Ow hot...

[Geek 2.0]

Ok so I need to know this... What is the average temperature of your iMac??
Mine varies, but my processor never is that bad at all... maybe 40˚...
but its my power supply and everything else that's getting hit hard...
take a look at this screenshot... iStat Menus helps b/c it gives good temp readings

Oh yes, some fun last comments... My background rocks, I made it:
My Background ZOMG not full size idk why!!! ask if you want it, i'm too lazy to attach it unless people want it...
and Relient k rocks, of course
and if you have any questions on anything you see in the screenshot b/c of my amazingness, then ask them
oh yes, and i'm the most modest person on earth


EDIT: the heat is mostly around the top of my computer
the bottom area (around the plug) is cool, but it says the power supply is the hottest

 

[Eric Lewis]

iMac 2.0ghz 1gb ram


Does this mean i need more ram?

 

[Geek 2.0]

iMac 2.0ghz 1gb ram


Does this mean i need more ram?

no i don't think that means you need more RAM.
Your processor seems to be running fairly hard. Could you include a list of your top CPU-usage processes? If that is your processor running while you aren't doing anything intense, then you have a problem.

 

[snickelfritz]

If you have a "page outs" value higher than "0 bytes" in the Activity Monitor, your system is low on RAM.

 

[Coder]

My new 2.4 20" iMac seems to get pretty hot. Here's my readings while playing some music in iTunes with the visualizer on, stressing the CPU and GPU a bit. The power supply temp of 79 C and GPU of 66 C seem really high, compared to PCs I've had before. The top-left corner of the case gets really hot, not quite too hot to touch, but close. Is this normal? The room is fairly cool, and I'm worried about higher temps in the summer.

Ambient Air 27 C
CPU A Heatsink 54 C
Cpu Core 1 59 C
Cpu Core 2 60 C
Graphics Processor Chip 1 61 C
Graphics Processor Heatsink 1 63 C
Graphics Processor Temperature D 66 C
Hard Drive Bay 1 51 C
Memory Controller 54 C
Optical Drive 43 C
Power Supply Position 1 79 C
SMART Disk 50 C
Wireless Module 65 C

 

[Coder]

I let my iMac run for another 1/2 hour with the iTunes visualizer, and the Graphics Processor Temperature D is up to 69 C, and the Power Supply Position 1 is up to 83 C. CPU Cores are up to 65 C as well.

Note that these readings are from the freeware Temperature Monitor utility.

My iMac has been completely stable and problem-free, but I still wish it was running a bit cooler. But then again, it may be running just as Apple designed it to...

 

[snickelfritz]

My new 2.4 20" iMac seems to get pretty hot. Here's my readings while playing some music in iTunes with the visualizer on, stressing the CPU and GPU a bit. The power supply temp of 79 C and GPU of 66 C seem really high, compared to PCs I've had before. The top-left corner of the case gets really hot, not quite too hot to touch, but close. Is this normal? The room is fairly cool, and I'm worried about higher temps in the summer.

Ambient Air 27 C
CPU A Heatsink 54 C
Cpu Core 1 59 C
Cpu Core 2 60 C
Graphics Processor Chip 1 61 C
Graphics Processor Heatsink 1 63 C
Graphics Processor Temperature D 66 C
Hard Drive Bay 1 51 C
Memory Controller 54 C
Optical Drive 43 C
Power Supply Position 1 79 C
SMART Disk 50 C
Wireless Module 65 C

The top of my iMac only gets mildly warm to the touch.
It's evenly distributed along the entire top edge of the display, and I assume it is due to the vent located there. (I can feel similarly warm air exiting the vent)
I doubt anyone would describe it as being "hot", or a cause for concern.

 

[Dimwhit]

If you have a "page outs" value higher than "0 bytes" in the Activity Monitor, your system is low on RAM.

Realy?? My 'page outs' is at 3.26GB. And I have 2GB RAM with my 2.8 iMac 24". Guess it's a good thing I have a 4GB kit on the way.

 

[snickelfritz]

I have 4GB and the system never has a page out or swap value higher than 0, even with Photoshop, InDesign, Flash, Safari, Mail, iCal, Activity Monitor and Textedit running.
The computer is always responsive and quick.

With the stock 1GB, my iMac "stuttered" in some Leopard functions (Time Machine especially), and switching applications with the fore-mentioned set of apps was very slow and frustrating.
(I quickly developed a routine of quitting one app before launching another, and never had anything running in the background with Photoshop.)

