Because it's still drawing power, therefore it's still generating heat. It's in sleep mode, not off.
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So how silent is the M2 Pro Mac Mini?
- Thread starter Freida
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I was thinking of getting the same spec as you have JavaScript Jackal....How do you find it so far
Yeah, I always thought that was a cool and useful feature.
But, seeing as though the Mac mini never actually sleeps, maybe they felt that a pulsing LED wasn't necessary.
See thread here - maybe it's just my M2 mini that has insomnia.
Coming from an M1 mini with 16gb ram and 512 hd. Was tasking that system pretty hard (beach balls, fan running a lot, especially with Illustrator). Have thrown the kitchen sink at the M2 and love it. Setup provides the amount of headroom and speed I need. Has eliminated every issue I had With the M1 mini. It’s a keeper for me.
The first review i get to hear it
Not sure why others reviewers does not show this...
I still have doubts if go for M2 Pro... for general use and non pro video.
Not sure why others reviewers does not show this...
I still have doubts if go for M2 Pro... for general use and non pro video.
I got the M2 Pro without upgrades on first day. Dead silent for me so far.
my Unboxing:
Will do a video about the sound soon.
my Unboxing:
Will do a video about the sound soon.
I
As an audio engineer, this does not bother me in the slightest. Why would it, when silence doesn’t matter if I’m mixing 100+ tracks at 75-80 dB through my nearfields?
If there is coil whine or loud fan noise under zero load (like recording on a blank Logic template, or with low latency mode on), then I will be very concerned and will be returning it straight away.
So far, it appears that coil whine and/or fan noise at zero load appears to be an outlier, so this makes me hopeful!
I wouldn’t expect a machine to remain quiet after steady and heavy cpu + graphic load over an extended period of time.
As an audio engineer, this does not bother me in the slightest. Why would it, when silence doesn’t matter if I’m mixing 100+ tracks at 75-80 dB through my nearfields?
If there is coil whine or loud fan noise under zero load (like recording on a blank Logic template, or with low latency mode on), then I will be very concerned and will be returning it straight away.
So far, it appears that coil whine and/or fan noise at zero load appears to be an outlier, so this makes me hopeful!
You should have added the 10Gb Ethernet to really trigger the "For that price you should have ordered the base M1 Max Mac Studio instead...!" crowd... ;^p
Is there...? M2 Pro Mac mini on the left...
The fan of the Mac mini M2 Pro that I had for one day turned off after about10 seconds, when putting it to sleep via Apple menu > Sleep.
If it's in sleep mode then it's never completely off. That's why you tap a key or the mouse and it wakes up.
How loud is the fan noise? Can fan noise be heard in a completely silent room? By the way, I have sensitive ears. Is it the same as the quiet experience I had with a Macbook Air? (zero noise)
Had an M1 Mac mini since launch and absolutely never heard the fan. Just set up the M2 Pro Mac mini and it's audible constantly. It's not loud but not dead silent like the M1. Weird thing is, I checked with Macs Fan Control, and both machines run at around 1700rpm fan speed. So it's definitely the fan itself that makes the difference? It certainly feels like the M2 Pro pushes out more air.
I only got the M2 Pro for the 32 GB of RAM, but if I get total silence in my M1, I might prefer that and keep living with just 16 GB.
I only got the M2 Pro for the 32 GB of RAM, but if I get total silence in my M1, I might prefer that and keep living with just 16 GB.
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I think someone mentioned that the fan size is bigger than the M1 mini. (It may have been put like this because it is a more powerful processor). It may be because of this. Is the noise annoying? Silence is important to me, but I also want performance. That's why I'm interested in the mini m2 pro. I don't have a chance to test the fan noise.
If the Intel i7 2018 mini can be silent under light use, there is absolutely no excuse for the M2 Pro to be louder. Curious to try my unit out in Monday.
Is there...? M2 Pro Mac mini on the left...
For further comparison, a picture from the 'original' progenitor. The 2018 Mini (Intel)
Mac mini Late 2018 Teardown
The future is now! Apple’s once-neglected Mac mini is coming in hot with a brand new, cutting edge, long awaited … processor upgrade? And a couple...
www.ifixit.com
The part that is a problem is the conjunction in "A bigger fan and a bigger heatsink.". The horizontal 'bar' where the fan casing meets the heat sink is different on the M2 Pro.
