As I previously posted, my mini PC overheated and died in early January. After arguing with the manufacturer in China, they directed me to contact the seller—also based in China—for warranty service.
Fortunately, the seller agreed to honor the warranty, provided I sent the computer to them. I paid $83 for USPS shipping, and the package took 41 days to reach China. This was unusual, as I typically receive packages from China in three weeks or less. USPS tracking showed the package arriving in Chicago, departing, and then inexplicably returning to Chicago about a month later. At that point, I suspected there was an issue with shipping it to China and thought it was being returned to me. However, a few days later, it finally showed up in China.
After another week, the seller informed me that they would repair the computer. A week later, when I asked for an update, they said the repair would take one to two months.
Surprisingly, just a week after that, they said the computer was fixed and would be shipped back to me. I suspect that they had to replace the entire motherboard.
Assuming I receive it and it works properly, I want to prevent the overheating issue I experienced before when running the CPU at 100%. I originally bought this computer for its high performance, and the manufacturer had claimed that its cooling system could handle the heat.
One option is to lower the TDP from 55 watts to 45 watts, which the BIOS allows. This would reduce performance slightly but also decrease heat output. I could take a more extreme approach and reduce it further to 35 watts.
I should point out that some people on YouTube report boosting the TDP to 65 watts for better performance. A competing manufacturer does this by default with the same processor.
Apple is good at running its processors at about half the wattage. However, the M2 chip only gets half the performance.
Fortunately, the seller agreed to honor the warranty, provided I sent the computer to them. I paid $83 for USPS shipping, and the package took 41 days to reach China. This was unusual, as I typically receive packages from China in three weeks or less. USPS tracking showed the package arriving in Chicago, departing, and then inexplicably returning to Chicago about a month later. At that point, I suspected there was an issue with shipping it to China and thought it was being returned to me. However, a few days later, it finally showed up in China.
After another week, the seller informed me that they would repair the computer. A week later, when I asked for an update, they said the repair would take one to two months.
Surprisingly, just a week after that, they said the computer was fixed and would be shipped back to me. I suspect that they had to replace the entire motherboard.
Assuming I receive it and it works properly, I want to prevent the overheating issue I experienced before when running the CPU at 100%. I originally bought this computer for its high performance, and the manufacturer had claimed that its cooling system could handle the heat.
One option is to lower the TDP from 55 watts to 45 watts, which the BIOS allows. This would reduce performance slightly but also decrease heat output. I could take a more extreme approach and reduce it further to 35 watts.
I should point out that some people on YouTube report boosting the TDP to 65 watts for better performance. A competing manufacturer does this by default with the same processor.
Apple is good at running its processors at about half the wattage. However, the M2 chip only gets half the performance.
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