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Abdulhaq

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 23, 2013
218
14
I have a unibody mid 2010 13" Macbook model A1342. I want to connect it to an external monitor and close the lid and use it in a clamp-shell mode. But a friend of mine informed me that closing the lid may block the ventilation and it will heat up the Macbook. I would like to know if this is so. Also I would like to know where the ventilation ports are located in this Mac.
 
Ventilation on the unibody models is all done from the rear. Intake on one side, exhaust on the other. There should be little if any air being drawn in from the keyboard area.
 
The cooling vents are along the back edge of the bottom case.
The MacBook is designed to function in clamshell mode. I think the cooling is a bit less efficient in clamshell mode, but would simply make the chassis slightly warmer, and perhaps the fan will run at a higher average speed - but you shouldn't normally notice much difference. Even if you notice a lot more fan, you can also load a fan control utility, such as SMCFanControl - which allows you to manually set the fan speed at a higher level, if you find that necessary.
Don't block the ports in back, and you should be fine in clamshell mode.
 
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