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Any one else worried about it being fanless?

B

blurobot

macrumors member
Original poster
May 28, 2009
67
2
I can't wait to buy this nMB but here's the thing.

I was watching a video and writing in Scrivener on my new Mac Pro yesterday and for some unknown reasons the fan started being very very loud. The kernel process seemed stuck somehow. I wasn't doing anything intensive and the fan was going crazy and was VERY loud. A reboot didn't fix it but a complete shutdown and re-opening it worked.

This happened with all my macs. The more recent ones seemed to have less fan problems and it's not frequent but we all had issues with flash or badly programmed processes and apps cranking the fan up and that got me thinking...

What will happen with this new mac book? It can't crank up the fan. Will it just shut down when it's too hot? :/

Forget the performance and the single port I think that is my only worry...
 
No, not worried at all. Apple engineers are not idiots. On the wildly improbable chance that they completely fouled up, there is the 14 day return period. :)
 
No, that's the silliest thing I've ever heard. Are you worried there's no fan in your iPad? Or your Apple TV? Or your computer monitor? Or your toaster?

They engineer products to respond to the minimum and maximum loads that are capable of being placed on them. Do you think they're going to release a macbook that overheats and melts down into a puddle of molten aluminium (ive's pronunciation)????
 
There used to be a time when CPUs were always running on maximum frequency and fans were always on 100%
 
blurobot said:
I can't wait to buy this nMB but here's the thing.

I was watching a video and writing in Scrivener on my new Mac Pro yesterday and for some unknown reasons the fan started being very very loud. The kernel process seemed stuck somehow. I wasn't doing anything intensive and the fan was going crazy and was VERY loud. A reboot didn't fix it but a complete shutdown and re-opening it worked.

This happened with all my macs. The more recent ones seemed to have less fan problems and it's not frequent but we all had issues with flash or badly programmed processes and apps cranking the fan up and that got me thinking...

What will happen with this new mac book? It can't crank up the fan. Will it just shut down when it's too hot? :/

Forget the performance and the single port I think that is my only worry...
Click to expand...
It will throttle itself if it gets too hot.

Keep in mind there is a graphite sheet being used to pull heat away as well. I'm sure unless you're doing video conversion or something like that the machine will run warm, but not hot.

Keep in mind what the human touch considers hot, is lukewarm at best to silicon.
 
shenan1982 said:
No, that's the silliest thing I've ever heard. Are you worried there's no fan in your iPad? Or your Apple TV? Or your computer monitor? Or your toaster?

They engineer products to respond to the minimum and maximum loads that are capable of being placed on them. Do you think they're going to release a macbook that overheats and melts down into a puddle of molten aluminium (ive's pronunciation)????
Click to expand...

I'm not saying apple engineers are stupid but they do push the envelope and mess up from time to time. I remembered the original air had overheating issues:

http://www.informationweek.com/appl...ook-airs-overheating-troubles/d/d-id/1065564?

Also the cube had problems too if I remember correctly.

iPad and iPhones are arm-based and iOS based of course. They don't run flash and don't seem to have those random process who gets bugged down that seem to make the fans go crazy. Maybe the OS is quicker in dropping rogue processes.

Run flash on any macbook air and it will get hot and the fan will start. My Mac Pro's fan was going crazy full blown for no reasons and no one will tell me that's normal haha. I'm an engineer **** happens, I get it but I'm wondering what the MB's response to these will be? Shut down?

What would the MB do if what happened to my mac pro happened on that machine...? I guess you're right and it could throttle until it's unusable. I can't wait to beat this thing to death when it gets here.
 
blurobot said:
I'm not saying apple engineers are stupid but they do push the envelope and mess up from time to time. I remembered the original air had overheating issues:

http://www.informationweek.com/appl...ook-airs-overheating-troubles/d/d-id/1065564?

Also the cube had problems too if I remember correctly.

iPad and iPhones are arm-based and iOS based of course. They don't run flash and don't seem to have those random process who gets bugged down that seem to make the fans go crazy. Maybe the OS is quicker in dropping rogue processes.

Run flash on any macbook air and it will get hot and the fan will start. My Mac Pro's fan was going crazy full blown for no reasons and no one will tell me that's normal haha. I'm an engineer **** happens, I get it but I'm wondering what the MB's response to these will be? Shut down?

What would the MB do if what happened to my mac pro happened on that machine...? I guess you're right and it could throttle until it's unusable. I can't wait to beat this thing to death when it gets here.
Click to expand...

Rather than looking at machines with fans, what happens if the iPad overheats?
 
blurobot said:
I'm not saying apple engineers are stupid but they do push the envelope and mess up from time to time. I remembered the original air had overheating issues:

http://www.informationweek.com/appl...ook-airs-overheating-troubles/d/d-id/1065564?

Also the cube had problems too if I remember correctly.

iPad and iPhones are arm-based and iOS based of course. They don't run flash and don't seem to have those random process who gets bugged down that seem to make the fans go crazy. Maybe the OS is quicker in dropping rogue processes.

Run flash on any macbook air and it will get hot and the fan will start. My Mac Pro's fan was going crazy full blown for no reasons and no one will tell me that's normal haha. I'm an engineer **** happens, I get it but I'm wondering what the MB's response to these will be? Shut down?

What would the MB do if what happened to my mac pro happened on that machine...? I guess you're right and it could throttle until it's unusable. I can't wait to beat this thing to death when it gets here.
Click to expand...

Yes, 99% chance e that it just throttles, which is not necessarily good if it slows the thing to a crawl, obviously. The thing to do is flog it during the return period and see if it's going to do what you want it to do. If not, give Apple the market feedback they invite buyers to provide: return the thing. :p
 
blurobot said:
I can't wait to buy this nMB but here's the thing.

