as i posted previously: no noise. been working a lot in logic pro, and did a short video edit in FCP yesterday. it's quiet. am impressed...
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So how silent is the M2 Pro Mac Mini?
- Thread starter Freida
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What temperature readings are you getting, typically (or on average, and in spike uses)?
Base M2 Pro 16GB/512GB. Constant 38 Degrees Celsius, Fan 1700rpm, very quiet.
super quiet. Never seen temperatures going too crazy. I think 75C is with some gaming. Only saw around 90C when was using benchmarks but otherwise 75C is usually when playing Dota 2.
Memory pressure - never saw it going above 70%. You get swap but you get swap with any machine so thats normal.
Base model
Memory pressure - never saw it going above 70%. You get swap but you get swap with any machine so thats normal.
Base model
Absurd.
I've been building and running Macs, PCs and Servers for almost 30 years and I've never "killed a chip" from running the CPU under load.
In the real world CPUs are good for decades, not years. They are exceptionally well engineered and in the last 10-15 or so years they also have thermal protections that shut them down or under-clock them if they are running too hot.
At WORST, if you consistently run the CPU at max temperatures, you might need to pull the heat sink and re-apply thermal paste, etc. to improve the cooling efficiency. Even if you don't do this you won't "kill the chip faster".
Electromigration of metal atoms out of wires is the #1 killer of microchips. This gets worse as features get smaller, so wasn't nearly as bad of an issue 30 years ago. Electromigration also follows Arrhenius behavior, so will get exponentially worse as you increase the chip temperature. You may not see catastrophic failures, but wire resistance will go up over time and eventually you'll start to get strange timing errors, increased power consumption, and other glitches. Intel chips used to be guaranteed for 10 years, but now are only guaranteed for 5 years continuous operation at maximum temperature. Realistically, most CPUs will last decades since they're not running 100% power at 105C 24/7, but higher temps absolutely cause increased device degradation.
In practice? Come on now. I've never even seen this in the world of high performance rack mounted hypervisors and dedicated application hosts that run their CPUs in the danger zone 24/7 year after year after year and only get replaced after 7-10 years of that kind of service.
This isn't absurd at all! High temperatures may not kill the processor itself, but may alter the other components (connectors, memory, other elements on the motherboard, etc). So high temperature may have a long term effect on the lifetime of the whole computer. And since you can't repair/change anything in the Silicon Macs, if an element is getting some fatigue and just breaks, your whole computer is good for the trash. And this will happen always after your AppleCare warranty! (it's calculated by Apple's engineers)
Also, getting lots of temperature variations inside the computer (low processes, suddenly followed by some intense processes) will produce stress and material fatigue in the long run. So this is important.
Temperature readings are a good measure of the ventilation efficiency. Saying the computer is loud/noisy or silent doesn't say much, except for the psychological confort of the user.
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I'm with @jmpage2 on this matter and it is overblown paranoia. I am a former Intel design and validation engineer and I'm not concerned with the operating temperature of Intel/AS chips. The 12c/19c runs hotter than the 10c/16c variant of the M2 Pro but under typical consumer "hard use" cases you're not going to fry your Mini unless the cooling system fails. Sure, components will exhibit age and wear but it's not like the wear-and-tear on a car engine with more moving parts and internal friction. Pick a config that works for you and enjoy the latest performance benefits. Or, conversely, be paralyzed by fear and don't buy anything and carry on with your current system with its own limitations.
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You get a good point! That mini case (and its cooling fan) is designed to receive an hotter M2 version, and the standard M2 Pro even goes inside a much smaller portable box (MacBook Pro). So the default M2 Pro should be well okay in the mini box
Well. My Mac mini 2018 i7 was fried after two days of audio rendering (running 99 celsius). This happened on the last day of my AppleCare+. So Apple replaced the complete motherboard and tested it before sending it back to me. Got fried again. Tested it three more times, which put the fried Mac mini count up to five. The asked me if I would rather have an apple silicone based Mac Mini. But ProTools was nog qualified yet. So got a brand new Mac mini i7 back from them. But installed a BlackMagic eGPU, which helped a lot with the temperatures. Never rendered audio for just a few minutes. The long bounces where done by a Mac Pro.
