GPU on top of Mac Mini

[Jamers99]

Is this a bad idea? The Mac Mini enclosure seems very strong but this Black Magic eGPU ain't exactly light. It weighs 10 lbs. Granted there are 4 rubber pad contact points so it distributes 2.5 lbs per pad. There still appears to be a lot of clearance. The bottom is an open design with 2 inches of clearance to the eGPU air intake.

 

[dspdoc]

Heat = Not a good idea.

 

[LeeW]

I guess it depends how hard you are pushing the Mac Mini, I assume the BM is sucking air from the bottom and expelling through the top? If so and you are pushing it quite hard then you may well be pulling a significant amount of the minis hot air into the BM.

That does not sound like a great idea, you want cool air coming in not warm air, but then it depends on your climate, you may well be doing that anyway.

 

[smbu2000]

Doesn’t that egpu take in cool air from the bottom and let out the hot air from the top vent? I’d imagine that the hot air from the mini would cause problems as the mini can get pretty hot on top.
The weight might also be a problem, having something that heavy on mini.

Right now I have my mini on top of my egpu box (razer core x). It takes in/expels air from the sides so the top stays cool.

 

[StellarVixen]

It makes your desk less cluttered, but it can give you issues with temperature on GPU or Mac.

 

[LeeW]

You are not going to damage the mini by sitting it on top, if heat is an issue coming from the mini then you will see performance issues. If you can view the temp of the BM then monitor it for a while on top of the mini then away from it.

 

[inmnbob]

Are you experiencing any Kernel crashes when using the BlackMagic eGPU? I had to return my MacMini since I was getting a lot of crashes and some BT connectivity issues and I also returned the eGPU too. I never could tell if it was a bad mini or the integration of the two so you experience/feedback with this setup would be helpful

 

[Fishrrman]

1071318 has it right in post 2 above.

You DON'T want to do this, because of heat-related issues.

Put the eGPU towards the back of the desk, out-of-the-way...