I posted this over in the "windows on mac" forum too, not sure if double posting is proper, thought I'd share it here as well since I for one don't spend any time on that other section. Admins feel free to delete one or the other.
Hey all,
Im writing because Ive finally found a decent solution to the heat issue while running Windows 7 in bootcamp on my MBP.
With my 2011 MBP 13 Im running windows 7 (ultimate, 64 bit) for software I use in my daily work environment, and was noticing idle temperatures around 60C, and approaching 70C under minimal loads. The same machine idles in the 30s in OS X. Also, coming from another win 7 laptop that idles around 30C, I concluded that win 7/bootcamp on the MBP was noticeably HOT. I was bummed.
My research taught me a few things:
Yes, the Sandy Bridge processors run warmer due to increased wattage: 35 -> 45 or something like that. Makes sense.
Yes, the architecture of the MBP is notorious for running hot if something is awry.
Yes especially in bootcamp.
I stumbled across a post that suggested the main problem in the windows environment seems to be poor fan control, i.e. even at moderately higher temps the fans dont seem to spin up at all. I agreed with this observation and set out to find some fan control. I found MacFan in an older post on another forum, and it works great. Its a bare-bones app that you run in cmd, but it has done the trick for me.
MacFan doesnt mess around with the fan controls or settings other than upping the minimum speed. My fans were idling at the 2000RPM mark in win 7, and simply upping the min speed to 2750 immediately brought my CPU down from ~60C to ~48C. Ahhh sweet relief. I can barely barely hear a difference audiblythe machine is still near silent. (I assume they'll go back to 2000 in OSX based on claims, but I'll find out and report back.)
I run my machine in clamshell mode at work and it feels MUCH cooler to the touch. Ive been using MacFan for a day now and so far so good. Im not as worried about longevity of the machine anymore.
Here it is:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/macfan/
Read the release notes .txt file for instructionsbasically you have give it a one-liner instruction in cmd but its dead simple.
Im all ears if I missed another way to do this, but just wanted to share what I came up with and give back to the resource pool here at Macrumors.
Cheers, and happy cooler bootcamping. Funny how these things are exciting to us hehe
Hey all,
Im writing because Ive finally found a decent solution to the heat issue while running Windows 7 in bootcamp on my MBP.
With my 2011 MBP 13 Im running windows 7 (ultimate, 64 bit) for software I use in my daily work environment, and was noticing idle temperatures around 60C, and approaching 70C under minimal loads. The same machine idles in the 30s in OS X. Also, coming from another win 7 laptop that idles around 30C, I concluded that win 7/bootcamp on the MBP was noticeably HOT. I was bummed.
My research taught me a few things:
Yes, the Sandy Bridge processors run warmer due to increased wattage: 35 -> 45 or something like that. Makes sense.
Yes, the architecture of the MBP is notorious for running hot if something is awry.
Yes especially in bootcamp.
I stumbled across a post that suggested the main problem in the windows environment seems to be poor fan control, i.e. even at moderately higher temps the fans dont seem to spin up at all. I agreed with this observation and set out to find some fan control. I found MacFan in an older post on another forum, and it works great. Its a bare-bones app that you run in cmd, but it has done the trick for me.
MacFan doesnt mess around with the fan controls or settings other than upping the minimum speed. My fans were idling at the 2000RPM mark in win 7, and simply upping the min speed to 2750 immediately brought my CPU down from ~60C to ~48C. Ahhh sweet relief. I can barely barely hear a difference audiblythe machine is still near silent. (I assume they'll go back to 2000 in OSX based on claims, but I'll find out and report back.)
I run my machine in clamshell mode at work and it feels MUCH cooler to the touch. Ive been using MacFan for a day now and so far so good. Im not as worried about longevity of the machine anymore.
Here it is:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/macfan/
Read the release notes .txt file for instructionsbasically you have give it a one-liner instruction in cmd but its dead simple.
Im all ears if I missed another way to do this, but just wanted to share what I came up with and give back to the resource pool here at Macrumors.
Cheers, and happy cooler bootcamping. Funny how these things are exciting to us hehe