The first couple of times I had looked at the M2 Pro Mini thermal set up I thought they had merely just shifted the same fan farther away from the back edge ( and more to the front). But going back to the 2018 and reports of "same speed but louder" there is a subtle difference in the fan. Right where the 'round-ish' part comes back into the 'bottom' (in view orientation above) there is a subtle triangle in the plastic enclosure. That notch isn't there on the M2 Pro's fan. The diameter of the actual rotating fan seems to be a bit less. So technically looks like actual blower on the M2 Pro is smaller than the original fan. [ being 'painted into a corner' because running close up against the front of the enclosure. ] . That is driven by the larger heatsink and larger logical board on the Pro.
On the 2018 the fan sits on top of some logicboard elements. On the M1/M2 Pro them seem to want to drop the fan below the logicboard level. ( the M2 Pro board as a mini 'fan cutout' somewhat similar to the laptop logicboard fan cut outs
First look: Mac mini with M2 Pro
MacStadium's Brian Stucki gives a first look at (and teardown of) the Mac mini with M2 Pro.
www.macstadium.com
So the blower has a subtlety smaller diameter, but possibly could be 'taller' to compensate for the loss in diameter. But not the same fan. And probably not the exact same blade design.
If Apple did the "didn't sleep though thermodynamics class" thing it should be a bit taller fan. Hence the cut out. Otherwise have a smaller diameter fan trying to blow more heat out of the box.
).
The M2 Pro package is bigger than the M2 or M1. So the heatsink is going to minimally bigger even if the aggregate thermal output didn't go up.
On the Intel Mac they put the CPU off in the corner and used heat pipes to 'move' the heat over to where they could directly blow it out of the box. The Intel I/O hub (PCH) chip and T2 were more central because that is what the ports actually connect to. (except thunderbolt but those TB controllers are even closer to the ports ).
The catch-22 with "everything in the SoC" means the 'sources' for those ports ( PCIe , USB, Thunderbolt , Display , etc) will 'pull' the main processor out of the corner and into a position near center , but skewed toward the back edge ports.
The Intel model was putting more heat into a smaller heat sink. M2 Pro has a bigger one. The air throughput probably isn't bigger at low rpms though. The output vent is the same. So when need high transfer (and high volume of air ) still pushing lots of mass through a limited sized hole. (which tends to create noise). The M2 Pro is putting a lower "thermal tax" on this set up than the 6 core i7 Intel models were though.
Back to the 2018 logic board. Yes it suck up every last drop of space out to the rounded corner.
[ same iFixit link above for the image source. ]
But the placement trade-offs were different. Apple is pretty much out of room with the larger heat sink shifting the fan's placement. The only claw-back of space that could be made would be to move the power supply. ( which effectively they did with the Studio case.)
If Apple wanted to do a "Princess and the pea" , hyper quiet Mac they could through a Mx Pro into the Studio with a tweak on the power supply. I highly doubt that is a huge market though. I'm sure at some point someone will come out with some 'wrapper' box with a vent output damping buffer on it that cures this hyper queit problem without Apple having to create another SKU model.
P.S. Pretty likely that MacStadium is going to loose about zero sleep over the noise output of these M2 Pro Mini's.
The air vents are the exact same ones Apple had for the 2018 Intel Mac Mini which had an even hotter CPU package. (at least at the top end configuration).
Part of the problem isn't the 'exit' vents, but the "we have to magically hide all of the input vents" design philosophy that apple runs. The air vents are circular and the fan is placed off centered with relation to the vents. That probably isn't 'helping' create clean flows through the enclosure.
The Mini and Mac Studio are basically structured exactly like a classic floor vacuum cleaner. Suck in air from the bottom and blow it out the back. Placed on a clean literal desktop that tends to move more air that soak 'dirt'.
The reason why can't find the input vents is Apple's 'it has to be magically cooled' design philosophy where they go through extra efforts to hide vents from view. ( typically painting themselves into some kind of
'corner'. )
You would need air vents on the top.... which would be 'unholy' to Apple design principles. [ Fan would need to be on the other side of the logic board.
It is a wide enough vent that the output heat should be fairly widely dispersed. And can vertically 'mount' Mini case if going to run them hard 24/7/365. tipped on its short edge the cables will droop a different way.
As mentioned earlier by me in this thread, I returned by Mac mini M2 Pro because of a noisy fan. For me it was even audible in non silent environment.