2011 Mini Owners: Elevate your mini!

[chickenwingfly]

Which widget are you using to display all of the temps, etc?

He's using the famous iStat.

why don't you guys just use this? best $20 I ever spent and doesn't look home made and its specifically MADE for the mini.

Image

That looks great, what about temps? noise? Is it ok to put the mini in that orientation? How much have you been using it for?
Is that, Newer's NuStand Alloy? If so what a shame, not sold directly by Amazon
I wonder if one could make a DIY project...

 

[azsl1326]

He's using the famous iStat.

Thanks!

 

[Outrigger]

He's using the famous iStat.


That looks great, what about temps? noise? Is it ok to put the mini in that orientation? How much have you been using it for?
Is that, Newer's NuStand Alloy? If so what a shame, not sold directly by Amazon
I wonder if one could make a DIY project...

Thats correct. It is the NuStand. I didn't buy it to lower the temps as my mini was originally just placed vertically on my desk to begin with. My temps don't go up unless I'm doing photo or video editing or streaming or CPU/GPU intensive tasks. Honestly, I don't think you can make a DIY as nice looking for less than $20.

 

[chickenwingfly]

Thats correct. It is the NuStand. I didn't buy it to lower the temps as my mini was originally just placed vertically on my desk to begin with. My temps don't go up unless I'm doing photo or video editing or streaming or CPU/GPU intensive tasks. Honestly, I don't think you can make a DIY as nice looking for less than $20.

Thanks for the insight.
So you got it from that external store linked on Amazon... or?

 

[neilmacd]

Have to admit, I thought you guys were being over critical of the mini's noise/heat.

But, having just received mine, I fitted an SSD and during the clean install the noise it was making really shocked me! It didn't seem to be all that warm, well, nowhere near iMac toaster levels.

After a few minutes I decided to put a coaster underneath just to slightly elevate it.

Did the trick, but wow, sorry for doubting you guys

 

[ivnj]

I changed my setup. I used this organizer rack from walmart to organize my externals. And I modified the fan to sit backwards so no extra feet needed. There is 2 screws on the top as seen in the photo. I turned the fan backwards. And then re screwed it in. And then cut a notch in the plastic with a sharp blade so the cord goes out the back. And a little tape to hold it in place. The the mini sits on the slant and if it falls back the desk shelf backing catches it. But its sturdy and is not slipping. Anyhow no feet needed.

Oh and lowered my cpu 5 degrees.

 

[Outrigger]

Thanks for the insight.
So you got it from that external store linked on Amazon... or?

I got it directly from owc website. It is the ONLY place that I know of that sells it.

 

[chickenwingfly]

I got it directly from owc website. It is the ONLY place that I know of that sells it.

Ok thanks.

 

[ivnj]

After leaving the fan on overnight I'm down to 39 degrees celcius.

 

[x-machine]

think im gonna oven bake mine like toss002

 

[oldtime]

Got a steel trivet at a Chinese grocery for $2 today and sure enough, temps have gone down about 10-15% for me. Cleaning up large audio files and streaming video had me at close to 90º yesterday. Under 80º today. Can't argue with the results.

 

[Micky Do]

I'm sure I'll get flamed for this but I love how everyone thinks they know more about heat management than Apple engineers. For every person on this forum who elevates their mini there will be 200 people out in the wild who plop it on their desk and use as intended with no problems.

Here I am in the tropics, working away in my apartment without air conditioning (because I don't care to work in my air-con office), without realising that my Mac Mini might be at risk of overheating until I came across this thread. Oh well..... ignorance was bliss. I'll be ignorant again soon.

 

[drchuck]

Try a ceramic floor tile

I have my mini on a 6x6 ceramic floor tile. It gets warm when I am doing work with videos, but the rest of the time, it seems to be just fine.

 

[Mr. McMac]

Slightly off topic here. I noticed that memory module B4 never varies from 50 degrees Celsius, not only on my mid 2011 mini, but every other one I've seen so far. What's going on here??

 

[Che Castro]

just buy these feet

http://www.quietpcusa.com/Acousti-P...-Feet---Black-up-to-18-lbs-4-pack-P478C0.aspx

use them on the black plastic disk base space them correctly and both the air and sliding problems are solved.

would these be a good idea for the airport extreme?

my airport extreme gets really hot

 

[philipma1957]

would these be a good idea for the airport extreme?

my airport extreme gets really hot

yeah I would think they would work.

