iMac G5 heat issues: overemphasized, or a real problem?

gandalf the semi-coherent

After reading about this cooling mod to the iMac G5, I'm concerned.



I just recently decided to purchase the iMac 17" with the SuperDrive, but now I'm wondering that, in my room which tends to be one of the warmest ones in the house, purchasing this might not be such a great idea.



Does the iMac 17" have serious cooling issues? What about the 20"? Is the larger enclosure better for handling those issues? Or is this entire complaint about running too hot and shortening the life of the innards overblown?



For those of you who own new iMacs, your input would be most helpful.



GTSC

proxy

I've a 17" 2Ghz iMac and had zero problems with heat even when leaving folding@home running on full processor for hours on end at 30ºC+. This mod just makes me weep to look at it

kingofsomewherehot

I had problems with my 20" 1.8 ... ended up having the logic board replaced.



It was definitely a heat problem, (overheating caused a capacitor to burst ... others appeared affected also)..



I'm not convinced it was the Mac's fault though... it could easily have been inferior capacitors that just couldn't stand the heat they were supposed to. If that is the case, Apple likely fixed it, and newer machines will probably NOT be affected ... better quality capacitors are probably being used now.



None of this is anything other than educated speculation ... but it sure sounds reasonable to me.



So... I'd figure buying a new machine should be OK ...

john.outwater

Quote:

Originally posted by KingOfSomewhereHot

I had problems with my 20" 1.8 ... ended up having the logic board replaced.



It was definitely a heat problem, (overheating caused a capacitor to burst ... others appeared affected also)..



I'm not convinced it was the Mac's fault though... it could easily have been inferior capacitors that just couldn't stand the heat they were supposed to. If that is the case, Apple likely fixed it, and newer machines will probably NOT be affected ... better quality capacitors are probably being used now.



None of this is anything other than educated speculation ... but it sure sounds reasonable to me.



So... I'd figure buying a new machine should be OK ...

Was it a Rev A or a Rev B?

londor

Quote:

Originally posted by john.outwater

Was it a Rev A or a Rev B?

20" 1.8 = Rev A

piot

Quote:

Originally posted by KingOfSomewhereHot





It was definitely a heat problem, (overheating caused a capacitor to burst ... others appeared affected also)..

Not sure if that is strictly true. There seems to have been a rather large amount of rogue non spec capacitors on the market for a while. Affected other companies as well ( Dell for one!). Try google for more info.

kingofsomewherehot

Quote:

Originally posted by piot

Not sure if that is strictly true. There seems to have been a rather large amount of rogue non spec capacitors on the market for a while. Affected other companies as well ( Dell for one!). Try google for more info.

It's still a heat issue .... heat causes the capacitors to expand/buldge/burst...



My point was that the "heat problem" might NOT have been Apple's fault, but rather, the fault of the capacitor supplier.

aurora

Quote:

Originally posted by KingOfSomewhereHot

It's still a heat issue .... heat causes the capacitors to expand/buldge/burst...



My point was that the "heat problem" might NOT have been Apple's fault, but rather, the fault of the capacitor supplier.

Made in China, need we say more? Rev A had lots and lots of issues. B looks better but what were they thinking by putting the power supply in there???G5 iMacs have had some bad history in the reliability field.

iposter

I've been holding off on upgrading from an iMac G4 precisely because I was worried about possible heat issues from the first time I saw a photo of the interior of the G5 iMac.



Just putting the power supply in a brick wouldn't have made much difference in appearance, since you can easily hide the brick (Mac Mini/Cube anyone?) and would have removed much of the heat source. If they insisted on putting it in there, why not put the power supply on the top instead of the bottom? All it's doing down there is pre-heating the air before it gets to the G5/GPU/RAM and drives.



Not to mention the separate issue that HDD and DVD/CD-ROM drives are, IIRC, designed to run in a flat orientation, not vertically placed. I think it will be interesting to look back in a few years and compare the life-span of the iMac G5 HDD and ROM drives to the PM or eMac drives.

john.outwater

Quote:

Originally posted by iPoster

I've been holding off on upgrading from an iMac G4 precisely because I was worried about possible heat issues from the first time I saw a photo of the interior of the G5 iMac.



Just putting the power supply in a brick wouldn't have made much difference in appearance, since you can easily hide the brick (Mac Mini/Cube anyone?) and would have removed much of the heat source. If they insisted on putting it in there, why not put the power supply on the top instead of the bottom? All it's doing down there is pre-heating the air before it gets to the G5/GPU/RAM and drives.



Not to mention the separate issue that HDD and DVD/CD-ROM drives are, IIRC, designed to run in a flat orientation, not vertically placed. I think it will be interesting to look back in a few years and compare the life-span of the iMac G5 HDD and ROM drives to the PM or eMac drives.

