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Post your Mac mini setups
- Thread starter tpivette89
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Has anyone picked this up? It claims it prevents dust from getting inside the Mini. I'm considering it for that reason alone, if it is effective. And I love that the power button is at the front. So much easier to get to.
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I built a rough custom version of that basic idea for my (now retired) 2012 Mini a decade back.
Imperfect as it was it worked very well. Only maintenance was to remove and rinse the filter out every month or two. After about 7 years of running 24/7 there was only a slight coating of fine dust on the edges of fan blades and on a handful of other edges and corners in the air flow path inside the Mini.
How well that commercial version does the job remains to be seen. But no question the basic idea works very well.
If that version does work and is reasonably robust, then I highly recommend getting one. 10/10.
What is that made of? Just realize that the antennae are located at the bottom, which is why the bottom is plastic. If there is a significant amount of metal in that stand, then that would block the signals.
For example, this stand/hub is notorious for blocking WiFi.
I think it's made of a rubber like material. I had that stand and returned it. The thing with these stands is that when you put the Mini on top, the inside edges of the stand actually block almost half of the air vents of the mini. Like what's the point in putting a stand under it if the stand blocks the vents? I even ordered a different stand with 4 feet and the same thing. Plus the wide feet also blow airflow.
Do you have the part number of that heat sink? It looks perfect! Have you measured the temperature differences under sustained use?
I got it from amazon.ca. You should be able to find it on the.com site.
I just got it a few days and honestly it's so amazing. I wish I had got it right away, but better late than ever. I think I'm going to get another one for my OWC thunderbolt hub (which can run very very warm).
Before getting the heatsink, my M4 Mini would go up to as high as 105c when rendering video and the fan would go up to 1800 rpm. When I put my hand on the heat sink it's quite warm so obviously that means it's doing its job. And this fit fits the M4 mini perfect for size.
Now with the heatsink living on top of it, the Mini goes maximum 90c. So a 15 degree difference is pretty significant. And the fan will go 1300 RPM max when at 90c. Also when at idle the temperatures are at least 5c lower. Well worth the $16.
I would love to find some kind of thermal tape that I can stick to the mini. And I have no doubt that you would have greater results. But I want it so that's easy to remove afterwards so doesn't damage the mini.
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Thank you! In the past my Intel Mac Mini did the same....thanks for sharing this great solution!I got it from amazon.ca. You should be able to find it on the.com site.
I just got it a few days and honestly it's so amazing. I wish I had got it right away, but better late than ever. I think I'm going to get another one for my OWC thunderbolt hub (which can run very very warm).
Before getting the heatsink, my M4 Mini would go up to as high as 105c when rendering video and the fan would go up to 1800 rpm. When I put my hand on the heat sink it's quite warm so obviously that means it's doing its job. And this fit fits the M4 mini perfect for size.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
What a joke …., unneeded and pointless …, look rubbish as well
I think thermal paste would be more efficient than thermal pads but it is up to you what you prefer. Both will clean up easily with isopropyl alcohol. You could even add a fan for more cooling! 😂I got it from amazon.ca. You should be able to find it on the.com site.
I just got it a few days and honestly it's so amazing. I wish I had got it right away, but better late than ever. I think I'm going to get another one for my OWC thunderbolt hub (which can run very very warm).
Before getting the heatsink, my M4 Mini would go up to as high as 105c when rendering video and the fan would go up to 1800 rpm. When I put my hand on the heat sink it's quite warm so obviously that means it's doing its job. And this fit fits the M4 mini perfect for size.
Now with the heatsink living on top of it, the Mini goes maximum 90c. So a 15 degree difference is pretty significant. And the fan will go 1300 RPM max when at 90c. Also when at idle the temperatures are at least 5c lower. Well worth the $16.
I would love to find some kind of thermal tape that I can stick to the mini. And I have no doubt that you would have greater results. But I want it so that's easy to remove afterwards so doesn't damage the mini.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Updated setup, with new 31.5" LG UltraFine evo 6K 32U990A. I can't use its Thunderbolt 5 feature though, since I'm running an M4 Mac mini. It runs great though at 6K 10-bit HDR 4:4:4 with both Thunderbolt 4 and HDMI. I'm using the default 2X scaled 3072x1728 HiDPI setting.
Here's my set up in my studio. The Mac mini is hiding behind the monitors. I have it on a UGREEN Mac Mini M4 Dock with a 1TB NVMe SSD. I've got a Zoom U22 USB audio interface for it and some RODE NTH-100 headphones and a nice RODE PodMic. The monitor is just some Acer thing but it is high refresh rate, so that's nice and I have an A16 iPad as a secondary monitor but I also use it to control my iPhones that I use for filming.
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Yeah it’s not supposed to ship in Canada until November 3 but mine shipped yesterday and I got it today (Oct. 29).
Thermal paste on the mini? I thought thermal paste is very hard to remove over time due to it drying up?
I do have a strong mini clip on fan. Just not sure how to point it on the Mini. Im guessing from the front so it pushes the hot air out is the best. Straight down wouldn't have any benefit.
Isopropyl alcohol can clean just about anything. I would bet it would clean up thermal paste also. It's a conductive paste so a thin layer will do. If you use a fan, you just need the air to pass through the fins.
I think a better way to cool the mini might be to remove the aluminium housing. Despite it being a good heat sink, I would think the housing retains much of the heat because there is limited space inside. You won't know until you try.
What about the speakers? Those look nice but are they both connected at the same time for stereo sound?
Thanks. Im going to give thermal paste a try. I got a 8g tube and hope it's enough to cover at least 80% of the bottom surface of my heatsink. Im curious to see if I will see an improvement, I would think I should. I do have thermal pads too but it wouldn't be as effective plus it would likely use up the rest I have left so I went with the paste.