Mac mini Late 2012 Temperatures!

[ExclusiveMac]

Hi,

I have a 2 Mac mini Late 2012 Quad Core with temperature issues, I recently change the thermal paste MX4 and fully clean of dust, but both in idle have 58-68 and when I browse, YouTube etc it around 75-82.
Also I check with my hand the device and always hot. I have installed iStat Menus to check temperature also Sensei app.

I fresh install macOS Catalina on both, I would like to know if there are any other users with the same issues regarding high temperature and what solutions to fix this.

 

[iAssimilated]

Does Activity Monitor show any processes using constant CPU usage? I had an issue with my 2018 Mac mini running hot until I killed a rouge process and disabled it from auto starting.

 

[ExclusiveMac]

Does Activity Monitor show any processes using constant CPU usage? I had an issue with my 2018 Mac mini running hot until I killed a rouge process and disabled it from auto starting.

Believe me, that was the first thing that I checked. There is not any process that uses CPU to have a higher temp.

 

[iAssimilated]

Unrelated
I know this may not be the issue you are having, but I found the thread that solved my problem:

CPU usage... corespeechd

After intensely looking at Activity Monitor, I noticed that a certain task was excessively diminishing CPU usage... this process was named "corespeechd". It would spike my CPU usage at around 30 - 50 %, and cause the fans to ramp up. Anyone know what process caused this drain on system...

forums.macrumors.com

Corespeechd was causing my mini to run 15 - 25 degrees hotter than normal.

Related
What browser are you using? Does it have any extensions that might be acting up?

 

[ExclusiveMac]

Is all about idle, in idle is nothing running, everything closed like browsing. On the Activity Monitor is nothing suspicious that can use the CPU.

Is strange because I have also my PC in the same room and in idle at CPU I have between 35-40 temp. So I'm thinking that maybe the thermal paste was not applied properly.

 

[Miat]

So I'm thinking that maybe the thermal paste was not applied properly.

Even if it was applied properly at the factory, the paste will degrade over time and need replacing.

The youngest 2012 model Mini is about 6 years old, and on average they will be older than that.

 

[ExclusiveMac]

Even if it was applied properly at the factory, the paste will degrade over time and need replacing.

The youngest 2012 model Mini is about 6 years old, and on average they will be older than that.

Did you read the first post?

 

[Miat]

Oops. Eyes not what they used to be.

 

[ExclusiveMac]

Okay, I manage to solve the issues with temperatures.

I bring both Mac mini's to another IT Service and also I bought Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut to the IT guy, they use MX4 but I wanted something that is better.

So after 2 days they manage to cool both Mac mini's and now I have better temperatures, what they do for that?

First, he clean it piece by piece with the motherboard out of course, the fan, basically everything...he apply Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut properly, before was not applied properly, and also he applied a thermal pad on the Platform Contoller Hub instead of paste it, he said that is much better like this.

So I arrive home with them and start to stress them a lot. On Prime95 TORTURE TEST I rich max 101c, but instead to remain on 103c like before the temp was between 95c-103c, most of the time around 98c, before was always at 103c-106c

On Idle with 23c-26c in the room temp I have 43c-50c, before in Idle I had always 58c-68c with the same 23c-26c in the room. I have AC ON, most of the time, and at the time of this post is May 2020 and outside is around 22c, this is just for some that want more details.

On Browsing, YouTube, Office I have around 48c-56c, before on the same usage I had 66c-78c sometimes even 85c

The IT guy told me that for this kind of small computer case you can't have very low temp in a normal environment, and this is the max that I can have for this kind of CPU, COMPUTER CASE.

If you really want lower temps than this, you need a server rack with fans that can cool it a lot and a room that has around 10c-15c, but most of us we use it home in a room that has around 22c-28c.

So as I expected the full clean, a very good thermal paste, thermal pad, can make the diferrence.