Mac Mini i5 2.3 too hot?

Question

Mac Mini i5 2.3 too hot?

Hi Everyone,

I've been reading information about the temperatures people are seeing from the Mac Mini i5 2.5 and i7.

I've recently purchased an i5 2.3 Mac Mini this month. I'm concerned that this is too hot. I'm not really using anything intensive. Mainly browsing, icloud services, Facetime, MSN, Skype.

Using iStat 3.18, I get the folloiwng figures:

Airport Card 53 degrees C

Ambient 60

Ambient 2 56

CPU 1 94

CPU A 88

CPU Promixmity 79

Mem Bank A1 62

Mem Module A1 60

Mem Module B4 50

Power Supply 54

That looks very hot. I don't particularly hear the fan but I can see the rpm is 2183rpm.

In fact - here is a piccy from the Photo Stream.

Message was edited by: Andrew Checkley

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.2), Bought new, this month Nov 11

Posted on Nov 21, 2011 2:54 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Fortuny

Level 7

21,455 points

Nov 21, 2011 8:50 PM in response to Andrew Checkley

Just to be clear:

Are you sure these are "C"-Celsius temperatures or can these be Fahrenheit ?

I'm asking because an Ambient temp of 60° Celsius is very unlikely.

If indeed Fahrenheit, then the Temps are absolutely normal.

Stefan

Reply

Answer 2

den.thed

Level 9

76,804 points

Nov 21, 2011 9:21 PM in response to Fortuny

Good eye Stefan, that beats Death Valley's record high by 3〫Celsius.

Death Valley National Park - Weather and Climate (U.S. National Park Service)

Reply

Answer 3

Fortuny

Level 7

21,455 points

Nov 21, 2011 10:05 PM in response to den.thed

Mostly because right now my Ambient is shown as 16° C 😮

Stefan

Reply

Answer 4

Nov 22, 2011 3:10 AM in response to Andrew Checkley

Something is amiss here. If those CPU temps are accurate,

the fan should be screaming at around 4k RPM or more.

Some other readings there make me wonder if the software

has been updated for the current Mini.

Reply

Answer 5

Nov 22, 2011 9:58 AM in response to woodmeister50

Hi, I've checked the temps - they are in Celsius

I'm also wondering if they reflect the real temp. I would also think that the Mac fan would be going crazy and 94 is almost boiling. My Mac isn't that hot to the touch. From what I've read, I think you'd notice the Mac fan making a chunk of noise. I've not heard much noise so I can't see the CPU was really that hot.

My Mac started to become very slow.

Mail stopped responding.

I've rebooted and my temps are slowly coming down. I've also noticed my watts was previously 34.52W but is now 12.75W

Does anyone know what could have caused this? Mail stopped responding - could this have caused the high temps?

Reply

Answer 6

Nov 22, 2011 10:02 AM in response to Andrew Checkley

The case it noticeably cooler to touch now.

Reply

Answer 7

Nov 22, 2011 10:49 AM in response to Andrew Checkley

Right, it's been a bit of time since re-boot and my Mac CPU is 50 degress C. I suspect that something somewhere crashed in Lion (10.7.2). I had a problem with Mail. The Mac wouldn't shut down due to Mail cancelling the operation. I then tried to select quit from the menu but it was greyed out. I then had to force quit but I've also been playing with cloud services earlier on (which are great btw). I noticed that a 'Guest' account appeared from out of no-where next to my user account. I don't know if any of these things contributed to the high temperatures but will monitor my software usage in relation to this in the future.

Reply

Answer 8

sfatula

Level 2

158 points

Nov 22, 2011 12:11 PM in response to Andrew Checkley

The chip is rated to 100 degrees C. If you get to 90 degrees C, the fan sound should be quite noticeable.

Reply

Answer 9

Nov 22, 2011 12:14 PM in response to sfatula

There was hardly any fan sound but the case was hot, not burning but it was hot. After the re-start it is cool. The fan didn't kick in but I'm wondering if this was due to a software crash?

Reply

Answer 10

sfatula

Level 2

158 points

Nov 22, 2011 12:19 PM in response to Andrew Checkley

Many many many messages are posted in the Mac forums with people thinking the 2011 machines are running "too hot". Well, they ARE hotter than previous machines as the chips from Intel run hotter. So, by itself, this means nothning and is perfectly normal and expected. Intel chips heat room practiocally. ;-)

The case gets hot, that also is normal. Some people also load fan controls, and, mis-set them, I find the defaults just fine. I have 100% cpu processes that run all night long on a 2011 server and it survives just fine. Not an issue.

What is typically not normal is to be above 90 C and not hear audible fan noise. I would also thibnk the fan should be at 4000 rpm or so. I presume this is a Lion machine?

Reply

Answer 11

Nov 22, 2011 12:29 PM in response to sfatula

Hi, yes this is a Lion machine. I think that is my main concern as well.

The machine ran very hot and no fans kicked in which either means that my temperature monitoring software was incorrect or the Mac stood for awhile cooking without the fans kicking in. I fear it is the latter.

I understand about cooling (being one of the unlucky ones who had a broken liquid cooled quad 2.5 Power Mac) and only installed the Mac Mini temperature monitor when I became concerned that the mac was running way to hot. During the days I've owned the mini, this was majorly different. I also have a quad core Intel Mac Pro in the same room to compare it to.

Then I saw the temps and felt the heat from the back vent. I knew this wasn't normal. It was running at this heat without anything open or any underlying system operations running in the background.

I've decided to phone Apple. I'll see how the Mac Mini fairs but I don't like the thought of it cooking at 94C for so long.

Message was edited by: Andrew Checkley

Reply

Answer 12

sfatula

Level 2

158 points

Nov 22, 2011 12:52 PM in response to Andrew Checkley

I don't see a problem myself. Lots of 2011 machines hit 90 C. They just don't stay there for long at all! The temp that matters is the proximity temp, and that can go higher than the 79 being reported (up to around 90 for a very short time when the fans really kick in). I didn't look carefully the first time I saw your post and thought your proximity temp was 94. Sorry. So, 79 and fan speed of 2,000 or so is not unexpected at all.

There is so much time being wasted unfortunately as you saw on other posts with people worrying about these temps. That only serves to make more people worry, etc. The reality is each new CPU from Intel runs hotter and hotter.

Reply

Answer 13

Nov 22, 2011 2:12 PM in response to sfatula

Hi sfatula,

I think that's my main issue - most people's CPUs dropped in temp but mine was at 94C for a whole day with nothing running.

Reply

Answer 14

Fortuny

Level 7

21,455 points

Nov 22, 2011 9:59 PM in response to Andrew Checkley

Apart from keeping an eye on the temps I think you should run the Apple Hardware Test http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.7/en/mh35727.html to ensure that everything is ok.

Also, although meant to get high-speed running fans down a SMC-reset Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) might be advisable.

Stefan

Reply

Answer 15

Nov 23, 2011 3:20 AM in response to Andrew Checkley

I just did a quick test on my new Mini Server by running a

Handbrake video conversion. All four cores cranked up

to 100% and core temps got to 90C and fan maxed at

5K RPM. After a short bit, core temps settled at around

85-88, but fan cranked at full. The fan noise was quite

loud (no where near what my old Powermac G5 was)

but one could imagine the Mini starting to hover on the

desk. The fan was very noticable.

So, if you are not taxing the CPU, and temps are that

high and you can't hear the fan, there must be some

issue. Follow Fortuny's suggestions and if the problem

isn't solved, get to Apple straightaway!

Reply