New Mac Mini Seems to Overheat Easily

What program(s) are you or the system running, that are causing it to run hot?

https://support.apple.com/guide/activity-monitor/welcome/mac

Personally I use MacFanControl to keep my 2011, 2012 and 2018 Mac Mini's running cool.

https://crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control

The current temperature of my 2018 Mac Mini is 109 ℉ and it has been on all day long.

These are the readouts of all of the 2018 Mac Mini's sensors. The 2011, 2012 and your 2014 have similar sensors.

I use the Sensor-based value to slowly increase the Exhaust Fan rpm when the CPU PECI goes above 145 ℉.

I did have a towel under my Mac Mini and it could have blocked the intake. However, later after changing to the SSD it still got hot when multi-tasking and the towel had been removed. Now, with the fan I mentioned it is cool. This whisper quiet fan sits on top of the Mac Mini drawing off the heat. At about $12.00 it is well worth it.

My idea of multi tasking is having many apps open and transferring a large amount of files from the HD to external backup. I do not play games on this Mac Mini, but my 24" HD monitor on HTML runs at 75Hz refresh rate and all of my USB-3 ports are full with a four port hub included. It is CPU and GPU intensive use.

While that external fan may help by cooling the outer case, it does not help to control the internal temperature increase when a heavy load is applied for a period of time.

FWIW In addition to my 2018 Mac Mini, I have ran dual displays and worked all of my previous 2010, 2011, 2012 Mac Mini's fairly hard and none of them ever suffered or failed from heat stroke. Thanks to MacFanControl. Plus prior to the Mac Mini's, I had 2006, 2009 iMac's, that ran an external display and neither of them every suffered from heat stroke. Thanks to MacFanControl.

Yup' Video Editing will defiantly cause it to run on the warm to hot side.

Look at your highest sensor readout CPU/GPU and use that sensor for the Sensor-based value control.

I run my lower setting a little low at 145 ℉ so that the fan starts ramping up before thing start getting to warm.

I run my upper setting all the way up to 190 ℉ so that gives me a big led-way before the fan speed maxes out.

When pushing my 2018 at those settings, it normally settles in at around 160 to 165℉ with the exhaust fan running at somewhere around 3000 to 3200rpm. It will keeps adjusting the fan higher or lower to maintain temp. depending on the load and then return to the default speed when the job is done.

FWIW your initial settings may very slightly from mine depending on what your doing and how much more or less cooling you think that you need.

You're welcome.

Those are good temp's. What was the exhaust fan speed and what was running at the time you took that screen shot?

Keep in mind that the fresh "Air Intake" is a very small gap around the edge of the bottom cover and the incorrect air flow across the bottom cover, could actually disrupt the normal flow of air thru the Mac Mini. If you want to get a proper cooler that fits the Mac Mini's base correctly, check out the > https://www.speed-designs.com/speed-mac-mini-cooling-base

Personally I think that I would test it without the laptop fan and setup the Sensor-base value on the CPU PECI, with the low setting at 135℉ and the Max setting at 190℉.

As a test for you, I pushed my 2018 Mac Mini pretty good and couldn't get it to go much over 150℉ and the exhaust fan only ramped up to around 2500rpm which is still fairly quiet.

Not exactly, you are setup on the Airport Prox. Sensor instead of the CPU PECI sensor.

👍

Now adjust to lower setting to where you want the fan speed to start increasing and leave the max set at 190℉.

Can you send us some current screenshots.

If you are using the Sensor-based control, the 2018 Mac Mini's fan should run at the default speed of 1700rpm and then slowly increase as the temperature increases.

I installed the App and set it up as you directed, this is an example:

I noticed that after I posted it. It is changed in the above post to read Based on CPU PECI Sensor now. Thanks.

Got it, thanks again.

You're welcome.