme hot days as well. And, my Tow Vehicle likes its transmission cooler as well...

re:
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w251/Spike99-Pictures/New iMac system/InternalTemps2010-08-30.png
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w251/Spike99-Pictures/New iMac system/FanSpeedJune25-2011.png

Good luck....

 

[macman1man]

Everything runs hotter in an Imac i'm afraid, not sure what you are expecting... the same HD in my other PC runs 20c cooler than in my iMac. But that's the price you pay for an all in one design...

 

[philipma1957]

Thanks for your reply but i know i have a Western Digital hard drive because the serial number starts with WD-WCA...

okay same spec max see screen for wd hdds 60 c max


what does it mean for long life who knows? my drive has same spec as yours and has 11000 hours on it mostly at 50c.


I don't know how well your room allows air circulation near your iMac. My iMac is against a wall via wall mount the heat just rises up to ceiling.


like I mention on some other threads iStatmenus allows for many fan speeds my Imac has 5 fan speed settings That I put into it. I can make the machine cool but it is loud.





link for paid version with multiple fan speeds.


http://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/


I purchased a family version so I use it on many machines it was 25 or 26 for 5 machine use. If you wait I will run the imac in 4 settings. to show difference in hd temp

 

[davea11ee]

My iMac has had that problem when rendering or exporting a long sequence in FCP. The CPU just gets hotter and hotter. SMC fan control has been a great solution. You can bump your fans up and still not hear them spinning. It most definitely cools everything off. I can open iStat and just watch the temp go down as the fans spin faster.

 

[basher]

P.S. What is your display brightness at?

My brightness is one notch above half.

 

[macdudesir]

IMO... IMac's "too hot" safety switches cannot be trusted. When the iMac shuts down from "heat overload", the internal damage is already done. Just like when a vehicle dash light (re: "too hot" light) comes on, the internal damage is already done as well. And, this is assuming this "last resort" safety switch feature is properly working. If that last resort switch is off by 10C settings, you've over cooked the HDD or other internal parts. And, you didn't even reactively realize it...


re:
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w251/Spike99-Pictures/New iMac system/InternalTemps2010-08-30.png
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w251/Spike99-Pictures/New iMac system/FanSpeedJune25-2011.png

Good luck....

Thanks, i've tried Fan Control before (and SMC Fan Control) and Fan Control only gave me 2 fans like the MBP's and SMC only let me up the fans for 5 seconds...apparently my iMac SMC is too smart for it lol. Im not too terribly worried about it because i have AppleCare and a backup for this computer...i just cant stand lugging it in to the Apple store(done it before)...which in my case is in a mall...also, i just talked to my brother and he said it happened around 1AM which at that time, is when i had my Mac scheduled to shut down...assuming he had the graphics on fullscreen he wouldnt have seen the message saying it was about to shut down...i don't think an HD can cause a shutdown...and i know the graphics card and CPU can handle way higher temps then the fans would allow...which....he never heard come on when he was playing...theres another reason to believe it was the shutdown i had scheduled....and the one and only reason i didn't get a vacuum cleaner...oops i mean 2011 Macbook Pro...sorry, thats a different discussion