Get a M1 mini, try it out, keep if it satisfies your needs and sell the old mini, or return it if it doesn’t. I wouldn’t spend more on the old mini. Mine is much more responsive than the 2020 MBP i7 I got earlier this year doing the same tasks.
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I regret my i7 2018 purchase
- Thread starter HeavyMantra
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Yeah, it sounds like something isn't quite right I don't know that I've ever heard the fan on my 2018 Mini no matter what I throw at it.
I do occasionally hear the fan on my Razor Core X, emphasis on 'occasionally".
But if it isn't working for you then get something else.
I do occasionally hear the fan on my Razor Core X, emphasis on 'occasionally".
But if it isn't working for you then get something else.
Has it been like this since you first purchased it, or has this worsened over time? If it was not as loud in the beginning, perhaps you should consider having it diagnosed, either at an Apple store or one of their authorized repair shops.
If it was not this loud in the beginning, then it is possible that a fan replacement would be cost effective, and if you are confident that this mini can satisfy your needs for at least a couple more years, then I would sure suggest considering this.
I had my iPhone Xs Max repaired at the Apple store just a few weeks ago. I was very pleasantly surprised at how reasonable it was for the repair (camera replacement). They will probably be able to diagnose it and tell you what the repair will / should cost, without charge. At least that is what they did for my iPhone.
Otherwise getting a new M1 mini seems to me to be a sure-fire fix, as others here have also recommended.
I would buy the M1 Mac Mini try it out for a week and then decide what you want to do!
I am so sick of hearing my iMacs fans. I have the 2019 i9 iMac and if I do anything that lasts more than a few seconds (even very basic tasks like installing something), the fans get LOUD. It is ridiculous. I have an M1 Mac mini on the way to replace my iMac. This will mostly be used as a bridge system and I will get the rumored Mac Pro Mini if that comes out. Or the Mac Pro if they drop the price enough. I definitely prefer headless systems. I might get a 16" for work on the go advantages if they can keep that system silent too.
I too replaced my old MBP (2008, maxed out it was $3,000!) with a $1300 Apple Refurb 2018 i7 (16Gb) 1Tb Mac Mini at less than half the cost of the MBP. Going from an old Core 2 Duo machine to the i7 Mini was like a leap into the space age, wow! Now, I’m glad I didn‘t max the RAM and left it stock. At less than half the cost of the 2018 Mini the new M1 ushers in the next leap into the space age. I wouldn’t invest any more money into an Intel based system, it’s old news. If it doesn’t meet your current needs, sell it, and move on into the future.
That's not surprising to me at all.
1. The single fan in the Mac mini is cooling the CPU, GPU, SSD as well as (probably) the T2 and RAM.
As noted in the following article...
support.apple.com
2. Mac mini's air intake is via the bottom. More specifically, the ring/edge of the black circular pad, stand, whatever you want to call it. So, positioning matters.
3. Ambient temperature and humidity affects cooling performance, of course i.e. if you keep your home/room toasty, it's going to reduce cooling performance.
4. UHD media indeed requires a significant amount of processing power to encode/decode. Additionally, some sources make it more difficult as they're less optimized e.g. YouTube on macOS.
The 2018 released Mac mini quad-core i7 has a TDP of 65 W. In comparison, my system's dual-core i5 has a TDP of 35 W. Basically, half yours -- not even if we also consider Turbo Boost, 3.1 GHz vs. 4.6 GHz. I have Folding@Home set to High. So, there's plenty of load on the CPU. With my Mac mini positioned vertically and a current room temperature of ~69 ºF / 20.5 ºC, the internal fan speed reaches ~2,600 RPM with the CPU temp hovering around 91 ºC. When I run the external fan, a USB adapted 140 mm, 1500 RPM, and hydraulic bearing that's directed at the bottom of the Mac mini, the CPU temp stays between 88 ºC and 90 ºC with the fan speed fluctuating from ~1800 (baseline) to 2100 RPM.