 

[Paulywauly]

I have my mini on a 6x6 ceramic floor tile. It gets warm when I am doing work with videos, but the rest of the time, it seems to be just fine.

I was looking into something similar, although my idea was to use a stand the Mini on a large/thick granite chopping board. Granite has a very high heat capacity and might help keep it cooler overall? At least over standing on a wood/glass desk

 

[Clix Pix]

would these be a good idea for the airport extreme?

my airport extreme gets really hot

Yes. I have my AEBS on one of the trivets from Amazon. Once I got the first one to use with my Mac Mini, I realized the value and usefulness for my Airport Extreme, too, so ordered a couple more trivets (now I have one on hand for anything else, too -- gee, maybe even a hot serving dish at the dinner table!).

 

[Snips]

I have mine sitting on an iphone bumper.

I tried that too. With a well known brand of iPhone rubberised-case (not an official bumper) stocked by Apple Stores. Over a few weeks it was gradually melted and flattened by my Mac mini, and became unusable as an iPhone number.

 

[allan]

I am the happy owner of a new 2011 Mac mini. I custom ordered one with SSD through the Apple Store online. It is for the most part a very quiet machine that boots up very quickly.

However, on certain websites that have full-screen videos or panoramic videos, the fan gets revved up very high and is much noisier than my old mini, which was a late 2009 Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz with 4 GB RAM. Whenever I viewed these types of videos on my old mini, I never heard the fan rev up at all.

Here are the specs for my 2011 mini:

• Processor: 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7
• Memory: 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
• Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6630M 256 MB
• Storage: 256GB Solid State Drive (CTO through Apple Online Store)
• Software: OS X 10.8.2 (12C54)
• Display: Apple LED Cinema Display, 24-inch, Late 2008 (1920 x 1200)

I currently have a NewerTech NuPad Base on the bottom of my mini to prevent it from slipping around on my desk:

In an attempt to reduce the fan noise when viewing these videos, I tried temporarily elevating my mini on a roll of packing tape as seen here:

Elevating the mini this way has made no difference at all.

Is this normal? Here is a sample video that everyone can try to see if it makes their Mac minis rev up as much as mine:

http://www.seevirtual360.com/themes/50/flashTheme.aspx?listingID=20831

Click on the button at the bottom righthand corner to enter fullscreen. Let it auto rotate for a couple of minutes or manually pan around several times:

Here's how high my fan revs up after a few minutes of this:

My old mini never, ever revved up this high and was always virtually silent when viewing these types of videos.

The ambient temperature of my room is only about 23°C/74°F:

The fan in my new Mac mini also revs up to a noisy level when performing the following:

• Playing certain 1080p HD YouTube videos fullscreen
• Panning around a lot in Google Maps street view
• Converting higher bit rate songs to a lower bit rate in iTunes

These scenarios don't make the fan rev as high as the videos in that real estate website I linked to above, but my old mini never, ever made any noise under these same conditions.

I think the problem stems from Apple's decision to put the power supply in the new Mac minis instead of having it external like on the old minis. If this indeed is the culprit, then I wish Apple would revert to external power supplies for the next version.

Also, I wish Apple would just put some decent vent holes in the next generation of Mac minis. The warm air inside should have a better way to escape. Who cares if it makes the mini less pretty?

Anyway, these are just my thoughts and observations. I am otherwise happy with my mini except for the fact that it's much noisier than my old one under certain conditions.

 

[MJL]

I am the happy owner of a new 2011 Mac mini.....

However, on certain websites that have full-screen videos or panoramic videos, the fan gets revved up very high and is much noisier than my old mini, which was a late 2009 Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz with 4 GB RAM.
...
Whenever I viewed these types of videos on my old mini, I never heard the fan rev up at all.....

This is why I sold my 2011 2.5Ghz Mac mini and bought a hardly used 2010 server which still had two years Apple care left. Just as well since the logic board needed replacing 6 months later due to a faulty mini display port.

Vent sizes make no difference (some people take the bottom off but that only results in other areas overheating since the airflow is not directed correctly plus all the dirt gets in) - basically the heatsink is too small for heavy duty work. Replacing the thermal compound improved matters with sudden temperature rises but long term it still came up too high.

