Best macbook for heat and fan noise

[Tim018]

I'm in the market for a new laptop in the next month or two. I'm a computer programming student in community college right now. Most of the work on the computer will be writing code.

The most important factor to me when considering a computer is heat and fan noise. Which computer in apple's line up can comfortably stay between 40-50c and have the fans silent with a web browser open, itunes going, xcode and parallels/virtualbox running visual studio in windows?

As far as specs go, I'm not too concerned, even the base macbook air with 8gb of ram will work fine for my needs as the main things that get taxed are the ssd and ram. Thanks guys!

Tim

 

[GGJstudios]

I'm in the market for a new laptop in the next month or two. I'm a computer programming student studying right now. Most of the work on the computer will be writing code.

The most important factor to me when considering a computer is heat and fan noise. Which computer in apple's line up can comfortably stay between 40-50c and have the fans silent with a web browser open, itunes going, xcode and parallels/virtualbox running visual studio in windows?

All Apple notebooks will perform in a similar fashion when it comes to heat and fan noise. It's completely dependent on the workload you put on a computer and the environment where you're working. More work = more heat = more likelihood of fans spinning faster. It's not the computer specs as much as it is your workload and environment. The SSD and RAM are not primary heat sources.

 

[Tim018]

Thanks for the quick reply. I understand that it is not the ssd and ram that generate heat.

I suppose the better way to rephrase the question is, which macbook has the best thermal properties?

On my thinkpad (thinkbrick as i like to call it), I can run the entire world, 4 virtual machines and multiple visual studio projects without any noise or heat. The main reason being that it is huge and only has a small i5 dual inside, so it is easy to get rid of the heat. Are there any macbooks that can do the same as I'd like a machine that has osx and has a better display.

 

[GGJstudios]

Thanks for the quick reply. I understand that it is not the ssd and ram that generate heat.

I suppose the better way to rephrase the question is, which macbook has the best thermal properties?

As I said, all Mac notebooks in the lineup will have similar thermal properties. The differentiating factors are not in the hardware or software, but in the environment and workload. A wiser approach is to make a notebook selection based on other criteria.

 

[Tim018]

As I said, all Mac notebooks in the lineup will have similar thermal properties. The differentiating factors are not in the hardware or software, but in the environment and workload. A wiser approach is to make a notebook selection based on other criteria.

I posted an update to the above idea. But I'll post some more details of the environment and requirements. If I had to narrow it down to two computers, it would be:

13 rmbp with the 2.4 8gb or 2.6 8gb

or the

13 air with the 1.7 and 8gb

Which would better be able to run:
Chrome, itunes, notepad++, eclipse, photoshop and parallels running visual studio without heat/fan noise?

Thanks again!

 

[GGJstudios]

I posted an update to the above idea. But I'll post some more details of the environment and requirements. If I had to narrow it down to two computers, it would be:

13 rmbp with the 2.4 8gb or 2.6 8gb

or the

13 air with the 1.7 and 8gb

Which would better be able to run:
Chrome, itunes, notepad++, eclipse, photoshop and parallels running visual studio without heat/fan noise?

Either configuration should be able to easily handle your requirements. Again, as to heat and fan noise, it depends. For example, if you're watching Flash video on your browser, you could end up with higher heat and fan speeds, even with nothing else running. It depends entirely on what specific workload you're running and the environment. There will always be heat if your Mac is running, and fans will always be spinning. Whether or not those increase will depend moment-to-moment on what you're doing. You can't intelligently base a buying decision between those models based on heat and fan noise. You're better off looking at how processor-intensive your workload may be, what connector ports you require, and other differentiating hardware factors.

 

[leman]

You can run dozens of applications and a bunch of VMs without ever getting any noticeable increased thermal output. The CPU spends most of the time waiting at any rate, and having two or five VMs running does not change things much. However, the fans will kick in very quickly once you start doing something intensive (like video conversion, numeric computation, compilation of big projects) or when the dGPU has to kick in.

Apple laptops do not have the thermal properties of gaming laptops — they are certainly not as good at dissipating heat. But if you are not doing anything intensive (and just running a bunch of idle VMs does not count as intensive) and the laptop will be inaudible.

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Which would better be able to run:
Chrome, itunes, notepad++, eclipse, photoshop and parallels running visual studio without heat/fan noise?

I doubt you will notice any difference as far as heat and noise goes. I'd certainly get the rMBP for the better coding experience the retina display provides.

 

[Tim018]

Thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate it.

I've decided to go with the rmbp because of the resolution.

Do you think there will be any difference between the 2.4 and 2.6 as far as heat goes? Any effect on the battery? Thanks!

Tim

 

[GGJstudios]

Do you think there will be any difference between the 2.4 and 2.6 as far as heat goes? Any effect on the battery? Thanks!

None that you could measure or notice. There are many factors that impact your battery life. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details, including tips on how to maximize your battery life.

​

The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

 

[Tim018]

None that you could measure or notice. There are many factors that impact your battery life. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details, including tips on how to maximize your battery life.

​

The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

Sounds good, thank you!