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nMP running 24h/7 ? Really Safe?

fabric17

fabric17

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 3, 2011
36
5
Hello!
I would like to know some opinion / real experiences about keeping the nMP always ON (Max TEMP = 80 C of CPU / GPUs: a medium load).

I have tested for 48 h , with no problems and I would like to try 30 days.

What do you think? Any suggestion?
 
I agree with jetjaguar.. not only are these designed to be running 24/7, in most cases they are running under heavy load for many consecutive hours.

If it helps to put your mind at ease I have run my mac mini (2011 i7) for over 48 hours straight running handbrake fans cranked themselves up to max to keep the machine just below 100 C. I have done other long sessions of such and never had a problem, no shutdowns, nothing. So if my mini can handle that then I don't think you have anything to worry about with your nMP.
 
jetjaguar said:
isn't that what they are designed for :confused:
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I hope so, and I think so... but they are not "server"

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jdblas69 said:
I agree with jetjaguar.. not only are these designed to be running 24/7, in most cases they are running under heavy load for many consecutive hours.

If it helps to put your mind at ease I have run my mac mini (2011 i7) for over 48 hours straight running handbrake fans cranked themselves up to max to keep the machine just below 100 C. I have done other long sessions of such and never had a problem, no shutdowns, nothing. So if my mini can handle that then I don't think you have anything to worry about with your nMP.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your experience, nMP are really well "built" machines.
Really appreciate "real experiences"
 
Yup I have a domain/exchange server running in Fusion on mine so I leave it on 24/7. Also access it from work using Chrome desktop (pretty sweet BTW). It is more of a server then a desktop (Xeon/EEC memory). Only thing is I will have to remove the cover and blow out the dust that builds up since this thing is like a Dyson vacuum lol but even then thats not an issue unless your running it in a metal machine shop.
 
richard371 said:
Yup I have a domain/exchange server running in Fusion on mine so I leave it on 24/7. Also access it from work using Chrome desktop (pretty sweet BTW). It is more of a server then a desktop (Xeon/EEC memory). Only thing is I will have to remove the cover and blow out the dust that builds up since this thing is like a Dyson vacuum lol but even then thats not an issue unless your running it in a metal machine shop.
Click to expand...

Thanks!
(I use teamviewer, but I will try Chrome desktop)
 
I've had a G4 mini running none stop for about 8 years. Lightening strike took it out another ago.
Also have G5 power mac running for the last 9 years. Lightly loaded now, but had it at 100% for days.

My opinion. It should work just fine
 
It's actually hard on electronics to heat up then cool over an extended period of time. Keeping it on would be best... This might not apply to todays electronics but that's what I was told when I was younger...
 
I've been re-encoding my entire Blu-ray/HD DVD library (almost 1000 discs) on my nMP using HandBrake since February 15. I queue up my encodes so my CPU has literally been maxed out 24/7 for that entire time (excepting a couple of restarts for software updates and the like). I haven't had a single problem with this use case, so I conclude that these computers are designed for heavy, constant workloads. I still have a few weeks to go before I'm done, but I should be done with the Blu-rays this weekend!
 
kfscoll said:
I've been re-encoding my entire Blu-ray/HD DVD library (almost 1000 discs) on my nMP using HandBrake since February 15. I queue up my encodes so my CPU has literally been maxed out 24/7 for that entire time (excepting a couple of restarts for software updates and the like). I haven't had a single problem with this use case, so I conclude that these computers are designed for heavy, constant workloads. I still have a few weeks to go before I'm done, but I should be done with the Blu-rays this weekend!
Click to expand...

Thanks, I feel more comfortable with heavy loads
 
If you couldn't run a workstation-class product at full tilt 24/7 I would say it's broken.
 
jdblas69 said:
I agree with jetjaguar.. not only are these designed to be running 24/7, in most cases they are running under heavy load for many consecutive hours.

If it helps to put your mind at ease I have run my mac mini (2011 i7) for over 48 hours straight running handbrake fans cranked themselves up to max to keep the machine just below 100 C. I have done other long sessions of such and never had a problem, no shutdowns, nothing. So if my mini can handle that then I don't think you have anything to worry about with your nMP.
Click to expand...

A client sits his minis on zalman cooling pads for renders as well as ramping the fans up! Having torn another two of theirs down recently for SSD upgrades and second drive kits I would advise if you open yours up to repaste the CPU and GPU. After 2 years it had dried to pale grey dust and temps dropped 15 degrees C after I applied AS-5.

The nMP thermally pushed hard is in a league of its own. When you've spent not far off 20 years listening to loud fans and a racket and then you hear almost nothing it's easily the most surreal and astounding attribute it has by a long way. Having had HP z300 and z600's on the bench recently I reckon you'd need 20 of the cans to sound as loud and that would just be a cacophony of slow whirr!
 
My nMP has been on 24/7 since 1/8.

BOINC keeps the CPU's @ 100% any time I'm away for more than 5 minutes.

