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macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 5, 2014
21
2
My brother just purchased a used 6,1 with the 2.7 12-core CPU and D700 GPU. It runs much hotter than my old 4-core/D300 model ever did. Has anyone done anything to help move air through the case?
 
My brother just purchased a used 6,1 with the 2.7 12-core CPU and D700 GPU. It runs much hotter than my old 4-core/D300 model ever did. Has anyone done anything to help move air through the case?
Has it been cleaned of dust?

Mine needed that, and it got some new thermal grease for the CPU when I upgraded the CPU from 2.4ghz 12 core to the 2.7ghz 12 core. It does run warm but I also see the fan control to crank up a bit when needed.

It definitely needed the dust cleaned out of it however, that meant pulling it apart to do that properly. You can take them apart as long as you are very careful.
 
Break it down, clean out all the dust, remove all old thermal paste from the CPU & GPUs and apply fresh thermal paste to same...?
 
+1 on the de-dust and thermal paste renewal.
It runs much hotter than my old 4-core/D300 model ever did
Compared to the stock 6-core, the 12-core runs several degrees cooler and quieter for us (D300 & D500) under the same work scenarios (as it has a better power-per-watt-ratio).
If you‘re not stressing the GPU AND CPU constantly, the thermal system itself should be absolutely sufficient and self-regulating. Are you worried about the temperatures or high fan speeds?

An easy way to reduce temps/fan speeds is to place the Mac not directly on a flat surface but elevate it a bit so it gets more/easier cold air from below as the chimney effect can work more effectively.
 
I suggest to not separate the CPU riser card from the thermal core. The standoff screws may twist and damage nearby traces on the PCB. This can happen even when explicitly following Apple's directions using their own tools. It's not worth the risk IMO. For the GPUs you will need to buy two sets of new thermal pads from Apple.
 
This is the bit being referred to above:

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i-4HGZpqm-X5.jpg


If you are doing any work with that, you have to be slow, careful and methodical. I didn't use the Wera brand torque screwdriver set but did have good quality screwdrivers with the appropriate attachments and just went slowly and carefully. It originally had the E5-2695 V2 processor. I didn't take the video cards off - I was only doing the CPU upgrade.

It did look okay from the outside but inside it was very dusty and needed a good clean up. (cough, cough, cough... blurgh, dust everywhere)
 
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