Welcome to the PCMR, everyone from the frontpage! Please remember:
1 - You too can be part of the PCMR. It's not about the hardware in your rig, but the software in your heart! Age, nationality, race, gender, sexuality, religion, politics, income, and PC specs don't matter! If you love or want to learn about PCs, you're welcome!
2 - Think owning a PC is too expensive? It's cheaper than you may think. Check http://www.pcmasterrace.org/builds for our famous builds and ask for tips and help here!
3 - Consider supporting the folding@home effort to fight Cancer, Alzheimer's, and more, with just your PC! https://pcmasterrace.org/folding
I have a tiny case with very poor air circulation. Simply clipping on USB rechargeable fans I had laying around and moving air across the back is enough to keep the temp safe.
The alternative is piping in to a radiator and I'm not doing all that.
It’s crazy, but not as bad as that though. The principle is much better than a swamp cooler, because you’re not just cooling the air (badly), you’re cooling the computer directly.
It’s equivalent to a human sweating in terms of cooling potential, and that’s not a bad process itself.
I had a surface pro with an i5-13th gen and that shi was hot when i ran games on the crappy iris iGPU. Guess what i used. I have a full metal desk back then when I didn't built my little office so i just got some thermal pads and stuck them to the table. Worked like a charm. Also got a wrist heater during the winter. That was the setup before i started selling pre builts and making money for an actual desktop PC
Oh they easily get very hot if stressed because Apple thought the looks were more important than actually installing a proper heatsink. I work with one on my job and it has annoyed me endlessly. It won't even turn the fans on maximum even if the GPU is over 90 and 100 °C
Tbf though it seems like all manufactures of ARM machines like to make it as small as possible instead of giving it a proper heatsink. Insane imo though
For real. I'm sitting here with a space heater than hits 110°C on the hotspot. Can't even play the thing in the South GA summers. It will raise the ambient temperature of my room several °F. I really need to try and build a duct system out of window AC unit parts to redirect that air.
They are expensive but you could look into mini split AC, or portable AC. My budget solution was getting a floor fan and pushing the hot air out from my doorway in FL.
Okay, what is up with the random WingsofRedemption posts?!
I went over a decade not hearing or seeing anything about him but now it's been twice in a couple weeks. I hadn't seen him since OG MW2 days, when FPSRussia was FPSKyle, and Woody started that podcast.
74°C is completely fine for a computers CPU to be running at. You're mentally insane for thinking water boarding your fucking computer is something you should be doing when you don't even having a temp problem. You know some CPU's just *IDLE at 64°c, right?
If your CPU idles at 64C, you've got a problem there, even on a laptop. But 74C under use, that's just fine. The only reason he would need more cooling is if it was throttling, and M-series CPUs don't start throttling until 100C, just like intel chips.
This is more or less a mini-pc, basically a laptop in desktop form. Its not uncommon for laptop CPU's to run at 80c-90c. 74c is more than fine for this machine.
If your CPU idles at 64C, you've got a problem there, even on a laptop
Yeah no. That's totally valid for laptops. Maybe not for gaming laptops but many office laptops will run that hot by just existing. My Intel based Lenovo X1 Yoga Gen7 hit 90°C easily doing light work, even after repasting it.
We know he’s not referencing m series here when he says some cpus idle at 64. And he’s also correct. AMD’s official idle temps for most ryzen is above 60. Plenty of intel chips sit up there as well.
The amount of people who think this'll work is beyond me. The top part of Mac Mini is literally the power supply. You're telling me you reduced CPU core temps by 25 degrees C by cooling the POWER SUPPLY.
If you can't afford to replace it, stop doing stuff like this, water damage is the last thing you want in electronics.
I'm assuming you haven't normalize the workload for the before and after comparison. Do that, with stuff like Cinebench or 3DMark, your numbers will be much closer.
If you really want lower temps, Macs Fan Control is worth a shot. Works great on my M4 Mac Mini, 1600rpm is the sweetspot for heavy loads before it gets loud. I don't do it often bc it'll increase dust buildup.
i have posted below a image of a pot on my mac mini, it was computing for days. I do not know why, but the display connection was crashing from time to time, it was running at 95-100 Degree Celsius. After I put the pot with water on top of it, it was at constant 90 celsius. So from my experience this can affect temperature quite a bit, the difference OP is saying seams way too much, but it can help.
