Apple's Much Smaller M4 Mac Mini Has All-New Thermal Architecture to Maximize Speed

[fraXis]

Unfortunately, it will have the same dust buildup issue on the bottom grill as the Mac Studio.

 

[mrhick01]

No egpu support with TB5 bandwitches?

Why would it?

When has Apple Silicon worked with AMD, much less, NVidia GPUs?

 

[sauria]

Look forward to a review.

 

[Unity451]

I'm getting some G4 Cube vibes from this.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I'm getting some G4 Cube vibes from this.

Really?

The Studio does much more of that for me

 

[sejoki]

I only wish they would've added some sort of dust filter mesh that could be periodically removed and cleaned

It depends on how easy it is to disassemble, but I too would rather have something that can be cleaned without taking the machine apart.

 

[neomorpheus]

It depends on how easy it is to disassemble, but I too would rather have something that can be cleaned without taking the machine apart.

Sadly, I fear it will be as bad as the Mac Studio.

I dont understand why they do this, since dust accumulation will always be an issue.

This was my biggest concern, well, still is, since we dont know how hard it will be to open.

 

[Cervisia]

So much for all the panick about it throttling while falling off people's desks. Lol.

And you've concluded this... from a picture?

 

[goodcow]

But can it handle 24/7 HEVC encoding without thermal throttling?

 

[Che Castro]

Mac mini M4 and M4 Pro have different cooling (according to the environmental report).
M4 Pro is built with copper (heatpipe?) and the M4 has an aluminum heatsink.

https://www.apple.com/environment/pdf/products/desktops/Mac_mini_PER_Oct2024.pdf

View attachment 2443857

So is the m4 bad , are they both good ?

 

[DavidMalcolm]

I’m genuinely tempted to replace my Mac Studio with an M1 Max with this. Honestly the Stufio was probably overkill for my needs. This would be too. But it’d be so tiny and cute! Also would be easy to unplug and take over to my TV for gaming. (Buying long HDMI cables that actually work is far more work than should be.)

It’s such a cool little computer. I feel like Apple is really just setting the bar for what a powerful mini tower can be. It’s a shame the Mac Pro and Studio are getting left in the lurch for now.

 

[jonnysods]

Still not mini at all looks like a Mac Studio lmao

It's 5 inches wide were you expecting 4.5?

 

[Analog Kid]

“It's taller than the prior version, but it is 2.75 inches smaller.”

So it’s taller but smaller. Got it.

Through the miracle of 3 dimensions...

 

[tubular]

Yes, I’m curious about dust and cleaning. I hope it’s easier to get into than a Studio.

 

[Populus]

So is the m4 bad , are they both good ?

I think the aluminum heatpipe is more than enough for a power efficient chip such as the M4.

But I’ll wait for side-by-side comparisons (performance, power consumption and heat/noise) before buying one of them.

 

[zooland]

Still not mini at all looks like a Mac Studio lmao

You sir, are a bit blind. Sorry for that.

 

[acrakes]

Any word on whether Satechi et al. have worked out stands & hubs for the new form factor and cooling?

 

[stiligFox]

I cant recall the last time I heard the fan on my M2 Pro — and I push that thing hard.

Yeah for a long time Apple has had basically black magic fans that are very well tuned, audio wise! My mother’s Intel Mac Mini is the same way. Only ever heard the fan once when it had a weird boot failure and fan hit 100%.

 

[MiniApple]

Any word on whether Satechi et al. have worked out stands & hubs for the new form factor and cooling?

Not yet, but you might want to subscribe https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...essories.2441324/?post=33525729#post-33525729

 

[artifex]

Still not mini at all looks like a Mac Studio lmao

Still smaller than my G4 Mini.

 

[Fuzzball84]

This thermal solution is fine, but at some point the dust build up will be quite significant for the higher spec units that are pushed hard. Even on moderate workloads with an always on fan dust build up can be significant. That’s why I prefer designs that can rely on passive cooling until it’s absolutely necessary to start up a fan. They could have made the unit slightly bigger and had an all passive cooling solution for the Mac mini but they preferred power over this.

I do hope it’s easy to open up and clean it out. I’ve seen some pretty atrocious dust build up in Mac studios that are in relatively clean office space.

I doubt they will ever introduce a filter system that is easily cleaned by the user. That’s not the Apple way 😆

 

[Fuzzball84]

I only wish they would've added some sort of dust filter mesh that could be periodically removed and cleaned

I doubt we will ever see this but this unit will require that way more than the older minis. The velocity of air flow in a small device like this will be significant and when you consider the hours of operation… that will be a lot of dust build up.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

No egpu support with TB5 bandwitches?

Nope.

 

[Fuzzball84]

The Intel devices do although the only time I hear mine come on is when I run Windows via Bootcamp and do an update.

The older designed minis can is always running but at its lowest speed and is practically inaudible. The air flow is minimal but constant. A fair amount of the heat transfer is by conduction to the case etc

This smaller mini has less bulk to do that, so I think it will rely far more on the fan system

 

[AppleInLVX]

Yeah for a long time Apple has had basically black magic fans that are very well tuned, audio wise! My mother’s Intel Mac Mini is the same way. Only ever heard the fan once when it had a weird boot failure and fan hit 100%.

That's the thing I'm waiting for. Reviews about how loud this thing is (if at all). I currently have an M1 Mini, and I don't ever hear the thing. It'd be weird if I suddenly started hearing fans again like it was 2008.