White Macbook Cooling

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jonherries

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#95510 6-Jan-2012 13:43

Couple of questions:

When I am recording tv on my macbook, and encoding it to watch on my apple tv, the cpu runs full speed, and then throttles as the cpu hits ~80°C

I run SMC fancontrol and this runs the fan at full speed, but would like to keep it cooler so it will run faster.

Is buying a laptop cooler worth it for this? Is there one that you would use for a mac over any other. I saw the microsoft one, which look nice, and is apparently reasonably assembled, but "isn't available in NZ"

gzt

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#565400 6-Jan-2012 16:00

Do you have this problem in winter or just in summer?

gzt

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#565405 6-Jan-2012 16:10

The Microsoft units look incapable compared to some of the others:

http://www.extremepc.co.nz/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=292_290&zenid=06e8a55df544f642cf8c845e52cbed52

gehenna

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#565410 6-Jan-2012 16:14

A laptop cooler won't help much. The polycarbonate MacBook's run hot, period. Once you start doing CPU intensive work they run even hotter and the fan goes ballistic. The 13" MacBook Pro's aren't much better. Once you enter the 15" range with dual graphics, things start to get better since the CPU isn't doing all the processing.

codyc1515

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#565431 6-Jan-2012 16:58

I have a MacBook Air 2011 model and while it is not exactly the same it is quite similar. The device gets very hot. The highest I've seen it get so far is about 102*C though normally speaking its about 60*C. I filed a bug and apparently this is normal behavior (if its under 100, for my model that is).

benmurphy66

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#565447 6-Jan-2012 17:39

when I first got my macbook pro (15") I had the same concern, I contacted apple and was explained it was all part of the design. As a side note that is why they never called their machines "Lap - tops" as they are not designed (due to heat) to go on your lap. That is what Apple Care told me.

jonherries

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#565467 6-Jan-2012 18:36

I have seen a couple of options which were pucks lift the back of the macbook off the table. Found some rubber feet and have lifted it up. Will run a quick benchmark conversion and see if it makes a difference.

Might be tempted to take it apart and check for dust bunnies, but only if I have to.

Jon

gzt

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#565506 6-Jan-2012 20:26

been doing that with mine for a while. nothing so intensive. just don't like fan working up to full speed while watching html5 youtube videos in hot weather ; ). helps delay the onset a bit.

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jonherries

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#565691 7-Jan-2012 10:52

So results encoding the same file to "appletv2" preset in handbrake:

Sitting flat: 51:16
Sitting on wedges: 49:28

A variable I didn't consider was ambient temp, but it should be reasonably consistent (according to our indoor thermometer).

So the limiting factor in the encode was temp (ie. if it was going as fast as it could the times would have been the same). I wonder if further cooling would reduce the time more?

Jon