best stand for heat dissipation? (15" MBP(2017) as desktop replacement)

[profH]

Hi all, I am using a 3.1 i7 15" Macbook Pro (2017) as a desktop replacement (hooked up to an Elgato TB3 Dock for display(27" 2560x1440 ), wired keyboard, printer, and ethernet). I am running into trouble with heat control when working at full steam, which involves some scientific computing, a VM, and image and presentation creation all simultaneously.

I am looking for the laptop stand that will best assist with heat dissipation so I can continue operating at full steam without throttling. I don't really care whether the stand is vertical, horizontal, clamshell or not, etc. (I am not using the laptop's monitor anyway).

Any recommendations?

 

[Trey M]

I personally use the rain Mstand in space gray and I feel it is very adequate in terms of thermal cooling due to the material and design. I also have the same Elgato dock and it fits flawlessly underneath the stand. You can even run the cords though the back of the stand to your dock.

 

[bartvk]

I very much doubt whether a laptop stand will make any difference. With previous MacBook generations, I did a couple of tests and was never able to measure any difference in temperature (using the CPU Proximity sensor). I even used a stand that had an active fan blowing against the bottom.

You may be better off using utilities such as Macs Fan Control and others.

 

[profH]

I very much doubt whether a laptop stand will make any difference. With previous MacBook generations, I did a couple of tests and was never able to measure any difference in temperature (using the CPU Proximity sensor). I even used a stand that had an active fan blowing against the bottom.

You may be better off using utilities such as Macs Fan Control and others.

Any advice for the settings given my setup? (constant vs sensor-based value and settings, & whether those settings should be left on all the time or just during intensive tasks).

 

[bartvk]

Any advice for the settings given my setup? (constant vs sensor-based value and settings, & whether those settings should be left on all the time or just during intensive tasks).

For me it's no longer necessary, but I used to run it on sensor-based values, set it to a range of 35-65, and use the CPU Proximity sensor. In my case, this meant that with idle, it would already run at, say, 2000 RPM.