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MacPro Temps OK?

Have seen several discussions in the Apple Support communities on high temps causing problems.


These Fahrenheit temps were taken at 'idle' with "Temperature Monitor" App v 4.96, on my MacPro 1,1 - Mac OS X (10.6.8), 8 MgRam,1-120G SSD,1-500G,1-Ext250G.

Am wondering if my idle temps are OK, or do I need to do some dust cleaning? Am not a gamer, video, graphics, or audio power user. Mostly Excel, Word, Web, and email.


75โ„‰

Ambient Air


93โ„‰

CPU A Heatsink


100โ„‰

CPU A Proximity


91โ„‰

CPU B Heatsink


97โ„‰

Expansion Slots


81โ„‰

Hard Drive Bay 1


82โ„‰

Hard Drive Bay 2


81โ„‰

Hard Drive Bay 3


82โ„‰

Hard Drive Bay 4


111โ„‰

Memory Bank A Point 1


131โ„‰

Memory Bank A Point 2


120โ„‰

Memory Bank A Point 3


108โ„‰

Memory Bank B Point 1


124โ„‰

Memory Bank B Point 2


129โ„‰

Memory Bank B Point 3


172โ„‰

Memory Module A1


176โ„‰

Memory Module A2


158โ„‰

Memory Module A3


140โ„‰

Memory Module A4


160โ„‰

Memory Module B1


174โ„‰

Memory Module B2


158โ„‰

Memory Module B3


149โ„‰

Memory Module B4


176โ„‰

Northbridge Heat Sink


118โ„‰

Power Supply Location 1


115โ„‰

Power Supply Location 2


99โ„‰

SMART Disk Hitachi HDS725050KLA360 (KRVN27ZAKE8LNH)


86โ„‰

SMART Disk OWC Mercury Electra 3G SSD (EX3G2012E22K7159)


91โ„‰

CPU Core 1


88โ„‰

CPU Core 2


84โ„‰

CPU Core 3


84โ„‰

CPU Core 4

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 8 MgRam,1-120G SSD,1-500G,1-Ext250G

Posted on Mar 28, 2013 10:19 AM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Mar 28, 2013 2:25 PM

What's too hot seems to be very much a matter of taste. To me, your DIMMs seem to be running hotter than I would like, especially since your Mac Pro is just idling (I assume you've confirmed that with Activity Monitor - i.e., that Spotlight and/or Time Machine or something else isn't silently doing its thing under the hood).


Since you mention dusting it's probably time, so by all means take off the side door and blow out the dust. I'd say consider ambient temperature too, but the other readings are much lower than I'd expect given the DIMM readings so the air temp coming in doesn't appear to be the problem (the ambient temp reading I'm getting with Temperature Gauge is nowhere near what the room temperature is here so I tend not to believe those readings).


Another solution is to take control of the internal fans yourself. Check out smcFanControl here http://www.eidac.de/. FWIW, I've found version 2.3 to work more reliably than the later version.


BTW, I'm using an OWC Mercury Electra 3G SSD too, but Temperature Gauge and other such software all show it reading 32ยบF.

16 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Mar 28, 2013 2:25 PM in response to john from palm harbor

What's too hot seems to be very much a matter of taste. To me, your DIMMs seem to be running hotter than I would like, especially since your Mac Pro is just idling (I assume you've confirmed that with Activity Monitor - i.e., that Spotlight and/or Time Machine or something else isn't silently doing its thing under the hood).


Since you mention dusting it's probably time, so by all means take off the side door and blow out the dust. I'd say consider ambient temperature too, but the other readings are much lower than I'd expect given the DIMM readings so the air temp coming in doesn't appear to be the problem (the ambient temp reading I'm getting with Temperature Gauge is nowhere near what the room temperature is here so I tend not to believe those readings).


Another solution is to take control of the internal fans yourself. Check out smcFanControl here http://www.eidac.de/. FWIW, I've found version 2.3 to work more reliably than the later version.


BTW, I'm using an OWC Mercury Electra 3G SSD too, but Temperature Gauge and other such software all show it reading 32ยบF.

Mar 29, 2013 5:12 AM in response to ssls6

His northbridge is perfect for a 1,1. I put a larger heatsink on mine and it still runs 162-185*f just like his.


The memory is a tad high. If you don't need so much ram, removing two sticks or replacing the 6 with 2 or 4 of higher capacity will significantly reduce RAM temperatures.


Temperature Sensors


1) Ambient Air (70โ„‰)

2) CPU A Heatsink (86โ„‰)

3) CPU B Heatsink (95โ„‰)

4) Memory Module A1 (160โ„‰)

5) Memory Module A2 (153โ„‰)

6) Memory Module B1 (142โ„‰)

7) Memory Module B2 (158โ„‰)

8) Northbridge Heat Sink (174โ„‰)

9) Power Supply Location 1 (120โ„‰)

10) Power Supply Location 2 (122โ„‰)

11) CPU Core 1 (86โ„‰)

12) CPU Core 2 (86โ„‰)

13) CPU Core 3 (77โ„‰)

14) CPU Core 4 (81โ„‰)

15) SMART Disk ST31000528AS (5VP6STWM) (95โ„‰)

Mar 29, 2013 6:15 AM in response to ssls6

FBDIMMs are something Intel wanted to get away from quickly.