I was watching a video and writing in Scrivener on my new Mac Pro yesterday and for some unknown reasons the fan started being very very loud. The kernel process seemed stuck somehow. I wasn't doing anything intensive and the fan was going crazy and was VERY loud. A reboot didn't fix it but a complete shutdown and re-opening it worked.

This happened with all my macs. The more recent ones seemed to have less fan problems and it's not frequent but we all had issues with flash or badly programmed processes and apps cranking the fan up and that got me thinking...

What will happen with this new mac book? It can't crank up the fan. Will it just shut down when it's too hot? :/

Forget the performance and the single port I think that is my only worry...
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you know,but just in case....try doing a "SMC" reset on your MBP.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

You can also try a "NVRAM" reset.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063
 
I thought this was new. I was browsing laptops on a UK website, it turns out there are many low powered fanless laptops out there already.

Some of which have youtube videos of them playing the likes of Warcraft if you do a search. :eek:
 
topmounter said:
Rather than looking at machines with fans, what happens if the iPad overheats?
Click to expand...

They shut down. Been there a number of times with iPad Minis

And numerous times a week my MBA will spin up its fans when various programs like Fash or Dropbox or Browsers etc need a burst of CPU. Sometimes the fans continue for quite a long time after the burst is over before the CPU temps come back to normal.

So the OP has a legitimate question and concern that I share. But we're only going to find out in real world use.
 
jimboutilier said:
They shut down. Been there a number of times with iPad Minis

And numerous times a week my MBA will spin up its fans when various programs like Fash or Dropbox or Browsers etc need a burst of CPU. Sometimes the fans continue for quite a long time after the burst is over before the CPU temps come back to normal.

So the OP has a legitimate question and concern that I share. But we're only going to find out in real world use.
Click to expand...

Hearing the fans roar on my MBA was one of things that annoyed me the most. I tried hard to avoid those times. That's one of the reason I'm so excited about the rMB...QUIET!

I certainly will still have to run flash occasionally so I expect that there will be some heat generated (or CPU throttling). The 'heavy lifting' tasks I require from my computer (like Handbrake or long Matlab simulations) will be run over night.
 
Last edited:
No worries. Apple's tradition is designing hot running laptops. They expect heat and build it to shut down before it melts down. The warranty is robust. Buy it and use it.
 
To be clear I'm not worried about the laptop melting or warranty issues or anything crazy like that.

I'm worried with heavy throttling until i'ts unusable or the cpu shut downs to manage heat vs just spinning the fans forever like most mac book air seem to do once in a while...

As said previously stuck dropbox or flash process are not that uncommon and os x seem to have a problem managing those sometimes. Coupled with the fact that gen 1 apple product often have heat issues (first mba, cube, ipad 3, etc) and that makes me a tad nervous and it seem strange i'm one of the few who have concerns vs performance or usb c issues which has been beaten to death already haah
 
blurobot said:
To be clear I'm not worried about the laptop melting or warranty issues or anything crazy like that.

I'm worried with heavy throttling until i'ts unusable or the cpu shut downs to manage heat vs just spinning the fans forever like most mac book air seem to do once in a while...

As said previously stuck dropbox or flash process are not that uncommon and os x seem to have a problem managing those sometimes. Coupled with the fact that gen 1 apple product often have heat issues (first mba, cube, ipad 3, etc) and that makes me a tad nervous and it seem strange i'm one of the few who have concerns vs performance or usb c issues which has been beaten to death already haah
Click to expand...

I don't worry because I'm going to push it to the limits and see what it does within the 15 day return period.
 
Stock G4 Cubes didn't have an overheating problem. Nor did they run hot. Only after upgrading the CPU without adding a fan or blocking the top vent did they overheat
 
blurobot said:
I can't wait to buy this nMB but here's the thing.

I was watching a video and writing in Scrivener on my new Mac Pro yesterday and for some unknown reasons the fan started being very very loud. The kernel process seemed stuck somehow. I wasn't doing anything intensive and the fan was going crazy and was VERY loud. A reboot didn't fix it but a complete shutdown and re-opening it worked.

This happened with all my macs. The more recent ones seemed to have less fan problems and it's not frequent but we all had issues with flash or badly programmed processes and apps cranking the fan up and that got me thinking...

What will happen with this new mac book? It can't crank up the fan. Will it just shut down when it's too hot? :/

Forget the performance and the single port I think that is my only worry...
Click to expand...

Are you worried about your iPad or your phone not having a fan? Devices are designed to perform within their limits. Unless you receive a defective unit, the Macbook should not allow itself to overheat. The Core-M series processors are specifically designed for fanless systems.
 
just like with the rev a mba, you're probably going to cook your future children with this bad boy and i expect serious cpu throttling and choking during anything more than light use. that said, i have already mentally committed to the $1599 model, with emphasis on mental
 
macmotive said:
just like with the rev a mba, you're probably going to cook your future children with this bad boy and i expect serious cpu throttling and choking during anything more than light use. that said, i have already mentally committed to the $1599 model, with emphasis on mental
Click to expand...

Except it's way more powerful than the original MBA.
 
macmotive said:
that's true, but the software is also much more demanding now. the new rmbp13 i am using right now barely keeps its head above water when i try to do anything remotely "pro"
Click to expand...

Then clearly the rMB isn't intended for your usage. People can still do serious work on the Air/rMB, though.
 
PDFierro said:
Then clearly the rMB isn't intended for your usage. People can still do serious work on the Air/rMB, though.
Click to expand...

yep, i personally would never use the rmbp13, or rmb, as a primary machine and i shudder to imagine the experience of using the rmb with an external display, but i think it has enough power for work on the road and it sets a new standard for portability, and that's why i'll buy it. hopefully apple learned their lesson from the rev a mba but i have my doubts
 
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