Mac mini - HDD and thermal grease replacement?

[:-)]

At the moment I'm looking to upgrade my late 2009 Mac mini's hard drive (with 2,5" WD Blue 640GB).

I was looking photos on ifixit on how to do it and get an idea that if I dissassemble mini I can also replace thermal grease too (I have AC's MX3). Usually default thermal greases are silicon based and are not so efficient than MX3.

My basic question is if anyone replace thermal grease on mini already? Is it difficult to remove heatsinks from CPU and GPU? What was the temperature drop? Does mini have "push-pull" based pins for mounting heat spreaders?

 

[quadG5guy]

Why would you do this? I run Folding@home on my mini 24/7 and the temperatures never exceed the ratings on the components. I'll hit 75C on a warm day, but so what, the CPU is spec'd for 80C (or is it 100C?). Seems like a waste of time and money to monkey with the grease. Plus the risk you assume in tampering with it.

 

[ae3265]

At the moment I'm looking to upgrade my late 2009 Mac mini's hard drive (with 2,5" WD Blue 640GB).

I was looking photos on ifixit on how to do it and get an idea that if I dissassemble mini I can also replace thermal grease too (I have AC's MX3). Usually default thermal greases are silicon based and are not so efficient than MX3.

My basic question is if anyone replace thermal grease on mini already? Is it difficult to remove heatsinks from CPU and GPU? What was the temperature drop? Does mini have "push-pull" based pins for mounting heat spreaders?

From my OC'ing days, I'm a bit sensitive to heat. However, I suspect you will get more bang for your buck by placing some rubber pads on the bottom of the mini to raise it off whatever surface you have it on and allow heat to dissipate out the bottom than futzing around with the CPU heatsinks.

Doing that with my mini's (I have 4) that I compile, use as servers, encode video and run VM's on seems to work very well. I have not suffered any heat related issues so far.

Cheers!

 

[:-)]

I'm ex. overclocker and hardware enthusiast so I like to optimize every detail of hardware and mini looks super sexi for this kind of fun.

And if I open mini to replace HDD than why I wouldn't replace thermal compount if it's simple and I may get few degrees lower temps and more quiet sistem?

BTW thanks for advice with rubber pads, I like it.

 

[MacModMachine]

I'm ex. overclocker and hardware enthusiast so I like to optimize every detail of hardware and mini looks super sexi for this kind of fun.

And if I open mini to replace HDD than why I wouldn't replace thermal compount if it's simple and I may get few degrees lower temps and more quiet sistem?

BTW thanks for advice with rubber pads, I like it.

replacing the thermal paste can be a expensive job, the heatsink is held down by push plastic clips and springs....such as the ones on video card heatsinks, there tough to get off and break very easily.

i would highly advise against even attempting removing it unless your intent is to replace or upgrade the cpu.

hope this helps.

ps. the whole mini board has to be removed also.

 

[MacModMachine]

From my OC'ing days, I'm a bit sensitive to heat. However, I suspect you will get more bang for your buck by placing some rubber pads on the bottom of the mini to raise it off whatever surface you have it on and allow heat to dissipate out the bottom than futzing around with the CPU heatsinks.

Doing that with my mini's (I have 4) that I compile, use as servers, encode video and run VM's on seems to work very well. I have not suffered any heat related issues so far.

Cheers!

you need to buy the mini stacks...i have my mini's in them, they cool them and they look fantastic.

you can stack as many minis and mount them right under a shelf