I appreciate that taking temperatures while your computer is idle is no substitute for giving it a good workout and observing those temps but I am relucatant to do so as idle temp taken via Temperature Monitor on my iMac i5 2.80 27" 2010 model is 73 °C for secondary heatsink, 65°C the GPU, 60°C for screen. Is this normal?
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Any reference out there for what constitutes normal 2010 iMac temperatures?
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I would only be concerned of continuous operations over 75° C for the processor and 90 ° C for the GPU.
I am used to using aftermarket cooling solutions in PCs. I am a little concerned about longevity. I appreciate that the recent models use the case as a giant heatsink and you would expect it to be hot but even the screen feels hot rather than warm. Using a desktop fan to bring the case temperature down to mildly warm barely effects the temperature readings in Temperature Monitor.
Apple lives on the edge. I have managed to push their notebooks to reporting 100° C or a little higher from the sensors at full load.
iMac gives temp sensor for the screen?
Anyways, being a pc guy you should know that you won't effect the longevity of your component unless the temperature is over the specified operating range listed by the manufacturer. In this case, the cpu and gpu are over 100c for operating temperature, whlie hdd is only 55-60c for max. If you were to worry about anything, worry about the hdd.
The cpu of my old G5 iMac basically idled at 75c all day every day for years and it's still working to its best potential 6 years later.
Treat those super low temperatures you can get with aftermarket cooling on a pc tower as nothing more than means of measuring ePeen. Absurd cooling like that does have a use, but only for overclocking.
Anyways, being a pc guy you should know that you won't effect the longevity of your component unless the temperature is over the specified operating range listed by the manufacturer. In this case, the cpu and gpu are over 100c for operating temperature, whlie hdd is only 55-60c for max. If you were to worry about anything, worry about the hdd.
The cpu of my old G5 iMac basically idled at 75c all day every day for years and it's still working to its best potential 6 years later.
Treat those super low temperatures you can get with aftermarket cooling on a pc tower as nothing more than means of measuring ePeen. Absurd cooling like that does have a use, but only for overclocking.
There are a raft of reasons to fit aftermarket cooling including replacing noisy fans with quiet ones and going for partly passive cooling solutions. If anyone has official figures for the 2010 27" iMac i5 model that I can benchmark against I would be glad to see them.
my guess is there are no such figures available from apple officially and for a reason ....apple has enough to do dealing with customers who want to return iMac's with dead or stuck pixels , smudges ,grey borders, loud optical drives , loud harddrives ....so giving out guidlines for temperature , which vary anyway depending the surrounding temperature would only add to that chaos because everyone would run to the stores "my iMac runs 2.3 degree hotter i want a replacement "
be assured apple does everything to find the compromise between running within manufacturing guidelines for the parts used and getting the parts in the smallest possible space
be assured apple does everything to find the compromise between running within manufacturing guidelines for the parts used and getting the parts in the smallest possible space
Instead you should just go to the sites of the companies that make the precious components that are inside your iMac. Those are as official as it gets.
Thank you for your thoughts but this is not a system build. I am specifically interested in feedback or links to threads that relate to the 2010 27" i5 iMac end user working temperatures, idle and under sustained load for prolonged periods. If anyone has the same model or has come across a thread where people share their temps and would like to share it, that would be helpful.
I really don't get the obsession with it, but if you must know, the average temperatures for both late 09 and mid 10 models alike are always around 40-50c for the cpu, 50-60 for the gpu and 40-50 for the hdd when either idle or under average workload, while the cpu can get up to 60-70c and gpu up to 70-80c while under load, but the fans start to kick in at the upper numbers of those ranges.
There are a multitude of topics over it, primarily of individuals posting their temperatures as a means of concern, but those are normal temperatures.
There are a multitude of topics over it, primarily of individuals posting their temperatures as a means of concern, but those are normal temperatures.
Thank you TMRaven, good to read your thoughts and if anyone else has any thoughts or links relating to the 2010 27" i5/i7 model and temperatures or would like to share their temperature readings, here, please do, concerned, unconcerned or shared interest in the workings of your tech, it's all good.
Is secondary heatsink of 89 degrees dangerous on quad core imac i7
Is secondary heatsink of 89 degrees dangerous on quad core imac i7 - it seems really hot whilst I ma using remebr to test crucial RAM. I got the imac Monday and it suddenly shut down today - instantly a black screen....
Is secondary heatsink of 89 degrees dangerous on quad core imac i7 - it seems really hot whilst I ma using remebr to test crucial RAM. I got the imac Monday and it suddenly shut down today - instantly a black screen....
Concur with this, although I have put the iMac under load using Handbrake and iFlicks and could only manage to get the CPU temp up to 51 degrees Celcius, while at idle it hovers around 40 degrees.
By comparison, on a 2010 MacBook Pro, it pushes over 80 degrees C under load, unless I turn the fan up to 6200rpm. The Imac never gets this hot.
The only temperature reading on my 2.93Ghz i7 iMac that concerns me is the hard drive. I have the Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB, rated at a maximum operating temperature of 60°C. It doesn't take much to push it into the 50-56°C range. Idle temp is 40-45°C. The Hard Drive fan does speed up as it should when it reaches 55°C or above, but is it wise for Apple to cut it so close?
My i7 idles at just 33°C and the fans do a good job keeping it below about 67°C at high load.
Here is my iMac now, after being on all afternoon doing some light tasks:
My i7 idles at just 33°C and the fans do a good job keeping it below about 67°C at high load.
Here is my iMac now, after being on all afternoon doing some light tasks:
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Hi dwarnecke11, thank you for sharing, I have the 27" Intel i5 mid 2010 model. My idle temps after no usage for about half an hour, the computer having been on for eight hours, with no apps open for said half an hour:-The only temperature reading on my 2.93Ghz i7 iMac that concerns me is the hard drive. I have the Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB, rated at a maximum operating temperature of 60°C. It doesn't take much to push it into the 50-56°C range. Idle temp is 40-45°C. The Hard Drive fan does speed up as it should when it reaches 55°C or above, but is it wise for Apple to cut it so close?
My i7 idles at just 33°C and the fans do a good job keeping it below about 67°C at high load.
Here is my iMac now, after being on all afternoon doing some light tasks:
HD 49
CPU 39
Ambient 17
GPU 59
GPU diode 57
mem controller 47
Optical 46
PSU 56
When light surfing GPU and secondary heatsink around 70 and 80 respectively, screen hot. My intention is to have the computer encode HD video all day while multitasking. I am keen to nudge temps down to reduce long term wear during the summer and for quiet overdubbing.
Directing a powerful but silent large-blade case fan at the middle back of the iMac's case, angled up toward the top left (top left as seen facing the screen) reduced internal temps by a modest 2 - 5 degrees C (that part of the case is now cold to the touch). I will position another silent fan along from that to give full back-case coverage but anticipate the biggest difference will come from directing low speed fans toward the intake fans, from a distance to avoid putting them under strain, the disadvantage being slight increase in dust intake. For sustained heavy encodes I am thinking about turning the brightness right down and using my Dell panel. Once the warranty has expired I will perhaps look into removing the superdrive and replacing it with a silent slot fan, pending finding others who experimented; interfering with the iMac's airflow which has been computer modeled seems unwise. An SSD is a possibility to nudge down internal heat. I am interested in reading people's idle temps assuming average room temps/brightness and more especially hearing if people are experiencing shutdowns under load, if at all, when encoding HD video all day.
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