Running a chip 24/7 at 105C isn't the danger zone - that's the design temperature of the CPU. It should last 5-10-20 years (depending on lithography size/wire materials) at these conditions. If a cpu gets too hot it will turn itself off to prevent damage. Both overvolting and overclocking will accelerate electromigration wear. You’re right that running at “normal” conditions isn’t an issue.
that's.... extremely unusual. and wondering what else might be involved (ie your electric current).
i mean, lots of people making music with mini's... from the intel era to the present. but that's the first story i've heard like this. anyway, it's odd, and not typical.
About the temperature, I should add my own past experience: A long time ago, I used a G5 MacPro for only 4.5 years before it died because of ... its video card that fried (despite the very good ventilation inside the G5 MacPro)! The video card was an ATI. Video cards are known to produce a lot of heat and rise the temperature. Since I was unable to find a proper video card replacement at that time for a G5, I had to trash the whole computer and buy a new one! That was extremely frustrating since that MacPro was really satisfying for what I was doing at the time (I trashed it with rage about 12 or 13 years ago).
I then brought a 2009 Mac mini (Intel) to replace the dead Mac Pro, and it was already a bit more powerful than the G5 PPC (however, the mini had less memory: only 4GB). I used that mini for more than 11 years of intense work, before it died two years ago from an HD failure (the mini didn't had enough memory, so was always writing swap files on the HD). I then replaced that mini with my current 2010 MacBook Pro 13" (8GB) as my desktop computer, that I'm still using since more than 12 years now (2 years as desktop computer, after the mini died). It's still working great, with its Snow Leopard OSX. I'm about to buy a new mini M2/M2 Pro (still hesitating?), to use as my desktop computer for another 10 years at least (I hope so!).
I then brought a 2009 Mac mini (Intel) to replace the dead Mac Pro, and it was already a bit more powerful than the G5 PPC (however, the mini had less memory: only 4GB). I used that mini for more than 11 years of intense work, before it died two years ago from an HD failure (the mini didn't had enough memory, so was always writing swap files on the HD). I then replaced that mini with my current 2010 MacBook Pro 13" (8GB) as my desktop computer, that I'm still using since more than 12 years now (2 years as desktop computer, after the mini died). It's still working great, with its Snow Leopard OSX. I'm about to buy a new mini M2/M2 Pro (still hesitating?), to use as my desktop computer for another 10 years at least (I hope so!).
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Then stop hesitating and buy your new Mac Mini M2 Pro (10c CPU, 16c GPU, 32 GB, and 1 TB SSD) right away. That's what I did and couldn't be happier. I still have a 2010 Mac Mini Server (with 16 GB RAM and two 1 TB SSDs) and a 16-in 2019 Intel MacBook Pro (top spec), but my new Mini is extraordinary. You can, of course, delay longer but life is too short for that. BTW, my new Mini is completely silent and I haven't been able to hear the fan ever. The configuration I purchased could very well last you another 10 years. As for me, I have every intention of buying a M3 Pro Mac Mini as soon as it comes out. I made a mistake of not buying a M1 Mac Mini when it came out, and I won't make that mistake again. As I said, life's too short to postpone such pleasures (if you can afford it).
Been using my M2 Pro base model for a few days now.
It's audible from close proximity. Not annoying but audible.
But then again, I am curious whether a machine with a fan that's spinning at 1700 rpm can in fact be "dead silent" as some have described here. At least the air flowing out of the case HAS to make some sound, no??
If I'm wrong with that assumption, I am going to return mine and get another one that's in fact 100% inaudible when idle...
It's audible from close proximity. Not annoying but audible.
But then again, I am curious whether a machine with a fan that's spinning at 1700 rpm can in fact be "dead silent" as some have described here. At least the air flowing out of the case HAS to make some sound, no??
If I'm wrong with that assumption, I am going to return mine and get another one that's in fact 100% inaudible when idle...
i sit 20" from my mini, and have never heard the fans ramp up to the point where they were audible. but i can tell you what my intel imac's fans sounded like (they ramped up whenever i bounced complex project from logic, and sometimes rendering in final cut).
in practical terms, this mini is silent. as i mentioned in an earlier post, i never work with my ear against the mini casing... 👍
in practical terms, this mini is silent. as i mentioned in an earlier post, i never work with my ear against the mini casing... 👍