iMac 2nd generation: temperature data

Macintouch: iMac G5 (Part 9)

There have been 3 possible inter-related problems with the first generation iMacs:

1. Cooling problems.
2. Inadequate power supply.
3. Leaking capacitors.

So this temperature data on 2nd generation iMacs is interesting:

Scott McDonald

I'm wondering if there's a compilation of CPU temperatures that users are seeing on the new iMac G5's - I have a 2nd generation 2GHz 17" iMac, I'm seeing CPU temperature of 132 - 140 F when it's running mail only - when I'm actively using it to do Photo editing, web surfing, etc., the temperature is usually around 150-160 F.

If I turn the processor performance from 'automatic' to 'highest' I instantly see a jump in temperature on the CPU - I'm wondering what temperatures others with the new iMacs are seeing.

These are my current readings from a session that I'm VNCed into, the Mac is only running Mail.app at the moment:

125.6 F <-- Hard Drive
141.5 F <-- CPU
122.0 F <-- Smart Disk ST3160023AS

I'm using Temperature Monitor 2.5 from Marcel Bresink Software-Systeme. [You could try Jeremy Kezer's ThermographX. It includes periodically updated graphs of user-submitted temperature records. -MacInTouch]

Chris Perardi

Just thought I'd report in on the CPU temperatures of my new 2.0 GHz iMac G5 with 512 megabytes of RAM and 250 gigabyte hard drive. The temperature under a fairly mild load (listening to iTunes, browsing in Camino) stays a pretty constant 65¼C. The room temperature is around ~21¼C. During a fairly heavy load (watching XViD encoded video with VLC in the background while working on GoLive CS in the foreground) the temperature has spiked up to 80¼C, which is the highest I've been able to achieve.

The fan noise seem to be pretty constant. It's not a "whoosh" sound I'm used to in previous Macs; it's more of a higher-pitched whine. Slightly annoying, but I'm usually playing music anyway, which drowns it out completely. The machine almost always stays cool to the touch, except, somewhat oddly in my opinion, after waking up the system in the morning. Overall, I've been quite happy. The iMac has been very fast, the Migration Assistant was awesomely useful, and it's nice to have a Core Graphics capable graphics card.

If Apple is indeed talking to Intel about anything, I suspect it's because they can't get the G5 into a laptop. Intel has done incredibly well at producing relatively cool and energy efficient chips that that still perform quite well.

If one is torn between the 17" and 20" iMacs, a possible justification for the 20" is that there may be more room for the G5 to dissipate heat into.