Wow, this is not the sort of thread someone like me, who is wanting to buy a new iMac in the next month, should be reading. I don't want to wait any longer and I have to assume the number of problemed iMacs while large is still minor compared to those that work fine.

c2poon

I have had an iMac 20" rev. B since May. This is my first Mac, and it's great! Really sexy stuff, and great for showing off... hehe. I wouldn't hesitate to buy this puppy again.



The room does need to be ventilated in the summer months, cause my Mac does emit quite some heat. The amount of heat is manageable for me. I have options to cool the place down, and putting it to sleep mode really helps too.

pbg4 dude

Quote:

Originally posted by KingOfSomewhereHot

I had problems with my 20" 1.8 ... ended up having the logic board replaced.



It was definitely a heat problem, (overheating caused a capacitor to burst ... others appeared affected also)..



I'm not convinced it was the Mac's fault though... it could easily have been inferior capacitors that just couldn't stand the heat they were supposed to. If that is the case, Apple likely fixed it, and newer machines will probably NOT be affected ... better quality capacitors are probably being used now.



None of this is anything other than educated speculation ... but it sure sounds reasonable to me.



So... I'd figure buying a new machine should be OK ...

I'm bringing my Rev. A iMac G5 20" into the Apple store for service at the end of the week. My CPU temps reach 90C after 20 minutes! It's almost to the boiling point of water! My computer will either put itself to sleep of give me the SWOD. It totally sucks.

gandalf the semi-coherent

Thanks to everyone so far for your responses. However, I see that most of these problems are in the Rev A version.



For those of you who own Rev B machines, specifically the 17", what is your experience?



And... I'm guessing that AppleCare on these new machines might not be a bad investment?



GTSC

pbg4 dude

Quote:

Originally posted by Gandalf the Semi-Coherent

Thanks to everyone so far for your responses. However, I see that most of these problems are in the Rev A version.



For those of you who own Rev B machines, specifically the 17", what is your experience?



And... I'm guessing that AppleCare on these new machines might not be a bad investment?



GTSC

I hadn't completely decided on AppleCare until this issue came up on my iMac. Luckily Apple gives you the first year of ownership to decide whether or not to get AppleCare. With the CPU temps. I've been clocking I have no choice but to get AppleCare. If Apple doesn't replace the logic board, the CPU will most definitely not last too much longer since it's been running so far out of spec.

kingofsomewherehot

I didn't buy Apple Care .... If I had no problems during the first year, I'd leave it that way ... But since I've had problems, I'll now invest the $$ to extend warranty another 2 years.



I figure if nothing breaks in the first several months, odds are it's gonna last several more years just fine. But If you have problems when it's new, there's a good chance you'll continue to have problems... I think having a year to decide whether or not to purchase AppleCare is good deal!

robin hood

That's what I'd recommend as well. If everything is 100% fine during the first year, don't go for AppleCare. However, if you're having problems, it's worth it.

pino

Quote:

Originally posted by Gandalf the Semi-Coherent

After reading about this cooling mod to the iMac G5, I'm concerned.



I just recently decided to purchase the iMac 17" with the SuperDrive, but now I'm wondering that, in my room which tends to be one of the warmest ones in the house, purchasing this might not be such a great idea.



Does the iMac 17" have serious cooling issues? What about the 20"? Is the larger enclosure better for handling those issues? Or is this entire complaint about running too hot and shortening the life of the innards overblown?



For those of you who own new iMacs, your input would be most helpful.



GTSC

I have the newer version, and have had no problems up to 78F degrees ambient.

The highest I've seen in temperature (according to the widget) is 177F (momentarily). Normally it runs in the 160F-165F range.

I have no idea if this is bad or good.

What are the ideal/maximum temps that will result in failure?

thinkingdifferent

What is different between the design of the PowerMacs vs iMacs? Whatever it is it must be substantial when it comes to heat. How did Apple stuff everything into an iMac and expect not to have heat problems?

iposter

For comparison purposes, my iMac G4 runs at 109F at the HD (the only detectable temp sensor) which I consider to be the equivalent case temp and my Athlon64 3400+ runs at 127F on the CPU. Both computers are running Folding @ Home 24/7 by the way....



I don't know about the G5 pino, but AMD recommends 160F as a safe maximum for the Athlon.

gene clean

According to this, the temperature widget is a hoax. You might want to use something else pino.

pino

Quote:

Originally posted by Gene Clean

According to this, the temperature widget is a hoax. You might want to use something else pino.

Thanks for the link!

Somewhat disappointing to find out, but sometimes the truth hurts!