Mac Mini Cooling Fan Stand - 12cm PC Cooler with Adjustable Speed Knob, Silent Heat Dissipation Base & Acrylic Chassis for Overclocking | Perfect for Home Office & Gaming Setups

Like others have observed and posted, my Mac mini felt excessively warm to the touch. I bought this device to improve thermal performance.TL;DR = Depending on configuration, temperature decrease on case exterior of 11.2 degrees Fahrenheit (from 124.8 to 113.6).Testing and configuration notes:1. All temperature readings taken with Fluke 59 infrared thermometer pointed at same location on Mac mini case (to ensure consistent, apples-to-apples comparison).2. All temperature readings for all test configurations taken with Mac mini under a performance load that included XCode running with an active iPad simulation.3. I read one product review indicating the fan needed to be uninstalled and reversed upon arrival. The product does arrive with the fan oriented such that it exhausts away from the computer. This is a deign feature (more later)! Nevertheless, I conducted individual tests with the fan exhausting away from and towards the computer.A. Original configuration + resultMac mini sitting atop Setachi aluminum stand/hub sitting directly on my desk (no cooling fan involved) = case exterior: 124.8 degrees FB. First test configuration + resultMac mini sitting directly on cooling fan (exhausting away) sitting atop desk (no Setachi aluminum stand/hub involved) = case exterior: 113.6 degrees FC. Second test configuration + resultMac mini sitting atop Setachi aluminum stand/hub sitting atop cooling fan (exhausting away) sitting atop desk = case exterior: 121.2 degrees F4. Third test configuration + resultMac mini sitting directly on cooling fan (exhausting towards) sitting atop desk (no Setachi aluminum stand/hub involved) = case exterior: 117.2 degrees F5. Fourth test configurationMac mini sitting atop Setachi aluminum stand/hub sitting atop cooling fan (exhausting towards) sitting atop desk = case exterior: 120.8 degrees F6. Final configuration + resultsI very much wanted to capitalize and the best thermal performance (Mac mini sitting directly on fan that's exhausting away), but I didn't want to give up the expansion options offered by the Setachi aluminum stand/hub. As such, I ended up settling on the following stack (see photo): Mac mini atop cooling fan (exhausting away) atop Setachi aluminum stand/hub. This configuration balanced the best cooling, best acoustics (see notes below), and best expansion configuration. Case exterior: 114.6 degrees FNotes specific to exhaust direction:1. The fan is designed to exhaust away from the computer.2. In all cases, above test results indicate a thermal improvement in this orientation (vs. fan exhausting towards the computer).3. In addition, the fan seemed a bit louder when exhausting towards the computer. I have no equipment to verify this observation. However, there was a noticeable acoustic difference when I directed the fan exhaust towards the computer.4. Finally, I suspect (although I cannot quantitatively verify) that directing the fan exhaust towards the computer would result in the undesired increase of dust particulate ingress into the Mac mini chassis. As such, directing the fan exhaust away from the computer also has the potential added benefit of thwarting particulate contamination of sensitive componentry inside the case.Final thoughts:In any configuration, including the fan resulted in reduced temperature on the exterior case of the Mac mini. Ultimately, even I didn't settle on the configuration with the best thermal performance. Each end user must weigh the pros/cons of each.