Mac Mini Fan

[Screwdriver]

No not that sort of fan, the cooling fan on my Mac Mini. I bought it to start producing YouTube vids, then broke the fan control circuit upgrading the ram and hard drives. since then it blows at full speed and full volume. Sounds like a helicopter taking off. Been driving me nuts so...

I had a spare fan to determine the pin outs after I ripped the connector apart.

Didn't want to modify the machine in any way so used the microscopically small molex connector to give power to the circuit board and fan speed to the Mac. The circuit is a thermistor based DC-DC controller, as the temperature goes up, so do the volts.

Didn't say it was going to be pretty. I had to poke the bare wires through a tiny aperture in the fan outlet and shove the temperature probe up under the heatsink. No room for that thing inside.

But I tidied it up with an old film canister.

...and incredibly, it works.

Temps look good and the fan starts up slow, circa 3.5k and hovers around a relatively quiet 4.5krpm. The thing used to sit at a constant 6.5krpm which you can hear from next door. I might even tweak it a bit to drop the revs even further but I shouldn't push my luck with this.

maybe I'll get around to making some videos...

 

[skotl]

Well done. 'course, you could always buy a proper computer running Windows

 

[skotl]

Slightly more seriously, I just spent some cash upgrading our main office/rendering PC to a Ryzen 5 3600, 16GB RAM and a GTX970 card. Partly for coding (now runs hundreds of unit tests in a couple of seconds) but mostly for youtube video rendering - 10 minute vids now render in less than 60 seconds.

I'm using Davinci Resolve - fantastic value for (£0.00) money...

 

[eddie49]

Well done. 'course, you could always buy a proper computer running Windows

Huh, proper computers run Solaris !

 

[Screwdriver]

That’s why I had to move from my trusty Mac Pro to a later i7 machine, just to run DaVinci.

I was a Final Cut Pro expert back in the day, before they ruined it. BlackMagic have been in the game even longer than I have and they are more concerned with selling hardware, Resolve should remain free for good and yes, it is superb.

 

[Screwdriver]

Huh, proper computers run Solaris !

Generally speaking, I hate computers so I don’t really care what they are so long as they do what I tell them.

 

[thinfourth]

Generally speaking, I hate computers so I don’t really care what they are so long as they do what I tell them.

Do you hate computers

if YES then buy an apple

I hate computers and have done since about 2004

 

[Seadog]

I hate computers (sometimes), but I hate Apple even more.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Slightly more seriously, I just spent some cash upgrading our main office/rendering PC to a Ryzen 5 3600, 16GB RAM and a GTX970 card. Partly for coding (now runs hundreds of unit tests in a couple of seconds) but mostly for youtube video rendering - 10 minute vids now render in less than 60 seconds.

I'm using Davinci Resolve - fantastic value for (£0.00) money...

Gonna be upgrading to ryzen when the pennies start coming I. Again.

 

[thinfourth]

I hate computers (sometimes), but I hate Apple even more.

If you hate for apple comes from

"They are poor value as you can get X from so and so cheaper"

Then

You actually care about computers

I really couldn't care less what is inside it as i treat it the same as i treat an iPad

Its a magic piece of glass that lets connect to the internet it could be full of old washing machine parts and a magic pixie as far as i am concerned

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

If you hate for apple comes from

"They are poor value as you can get X from so and so cheaper"

Then

You actually care about computers

I really couldn't care less what is inside it as i treat it the same as i treat an iPad

Its a magic piece of glass that lets connect to the internet it could be full of old washing machine parts and a magic pixie as far as i am concerned

Mac don't have the sole licence to pre built pre installed computers.

I look at is as modern car vs old car.the modern car looks pretty from the outside but you open the bonnet and it's all crammed in and hidden to make repairs difficult.
The older car has big rugged bodywork but it's easy to work on and tune up and the upgraded parts slide in easy

 

[thinfourth]

Mac don't have the sole licence to pre built pre installed computers.

I had one of those as a works laptop

i didn't know you could fit so many unwanted pieces of software onto one hard disc

I look at is as modern car vs old car.the modern car looks pretty from the outside but you open the bonnet and it's all crammed in and hidden to make repairs difficult.
The older car has big rugged bodywork but it's easy to work on and tune up and the upgraded parts slide in easy

I have had remarkably few problems with the points or the carb on my fuel injected car

so while some people might take some pleasure in rooting around the registry of a windows computer i really don't

So

I completely agree with you

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

I had one of those as a works laptop

i didn't know you could fit so many unwanted pieces of software onto one hard disc

No difference to mobile phones.
Apple are the worst for this as you can't (couldn't been a few years) remove the app shortcuts from home screens. Ended up with a folder full of there crap.


In fact the only phone I've had with no bloat has been a Google pixel. Stock Android from the box.

Re laptop.
Takes 5 minuites to strip the manufacturers crap off via remove programs

Should have been sorted by your company before they handed you the keys really

 

[thinfourth]

No difference to mobile phones.
Apple are the worst for this as you can't (couldn't been a few years) remove the app shortcuts from home screens. Ended up with a folder full of there crap.

Takes 5 minuites to strip the manufacturers crap off via remove programs

In fact the only phone I've had with no bloat has been a Google pixel. Stock Android from the box.

I just moved all of the programs i didn't like into a folder called "crapple"

And as to unwanted spam

The company bottom of the range Samsung made the laptop look like a bare bones ZX81 install

I fecking hated that phone

And YES

I am sure it was far cheaper and faster and far more customisable than an iPhone

But i don't call the iPhone a useless pile of £$^£%@^$%W& every time i used it

 

[Munkul]

Windows 10 pro is as slick and easy as anything has ever been to use. These days, i don't think Apple or windows have anything in it, usability wise. No bloatware with Pro, either.

Windows also has a LOT more software available, as well as hardware compatibility... so...