In conclusion... Yes, the 2018 i7-equipped Mac mini is going to produce lots of heat when tasked high or mediocrely and that single, small blower is going to need to hit some high speeds to dissipate it all.
As for suggestions... Foremost, position your mini vertically with at least a 6-inch margin from other devices/objects -- there are plenty of affordable stands available e.g. this. You can add a(n external) fan to improve cooling using a USB adapter cable.
Whether or not to go eGPU... Logic Pro shouldn't stress any modern GPU (even an iGPU) much and the T2 will sufficiently handle h.264/h.265 media. So, it would depend a bit on specific use cases. What you can do is check how much the GPU is being stressed while watching videos, etc.
support.apple.com
P.S. I wasn't aware the Apple TV 4K had a fan.
1. The single fan in the Mac mini is cooling the CPU, GPU, SSD as well as (probably) the T2 and RAM.
As noted in the following article...
About fans and fan noise in your Apple product - Apple Support
Learn how your Apple product monitors internal temperatures and uses fans to cool critical components.
3. Ambient temperature and humidity affects cooling performance, of course i.e. if you keep your home/room toasty, it's going to reduce cooling performance.
4. UHD media indeed requires a significant amount of processing power to encode/decode. Additionally, some sources make it more difficult as they're less optimized e.g. YouTube on macOS.
The 2018 released Mac mini quad-core i7 has a TDP of 65 W. In comparison, my system's dual-core i5 has a TDP of 35 W. Basically, half yours -- not even if we also consider Turbo Boost, 3.1 GHz vs. 4.6 GHz. I have Folding@Home set to High. So, there's plenty of load on the CPU. With my Mac mini positioned vertically and a current room temperature of ~69 ºF / 20.5 ºC, the internal fan speed reaches ~2,600 RPM with the CPU temp hovering around 91 ºC. When I run the external fan, a USB adapted 140 mm, 1500 RPM, and hydraulic bearing that's directed at the bottom of the Mac mini, the CPU temp stays between 88 ºC and 90 ºC with the fan speed fluctuating from ~1800 (baseline) to 2100 RPM.
In conclusion... Yes, the 2018 i7-equipped Mac mini is going to produce lots of heat when tasked high or mediocrely and that single, small blower is going to need to hit some high speeds to dissipate it all.
As for suggestions... Foremost, position your mini vertically with at least a 6-inch margin from other devices/objects -- there are plenty of affordable stands available e.g. this. You can add a(n external) fan to improve cooling using a USB adapter cable.
Whether or not to go eGPU... Logic Pro shouldn't stress any modern GPU (even an iGPU) much and the T2 will sufficiently handle h.264/h.265 media. So, it would depend a bit on specific use cases. What you can do is check how much the GPU is being stressed while watching videos, etc.
View GPU activity in Activity Monitor on Mac
In Activity Monitor, view the graphics processor activity of your Mac over time.
View information about Mac processes in Activity Monitor
Use Activity Monitor to view information about processes (or programs) running on your Mac. This includes information about memory and CPU time.
support.apple.com
P.S. I wasn't aware the Apple TV 4K had a fan.
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That's not surprising to me at all.
1. The single fan in the Mac mini is cooling the CPU, GPU, SSD as well as (probably) the T2 and RAM.
As noted in the following article...
2. Mac mini's air intake is via the bottom. More specifically, the ring/edge of the black circular pad, stand, whatever you want to call it. So, positioning matters.About fans and fan noise in your Apple product - Apple Support
Learn how your Apple product monitors internal temperatures and uses fans to cool critical components.
3. Ambient temperature and humidity affects cooling performance, of course i.e. if you keep your home/room toasty, it's going to reduce cooling performance.
4. UHD media indeed requires a significant amount of processing power to encode/decode. Additionally, some sources make it more difficult as they're less optimized e.g. YouTube on macOS.
