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Do these temperatures seem safe?

xxxshooter

xxxshooter

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 29, 2008
20
0
I have a PowerMac G5 Dual 2.5 Ghz, 8 GB RAM, nVidia 7800 GS, blah blah...

I have noticed that my mac runs hot, really hot.
Picture5.png


Is this regular? I have cleaned out the fans to rid of dust using my compressor.
 
Well, my two cents, generally 80 degrees C is the max on my CPUs in my current computer, but I wouldn't let the drives get to 60 degrees. I remember Tesselator posting something about how they aren't meant for temps that CPUs and other heat-generating components can handle.

Personally, I would like to know if this is the norm for a G5, too, since I'm picking one up soon enough. And are these temps you have there on idle or load? I would assume load...
 
naw dude, 155 Degrees F seem to be a normal thing for my computer. But even under load it doesn't go above 165... Hmm... i think i should buy some RAM heatsinks, those seem to run pretty warm usually... and i might need to replace/purge my Liquid Cooling b/c there could be buildups in there... I don't know, i'll work on it this summer when i'm working at MacResource again
 
xxxshooter said:
I have a PowerMac G5 Dual 2.5 Ghz, 8 GB RAM, nVidia 7800 GS, blah blah...

I have noticed that my mac runs hot, really hot.
Picture5.png


Is this regular? I have cleaned out the fans to rid of dust using my compressor.
Click to expand...

That's a little hot, yes! 70C for the CPU is "safe" but that's on the hot side and approaching VERY HOT - at least compared to my xeons.

45C and 42C on the hard drives is just about the highest you ever want them to go. 40C should be your target for the "highest allowed" during heavy load. I mean unless you don't really care (and if you didn't then I guess you wouldn't be posting this).

If I were you I would download smcFanControl and create a few presets for different things you do with your machine and try to get those temperatures down.

For example my x5355 never goes above 50C~55C and that's only on the hottest days of summer when the air temp is +40C. My drives never hit 45C or I stop doing what I'm doing, close the doors, and crank the air-conditioner.

So while they are safe (quote - unquote) they are not desirable. Unsafe would be 80C on my proc (look up the max for your cpu at G5's manufacturer's site) and 55C on my hard drives (again look up the max operating temp for your drive at the manufacturer site).
 
The G5 was a hot system. IBMs philosophy was more power! They really didn't care about wattage or heat, and that is why apple switched to intel. They specifically said it was because of intel's performance/watt roadmap. And intel has certainly delivered on that. It's also why the iMac G5 came out 1.5 years after the G5, and only hit 1.8Ghz (or did it reach 2?). Lots of talk about a G5 powerbook, but that never happed for the same reason. It's also why the G5s has 9 fans. 4 for the processors, 2 for the powersupply, 1 for the HDs and optical drive, 1 for the PCI bay and 1 for the motherboard.

Those temps look very similar to what I had on my dual 1.8. Considering yours is 700Mhz faster it makes sense. I might get worried if it climbed into the 70s though. Just make sure there is no dust buildup. I also don't believe that there is such a thing as smc fan control for PPCs.
 
Tesselator said:
That's a little hot, yes! 70C for the CPU is "safe" but that's on the hot side and approaching VERY HOT - at least compared to my xeons.
................................

.
Click to expand...

On the same general "hot" topic, I've real reviews that the ATI Radeon HD 4870 512 runs "HOT", but I'm not sure what "Hot" would be for it. I haven't seen any temps given. Any ideas?
 
Roy said:
On the same general "hot" topic, I've real reviews that the ATI Radeon HD 4870 512 runs "HOT", but I'm not sure what "Hot" would be for it. I haven't seen any temps given. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

The single GPU HD4870's run around 55c idle and 70c ~ 75c under load conditions given an ambient case temp of 23c or so - which is hot enough that some manufacturers are opting for non-reference cooler designs with thicker (8mm) heat pipes and etc. With the non-reference coolers it's more like 50c idle and 60c ~ 65c under load.

The HD4890's run MUCH MUCH cooler!!!
 
I'm using a simple, free program (pro requires $$) called Temperature Monitor.
 
Tesselator said:
That's a little hot, yes! 70C for the CPU is "safe" but that's on the hot side and approaching VERY HOT - at least compared to my xeons.

45C and 42C on the hard drives is just about the highest you ever want them to go. 40C should be your target for the "highest allowed" during heavy load. I mean unless you don't really care (and if you didn't then I guess you wouldn't be posting this).

If I were you I would download smcFanControl and create a few presets for different things you do with your machine and try to get those temperatures down.

For example my x5355 never goes above 50C~55C and that's only on the hottest days of summer when the air temp is +40C. My drives never hit 45C or I stop doing what I'm doing, close the doors, and crank the air-conditioner.

So while they are safe (quote - unquote) they are not desirable. Unsafe would be 80C on my proc (look up the max for your cpu at G5's manufacturer's site) and 55C on my hard drives (again look up the max operating temp for your drive at the manufacturer site).
Click to expand...

haha, mine is 25c-36c MAX! :cool:
 
Tesselator said:
The single GPU HD4870's run around 55c idle and 70c ~ 75c under load conditions given an ambient case temp of 23c or so - which is hot enough that some manufacturers are opting for non-reference cooler designs with thicker (8mm) heat pipes and etc. With the non-reference coolers it's more like 50c idle and 60c ~ 65c under load.

The HD4890's run MUCH MUCH cooler!!!
Click to expand...

That's because the 4890 HSF spins at a faster rotation, giving out much higher dB...
 
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