iMac Air Vents

[kena1921]

Hi

I recently bought a new 27 inch iMac. The one problem I found with it was that it sat too high on my desk and was giving me neck ache - usual ergonomic advice is to have the top of any screen at eye level but the iMac stand puts the top above this. To solve this I cut a small section out of the back of my desk, put a small shelf underneath and placed the iMac on this thus the screen is now at a perfect height.

My question however this has placed the bottom of the screen and thus the air vents about an inch to three quarters of an inch above the desk. Does anyone know if this is likely to cause any issues with cooling?

 

[hfg]

With that much clearance, you should be fine as far as air flow, but your speakers might sound a bit harsh?

 

[kena1921]

I had noticed the speakers sounding a little harsh but that may me the price I have to pay.

Since I've had the iMac in this position it has switched itself off a couple of times whilst the screen was asleep. So from what you're saying the cause of this then wouldn't be any over heating problems. It has certainly never felt even slightly hot.

 

[hfg]

Did it actually turn totally off (power-on chime and boot sequence), of did it simply enter the "computer sleep" mode after entering the "display sleep" mode?

You can set the time delay (or none) for both of these in System Preferences under Energy Saver.


-howard

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You might be able to "soften" the sound a bit by putting some stick-on felt strips on the desk surface below the screen, unless you prefer the "brighter" tone with directly reflecting sound off of the hard desktop.

 

[kena1921]

It switched completely off (including closing Windows which I run in Parallels) and needed power on chime to restart. Because the screen was black I'm not sure if the energy saver for the screen came on and then the switch of happened or if it all happened in one go. However I wasn't using it when it went.

 

[hfg]

That might have been due to a power line glitch of some sort ... do you have your iMac on a UPS to guard against that?

If it was actually overheating, you would definitely notice the fan noise increase as the temperature went up ... it can get quite loud, even though the computer is within safe operating temperature range. The computer will protect itself from fatal over-temps, but I have not encountered that myself and don't know if it looks like a normal shutdown or if it simply halts.

 

[Twimfy]

Download and install iStat Pro to your dashboard.

Keep a record of the temps under various scenarios (HD Video, games and idle).

Then raise the iMac back to where it was and do the same.

If there's no real difference then you're golden.