 

[Dimwhit]

switching applications with the fore-mentioned set of apps was very slow and frustrating.

I'm getting that a bit right now. Particularly with Firefox. And I have 2GB. I was surprised to have that with 2GB, but not overly so. 4GB will hopefully take care of it.

 

[Coder]

The top of my iMac only gets mildly warm to the touch.
It's evenly distributed along the entire top edge of the display, and I assume it is due to the vent located there. (I can feel similarly warm air exiting the vent)
I doubt anyone would describe it as being "hot", or a cause for concern.

Hmm, mine definitely gets hot, and its much hotter on the top left side than the top right side. I don't know how the packaging is different in the 24" iMacs, but I'd assume there's a bit more space in there for ventilation.

Mine only gets hot like this when doing system-intensive stuff (World of Warcraft or movie encoding), if I'm doing web surfing or playing with iLife apps, it just gets a bit warm.

Googling for temperature ratings of my GPU and CPU, most links are PC-related, and it seems that anything above 60 degrees celsius is considered very warm for a 2600XT or Core 2 Duo chip, and mine are above that all the time when playing World of Warcraft (which is several hours a day - gotta cut back!).

 

[Chris204]

What's a good program to monitor an iMac's temperature? And what are the normal temperatures each component should be?

 

[snickelfritz]

I suppose there's some variation in heatsink efficiency among identical iMacs.

 

[Coder]

What's a good program to monitor an iMac's temperature? And what are the normal temperatures each component should be?

I'm using Temperature Monitor, it's easy and straightforward.
www.bresink.com/osx/TemperatureMonitor.html

I wish I knew what normal operating temperatures are, they seem to vary quite a bit from machine to machine. But even at idle (well, surfing Macrumors), my Power Supply is at 64 C, and my graphics chip is at 51 C. That just seems high considering my machine isn't doing any work (Activity Monitor shows 99% idle).

 

[snickelfritz]

Unless your machine is malfunctioning, I can't imagine why you would need to know the internal temps.
There's very little you can do about it except return the machine.

 

[Coder]

Unless your machine is malfunctioning, I can't imagine why you would need to know the internal temps.
There's very little you can do about it except return the machine.

It's possible that a machine that's running too hot will have a component failure down the line, even if it seems to be running just fine. If you're still within the warranty period, then it's worth knowing to get it repaired under warranty.

 

[Dimwhit]

Unless your machine is malfunctioning, I can't imagine why you would need to know the internal temps.
There's very little you can do about it except return the machine.

And I somehow doubt Apple would accept the return (beyond the 14 days, that is) just because it's running hot, when everything is working fine.

 

[snickelfritz]

And I somehow doubt Apple would accept the return (beyond the 14 days, that is) just because it's running hot, when everything is working fine.

Bingo!
The consumer is not empowered to determine acceptable system temperatures using third-party software.

 

[Leon Kowalski]

Unless your machine is malfunctioning, I can't imagine why you would need to know the internal temps.

Heat is a killer of hard drives. Seagate, Western Digital, and Hitachi
all specify maximum ambient operating temperatures of either 55C
or 60C (depending on drive model). In the case of iMacs, "ambient"
is the temperature of "Drive Bay #1" -- as reported by iStat Pro or
Temperature Monitor.

There's very little you can do about it except return the machine.

smcFanControl seems to work well for many owners. It simply
increases the fan idle speed(s). It does not otherwise interfere
with the iMac's standard fan control software/firmware.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23049/smcfancontrol

...the consumer is empowered to observe or ignore the specs,

LK

 

[Coder]

Bingo!
The consumer is not empowered to determine acceptable system temperatures using third-party software.

Yes, because Apple always makes flawless hardware, firmware, and software, and has never released fixes for issues like these in the past

 

[Coder]

Well damn, my iMac just locked up hard playing World of Warcraft, and I had to power it off to restart it

I've only had it for 3 weeks, but it's never had any sort of problem until I started monitoring the temperature yesterday...

 

[schlomo32]

my 2.5ghz penryn MBP runs pretty hot when just surfing the web.
CPU A - 52 C
GPU Diode - 61 C
Wireless Module - 56 C

When I play ET: Quake Wars the GPU gets up to 92 C while the CPU is at around 81 C

The fans never seem to really spin up very fast beyond the constant 2k rpm. I wish they would! Downloading FanControl tonight...