Mm 1,1-6,2 2012 Mac mini - i7 run hotter?

[vindasal]

I have the base 2012 Mac mini that I recently got up and running again with a new drive. It's a dual-core i5-3210M. I am mostly satisfied so far with how it performs with RAM maxed out, but I feel like jumping to a quad core could see some nice improvement as well. The only caveat however is that I am afraid it will run hot. The i5 in this mini actually runs very cool for what it is, I get very respectable temps and the fans only rev up during gaming or other very intensive tasks, and even then it's only 2/4-3/4 of the max RPM.

I previously had a 2011 Mac mini, the Server variant with the 2.0GHz quad core i7, and this thing I had to get rid of because it ran so hot. Easily exceeded 90C temps under medium load, and the fan revved up a lot even during regular use. I opened it up and tried everything to improve thermals, but nothing fixed it. I'm curious if this is just inherent to the i7s in these old minis, or if others have experience with theirs running cool. Also, if by chance anybody does have both an i5 and i7 2012 mini and can tell me how much of an improvement it really is, that would be appreciated.

 

[MacInTO]

I have the 2012 i7 mac mini and yes it runs hot. I changed the thermal paste and it ran a bit cooler but still hotter than I would have liked. I stopped using it as my main machine and use it for a media server which is less demanding. I also have a 2012 15" Macbook Pro with the same i7 2.3GHz processor as the mini and the MBP runs way cooler - and I have not replaced the thermal paste - so I think it is the mini enclosure and the limited amount of space and airflow that contribute to the temperature.

I can't comment on the i5 as I've never had one of these. However, I had a 2014 i5 Mac mini and never experienced any heat issues.

I think if you are upgrading, it is worth checking out the 2013 Mac Pro. I moved to this after the heating issues with the i7 mm. The MP definitely does not run hot for my purposes (photo editing) but I've heard video editing can cause some heat with the MP. The 2013 MP isn't much more expensive than the 2012 i7 mm and it can take up to 128GB of RAM.

 

[TheShortTimer]

I think if you are upgrading, it is worth checking out the 2013 Mac Pro. I moved to this after the heating issues with the i7 mm. The MP definitely does not run hot for my purposes (photo editing) but I've heard video editing can cause some heat with the MP. The 2013 MP isn't much more expensive than the 2012 i7 mm and it can take up to 128GB of RAM.

The 2013 MP is a good recommendation. I've had one for a while and it's an unfairly maligned machine. They can be picked up relatively cheaply - even here in the UK where Mac prices are typically higher than North America and as you pointed out, they're expandable to 128 GB RAM (albeit with a slight speed penalty) - which remains pretty hefty and they offer x6 Thunderbolt ports.

I'm surprised that people have experienced heat issues from video editing. When I've watched prolonged 4K video content on mine, it has run cool. 🙂

 

[alex_free]

The 2013 MP is a good recommendation. I've had one for a while and it's an unfairly maligned machine. They can be picked up relatively cheaply - even here in the UK where Mac prices are typically higher than North America and as you pointed out, they're expandable to 128 GB RAM (albeit with a slight speed penalty) - which remains pretty hefty and they offer x6 Thunderbolt ports.

I'm surprised that people have experienced heat issues from video editing. When I've watched prolonged 4K video content on mine, it has run cool. 🙂

I’ve been thinking about getting one for the same reasons !

 

[TheShortTimer]

I’ve been thinking about getting one for the same reasons !

I bought mine to put in a corner and manage my Thunderbolt RAID set up but I soon realised that there are countless other possibilities in addition to that. The six TB ports offer so much scope. 🙂

 

[Amethyst1]

However, I had a 2014 i5 Mac mini and never experienced any heat issues.

The 2014 minis only have dual-cores and Haswell is more efficient than Ivy Bridge.

The 2013 MP is a good recommendation. I've had one for a while and it's an unfairly maligned machine.

The one caveat is possible dGPU failures. Apart from that, it's a hell of a "Mac mini on steroids" 🙂

 

[vindasal]

The 2013 MP is an interesting idea, but that does lead to a question that I believe @Amethyst1 is alluding to. I have heard reports of GPU failures starting to crop up, and if yours dies, it can be extremely hard to source a replacement. That is a concern for me.

Another issue is that I also run Mountain Lion, for a very specific reason and that is because iMovie HD 6 does not work properly in Mavericks. It acts like it will, but it freezes/crashes when you do almost any edits. I still use this software when I work with miniDV tapes that I get in sometimes, for some reason the later iMovies always gave me a hard time. I have thought that maybe one way or another I could do this task with a laptop because I don't need much power; at my desk I am limited to two desktops due to space/outlet constraints, and one must be Windows.

Maybe even an 11" MBA would be fine for this task. I think the 2013 MBAs still run ML, and I 'believe' there is no reason to get a 2012 over a 2013 for those. They are extremely cheap now, it seems. In general I am surprised at how cheap Macs from this era are, good time to buy.

 

[weckart]

I think if you are upgrading, it is worth checking out the 2013 Mac Pro. I moved to this after the heating issues with the i7 mm. The MP definitely does not run hot for my purposes (photo editing) but I've heard video editing can cause some heat with the MP. The 2013 MP isn't much more expensive than the 2012 i7 mm and it can take up to 128GB of RAM.