And do not get me started on that the Apple engineers know best and that it is normal - it is not. Just check the maximum temperature for the CR2032 lithium battery.

I'll be waiting for the Haswell and if Apple does not come to the party then I'll get the Intel NUC or something equivalent (e.g. the Asrock Vision HT)

 

[eutexian]

Click on the button at the bottom righthand corner to enter fullscreen. Let it auto rotate for a couple of minutes or manually pan around several times:

Did this.. left it alone with the video running for 15 minutes on my asus pro art monitor. after 15 minutes the temp was 46c and the fan was spinning at 3100.

fwiw my mini is the base model - completely standard apart from 8gig of RAM.

all i can conclude from this is that left standard - the mini copes well with this type of load and so I'm left wondering if one or more of the many modifications you have made are the source of your fan noise issues.

 

[allan]

Did this.. left it alone with the video running for 15 minutes on my asus pro art monitor. after 15 minutes the temp was 46c and the fan was spinning at 3100.

fwiw my mini is the base model - completely standard apart from 8gig of RAM.

all i can conclude from this is that left standard - the mini copes well with this type of load and so I'm left wondering if one or more of the many modifications you have made are the source of your fan noise issues.

I don't have "many modifications", only one: the NuPad underneath the mini. The NuPad does not block any holes, it merely makes the mini more skid resistant. I have tried the test with and without the NuPad and it makes no difference.

The roll of packing tape was a temporary attempt to elevate the mini a couple of inches above the desk surface. The diameter of the roll of tape was far smaller than the round cover on the bottom of the mini, and therefore did not block any holes either. As stated above, elevating the mini this way made no difference.

And as I mentioned above, the Mac mini was CTO directly from the Apple Online Store. The only "mod" I made inside the mini was to bring the RAM up to 16GB, and the memory was purchased from OWC, a perfectly safe choice.

 

[mayuka]

• Playing certain 1080p HD YouTube videos fullscreen
• Panning around a lot in Google Maps street view
• Converting higher bit rate songs to a lower bit rate in iTunes

1st: no
2nd: it depends, a little
3rd: it depends on how long

just install menumeters and set-up the cpu-meter in the menu bar. This way you can see when the mini uses how much of the cpu. In conjunctions with smcfancontrol you can also watch the temperature of the fan simultaneously.

 

[beginnersview]

Great discussion thread.

While I have liked my Mac Mini Late 2009 model, which I beefed up by boosting RAM to 4GB, and replacing the stock 160GB HD with a 320GB/7200rpm HD, I was thinking about buying a new Mac Mini to replace it. What with the PassMark and GeekBench numbers being so much higher for the 2011 Mini and all.

But with all the discussion about heat and fan cranking noise, I am giving the whole idea serious second thoughts.

I think that the Apple OBSESSION (TM) with THIN-ness and SMOOTH-ness has been carried beyond the reasonable with the new (2010-2011) shorter all-aluminum case. At least the 2009 Mini has generous air inlet venting along three sides (front and two sides) bottom edge.

Almost as if the Apple management and artistic design team has first and final word, telling the engineers (and geeky customers) "Fck the laws of thermodynamics! We don't need no stinking fan holes! Nothing shall mar the sleek perfection of smooth, unblemished metal surface! BANISH those unsightly port connectors and exhaust vent to the back!"

I guess their perfect computer would have no holes, no ports, nor connectors. Just one solid block of metal that could, um, sit on a desk as a paper weight, gosh what a lovely expensive paper weight...

Just my flight of fancy...

Maybe the 2012/2013 Mac mini, which, according to MacRumor Buyer guide, is well overdue for its appearance, will have better air circulation and more reasonable temps?
(Unless the new model is being even more THINNed and runs nicely for a day till it melts down...)

As a techhie, I know that heat is the enemy (or at least antagonist) of electronic components, so lower temps and better air flow would be a good thing. Am so glad I came across this thread.

PS.
The mentions of iStat and MenuMeters are jogging me into considering changing my practice of having Activity Monitor always running in the dock, since it looks like both of these alternatives offer more info. I think I'll be getting one of those and giving it a whirl. Cool. (I think I even have a license I bought for iStat years ago back when it was a pay-for app before it switched to free mode.)