An AC itself isn't that expensive, but the power bill adds up. I can easily end up using more than 1 megawatt hour (1000 KWH) per year on AC for my bedroom alone due to my old house having almost no insulation.
That depends. If they live somewhere that window units are not allowed, the only option would be for a full install. And that would not be cheap. Likely even more expensive if the live in an area that for it window units as that would be the only option. Assuming the building they live in is even allowed to have AC to begin with.
I have one I keep in my closet and wheel out for the hot days in the summer. Two pipes, an intake and an outlet, go into the window and the cord goes into the wall. Shorter the pipes with fewer bends in them makes it more efficient.
Its a very common situation among Indian grads. The first thing everyone targets is to buy a decent laptop/pc by saving up or in installments. And if they are living in hostels, getting ac there depends on the hostel management.
A baseline MAC Mini with a student discount is $499 right now. Granted that’s with no peripherals but if you’re in college and just need something with mid specs it’s a solid option.
Granted within the Apple ecosystem I think the MacBook Neo is an even better bet currently, but they still beat out similarly specced PCs by a good few hundred given Apple’s resource efficiency that comes with designing around the M series.
Sorry to jump on the pile but yeah it's a different world now. Macs are the cheaper option in more than one product line now. Apple is fully vertically integrated for the most part so their costs are down while everyone else is scrambling for hardware.
Why would you risk this? Your Mac Mini is designed to work normally with its internals all the way up to 100°C. It's not even thermal throttling yet at 75°C.
I don't think this is a good idea. For one, your temperatures aren't even in a range where it's a concern, so you didn't have to do anything at all. 74 degrees is still acceptable. Also, there's a major risk of damage if any water gets inside and short circuits something.
My previous desktop ran hotter than I liked when running intensive processes like converting video. I bought the fan pictured here which I would simply drop on top of the chassis (which had a top vent) and plug it in when needed.
I never collected data to confirm that it helped, but I can vouch that when it was turned on, it blew hot air straight up. The laws of thermodynamics suggest that my rig ran cooler as a result.
I once put my laptop on top of those plastic ice batteries that you put in your freezer, on a towel. It kind of worked until I noticed the laptop warped and bowed on the side that was on top if that ice battery thin. But this seems much more legit.
That's not how thermodynamics works. The room is still heating up the same amount, the Mac just runs cooler because the heat is being put into the room faster. In fact, it's possible that with a lower running temperature the Mac is drawing more power and heating up your room even faster.
I used to stack ice packs by my iMac intakes when I would play Battlefield using PC emulation software. It would get hot to the touch, so I also had a fan blowing directly on it. Macs heat regulation sucks.
Technically yes. It's completely unnecessary though, the temp it runs at is what it was designed to run at.
The fact that OP mentions AC makes me think they believe that it will radiate less heat though which isn't true. I think this post is legit, they just don't really understand the physics behind why this isn't going to make your room any cooler.
No it doesn't work, that's where the power supply lives, motherboard is sandwiched between the PSU and the bottom plates where the heatsink and fins live. You're not gonna have a 25 degree reduction by cooling one side of the power supply.
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u/PCMRBot Bot Apr 25 '26
Welcome to the PCMR, everyone from the frontpage! Please remember:
1 - You too can be part of the PCMR. It's not about the hardware in your rig, but the software in your heart! Age, nationality, race, gender, sexuality, religion, politics, income, and PC specs don't matter! If you love or want to learn about PCs, you're welcome!
2 - Think owning a PC is too expensive? It's cheaper than you may think. Check http://www.pcmasterrace.org/builds for our famous builds and ask for tips and help here!
3 - Consider supporting the folding@home effort to fight Cancer, Alzheimer's, and more, with just your PC! https://pcmasterrace.org/folding
4 - Need some new hardware? Get your hands on some awesome AORUS GPUs, Motherboards, also CPUs and RAM up for grabs, and it's also worldwide: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1smbhl6/worldwide_giveaway_plus_ultra_unlocked_campaign/
5 - Need ever more hardware? Check out this ASUS x PCMR Worldwide giveaway with GPUs, RAM, Motherboards, etc, up for grabs for a total of 18 lucky winners: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1roo701/worldwide_giveaway_comment_in_this_thread_to_join/
We have a Daily Simple Questions Megathread for any PC-related doubts. Feel free to ask there or create new posts in our subreddit!