The MP is literally twice the cost of the i7 2012 Mini at current selling prices.

 

[TheShortTimer]

The one caveat is possible dGPU failures.

Oh really, how common are they?

Apart from that, it's a hell of a "Mac mini on steroids" 🙂

I like that description. 😀

The 2013 MP is an interesting idea, but that does lead to a question that I believe @Amethyst1 is alluding to. I have heard reports of GPU failures starting to crop up, and if yours dies, it can be extremely hard to source a replacement. That is a concern for me.

We're talking about aged machines and it's inevitable that by this stage, some will have failed or will be failing. Unfortunately this is a risk with any hardware that reaches old age. It would help to know what the average failure rate is for the dGPU.

Maybe even an 11" MBA would be fine for this task. I think the 2013 MBAs still run ML, and I 'believe' there is no reason to get a 2012 over a 2013 for those. They are extremely cheap now, it seems.

Despite my fondness for the MBA and in particular the 11" models, a similar issue applies here that if the onboard RAM dies then you're also stuck because unlike other MacBooks, they're soldered onto the logic board and cannot be easily replaced.

In general I am surprised at how cheap Macs from this era are, good time to buy.

Yep. It's reminiscent of what happened when Apple transitioned to Intel CPUs and you could find many a PPC Mac bargain as people offloaded their gear for the next best thing. A similar dynamic is now happening with Intel Macs as people move onto the Silicon successors.

The MP is literally twice the cost of the i7 2012 Mini at current selling prices.

UK or U.S. prices? I've had a look on eBay and in the U.S. the 2013 MP can often be found for less than the i7 2012.

 

[theMarble]

Oh really, how common are they?

The base D300s are safe, and while the Tahiti-based D500s and D700s did have issues, it was far lower than the 8600M GT on the 2007-8 MBP or the Radeon 6000M series on 2011 Macs. The vast majority of D500s and D700s never had any issues.

The D700s (effectively two R9 280Xs) do run hot under heavy loads, but never had any kind of actual solder defect like the two major GPU recalls. The D500s (despite being based on the Tahiti LE chip) performed far worse than the silicon was usually capable of, due to thermal constraints and lower clocks than the chip could achieve. The D700s crushed both despite running hot, as the performance gap was simply large enough that even with thermal throttling factored in, they left the D300 and D500 well behind.

 

[vindasal]

It is interesting that you say the D300s are safe, because I've been reading through this 83-page long thread here on MR and seeing a lot of people with freezing issues, same with on Reddit: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-late-2013-gpu-driver-issues.1860297/page-83

There was a limited time recall program from Apple for some of these that were defective apparently. I am in a very hot location which compounds my issue.

I've been burned a lot by GPU-related issues on these old Macs which makes me hesitant, it's the only reason I've ever had a Mac die (lucky?). 2006 24" iMac with 7600GT, 2008 with the 8800, 2010 MBP 15" with that weird defect that made the screen go black, 2011 mini DGPU failure. My 2008 MBP with the 9600M also had a problem where the 9600 became unavailable in macOS permanently but still worked in Windows. At least there the 9400M was available still.

 

[theMarble]

It is interesting that you say the D300s are safe, because I've been reading through this 83-page long thread here on MR and seeing a lot of people with freezing issues, same with on Reddit: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-late-2013-gpu-driver-issues.1860297/page-83

There was a limited time recall program from Apple for some of these that were defective apparently. I am in a very hot location which compounds my issue.

There was a recall of a specific batch/mfg. period Mac Pros, however it was only for the D500 and D700. That forum thread started around the time of the batch Apple recalled.

The 2013 MP certainly had GPU issues, but it wasn't a 2008/2011-style situation where the chips were fundamentally flawed. Outside of the recalled batch, most seem to have been a mix of thermals, aging and software issues rather than a full defect.

 

[TheShortTimer]

The base D300s are safe, and while the Tahiti-based D500s and D700s did have issues, it was far lower than the 8600M GT on the 2007-8 MBP or the Radeon 6000M series on 2011 Macs. The vast majority of D500s and D700s never had any issues.

The D700s (effectively two R9 280Xs) do run hot under heavy loads, but never had any kind of actual solder defect like the two major GPU recalls. The D500s (despite being based on the Tahiti LE chip) performed far worse than the silicon was usually capable of, due to thermal constraints and lower clocks than the chip could achieve. The D700s crushed both despite running hot, as the performance gap was simply large enough that even with thermal throttling factored in, they left the D300 and D500 well behind.

Thanks for the breakdown. 🙂

Its been a while, so I'd forgotten about the ranges across the dGPU spec. Mine has the D300 - which at the time of consideration @Amethyst1 wisely advised was in the safe category. I've got a couple of TB eGPUs so I didn't need feel the need to pay extra for a D500 or D700 model. Besides, as I've already mentioned, 4K stuff plays without any effort.

 

[vindasal]

Are there any eGPUs for the MP that support Mavericks or is that something that came much later?

I have actually been impressed with the performance I get from the HD 4000 on the mini. Of course it does not compare to a dedicated GPU, but I have run Windows systems with i7-3770 which smokes the i5-3210m, but there are games that actually run better on the 4000 with the i5 in macOS than they do in Windows with the i7 and 4000. Very surprising.