The 2018 released Mac mini quad-core i7 has a TDP of 65 W. In comparison, my system's dual-core i5 has a TDP of 35 W. Basically, half yours -- not even if we also consider Turbo Boost, 3.1 GHz vs. 4.6 GHz. I have Folding@Home set to High. So, there's plenty of load on the CPU. With my Mac mini positioned vertically and a current room temperature of ~69 ºF / 20.5 ºC, the internal fan speed reaches ~2,600 RPM with the CPU temp hovering around 91 ºC. When I run the external fan, a USB adapted 140 mm, 1500 RPM, and hydraulic bearing that's directed at the bottom of the Mac mini, the CPU temp stays between 88 ºC and 90 ºC with the fan speed fluctuating from ~1800 (baseline) to 2100 RPM.
In conclusion... Yes, the 2018 i7-equipped Mac mini is going to produce lots of heat when tasked high or mediocrely and that single, small blower is going to need to hit some high speeds to dissipate it all.
As for suggestions... Foremost, position your mini vertically with at least a 6-inch margin from other devices/objects -- there are plenty of affordable stands available e.g. this. You can add a(n external) fan to improve cooling using a USB adapter cable.
Whether or not to go eGPU... Logic Pro shouldn't stress any modern GPU (even an iGPU) much and the T2 will sufficiently handle h.264/h.265 media. So, it would depend a bit on specific use cases. What you can do is check how much the GPU is being stressed while watching videos, etc.
View GPU activity in Activity Monitor on Mac
In Activity Monitor, view the graphics processor activity of your Mac over time.View information about Mac processes in Activity Monitor
Use Activity Monitor to view information about processes (or programs) running on your Mac. This includes information about memory and CPU time.support.apple.com
P.S. I wasn't aware the Apple TV 4K had a fan.
This is great, thanks. Will return to this post and try these things out.
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Note that YouTube doesn’t typically use h.264 or h.265 in a browser, rather VP9 or AC1, so I would expect the CPU is called to do a decode. That, plus playing on an external 4K display, is likely stress the CPU and GPU enough to trigger higher fan noise.
Whereas, if HeavyMantra were to play a 4K iTunes movie, that would likely be decoded entirely by the T2, and that might be sufficient for the machine to stay much quieter.
I like the idea of changing your mini’s setup; another idea would be to put it further away from you. The design lends itself to being on top of your desk, but it does not have to be there. You might even be able to hide it right under the desk through some mounting mechanism, which should reduce the perceptible noise quite a bit. You could even test this first by shoving a box under your desk and putting the mini there to see if it’s good enough for your needs.
Obviously the new M1 mini will be much quieter, but remember there are trade-offs (less Thunderbolt 3 ports, max 16GB RAM, no Windows yet). If those are not an issue, then buying a M1 would solve your issues.
Whereas, if HeavyMantra were to play a 4K iTunes movie, that would likely be decoded entirely by the T2, and that might be sufficient for the machine to stay much quieter.
I like the idea of changing your mini’s setup; another idea would be to put it further away from you. The design lends itself to being on top of your desk, but it does not have to be there. You might even be able to hide it right under the desk through some mounting mechanism, which should reduce the perceptible noise quite a bit. You could even test this first by shoving a box under your desk and putting the mini there to see if it’s good enough for your needs.
Obviously the new M1 mini will be much quieter, but remember there are trade-offs (less Thunderbolt 3 ports, max 16GB RAM, no Windows yet). If those are not an issue, then buying a M1 would solve your issues.
Happy to help. I went through a few different setup designs before I achieved this.
A nice elaboration of my point #4.
Hi,
I have the same config and am having the same issue. I use my MM for office tasks...browser with 20-tabs open, excel, word, outlook, slack...and the fans are ALWAYS blasting. the noise is so frustrating.
I'll go look at turbo boost switcher.
thanks.
What a dumb post. Watching one, two or even several 4K movies simultaneously will not make a dent in performance. There is a video decoder on the chip that takes care of that.
Agreed, there's something weird going on here. I'm wondering if they're using a third-party web browser that somehow isn't able to tap into the dedicated decoder and has to run it through the main processor.