How hot is too hot?

General questions or discussion about HandBrake, Video and/or audio transcoding, trends etc.
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Bear Hunter
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How hot is too hot?

Post by Bear Hunter »

Hey guys, just a general question. I've been reading how some people run HB overnight. Anyway, it usually takes me about 2 hours to convert a movie and my CPU temp hovers around 185 deg F for the entire time.

How hot is too hot? These are the temps while HB is running. Computer is MBP 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

CPU-A - 185 F
GPU Diode - 175 F
GPU Heatsink - 155 F
Heatsink A - 146 F
Heatsink B - 117 F
Enclosure Bottom - 97 F
Memory Controller - 131 F
Hardrive - 103 F

Thanks
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s55
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Post by s55 »

Your CPU is right on the limit of thermal throttling. It'll probably start down clocking in speed when it's hitting that kind of temp
Bear Hunter
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Post by Bear Hunter »

Are you serious? I was under the impression that the CPU on my machine is good to 100 Celcius?

Is anyone seeing these temps using HB?
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s55
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Post by s55 »

The MBP's will quite easily reach these temperatures. They are designed to run close to the thermal limits of the chip.

The Core2 chips start thermal throttleing at 85C however should, in theory only die above 100ish. I've seen mine at 85C before however I now use SMC fan control to boost the fan speed manually. Keeps the temps down to a more reasonable 70C under high load.

THERMTRIP# will kill power to the processor if it hits 125C however if it were to reach this temp there is a good chance of damage
dynaflash
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Post by dynaflash »

Nice, just tried out SMC fan control as per sr55's suggestion. Nice, though during long HB encodes, since it only affects the minimum fan speed. I had to manually set it to like 5500 to keep the cpu temp below 80 C.

So, I am now trying a different utility called Fan Control 1.1 which monitors the cpu temp and adjusts the fan speed accordingly.

Seems to be working right now as I set the max temp at 74 celsius and am running a HB encode and iStat tells me that the cpu temp is right at 74 C. Nice. So, now when encoding overnight, it should keep my temp cool, then drop the fan speed back down after HB is done, instead of keeping the fans ramped up at > 5000 rpm.

Though not specifically a HB topic. I do think its relevant in that HB does have a way of cranking up your cpu ;)
Bear Hunter
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Post by Bear Hunter »

sr55 wrote:Your CPU is right on the limit of thermal throttling. It'll probably start down clocking in speed when it's hitting that kind of temp
Thanks... I have SMC fan control 2.2 installed, ....How do I down clock my speed? ...and is there a way to tell if there is any damage caused by the previous temps.

I appreciate your help
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s55
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Post by s55 »

How do I down clock my speed? .
Um, it's called SMC fan control for a reason. It has nothing to do with processor speed. The processor will manage itself. All you need to do is create a profile with a high fan speed and switch to it when using handbrake

4500 ~ 6000rpm is a good range to choose from. Whatever provides more reasonable temperatures.
and is there a way to tell if there is any damage caused by the previous temps.
It is unlikely there will be however if there was the system would be unstable or not working.
Bear Hunter
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Post by Bear Hunter »

Gotcha...thanks, I'm not real computer savy...but I am learning.

I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions.
Bear Hunter
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Post by Bear Hunter »

dynaflash wrote:
So, I am now trying a different utility called Fan Control 1.1 which monitors the cpu temp and adjusts the fan speed accordingly.
Hey dyna... the only thing I would be concerned about with a program that monitors cpu temp is this:

Taken from the SMC FAQ section:

Wouldn't it be even better to read out the temperature and set the fan speeds depending on the readout than just set the minimum fan speed and let automatic fan control as defined by apple do the rest?

Yes, that approach is even better and could make your machine running cooler, when you are at higher loads. BUT: I did not take this route for smcFanControl, cause it has some risks. Adjusting the fan speed to CPU temperature requires you have a program running in the background (e.g. a daemon) that adjust fan speed continuously . If that program ever crashes or becomes incompatible cause of a System Update (or the readouts of the temperature sensor get inappropriate) , the fans could get set to a wrong (too low) speed and this could probably damage the machine.
dynaflash
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Post by dynaflash »

Agreed, I read that as well. It is a concern, I am keeping an eye on it and will check the source code to see if it has any kind of a fail safe.

I have to say though, so far, for using HB it is awesome. Love the fact that the fans automatically drop back down after the encoding as the cpu cools off. Dont want my fans running at full tilt all night after four - six hours of encoding. Works great so far.
Bear Hunter
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Post by Bear Hunter »

Yep... I'm converting right now and my CPU temp is hovering between 65-68 C (151-155 F)
yacoub
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Post by yacoub »

wow, those temps are pretty hot. my code2duo E4400 clocked at 3.0GHz only hits maybe 51C under heavy load. Even if the diode that detects temp is off by, say, 10C, that's still way less than 85C, let alone 100C. But I guess being a laptop, the MBP will not be able to ventilate air as effectively as a mid-tower desktop like mine.
Just remember the hotter you run it for extended periods, the shorter the lifespan will be.
Bear Hunter
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Post by Bear Hunter »

yacoub wrote:wow, those temps are pretty hot. my code2duo E4400 clocked at 3.0GHz only hits maybe 51C under heavy load. Even if the diode that detects temp is off by, say, 10C, that's still way less than 85C, let alone 100C. But I guess being a laptop, the MBP will not be able to ventilate air as effectively as a mid-tower desktop like mine.
Just remember the hotter you run it for extended periods, the shorter the lifespan will be.
That's pretty impressive...however these laptops (MBP) tend to idle between 40-45 C. There is no way its going to stay in the 50's when the CPU is being maxed out. I can effectively keep the temps at 65-68 C by kicking the fans up to 5000 rpms while running HB now.
redraiderbum
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Post by redraiderbum »

