How is the Fan / cooling system on the Mac Mini?

[mralexandercom]

Are there any concerns for the cooling system?

Since there is only 1 fan there and it is a rather tight box that houses all the components?

Would it overheat?

 

[Dr. Stealth]

Apple says the airflow of the 2018 is twice that of the older models. They made more space for the larger cooling by dumping the 2.5 disk bay.

 

[D.T.]

Drill and a big supplemental fan ... works great on my MBP (well, not the drill part )

 

[StellarVixen]

We'll have to wait. They said that they have improved it.

Still, 65W chip can get REALLY hot.

We will see.

 

[Neodym]

Apple specifies the older unibody minis at 85W. The 2018 mini is specified up to 150W, so the cooling system better be improved and hopefully at least as quiet under low/normal load - which is basically silent - as the 2012 gen.

If it’d be less noisy than the 2012 under load, it would be the icing on the cake. Really looking forward to the reviews incoming ...

 

[Mol1n]

The base 5k iMac is praised for remaining cool and quiet even when worked hard. What is the chance of that happening for the Mini even for the i3 model?

 

[iZeljko]

It will be interesting to see who will the i5 and i7 perform.
Hope the i7 will run reasonably cool as that is the one I'm looking after.

 

[SpacemanSpiffed]

The quality of the engineering of the cooling system, and the materials used can make a huge difference.

Quietness of the mini has always been a very high priority for Apple (along with low energy usage) .. I expect it has remained so, and Apple has the talent and willingness to go the extra mile in making a bespoke and custom cooling solution.

 

[Easttime]

This was my first thought on seeing the welcome release of the new 2018 mini. Waiting for real world experience reports. This summer during an unusual heat wave, my 2014 mini had problems with heat that I resolved with a desk fan.

 

[kaibob]

The specs for the new mini on the Apple site include the following:

"Typical acoustical performance: Sound pressure level (operator position): 4 dBA at idle"

The sound pressure level at idle is not a very significant figure, but 4 dBA is very quiet. Also, Apple does not include a sound-level spec for any other Mac, which could indicate special attention was given to producing a quiet mini.

This is all speculation, but my guess is that the new mini will be an acceptably quiet machine--enough so that I've already ordered an I5 mini.

 

[Fishrrman]

There is no way to answer the OP's questions yet.

The production Mini's haven't come into users' hands yet.

Only after they do, will we begin to see real-world reports under actual use scenarios.

 

[ElectronGuru]

The sound pressure level at idle is not a very significant figure, but 4 dBA is very quiet. Also, Apple does not include a sound-level spec for any other Mac, which could indicate special attention was given to producing a quiet mini.

In the world of house fans (air king etc), you can get more air with less noise by running two fans on low instead of one fan on high (of the same size). If that holds true in miniature, I would expect a bigger fan to produce less dB while generating more flow/cooling.