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Should my new Mac Mini be this quiet?
- Thread starter Sir Ruben
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It is really nice to hear that new Macminis thermal specs improved significantly. Thanks to all who contributed their experiences.
Use iStat Pro (free) or iStat Menus ($16) to get accurate readings of your battery, temps, fan speeds and much more.
Hard drive sound
Just got my mid model mini!
Been using the retina mbp. This machine is faster than i thought even without SSD
Just one question, since everyone is saying how quiet it is
I do hear processing sound coming from the hard drive. Is this normal? Is your mac mini dead silent?
Thanks
Just got my mid model mini!
Been using the retina mbp. This machine is faster than i thought even without SSD
Just one question, since everyone is saying how quiet it is
I do hear processing sound coming from the hard drive. Is this normal? Is your mac mini dead silent?
Thanks
Yeah the usual ticking of the HDD is perfectly normal in ANYTHING that contains a HDD. Just put your ear to a PS3 as an example.
I dont know why but this made me laugh. everyone has easy calm ways of testing and you enter in telling him to step on the gas and see what happens.
Mac Minis are quiet. My first one (Early 2005) was not audible above background noise, except for when the CD drive was spinning up, until it was nearly years old. Then I started to hear a few noises, and a few months later the HDD packed it in.
I decided to buy a new early 2009 model (purchased about mid 2009), which to this day is just as quiet. I recently added more RAM, and will replace the HDD at the first sign of trouble. I guess it will last me a few more quiet years.
What is your room temperature and the temperature of your cpu?
What is the cpu temperature if you run CPUTest/Prime95 for 15 minutes?
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My new 2012 Mac Mini i7 2.6 with 4gb ram is super loud when using Handbrake. I love that a 48 min episode of Quantum Leap gets completed in 10 mins now, but it is SUPER loud. Anyone else experience this with the new model? Any safe recommendations to turn the fan down? BTW - I thought Steve hated fans!!!!
Update: I'm running iStat free and ripping. My fan RPM reach 5500 with 97% utilization and cpu heat of 99 degrees. I have the iMac i7 2.66 with Fusion drive. 4GB memory. Soon to be 16gb tomorrow when my Crucial shipment arrives.
Should I be concerned about the 5500 RPMs? After 30 seconds of Handbrake being completed, RPMs back down to 1800 nothing audible and cpu heat of 68 degrees...
Should I be concerned about the 5500 RPMs? After 30 seconds of Handbrake being completed, RPMs back down to 1800 nothing audible and cpu heat of 68 degrees...
It's quite normal that fans spin faster as temperatures rise, to keep them within the normal operating range. It is not a cause for concern. It's just your Mac doing what it was designed to do.
this is the design.
now this may or may not kill off your mini in a year or 2 due to high heat. I did a lot of testing of what turned out to be a bad quad 2012 and a good base model.
the base model runs at 170-180 f or 76c to 80c running handbrake with fans at 3000 rpm.
the bad quad runs at 214f to 217f or 101 to 103 c running handbrake with fans at 5500 rpm.
I am getting a replacement quad mini . I will test it again but i do say watch for the heat.
i have just made a stress test with my 2012 base i5 mini.
i think this model is the best, when it comes to noise level and heat.
under 99-100% CPU load, it just couldn't get over 70-72 °C, while the fan was running at stock speed (1800 rpm) all the time. i couldn't hear anything. wow!
i had a 2012 quad 2.3 i7 mini before (which i sent back because of the initial screen issues). that machine was around 85-90 °C and the fan kicked in almost immediately (was pretty loud).
okay, the i5 is not that powerful, but still...
i think this model is the best, when it comes to noise level and heat.
under 99-100% CPU load, it just couldn't get over 70-72 °C, while the fan was running at stock speed (1800 rpm) all the time. i couldn't hear anything. wow!
i had a 2012 quad 2.3 i7 mini before (which i sent back because of the initial screen issues). that machine was around 85-90 °C and the fan kicked in almost immediately (was pretty loud).
okay, the i5 is not that powerful, but still...
yeah the bottom line it if you don't need the quad the base is a very good piece of gear.
first i thought i need that extra quad power, but i realised before the 2nd order, that i don't really need more than an i5 processor.
- 2-3 home videos / year (iMovie)
- basic Photoshop (later, i don't have my copy yet)
- music production (also as a hobby, nothing serious)
- little programming
- everything else
base model can do all of these with ease
first i thought i need that extra quad power, but i realised before the 2nd order, that i don't really need more than an i5 processor.
- 2-3 home videos / year (iMovie)
- basic Photoshop (later, i don't have my copy yet)
- music production (also as a hobby, nothing serious)
- little programming
- everything else
base model can do all of these with ease
yeah 2 -3 home videos a month maybe a quad, but your work load the base is fine.
Under normal loads my 2.3GHz i7 is silent. iStat indicates that the fan is going about 1800rpm. The Mini is also very cool to the touch...
If the fan isn't working the computer won't be very
I've noticed my fans on the 2012 run less than the 2011 did, and it's significantly quieter. The fans on the 2012 seem to stay around 1800 rpm at the low end, as you said. The fans on my 2011 seemed to stay around 2300 rpm. Of course that was a mini server with 2 HD's instead of one, it had an SSD and a traditional HD. I have only an SSD in the 2012. That might have something to do with it with mine, but the 2011 would crank up to 4800-5500 rpm when streaming video and the 2012 doesn't seem to go anywhere near that, I haven't heard the fans crank up, but the CPU temp is fine.
Mine is extremely quiet. My Seagate 3TB external HDD is louder under normal operations than the mini. I did encode one movie with handbrake and it does get a bit loud, the fan I mean, but no louder than the laptop I was using before as our media server for the house.
I got the i7 2.6 GHZ quad-core, 16 GB ram, 1TB fusion drive model. Upgraded the ram myself from the stock 4GB. Works great. Converting videos is super fast now.
I got the i7 2.6 GHZ quad-core, 16 GB ram, 1TB fusion drive model. Upgraded the ram myself from the stock 4GB. Works great. Converting videos is super fast now.
My 2012 i7 2.3 is dead silent in normal operation at about 50-55C. When Handbrake fires up, the temp goes to 100+ before the fans even BEGIN to ramp up. By the time the fans are helping it's at 104-105. They can only get it back down to 97-100. If I set the fans to 4500 before I hit go, temps will climb to around 90-92. I'm with others believing that the machine will last longer if it doesn't spend time at those temps. I currently have the machine sitting on it's side on a Twelve South backpack on my TBD. I don't think that helped at all. Next step is to remove the cover, install a filter and mount a fan on the backpack blowing at the bottom of the machine...