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Date Posted: 04:02:28 12/29/23 Fri
Author: AusNick
Author Host/IP: 49.198.15.179
Subject: O/T: Cool little hack

Okay, this is off-topic for here, but I thought I would share, because it may help others.

As regulars here might remember, I own a Mac Pro 2013 (the 'trashcan'), I got mine in 2016, upgrading form a G5 Mac Pro (sadly not the dual CPU model), anyway the new machine has the air intake vents around the base, it has a habit of sucking up the surrounding dust, which means I have to take it offline every few months, and clean the dust out as best I can, and as you can guess, when the machine got dusty, temperatures would go up, the CPU would often hit 85 degrees centigrade, and since I use spare cycles on F@H projects (why has nobody else joined the team?), overheating is an issue.

Here's how I sort of solved that problem.

On a visit to a local smoke shot a few months ago, I noticed there was an empty Bic lighter tray sitting behind the counter. I asked if I could perhaps have it. Since it was going to be thrown away, they were happy for me to take it.

What I thought was, put it under the base of the Mac Pro, raising the machine perhaps half an inch off the desk. My theory was, that all the holes in the top would improve air circulation around the base, making the machine not so much of a dust collector.

And then did absolutely nothing about it.

I recently gave the machine a cleaning, so I popped the tray underneath as I sat it down, I've been running it that way for about three weeks now. It's made quite a difference to internal temperatures, compared to just cleaning the machine and putting it back on the desk. I have no before and after figures, because I didn't think to record them. But I can say the machine has been running cooler in that time. Not bad, I'm happier. And being summer here, anything I can do to keep the hardware cool is no bad thing.

I have a couple of these trays, and the sides of them are solid, so no airflow in through the sides, just the top. What I'm thinking of doing is making a few holes in those sides, to create even better air flow, and see if it makes a difference.

Just thought I would share, in case anyone has the same form factor machine. It would probably help anyone running an older Mac Mini, or one of those nifty micro PCs I've been seeing of late. I also got myself an M1 Mac Mini some time ago, I hardly use it, in fact I don't even have it set up anywhere at the moment. It craps all over this Mac Pro for processing power, the lack of ports is an issue, but I could live with it. My issue with the machine is the internal storage is part of the CPU, and when it dies, the machine does too, so when I can afford it, I'm going to go with an external storage device, at least then I can replace the thing if the storage fails. I know doing that means I'll take a speed hit, but I don't really care.

But yeah, that little plastic lighter tray has saved me issues in the future, and it was free.

So yeah.

Nick

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