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Does Your New iMac Run as HOT as mine?
- Thread starter MikeLeatardo
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It's a widget called iStat Pro... free, downloadable from the widgets area at apple.com...
Not uncommon at all, high end PC motherboards have been giving temp monitoring options for a while (especially your enthusiast level boards designed for tweaking/overclocking). I am really impressed with how apple mounted independant thermisters to a few components in the system to get real temperatures. Kudos to
! I would say the data is reliable... within a standard level of error (+/- 5% give/take). Usually there is a controller on the board that "talks" a standard language if you will.. you simply write an application to poll that interface and you have the #'s directly from the hardware. Some are provided by the components themselves. The CPU and GPU have on-die temperature sensors as does the HD through SMART. It's great that there is a nice little program that we can monitor the system with. Some of the motherboard manufactures in the PC world include rather clunky (imagine that
) software to monitor system health.
Without a doubt.. it's quite amazing what we are able to do with componentry and computers in general (be it mac or PC)... moores law persists. I think back to just 10 years ago and recall having that PII 266 with 128mb of ram and a 4gb HD and thinking it was amazing.
A friend of mine and I used to run RC5 project (distributed.net) all the time.. we had the entire companys worth of computers (about 30 computers) cracking keys.. and our total keys were about 15 megakeys/sec. This was around 2000/2001 timeframe.
My new 2.4 ghz iMac gets 16 megakeys/sec in the distributed.net client. Unreal.
With all the iStat snaps in this post on the new iMac AL, my 20" iMac G5 w/ iSight appears to be running hotter than the new AL iMacs, and is warm to the touch. My iMac is on all the time and sleeps when I'm not using it. I only need to restart it if I install an update which needs a restart, thus has been up and running for 12 days uptime. I've had this machine since Oct 2005 when it was first announced and never had a single issue.
I think it's great that the new iMacs are made out of aluminum. Means the heat transfer from the inside gets to the outside faster as the air is cooler on the outside.
I think it's great that the new iMacs are made out of aluminum. Means the heat transfer from the inside gets to the outside faster as the air is cooler on the outside.
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During the years I designed communications electronics for both military and civilian use, we always designed for max-50degrees C operation at the component level in a 25 degree C room ambient. Granted; this design limit is conservative . . . . and for good reason. The calculated life of semiconductor components is seriously degraded by elevated temperatures.
The rule of thumb (no pun intended) was: If a component is too hot to hold your finger/thumb on, then it is too hot for a good design. Most people can hold a finger on a component at or below 50C.
The rule of thumb (no pun intended) was: If a component is too hot to hold your finger/thumb on, then it is too hot for a good design. Most people can hold a finger on a component at or below 50C.
now that is a little hot. the isight must really get a little hot, or stop some airflow or something. nice uptime tho
my best is only 14 days on my mbp, and about 2 months on me imac hahahaha.but those temps (at a constant rate) would deminish overall life span. so just be careful
first off, you all are making me jealous with your ambient temperature being in the low 20s. my mac's ambient monitor is usually in the upper 30s, thanks to the excessive heat in cinci, and the fact that i'm in an upstairs room sans air conditioning.
second, my temperatures seem to be in line with everyone elses (well, 7 degrees or so higher, but considering my much higher ambient, you get the idea), and i've had no shutdown issues. i do get some graphics artifacts on occasion, as my gpu diode has been know to hit 70 on some occasions, but i've missed the random shutdown bullet so far. i'll post my temps after i get home.
also, thanks for the fan control program. i'm definitely going to look into that for my gpu's sake.
second, my temperatures seem to be in line with everyone elses (well, 7 degrees or so higher, but considering my much higher ambient, you get the idea), and i've had no shutdown issues. i do get some graphics artifacts on occasion, as my gpu diode has been know to hit 70 on some occasions, but i've missed the random shutdown bullet so far. i'll post my temps after i get home.
also, thanks for the fan control program. i'm definitely going to look into that for my gpu's sake.
It's a great little app... I'm very happy with my adjusted fan speeds... things are running cooler at idle and under load and the noise level was affected very little. If you are in a hot environment, I would definitely recommend tweaking your base fan speeds up a little and see how it does.
Mmm, I think that's a little alarmist.
Trust me, you won't be able to break the CPU from just using the computer normally. And normal can be playing demanding games where everything's at full load for 5 hours non stop.
As for shortening the lifespan, your iMac will be on the rubbish tip or be in someone else's possession before it dies from heat stress.
ok well for me. when i am not at school i have my mbp folding at 100%cpu 24/7. whether i am using it or not. it has been like that for at least the last 6months. it sits on ~80°C, compared to most peoples 50°C-60°C. that extra little heat will significantly shorten the lifespan of my mbp.
why do i do it you ask?? i dont know why i do it, i just do it for the fun of it, i have this powerful computer here sitting at my desk on 3%CPU, thats just a waste IMHO so i may aswell use it for something good.
At nearly 100% CPU you must be doing some heavy tasks or playing Second Life.
If so that's understandable why it's getting a bit hot. I would still recommend using smc fan control. Could someone please enlighten me what is this term "Folding"?
At nearly 100% CPU you must be doing some heavy tasks or playing Second Life.
Could someone please enlighten me what is this term "Folding"?
100%CPU would probably be from rendering or something...
folding: using your computers resources to help other companyies/organisations to increase their computer power to complete their objectives because the results are so massive and complex the world doesnt have enough power to solve them.
E.g. http://boinc.berkeley.edu/projects.php. some of these projects can involve solving climate pradictions, solving quantum complex situations, finding stars and mapping them and many more.
wat purpose does this achieve besides heating up ur computer/running/reunning in components at 100%???
It's a good way to stress test a machine though. There is a great program on the PC called "Prime 95" which hammers a processor like no other app. Really useful for stability testing an overclocked PC as it monitors for mathematical failures, etc.
that would make sense then wouldnt it
hhmm true. i knew that it would be for stress testing, but i thout he was doing it for no reason. which is then stupid hahaha