Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Mac Mini 09 heating question

E

elcid

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 5, 2007
427
0
For those of you who have the new Mac Mini, I am wondering at what temp is your fan kicking up?

I spent the morning ripping a DVD and it got up to 92C (idle for me right now is ~45C) but it still didnt get above 1500rpm(using SMC). I used SMC to jack up the fan so I could hear it, but now I am curious when the thing might even turn on.

At this point a 7200 HD and a quad core sounds feasible heat-wise (if it wasnt soldered of course)

Any real world data? Needless to say I am pretty pleased with how quiet it is :)
 
I'm in the process of ripping one of the stars wars movies using handbrake and the processors are pegged, temperature has increased to 78 C and the fan is at 1929 using istat pro. I still can't hear it, but it is up 400-450 over normal.

I have 4gb and a 320g WD 7200 drive
 
I would like to know this info as well. Definitely pleased with how quiet it is. Doing the same things I do now my black macbook use to sound like it was about to fly away. Almost for about that.
 
penguy said:
I'm in the process of ripping one of the stars wars movies using handbrake and the processors are pegged, temperature has increased to 78 C and the fan is at 1929 using istat pro. I still can't hear it, but it is up 400-450 over normal.

I have 4gb and a 320g WD 7200 drive
Click to expand...

Thats weird. I'm ripping at 75C and still at 1500 currently. Going to try iStat pro and see what I get.

Stylez Cz said:
I would like to know this info as well. Definitely pleased with how quiet it is. Doing the same things I do now my black macbook use to sound like it was about to fly away. Almost for about that.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean. My white macbook fan would have been going full bore if I was doing the same tasks. The only way I can get the thing to make any noise is to run a DVD.
 
elcid said:
Thats weird. I'm ripping at 75C and still at 1500 currently. Going to try iStat pro and see what I get.



I know what you mean. My white macbook fan would have been going full bore if I was doing the same tasks. The only way I can get the thing to make any noise is to run a DVD.
Click to expand...


I haven't ripped many since my prior computer was the PPC mini and it would only hit about 6-7 fps in ripping using handbrake, translating into 5-8 hours per disk, not worth it. This mini is averaging ~25 fps which is still near 2 hours for Star Wars, but much better.

In any case, here is what iStat reads:

HD: 55
CPU A: 79
CPU Heat sink: 69
Airport: 61
HD Bay: 50
Northbridge: 63


I would think you want the CPU temp, right? My fan was at 1952 at last check.
 
I'm having the same issues with the fan not kicking in. I did some benchmarks on the CPU and the temp go to 81C! It idles around 45C. I copied 6 GB of music from my external drive to the mini and the hard drive hit 55C. As a final test I played Counter Strike Source for a couple of hours and still the fan speed stayed around 1500 rpm.

I decided to install smcfanControl as a sanity check to see if the fan actually would speed up. As soon as I started it up I heard the fan purr. I set it to 2800 rpm and checked my temps with istat. I could see the cpu temp and hd temp rapidly fall to 36C. A much healthier temp in my opinion.

smcFanControl lets you take the fan even higher. I set it to 4000 just for fun, although this is too loud for 24/7 operation, I think 2800 is perfectly fine.

I think Apple needs to update the firmware for the fan control. I shouldn't be forced to use a 3rd party software cooling hack, which does not work in windows and does not offer automatic temperature adjustments. 1500 rpm is fine at idle, but 81C for my cpu and no increase? At 81C cpu and 55c HD (they are more sensitive to heat) the fans should be running around 3500 rpm.

Forgot to Add: When I set smcFanControl to 2800 - 3000 rpm , my temps are 30-40C across the board (HD,CPU,Heat Sink,HD Bay,Northbridge)
 
elcid said:
I am only averaging ~15. What are your specs?
Click to expand...

base mini (2.0) with 4gb ram and the WD scorpio black 7200 rpm 320gb hd.

My mini hit a little over 2025 rpm but the temp never went above 79C

are you using handbrake 0.9.3?
 
penguy said:
base mini (2.0) with 4gb ram and the WD scorpio black 7200 rpm 320gb hd.

My mini hit a little over 2025 rpm but the temp never went above 79C

are you using handbrake 0.9.3?
Click to expand...

Ya. Thats weird that your fan is actually adjusting when others are just sitting "idle" the whole time.
 
rrijkers said:
So what is the problem? a) It's quite, b) you don't touch it

I'd say perfect :)
Click to expand...

My problem is that it runs the fan the exact same way whether it is at 0% CPU usage or 100% on both cores.


I started using Fan Control (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23137) and it seems to be working a lot better. I like it better than SMC because it adjusts the RPMs based on the temp so it will let it idle at 1500 if it gets cool enough.

I am calling AppleCare tomorrow to see what the deal is. I'll report back if there is anything of note.
 
My fans kicked in at 105ºC the other day which I found to be quite silly, but it was fine.
 
elcid said:
My problem is that it runs the fan the exact same way whether it is at 0% CPU usage or 100% on both cores.


I started using Fan Control (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23137) and it seems to be working a lot better. I like it better than SMC because it adjusts the RPMs based on the temp so it will let it idle at 1500 if it gets cool enough.

I am calling AppleCare tomorrow to see what the deal is. I'll report back if there is anything of note.
Click to expand...

I think the issue should be the apparently inconsistent way in which the various reports here have indicated that the mini is behaving. My mini's fan did go from 1500-2000 when the temp exceeded about 75C, while elcid and others reported no increase in a similar range.
 
Well I called AppleCare and they told me to take it into the Genius bar. I am going to give that a shot tomorrow.

Hopefully they will be out of the 120gb and they will give me a 320 as a replacement!


My fans kicked in at 105ºC the other day which I found to be quite silly, but it was fine.
Click to expand...

Id prefer to boil water on my stove, not on my new Mac mini hot plate.
 
Noise

So the consensus is that the new Mac mini is much quieter than an older Macbook when running Handbrake?

I am considering getting one, but my Blackbook makes horrible high pitched fan noise that I can hear from 2 rooms away when I go to bed. Currently I have been using an old DP G4 MDD windtunnel for Handbrake. It takes about 9-12 hours a movie, but I'm running Handbrake 48 hours straight and the fan noise is low pitched and bearable. I don't hear it when I go to sleep. So it sounds like the new Mac mini may be the way to go, and use it for a HTPC too.
 
Even when running at 3200 RPM the disc is still making the same or more noise than the fans. It is very quiet.


I went to the Apple store to get it looked at. While taking it out of the box the guy asks whats wrong and I tell him. I immediately get a "Oh well thats not really all that hot" from him and a co-worker.

I left it overnight for a diagnostic test. I believe the two people, but still it should speed up at some point shoudnt it? If I can encode for 4 hours with 100% utilization then what is the point of a variable speed fan.

I'll update when I get it back tomorrow.
 
According to Intel, the thermal spec. for the 2.0GHz processor is 90C.

I jumped my min fan speed to 2500RPM with smcFanControl to keep it right at 36C when idle or doing basic tasks. Will there be any negative long term affects by running it faster? Like it crapping out sooner?
 
txnoob said:
According to Intel, the thermal spec. for the 2.0GHz processor is 90C.

I jumped my min fan speed to 2500RPM with smcFanControl to keep it right at 36C when idle or doing basic tasks. Will there be any negative long term affects by running it faster? Like it crapping out sooner?
Click to expand...

I'd imagine it would crap out sooner. I had it into Apple and they said it was fine. I still use Fan Control as it keeps it cool and the fan low.

Still not sure what the end result for all of this is going to be.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back