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13" MBP late 2016 - Heat and fans?

I

InfiniteLoopy

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Original poster
Dec 14, 2010
366
5
I'm considering getting the 13" with Touch Bar, mainly for Touch ID. My most frequent tasks are writing/browsing.

My concern with this machine is the fan noise. If I'm just writing, will the fans stay silent, and the MBP not heat up in the lap and keyboard area?

Thank you
 
You won't hear a thing! I've spent hours writing on my MBP 2015 and the fans don't turn on.
 
InfiniteLoopy said:
Thanks for your replies.

Will the MacBook also stay cool in the lap/keyboard areas?
Click to expand...
It should! The Touch Bar model also has 2 fans (and therefore double the heatsinks compared to the 2015 13") so it should be able to move the heat out of the system efficiently and silently :)
 
InfiniteLoopy said:
I'm considering getting the 13" with Touch Bar, mainly for Touch ID. My most frequent tasks are writing/browsing.

My concern with this machine is the fan noise. If I'm just writing, will the fans stay silent, and the MBP not heat up in the lap and keyboard area?

Thank you
Click to expand...
They're quieter than the last generation of MBP's if that helps.
 
Funny but my fans kick up when I'm writing on Word...I've had to turn off auto-spellcheck/grammar to continue so it's a fair question, especially if s/he's a writer. Usually it's with extensions enabled + > 100 page documents though, so I guess I'm not surprised.
 
The other thing I'm waiting to see about is the new fan design in the 15" and how quiet it is compared to the previous gen at the same rpm. Looks like on the Apple website the 13" doesn't get the new split blade fan design.
 
Nismo73 said:
The other thing I'm waiting to see about is the new fan design in the 15" and how quiet it is compared to the previous gen at the same rpm. Looks like on the Apple website the 13" doesn't get the new split blade fan design.
Click to expand...


I definitely would like to know this also. Some of the things I do run in a tight compute bound loops for up to an 1/2 hour. The fans in my 15" rMBP spin up after a few seconds to max and stay there the entire time. I just hope the new quieter fans move enough air so the processor stays cool and does not cut back the clock speed to reduce heat generation.
 
I'd like to know this too...I suspect that it won't be noisy or hot for the first year you use it, but after....

My mid 2014 rmbp dgpu 1tb/16gb ram is hot and noisy while writing, with lots of open pdfs and safari tabs. If these are really silent I'd go for them for their small size, but I suspect I'm just going to get the next revision of the macbook12
 
eroslws said:
Funny but my fans kick up when I'm writing on Word...I've had to turn off auto-spellcheck/grammar to continue so it's a fair question, especially if s/he's a writer. Usually it's with extensions enabled + > 100 page documents though, so I guess I'm not surprised.
Click to expand...

Word is ridiculous. I sometimes wonder if it's still a conspiracy to sabotage Apple. I can open the same document in Pages - no fans. But just OPENING some docs in Word and the fans start whining on my 2013 i7 Mac Air.
 
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Thanks for the replies.

I think I'll get this one then. I don't want the MacBook as the MBP is a better investment, and I'd like Touch ID.
 
New MacBook Pro 13 base has a 0rpm fan.
It's as quiet as Macbook 12 even under load.

Best laptop ever own!!
 
Last edited:
Unless I ramp up the load, the fan doesn't turn on. I had to max the cores for at least a few minutes before the fan even started. The max I've seen is 3500rpm and it was still almost silent.
 
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InfiniteLoopy said:
I'm considering getting the 13" with Touch Bar, mainly for Touch ID. My most frequent tasks are writing/browsing.

My concern with this machine is the fan noise. If I'm just writing, will the fans stay silent, and the MBP not heat up in the lap and keyboard area?

Thank you
Click to expand...

My first question is, if you mainly do writing browsing, what are your Mac specification requirements? Unless you are doing heavy lifting like 4k video editing, large image batch processing in Lightroom/PhotoShop, etc. then a MBP may not be your ideal Mac IF fan noise and heat are a concern to you.

I have a 2016 Macbook retina with the m5 (mid-level processor) and under normal workloads (aka. light) such as word processing, email, browsing, etc. It NEVER get hot, not even warm. Plus it doesn't have a fan at all, it's silent like an iPad. This may be something for you to consider.

I've had mine on for the past 5 hours for my corp work. It's connected to an external display, have Outlook, Skype, Safari and Xcel open and it's barely even warm at all. The only time I've had any real warmth from it is when on an hour long Skype video meeting and at the same time having what I mentioned before open along with several remote desktop sessions. Then the audio on Skype gets a little choppy during peaks, but the little machine never overheats. Never had heat warnings or shutdowns.

Just something to consider, the MacBook may work really well for you and eliminate any concerns with fan noise IF you can live without the Touch ID.
 
callea said:
New MacBook Pro 13 base has a 0rpm fan.
It's as quiet as Macbook 12 even under load.
Click to expand...
I can definitely get the fans spinning under load, I played a bit of Bioshock Infinite earlier.

But you are right, the fan stays at 0rpm most of the time under normal usage.
 
Thanks for the additional replies.

The fact the fan starts at 0rpm is really interesting and hopefully will stay like that for most of my use of the machine.

kwandrews said:
My first question is, if you mainly do writing browsing, what are your Mac specification requirements? Unless you are doing heavy lifting like 4k video editing, large image batch processing in Lightroom/PhotoShop, etc. then a MBP may not be your ideal Mac IF fan noise and heat are a concern to you.

I have a 2016 Macbook retina with the m5 (mid-level processor) and under normal workloads (aka. light) such as word processing, email, browsing, etc. It NEVER get hot, not even warm. Plus it doesn't have a fan at all, it's silent like an iPad. This may be something for you to consider.

I've had mine on for the past 5 hours for my corp work. It's connected to an external display, have Outlook, Skype, Safari and Xcel open and it's barely even warm at all. The only time I've had any real warmth from it is when on an hour long Skype video meeting and at the same time having what I mentioned before open along with several remote desktop sessions. Then the audio on Skype gets a little choppy during peaks, but the little machine never overheats. Never had heat warnings or shutdowns.

Just something to consider, the MacBook may work really well for you and eliminate any concerns with fan noise IF you can live without the Touch ID.
Click to expand...


Why not the MacBook? I debated it, especially for the weight gains too. But this will be my primary machine, and I will also do light Photoshop, maybe a little 4K editing too so the MBP makes more sense, I think.

I just think the MBP will be more useable in a few years time than the MacBook. And Touch ID, and maybe even the Touch Bar, are intriguing.
 
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