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PC Bought: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ACEPC-AK3-Proc ... B0899F2N5J

When booting and using Chrome, the pc fans started spinning up and down over and over, when checking the temperature, it was reaching 72-82C and hovering there. What would be the remedy for this, is the unit faulty?

For reference, we purchased the: 8GB DDR4/ 256GB ROM Intel Celeron J4125 Processor unit.

You can refer to this link method to increase the heat dissipation silica gel, and the PC will dissipate heat more effectively
https://www.iacepc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=844

Kronix wrote: ↑Sun May 23, 2021 1:54 pm PC Bought: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ACEPC-AK3-Proc ... B0899F2N5J

When booting and using Chrome, the pc fans started spinning up and down over and over, when checking the temperature, it was reaching 72-82C and hovering there. What would be the remedy for this, is the unit faulty?

For reference, we purchased the: 8GB DDR4/ 256GB ROM Intel Celeron J4125 Processor unit.

It's quite normal for the J4125 to idle at ~65°C and reach 70-80°C during moderate tasks (Chrome is now bloatware). One simple solution that doesn't result in you having to open up the unit is to install Throttlestop - The ONLY setting you should change, apart from 'Turn On' and 'Save', are contained below. Please follow the steps and pay attention to step 2:

1. Open the zip file and extract the contents somewhere - a folder on your desktop is fine.
2. Open ThrottleStop.exe and read the warning, then accept if you are happy to proceed.
3. Once the application is open, select 'Turn On' at the bottom
4. Next, look for 'TPL' and click on it.
5. Within the 'TPL' window, change the PL1 (marked as Long Power PL1) from 10 to 8. This changes the default wattage to 8 watts and should reduce heat. In my device, it reduced heat when playing 4K videos from 82°C to 74°C.
6. You should see a slider underneath this. Drag it from the default '8' to 3 or 3.50 (or 4). This is the time in seconds the power limit will be allowed to be used for.
7. Finally in this area, you can change the PL2 (marked as Power Limit PL2) from 25 to 20 if you wish - this will also help reduce heat.
8. Now click 'Apply' and then 'OK'. Once that window has closed (close it manually if it doesn't close), select 'Save' at the bottom left of the main window.
9. You will need to run that program in the background each time you start Windows. You can either do this manually by simply opening it when you log in, or by adding it to your start-up items.

Those changes will reduce the total time the package can 'turbo' or use more power to deliver higher performance. In reality, the small changes mentioned above will reduce heat BUT crucially not performance by more than ~5-10% (in realistic workloads). With 20 tabs open my box has gone from over 90°C to 82°C - quite a big change.

I hope that helps.

tonemapped wrote: ↑Tue Jun 01, 2021 10:38 pm It's quite normal for the J4125 to idle at ~65°C and reach 70-80°C during moderate tasks (Chrome is now bloatware).

That's debatable. I have another mini with the same processor and it operates at temps that are considerably lower.

Gabe wrote: ↑Wed Jun 02, 2021 5:47 am

tonemapped wrote: ↑Tue Jun 01, 2021 10:38 pm It's quite normal for the J4125 to idle at ~65°C and reach 70-80°C during moderate tasks (Chrome is now bloatware).

That's debatable. I have another mini with the same processor and it operates at temps that are considerably lower.

I assume the problem is the ACEPC model's poor thermal contact, as noted by other people. Regardless, it's not uncommon for BGA 14nm parts to idle high when in a small form factor, and especially with the bizarre fan behaviour of this model. ThrottleStop fixes the issue as the P-States have unnecessary long periods of time.

Idle at 65? Don't know that is the norm, but on all mine (j4125's/8g ram), I changed the thermal compound on the CPU coolers to Noctua NT-H1 and reseated them all. I have seen idle as low as 30c, average is around 42c at idle. Ramp up average was in the low 70c range. That's a bit warm, but not hot enough to throttle. Highest recorded temps during Cinebench and Heaven benchmarks was 101c on the CPU and 82c on the GPU. After testing I let it sit for about 5 minutes and it's idle was around 48c. While 48c is a bit on the warm side, it's not horrid I suppose, but I'd really like to see some thermal improvements in the future on these units. Wasn't happy with that stock compound either. Looked like someone just took a big glob of it and slapped it down. But yeah, those temps, not the greatest, but they really improved once I de-cased the unit, stuck PCB feet on it, and then stuck it in an arcade cabinet. Thing is dead silent now.Rarely ever does the fan kick on.

Hi,

Sorry for the late reply, I completely forgot about this. Is it fine to open up the unit with standard tools and just re-apply a different thermal compound? Thanks, Ill try the ThrottleStop

Of course, this will reduce the temperature a lot. I hope your problem can be resolved as soon as possible.

Kronix wrote: ↑Sat Jun 19, 2021 12:32 pm Hi,

Sorry for the late reply, I completely forgot about this. Is it fine to open up the unit with standard tools and just re-apply a different thermal compound? Thanks, Ill try the ThrottleStop

Please do let us know how it goes. I have the same model and I'd like to get the temps down for the sake of longevity.

Also, what you find, as in... did it have a thermal pad between the CPU and the heatsink?

Thanks.

Hello Gabe, we applied thermal grease between the CPU and the heat sink. No thermal pad is used.