I'm not sure about anyone else, but I encode on a MacBookPro that I run as a desktop and I stupidly had never considered that overheating could be an issue. Prior to reading this I didn't think to look at my temp, once I did I saw it was hovering around 95; after downloading smcfancontroller it hovers between 70 and 75. It may be a good idea to put this in the faq or the wiki or somewhere people may be made aware of the heat problem.

Maybe it's just me being absent minded, but I had honestly not even considered the potential for overheating and my queue never empties which could have been a problem down the road.

Thanks for the info!
Maury Markowitz
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Post by Maury Markowitz »

dynaflash wrote:Nice, just tried out SMC fan control as per sr55's suggestion. ...So, I am now trying a different utility called Fan Control 1.1 which monitors the cpu temp and adjusts the fan speed accordingly.
I _highly_ recommend using either of these tools if you have a Mac Pro and the X1900 card. Anything that really stresses the X1900 can start heating up the PCI bay, and the built-in curve doesn't respond as quickly as the X1900 itself. So the card goes into thermal protect, shutting off the display, and the only way to regain control is a reboot. :x If you're wondering how hard you have to push the card, Halo on full res will do it after about 10 to 15 minutes.

I reported this some time ago, and in the last two months Apple has done two smc upgrades in an effort to fix this. I haven't tried turning off the fan control yet though, although now that it's turned cold here it's hard to hit the limits any more.

Maury
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s55
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Post by s55 »

That's good and all, but Handbrake doesn't hammer the GPU ;)

Otherwise, thats fair enough. Its a good tool.
Maury Markowitz
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Post by Maury Markowitz »

sr55 wrote:That's good and all, but Handbrake doesn't hammer the GPU ;).
I know, I posted it as a public service announcement.

Of course "public" in this case is pretty small, I don't how many Mac Pro owners do heavy gaming on the 30" screen...

Maury
Maury Markowitz
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Post by Maury Markowitz »

Maury Markowitz wrote:
sr55 wrote:That's good and all, but Handbrake doesn't hammer the GPU ;).
I know, I posted it as a sort of public service announcement.

Of course "public" in this case is pretty small, I don't how many Mac Pro owners do heavy gaming on the 30" screen...

Maury
mikecool493
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Post by mikecool493 »

My 1.86 GHz MacBook Pro is at about 75 degrees celsius right now @ about 6000rpm fan speed.

Does anyone want to buy me a Mac Pro? :)
eddyg
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Mac Pro Temps and HB

Post by eddyg »

Hi,

I run HB overnight regularly and noticed that the memory was getting rather hot (especially the 1Gb DIMMS). Using Temperature Monitor I could se ethat they were getting to about 75 deg C.

After a while of this they both started getting *lots* of ECC errors.

I was going to RMA the memory as broken, but I figured that it was probably a cooling issue.

So I reseated the memory, in case the heat had caused the memory to shift. And then installed smcFanControl.

Since then I change the fans to 900rpm (up from the 600rpm default)whenever running HB, and the memory never gets above 50 deg C now - and all the ECC errors are gone.

I've left a note on the author of smcFanControl about making it scriptable. I'd like HB to automatically enable a "HandBrake" Fan profile when encoding.

Cheers, Ed.
mikecool493
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Re: Mac Pro Temps and HB

Post by mikecool493 »

Just so you know, the MacBook/MacBook Pro default fan speed is 1000rpm. I am not even sure if you can go below that speed... I have my minimum fan speed set to 3000rpm, and it's still very quiet.
eddyg wrote:Hi,

I run HB overnight regularly and noticed that the memory was getting rather hot (especially the 1Gb DIMMS). Using Temperature Monitor I could se ethat they were getting to about 75 deg C.

After a while of this they both started getting *lots* of ECC errors.

I was going to RMA the memory as broken, but I figured that it was probably a cooling issue.

So I reseated the memory, in case the heat had caused the memory to shift. And then installed smcFanControl.

Since then I change the fans to 900rpm (up from the 600rpm default)whenever running HB, and the memory never gets above 50 deg C now - and all the ECC errors are gone.

I've left a note on the author of smcFanControl about making it scriptable. I'd like HB to automatically enable a "HandBrake" Fan profile when encoding.

Cheers, Ed.
dynaflash
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Re: Mac Pro Temps and HB

Post by dynaflash »

mikecool493 wrote:Just so you know, the MacBook/MacBook Pro default fan speed is 1000rpm.
Um, I think its 1000 for the core duo but 2000 for the c2d, If I am not mistaken.
Bear Hunter
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Post by Bear Hunter »

Yep..I can confirm that min fan speed on MBP Core2Duo is 2000 rpms
mikecool493
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Post by mikecool493 »

Oh, wow. Nice :) I am glad they raised it. I have a Core Duo.

Either way, though, eddyg shouldn't be using 600rpm, haha.
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