Notebook cooling pad for Mac Mini

[rodsky77]

Hi All,

I've been reading a lot about the somewhat hot Mac Mini running temps, and was just wondering if anyone has tried putting a laptop/notebook cooler pad (with a built in fan) under the Mini and whether this has or would help at all?

I know that raising the Mini a bit off the surface does lower the temp some.

If that's the case, then a laptop cooler should do much better than just raising the Mini - or perhaps I don't know enough about the Mini anatomy.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks.

 

[philipma1957]

yes here is the lowest cost one. note I am using it to cool lacie little big disks off. As I have done some extensive testing with them. I am looking for purchase link. Personally most mac mini users do not need it. I do many mods and test many fan less setups so i have one.


purchase link

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001LIHGFC/ref=oh_o03_s00_i02_details

 

[rodsky77]

Thank you for the info and the link.

 

[LeandrodaFL]

Altough this notebook cooler would help, its not necessary. The Macmini is designed to run in these hotter temperatures, even tough it feels too much to our human body. Computers are diferent.

Anyways, you can always turn on a personal fan onto the Mini or turn on the air conditionate

 

[philipma1957]

Altough this notebook cooler would help, its not necessary. The Macmini is designed to run in these hotter temperatures, even tough it feels too much to our human body. Computers are diferent.

Anyways, you can always turn on a personal fan onto the Mini or turn on the air conditionate

most users don't need the laptop cooler,but some do run hard and push the mini a lot.

IT is a shame the 110 external brick was removed as it would solve issue. Just allow it as a high end option for gamers.


Would also allow for a quad core and a good discrete gpu . Most don't realize the 85 watt PSU is about 90 percent efficient. So if you are running the mini at medium duty say 35 watts 3.5 watts of heat bleed out of the internal PSU> If you are gaming and have the PSU pushed to 65 Watts 6.5 watts of heat leak from the internal psu not to mention that in the descrete GPU mini 85 watt PSU is underpowered

 

[rodsky77]

most users don't need the laptop cooler,but some do run hard and push the mini a lot.

IT is a shame the 110 external brick was removed as it would solve issue. Just allow it as a high end option for gamers.


Would also allow for a quad core and a good discrete gpu . Most don't realize the 85 watt PSU is about 90 percent efficient. So if you are running the mini at medium duty say 35 watts 3.5 watts of heat bleed out of the internal PSU> If you are gaming and have the PSU pushed to 65 Watts 6.5 watts of heat leak from the internal psu not to mention that in the descrete GPU mini 85 watt PSU is underpowered

I definitely agree with that. I am planning to make the Mini Server my desktop as well as the music and video server. I don't game much, but it would be nice to have the option. All things considering, the discreet GPU is great, but getting the i7 with the GPU is actually more expensive than the server with 2 x 750 GB drives, and I really need those to be able to drive Lightroom (catalog on one drive, the program and cache on the other). I like the dual internal drives, allows you to have quite a bit of space and flexibility on the machine without having to rely on internal storage too much.

But in a perfect world, we could have the Server model with the discreet GPU

I also understand that the Mini is made to run hotter, but I still don't like it - more heat means the drives/CPU/RAM will not last as long as I want them to - I am planning to keep this Mini for at least 3 years, and I don't want any of the important components going south....


Thanks for the responses.

Cheers.

 

[frank4]

I always used a previous hot-running notebook computer on a special home-built table, so I cut a 3" circular hole in the table under the computer and attached an old computer fan to the underside of the table so t would blow cool air upwards. Fan was a 12VDC unit from an old PC power supply, I used a 9V wall-wart to run it about 3/4 speed which was relatively quiet. Worked very well. Same idea as the cooler pad but less obtrusive, and free if you have the parts available.

My Mini seems to run very cool normally so I probably won't need this type of external fan anymore. But I have installed Fan Control and it helps to speed up the fan more aggressively when there are big CPU loads.

If overheating becomes a problem with my Mini I think I'll remove the bottom circular door and glue 1/2" feet to the bottom to raise iti off the table, that should improve the air flow somewhat, and no external devices and wires required.

 

[rodsky77]

I always used a previous hot-running notebook computer on a special home-built table, so I cut a 3" circular hole in the table under the computer and attached an old computer fan to the underside of the table so t would blow cool air upwards. Fan was a 12VDC unit from an old PC power supply, I used a 9V wall-wart to run it about 3/4 speed which was relatively quiet. Worked very well. Same idea as the cooler pad but less obtrusive, and free if you have the parts available.

My Mini seems to run very cool normally so I probably won't need this type of external fan anymore. But I have installed Fan Control and it helps to speed up the fan more aggressively when there are big CPU loads.

If overheating becomes a problem with my Mini I think I'll remove the bottom circular door and glue 1/2" feet to the bottom to raise iti off the table, that should improve the air flow somewhat, and no external devices and wires required.

I don't have the mini yet, will be getting it this week (server with 2 750 GB drives), upping the RAM to 8 GB immediately (already have the RAM). Thanks for the info on Fan Control - will install it right away - will also raise the mini above table surface. Crafty with the table there, but I can't ruin my furniture just yet will watch it to see how the temperatures run, and if need be, will get a laptop cooling pad.

Cheers.

 

[frank4]

Utility "iStat Nano" is a little Dashboard widget that shows lots of info about Mac innards. Including readings from 7 temperature sensors.

My CPU is sitting at 34C and the HD is 24C websurfing in a 20C room, probably your server will run hotter.

 

[rodsky77]

Utility "iStat Nano" is a little Dashboard widget that shows lots of info about Mac innards. Including readings from 7 temperature sensors.

My CPU is sitting at 34C and the HD is 24C websurfing in a 20C room, probably your server will run hotter.

That's a pretty handy app. Will install this one as well. Thank you for the tip.
I figure that as long as it runs below 60C - there isn't much to worry about

Thanks.

 

[rodsky77]

Has anyone tried running SMC Fan control and Lobotomo Fan Control at the same time?
I am running them both right now and SMC is set at 2300 rpm - it's handy because it gives a read out on the app menu bar t the top. Lobotomo is set at 2300 min rpm and 50 degree low and 80 degree high thresholds. With Lobotomo, the fan is a lot more responsive to the temperature increases than it was before and I no longer have to manually control the fan speeds like I did with just SMC.

Anyone have the same setup? Are there any issues with this setup?

Please let me know.

Thanks.

 

[digitalclassics]

Keep Cool Mac

yes here is the lowest cost one. note I am using it to cool lacie little big disks off. As I have done some extensive testing with them. I am looking for purchase link. Personally most mac mini users do not need it. I do many mods and test many fan less setups so i have one.


purchase link

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001LIHGFC/ref=oh_o03_s00_i02_details

Someone recommended a cooling pad but I see they are meant for laptops.
Thanks I will buy this one and check it out and see if it helps cool down my Mac Mini which overheated so badly it turned itself off. Note it is more than five years old and I'm looking into replacing it. I use super duper cloner (like Time Machine) to clone a back up my OS and documents on external hard drives.
The new mac mini has Lion operating system and I am still on Tiger and worried all my apps wont work and can't afford to upgrade them all. To work around the problem, I may have to use external drive as a start up disk with older OS and apps.