# Cooling down an iMac



## BinaryDigit (Aug 21, 2002)

Hello everyone,

I'm running a 27" (Mid-2010) iMac at home. I use it for everything-browsing, podcasts, gaming etc. I notice that when I run videos or games after half an hour my machine gets VERY hot. Too hot to touch. The fan whirrs away, and although nothing happens (no kernel panics or shut downs) I tend to worry that one day the graphics card or hardware will fail.

Is there any sort of iMac cooling solution? Or is that non existent due to the "all-in-one" casing of an iMac? Thanks for any input


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

No cooling solution, other than getting a table top fan and point it at the back of the iMac. You may want to take it to Apple and let them open and clean it. If the heatsinks and fans get dirty, it'll run hotter. You can also get many programs that will show you the temp of the Mac's guts. You can watch to see what the max is and then see what the max recommended temp of the parts are. I thought my MacBook ran hot, but once seeing what temps it does run at, and the max temps of the chips, I wasn't overly worried anymore. Didn't stop me trying to keep it cool. But at least I knew it was within range.


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## mannoman (Apr 10, 2007)

Have you tried smcfancontrol_2_2_2? It works for me. it's free.


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

The fans are already running at full speed if you can hear them. And SMCfancontrol has issues with newer versions of the OS, it hasn't been updated in a while.


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