75*C was common, even at idle 6-7 yrs ago, each FBDIMM can use 10-15W so 80-120W devoted just to RAM.


The processors are fine, the PSU can need watching more due to dust and airflow and room environment.


Luckily they never needed and no one wanted to go back to liquid cooling where nearly half the Quad G5s had trouble, and also could become impacted with dust in hard to find or see places.

Mar 29, 2013 9:07 AM in response to john from palm harbor

john from palm harbor wrote:


FatMac,


I followed your advice and and downloaded/installed "smcFanControl, v 2.3", and am it running at 'default' setting.


See attached .jpg for temp changes, which seem significant. Nice!


Thanks for your input, as well as others!

That does look like quite an improvement. Note that since smcFanControl appears in the menu bar, it can show you one current fan speed and temperature. And since you can create your own fan setting combinations, if the temperatures go up more than the fan speeds do to compensate, you can pick one of your custom fan speed combinations and watch the temperature go down.๐Ÿ˜‰

Mar 29, 2013 9:22 AM in response to john from palm harbor

I would set a new normal default of 700-900 rpm range which improves cooling / air-flow and still quiet, and some that are in the medium and high range for extra cooling, 1200 to 1500 rpm perhaps.


It is easier to take preventative steps and keep it from getting warmer than it is to wait and allow the interior to heat up and then expel the hot air.


The reason the fans kick in after sleep or shutdown is due to fans stopped and perhaps the system was doing enough work and heating up and the heat just sits inside and can actually find the temps to go up. Letting the fans ran even at higher rpm to help push the heat out. As long as you have good air circulation in the room and out the back (and feel how hot that air is).


After a few hours I definitely notice my office gets warmer.

Mar 30, 2013 4:42 AM in response to john from palm harbor

Am now running a 1000 rpm default minimum, and have also set up a 1500 rpm default, as well, and will be experimenting with both.


Since I'm 71, and have some impared hearing, the higher rpm fan noise is not an issue for me.


However, I'm wondering if running the fans at 1500 rpm default poses a potential risk of significantly shortened fan life?


I do like the idea of expelling heat before it builds up and 'heat soaks' adjacent framing and components.


This whole thing about heat is new to me. Have never dealt with it, even back in the day (1984) with my Mac 512 ($2800!).

Mar 30, 2013 8:11 AM in response to john from palm harbor

john from palm harbor wrote:

...However, I'm wondering if running the fans at 1500 rpm default poses a potential risk of significantly shortened fan life?...


...This whole thing about heat is new to me. Have never dealt with it, even back in the day (1984) with my Mac 512 ($2800!).

Back in the day (1985), I couldn't deal with heat in my Mac 512 except to ensure that nobody put a book on top, which would block most of the vents (back then a friend, for whom I'd installed a video card and an external monitor on an SE/30 covered the SE/30 with a plastic bag to keep the dust out since she wasn't using the internal monitor any more๐Ÿ˜ฎ).


What I've done with smcFanControl is to set up 6 different combinations of fans speeds for different usage scenarios and then periodically glance at the temperature in the menu bar. If it's going up, I'll just enable a faster fan combination. That way, if the room is cool and the Mac is loafing, I can keep the fans at a low speed, but if I'm processing a series of RAW image files using software which will assign as many images to process at once as there are cores to process them (the 2010 6 core will show 1100+% CPU usage when that's happening), I'll start with a higher fan speed set and go even higher if there's need to.

Mar 31, 2013 2:18 AM in response to FatMac-MacPro

What I've done with smcFanControl is to set up 6 different combinations of fans speeds for different usage scenarios and then periodically glance at the temperature in the menu bar. If it's going up, I'll just enable a faster fan combination.

Your Mac Pro does that automatically. There is absolutely no need for SMC fancontrol, your Mac will not let itself overheat.

Mar 31, 2013 7:09 AM in response to Electricidad

Electricidad wrote:


What I've done with smcFanControl is to set up 6 different combinations of fans speeds for different usage scenarios and then periodically glance at the temperature in the menu bar. If it's going up, I'll just enable a faster fan combination.

Your Mac Pro does that automatically. There is absolutely no need for SMC fancontrol, your Mac will not let itself overheat.

I know it does eventually but if you pay attention to the temperatures that the Mac Pro, or any other Mac waits for before it cranks up any of its fans, you might want to stay ahead of the temperature curve. And oddly, it seems you've agreed, just with a different solution:


Electricidad wrote:


...The memory is a tad high. If you don't need so much ram, removing two sticks or replacing the 6 with 2 or 4 of higher capacity will significantly reduce RAM temperatures...

Personally, I'd prefer it even cooler and a simpler solution than taking out DIMMs or buying different DIMMs would seem to be speeding up just the intake and exhaust fans using smcFanControl intelligently. But as I wrote initially, "what's too hot seems to be very much a matter of taste."

MacPro Temps OK?

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