Apple Powerbook George Foreman Edition? :D

[generik]

Overall pretty pleased with this machine

No network connection dropping issues, no flickering LCDs, and the display seems fine.

What does bug me is the heat that it is giving out.. is it supposed to be so hot?

PS: I did have it running in "Better Performance" setting, would that make a difference?

 

[Loke]

PS: Yes

 

[katie ta achoo]

yea
it gets REALLY hot.

my thighs always get burned.

the pb's case basically is a GIANT heat sink.

 

[generik]

Wow.. I'm surprised that the battery lasts so long with such a palm warmer

 

[ReanimationLP]

Its a lean-mean-Windows-grilling-machine.

 

[Arcus]

With the prices of home heating fuels this winter I would think having a nice lap warmer would be awsome.

 

[caveman_uk]

If I recall correctly 'Better Performance' doesn't allow processor speed stepping. When you set it to the other settings the processor speed is dynamically varied according to load to reduce battery drain and heat output. The 'old' powerbooks were throttled between 1/2 and full processor speed and the new ones between 1/4 and full (this is where the 'extra' battery life comes from. The battery is the same just the processor can spend it's idle time running at 417MHz which uses less power).

The powerbooks can also throttle the speed of the GPU. On the older machine I think this used to only happen on the reduced performance setting. This however is a static setting and the GPU performance is always reduced when on this setting. It is not changed if the load on the GPU increases - at least not on the older powerbooks.

The developer docs for the new powerbooks don't say what the connection between the Energy saver settings and the throttling is. The old one's did. It may have changed.

The bottom line here - at least on the old powerbooks. If you want you machine to stay cool use reduced. So long as you're not doing anything graphically heavy you'll be fine. The CPU will still run at full speed under high load but the GPU will be throttled back.

Want the best balance - use Normal.

Not sure there's any reason to use 'Best Performance' unless your legs are cold.

 

[twoodcc]

i'm about to order a new 15" pb. should i be worried about this heat issue? is it bad for the laptop? is it going to melt the inside or something (i've had this happen in a pc laptop)

 

[caveman_uk]

The aluminium powerbooks have always been hot and I guess the new 1/4 speed stepping is probably an acknowledgement of that (and the poor battery life). There have been reports of memory slot failures on some 15" powerbooks. Some people believe this is due to heat but without official word from Apple who knows.

Generally it's seen as a good idea to get some kind of extended warranty on notebooks as they tend to be less reliable than desktops (generally - not just Apple). If you do have an extended warranty and there is some sort of heat related failure then it would be fixed under warranty. If it is a general problem with a class of machines then Apple would most likely do something like the ibook logic board program that fixes affected machines with or without a warranty.

 

[tribe3]

i'm about to order a new 15" pb. should i be worried about this heat issue? is it bad for the laptop? is it going to melt the inside or something (i've had this happen in a pc laptop)

My old 667 Ti was twice as hot as these new ones and it never melted

 

[twoodcc]

The aluminium powerbooks have always been hot and I guess the new 1/4 speed stepping is probably an acknowledgement of that (and the poor battery life). There have been reports of memory slot failures on some 15" powerbooks. Some people believe this is due to heat but without official word from Apple who knows.

Generally it's seen as a good idea to get some kind of extended warranty on notebooks as they tend to be less reliable than desktops (generally - not just Apple). If you do have an extended warranty and there is some sort of heat related failure then it would be fixed under warranty. If it is a general problem with a class of machines then Apple would most likely do something like the ibook logic board program that fixes affected machines with or without a warranty.

thanks. well i hope heat isn't an issue with mine when i get it, even though i'm sure i'll push it to the limit. (gotta get my money's worth)