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Gav Mack said:
minis on zalman cooling pads
Click to expand...

Can you recommend any specific models?

I've been looking for an active cooling solution for my Late 2012 Mini.
--
 
michael_aos said:
My nMP has been on 24/7 since 1/8.

BOINC keeps the CPU's @ 100% any time I'm away for more than 5 minutes.

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Can you recommend any specific models?

I've been looking for an active cooling solution for my Late 2012 Mini.
--
Click to expand...

They were using the angled zalman pads propped up at one end to make them level but are now using the ZM-NS1000F which can lie flat.
 
There's a reason why it's called a workstation and why Xeon is sold at a premium price when it's performance doesn't necessarily be better then an i7.

It'll run 24/7 no sweat ;)
 
The premise of the OT is a bit flawed - almost all name brand desktops can run full bore 24x7 without any issue.

Laptops -- not so much, the aluminium ones do tend to burn up.

I have a quad core Thinkpad W510 with 32 GiB and three spindles that runs all 8 virtual cores at 100% for days on end. But of course you can do that with a Thinkpad.

You only need to worry about the 24x7 issue if a system has been compromised by being squeezed into a ridiculously thin enclosure with inadequate cooling. That's not the case for the new Mini Pro.
 
Here is the simple answer. Apple sells server versions of OSX and people expect to run servers 24x7. There is no reference on the apple website that says don't run the server version on any "box" or "tube" :D that I have ever seen.
 
I've kept my 2009 Mac Pro on 24/7 since I bought it new 5 years ago. Like others have said, Mac Pros are built with server components, which is why they cost so much. You shouldn't have any problems running it all the time.

On a side note, I bought a Mac Mini server back in 2011. That machine isn't built with server-grade hardware, but it's been running 24/7 with a pretty heavy server load on it (millions of web hits every month) for the past 2.5 years. 0 problems.
 
mikepj said:
I've kept my 2009 Mac Pro on 24/7 since I bought it new 5 years ago. Like others have said, Mac Pros are built with server components, which is why they cost so much. You shouldn't have any problems running it all the time.

On a side note, I bought a Mac Mini server back in 2011. That machine isn't built with server-grade hardware, but it's been running 24/7 with a pretty heavy server load on it (millions of web hits every month) for the past 2.5 years. 0 problems.
Click to expand...

Millions of hits? On a mini? I call bullshirt
 
Why call bs? A "hit" for a static resource doesn't take up very much resources. Even if you got 10k hits a day spread over 10 hours, that's only 10,000 hits an hour. That's 166 hits per minute. That's 2.77 hits per second. Assuming the resource is cached in memory, this would take a trivial amount of system resources to serve. NO BIGGIE.
 
lemonade-maker said:
Millions of hits? On a mini? I call bullshirt
Click to expand...

Call it what you want. It was a bit of a surprise to me how well the Mini can handle a load like that. In the past year, my Mini has pumped more than 3.5TB of traffic through it's Ethernet port.

The machine averages between 5-6 web requests per second (that's 14 million requests every month, for those who are counting), and I've seen it handle 10 times that many requests during high-load events without breaking a sweat. I've attached below a graph of web request rate over the past month. Gaps are due to services being load balanced with another server.

About 10% of the web requests are for dynamic content. The rest is static, which can make a huge difference. However, the content this Mini serves are images that it self-generates every 10 minutes. So while the content is technically static, it changes often and the server does all the processing to make the changes.

I also attached the Mini's load average plotted over the past year. It's definitely keeping busy…

So while a Mini isn't necessarily your traditional server (and certainly not giving you any form of redundancy if one of its components fails), it can definitely handle a good amount of load. Throw 2-3 Mini's together in a failover or load balanced configuration and you have a nice redundant server setup at a fraction of the cost of more traditional rack mount hardware (I have those types of servers too).
 

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mikepj said:
I've kept my 2009 Mac Pro on 24/7 since I bought it new 5 years ago. Like others have said, Mac Pros are built with server components, which is why they cost so much. You shouldn't have any problems running it all the time.

On a side note, I bought a Mac Mini server back in 2011. That machine isn't built with server-grade hardware, but it's been running 24/7 with a pretty heavy server load on it (millions of web hits every month) for the past 2.5 years. 0 problems.
Click to expand...

Thanks,
mac mini gives satisfactions also to me running 24/7 ;-)
 
Running continuously since Friday

Assuming that the new MacPro is like previous MacPros and PowerMacs, it should be no problem at all.

The 8-core unit I purchased has been running continuously for almost a week now. At nights its running scientific computations.

I believe this to be a non-issue.

Cheers!

fabric17 said:
Hello!
I would like to know some opinion / real experiences about keeping the nMP always ON (Max TEMP = 80 C of CPU / GPUs: a medium load).

I have tested for 48 h , with no problems and I would like to try 30 days.

What do you think? Any suggestion?
Click to expand...
 
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