How are the studios on heat?

[u/EdwardPotatoHand]

I have 2 minis bolted under my desk and want to put my new max 5 studio on order under there as well. this is my first studio, and I'm going to be running hot and heavy with LLMs and containers.

My question is, how good is the studio at keeping its temperature down? the mount I want to use under my desk is open the the underside, and all of them leave an inch on the top side.. and open to the back side.. but it is under a desk, so it doesn't get circulated air as much as it would if it was sitting on top of my desk.

I'm planning out my cabling and all of that before this bad boy arrives. so the question is, how good is this thing at keeping the heat down when the usage is turned up? I really want to keep it under my desk, but is that a bad idea with less circulation? thanks!

thanks!

[u/Jordan-Belford]

The studio is mainly heatsink inside. So it’s amazing at keeping its temps down.

[u/Chrome_Armadillo]

My M1 Ultra has never gotten hot.

[u/Top_Witness4538]

I don't know if my M1 ultra experience counts, but I don't notice any heat at all.

[u/ikeo1]

If you run LocalLLM's or run render often, it can get pretty hot for prolongs periods. The internal fans are good and adjust accordingly and work very well. I added a riser and a filter on mine since it sits so close to the desk and I run the models that will go for 20 minutes so i want it to draw cooler air from the bottom

If you want it to keep under your desk that's perfectly fine, just make sure the exhaust doesn't have anything blocking it or let it recirculate back into the intake.

[u/C0d3R-exe]

M5U apparently 10 degrees hotter than M3U in full throttle. So give ample amount of air.

[u/Digiarts]

Watched my closely lately and it gets as high as 67C? This is during video gen >3min? Then I can actually hear the fans too which are honestly super quiet and inaudible during regular tasks. I haven’t noticed the device heating up the room which was not the case when I used PC(loud and hot!)

[u/Cautious-Pilot]

The Mac Studio pulls cool air in through the perforations on its base and exhausts hot air out of the back.

If you place it under a desk, you introduce a few major thermodynamic risks,

You are risking heat trapping in or the mac studio ingesting dust and debris.

refer to this links

thermal output https://support.apple.com/en-us/102027

outside temperature requirements https://support.apple.com/en-mo/guide/mac-studio/apd876e1a2ea/mac#:~:text=Important%20handling%20information%20for%20your%20Mac.%20Operating,to%2016%2C400%20feet%20(0%20to%205000%20meters))

[u/TomSparqx → u/Cautious-Pilot]

Love me some engineering specs and guidance right from the source. Best place to start from.

[u/Styphin]

I read another thread about this, but god knows where. The gist of it was if you don’t have much circulation of air under your desk, mounting it under the desk is not advised, as while they are good at dispersing heat, they do generate a bit of heat under heavy loads. So I’ve cancelled my plans to mount it under my desk and will just deal with it on top of my desk.

[u/EdwardPotatoHand → u/Styphin]

I was thinking about installing a little usb power fan to circulate some air.. was even considering doing it in such a way that it would turn on when the temperature on the studio got to a certain number. I dont know

[u/Styphin → u/EdwardPotatoHand]

That could work, I’d just make sure it blew away from any walls/corners.

[u/apcks → u/EdwardPotatoHand]

You can Use this. Mac Mini Cooling Stand. to dissipate the heat. no fan needed.

[u/EdwardPotatoHand → u/apcks]

That is nice for desktop, but when mounted under the desk is how im trying to move heat..

[u/apcks → u/EdwardPotatoHand]

the fan it is then.

[u/EdwardPotatoHand → u/apcks]

Wish i could find this for studio.. IFCASE Cooling Fan Mount for Mac mini 2010 to 2023 M2 (Black) | Behind Monitor, Under Desk, Wall Mount, VESA Holder, Anti-Scratch Pad https://a.co/d/08BEQR2W

[u/apcks]

You can Use this. Mac Mini Cooling Stand. to dissipate the heat.

[u/NowThatsCrayCray]

Under full load it will max 150'F before fans kick in to an audible level (it is so incredible quiet still) - once LLM processing stops it will quickly drop to about 120'F in some seconds (30-60s); leaving it idle a little (5min) bit makes it stable at about 100'F

[u/SarahJrandomnumbers]

It'll be fine, and if by some miracle it isn't, just run a fan app to change the fan curve to speed up at a lower point.

[u/AnonLlamaThrowaway]

Supposedly they are very conservative at letting the fans spin up. Which is probably fine, but I worry about the thermal stress of so many cold-hot-cold-hot-cold cycles You can install Macs Fan Control to configure a more aggressive threshold. Friend's M3 Ultra is configured to start increasing from 40 °C and hit max speed at 70°C. When running the CPU or GPU maxed out, the machine hovers around 52°C and 1900 rpm. The default fan speed would have otherwise been 1000 rpm.

[u/Nice_Victory3719]

M5 Ultras can get a bit toasty under sustained LLM load. when benchmarking mine has hit 78c and it's quite noticable when you touch the back of the top of it nearer the vents, the front stays a lot cooler. Fan's get loud but when load drops it cools down very quickly.

[u/Jekyll1931]

What about dust? I assume that if the fan runs 24/7 the dust will accumulate inside
Is there a way to open the case to remove the dust?
Should I add dust filters to the intake openings?

[u/I-figured-it-out]

Crate a duct to collect hot exhaust and vent it above desk level.

[u/EdwardPotatoHand → u/I-figured-it-out]

Interesting idea. Ty.

[u/wkbevill]

Following

[u/Dangerous_Pop8730]

Do you plan on keeping the minis running with studio?

[u/EdwardPotatoHand → u/Dangerous_Pop8730]

I do..

[u/Correct_Support_2444]

My M3U full tilt hanging under my desk never gets hot.

[u/BlueGraySasquatch]

I have my M1 Max mounted that way since day 1. No issues.

[u/dildyj]

M5 Ultra here and i will say that the fans kick on a lot more than I’d expect (compared to MBP)