M1 iMac - How important is that second fan? - deal on 7c GPU

[sassemblyman]

Hi All,

I wanted a sanity check. I found a local seller with an M1 iMac, 512gb SSD, 16gb Ram, both requirements for me. The downside? It is a two port system and thus is lacking the additional fan and 8th GPU core.

I can get a great deal on this system - $700. However, the second fan was originally one of my top requirements for performance, but also future-proofing. I am a tinkerer with many many Macs, and prefer to have towards top spec of each platform I acquire. Especially since the days of CPU / GPU swaps are long gone.

Should I go for this? Or should I just wait out for my optimal specification? This is not a "needed" computer. I daily my M3 Pro 14" MBP.

Note: It appears boards are different because if swapping the heatsink and adding a fan were an option, I would do it without second thought!

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

7 GPU cores are not top specs, it doesn't meet your requirements.

 

[picpicmac]

You could look for reports of the 1-fan version over-heating, but I've not read of any. Doesn't mean they are not out there, but it doesn't appear to be that important.

 

[sassemblyman]

7 GPU cores are not top specs, it doesn't meet your requirements.

Yea, I know. Long story short, I wound up passing on this one with the 7c GPU and found a blue one locally for only a few bucks more. Too bad, I'll have to wait to find a green one (and purple one) with my desired specs.

After playing with the blue 8c GPU version I got, with the 2 fans, and installing Macs Fan Control, my gut says that the 7c version with Macs Fan Control would be just fine. The fan curves on these things are so conservative that by the time they kick in, things can be heat swamped.

A bit of proactive fan cooling on the 7c GPU version probably goes a long way.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Yea, I know. Long story short, I wound up passing on this one with the 7c GPU and found a blue one locally for only a few bucks more. Too bad, I'll have to wait to find a green one (and purple one) with my desired specs.

After playing with the blue 8c GPU version I got, with the 2 fans, and installing Macs Fan Control, my gut says that the 7c version with Macs Fan Control would be just fine. The fan curves on these things are so conservative that by the time they kick in, things can be heat swamped.

A bit of proactive fan cooling on the 7c GPU version probably goes a long way.

I realize your original situation is sorted, but I don’t think you could even buy a 16/512 M1 iMac with 7 GPU. Upgrading the RAM (possibly storage) would have bumped it to a 8GPU/4-port configuration.