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

Fuzzball84 said:
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.
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But,
1) The Mac Studio has 2 significant fans as they needed to provide a much higher air flow rate to cool an Ultra chip (that is what the Studio cooling is design to accommodate) than a Mac mini with just a M4 or M4Pro chip
2) I don't recall that there was a dust problem with the old Mac mini, using just a single fan to support a much lower air mass flow rate to cool an M2Pro chip.
 
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Chuckeee said:
But,
1) The Mac Studio has 2 significant fans as they needed to provide a much higher air flow rate to cool an Ultra chip (that is what the Studio cooling is design to accommodate) than a Mac mini with just a M4 or M4Pro chip
2) I don't recall that there was a dust problem with the old Mac mini, using just a single fan to support a much lower air mass flow rate to cool an M2Pro chip.
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Who said there was a dust problem with the old Mac mini. I was referring to the studio 😀
 
jayryco said:
I only wish they would've added some sort of dust filter mesh that could be periodically removed and cleaned
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They probably have some holes that you can spray with a can aerosol dust sprayer. Don’t know if the holes are like the Mac Pro or XDR Display from Apple 🍎
 
A lot of people seem very cynical about this new mini. It seems like a huge upgrade that was a long time coming and one of the more interesting Apple launches in a while. I wish they updated the entire Mac range closer to the same timeframe though, as now the mini can rival or surpass a Mac Studio in some (but not all!) respects.
 
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Apple always seems to do the bare minimum when it comes to cooling their machines. I wish they’d just go that extra mile and add better cooling. I added extra cooling to my 2018 mini as the case would get almost too hot to touch.
 
phrehdd said:
Is the power supply internal to the Mini or a brick?
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Internal, "What's in the box" on the Apple Mac mini page show just the Mac mini & a power cable; if there were a power brick they would show that...

jmckenzie said:
It take up more room in a rack now though - it no longer fits in a 1U enclosure
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All the CoLo facilities I have seen pics of show the Mac mini units on their sides, so taller than a 1U rack could fit anyway...

Chuckeee said:
Based on the image of the power connector the rear, the new Mini has an internal power supply.
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Power connector would be the same with a power brick; but the Apple Mac mini page specifies that a power cable is included in the box, not a power brick...
 
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Boil said:
Power connector would be the same with a power brick; but the Apple Mac mini page specifies that a power cable is included in the box, not a power brick...
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With an external power supply the input would be DC and most likely proprietary so that mismatched power supplies can’t physically be connected.

IMG_1680.jpeg
 
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Fuzzball84 said:
Apple are usually good these days with acoustics but the smaller form factor may result in a louder device at high workloads.

My concern is more about dust accumulation. The trend with ARM and its efficiency is towards more passively cooled devices. See the newest Apple TV and MacBooks for example. They are quiet, have fewer moving parts and so are longer lasting. However it appears they have prioritized power over that here. It would have been nice to have the Mac mini become a passively cooled device. It was never meant to be a Pro device in any case. It was always an entry device and device for those wanting the smallest possible and quietest desktop form factor.
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I agree. Dust, however, has been around forever. I’m sure it’s a problem with computers overheating and therefore throttling or spinning up the fans even more for more noise, but has a computer ever broken from normal household dust? It wouldn’t be perfect of course, but couldn’t you vacuum it from time to time?

Anyway, I’m with you on the passive cooling but if I was going to upgrade I’d want to get the high end. If I didn’t make that leap then the jump from the M1 for my needs seems probably unnecessary.
 
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Chuckeee said:
Hopefully someone else other than Maxtech will examine this. I would like to see a REAL tear down, not just some more made-up clickbait YouTube video fodder.
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Yeah, but sadly, I don’t see many teardowns lately. Maybe iFixit? But I’m definitely interested in the internal structure. Pure technological curiosity.

As for the benchmarks and stuff, there’s a great YouTube channel that makes comparisons, named ArtIsRight.
 
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AppleInLVX said:
I agree. Dust, however, has been around forever. I’m sure it’s a problem with computers overheating and therefore throttling or spinning up the fans even more for more noise, but has a computer ever broken from normal household dust? It wouldn’t be perfect of course, but couldn’t you vacuum it from time to time?

Anyway, I’m with you on the passive cooling but if I was going to upgrade I’d want to get the high end. If I didn’t make that leap then the jump from the M1 for my needs seems probably unnecessary.
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The way the airflow is routed around and between the layers suggest dust could be more of a problem than usual depending on the environment you have the Mac. Most of my computers have pretty simple airflow routes in, across a heatsink and out. Cleaning usually means brushing the heatsink and cleaning the fan and maybe a little elsewhere after a few years of almost daily usage.

With this Mac I wonder how easy it will be to get inside and clean it out. Vacuuming from the outside only does so much.

The best thing about my MacBook Air M2 and a few single board computers etc is that they are fanless passively cooled devices. They don’t suck in air and dust. There is literally no internal cleaning required. At the most the they may need new thermal paste in the far future but I’ve never actually needed to do that yet.

Mac Studios on the other hand I’ve seen pretty bad dust accumulation after even a year of continued operation.
 
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neomorpheus said:
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.
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So you have to buy a new mini when the next version comes out…
 
TVreporter said:
I already have a dusty home with two big furry dogs… I'd be afraid that air intake will suck in more dog hair than my vacuum!
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I can appreciate what you are saying and there are ways around this but it requires filtering air before entering the Mac. I say this as someone who lives in a very dusty area and have both cat and dog.
 
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what is the current wager on how long can a heavy workload be sustained with that "foot" recirculating hot air?
 
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Fuzzball84 said:
The way the airflow is routed around and between the layers suggest dust could be more of a problem than usual depending on the environment you have the Mac. Most of my computers have pretty simple airflow routes in, across a heatsink and out. Cleaning usually means brushing the heatsink and cleaning the fan and maybe a little elsewhere after a few years of almost daily usage.

With this Mac I wonder how easy it will be to get inside and clean it out. Vacuuming from the outside only does so much.

The best thing about my MacBook Air M2 and a few single board computers etc is that they are fanless passively cooled devices. They don’t suck in air and dust. There is literally no internal cleaning required. At the most the they may need new thermal paste in the far future but I’ve never actually needed to do that yet.

Mac Studios on the other hand I’ve seen pretty bad dust accumulation after even a year of continued operation.
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Still think the comparison to the Mac Studio in NOT appropriate. The issue of dust is strongly dependent on the air mass flow rate which in turn is based on the required heat dissipation. The Mac Studio air flow is based on cooling M Ultra chips, the mac mini (including this new mac mini) is based on cooling an M Pro chip, significantly different. I don't see why dust is a bigger issue with this new Mac Mini with the air coming from the bottom as compared to the old mac mini based on the air coming from the rear.

The more interesting question is if this smaller mac mini will be noisier that the larger old mac mini. Smaller air aperture requires a higher flow rate to match the same air mass flow rate achieved with a larger air aperture.
 
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For the mini, shouldn’t the headphone jack be in the back?

Understandable if you are using headphones, but I think most Mac mini users use external speakers and the wire will wrap around the mini in the front to get to the speakers. It will look ugly.

Any thoughts?
 
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