Cooling Pad for The rMBP

[icecoldart]

Hello Macrumors fellas!

I've been a PC user my entire life and since i'm a digital artist and the OSX is a friendly working evironment for those like me ( so i heard ) i decided to buy my first mac. And since i'll be flying over to US in January i will pick one up directly there ( i'm living in europe and prices here are much higher, like 15-20% higher.)

I did read ths review ( which is probably the best that is out there ):

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Apple-MacBook-Pro-15-Retina-2-3-GHz-Mid-2012.78959.0.html

And what i can see under load it gets really hot, to a degree which is hard to work on. Now,I will be working mainly with Photoshop and will love that retina update for adobes product ( hopefully it will be availbale til January ). So it wont get pushed to it's limits, but i do in fact plan to play some games on it, like Guild Wars 2 for example. And this for sure will make it heat up quite a lot.

Now i now there are some cooling pads out there, but there's really not enough info to be sure which one works best with the rMBP. I did manage to find some videos and info regarding the 2009,2010 or even 2011 but that's outdated since the retina is redesigned.

So do you know of any cooling pad, that will get the Job done? I'd ask for numbers if possible, as the" yeah it does cool my mcbook" types of sentences just won't cut it".

There are a few recommended products like:

Coolermaster NotePal U2, U3 or X2 but do they work well with Retina?


Thanks in advance Paul.


P.S How hot can CMBP 2012 get compared to the Retine one, as i might consider getting one with Anti Glare screen instead.

 

[imperialnavy]

I am rather curious if a cooling pad is even neccessary, considering that if you use some sort Fancontrol, both CPU and GPU stay at around 70°C --- that is while playing Skyrim.

Concerning cooling pads : I did once hear about a passive cooling pad made by a swedish company, that was using some sort of PCM material that supposedly lowered temperatures by a few degrees. Unfortunately the only customer reviews i found were made with pre 2007 Macbooks or some old and heavy windows laptops...
I always wanted to try that, but paying 40€ for something that may not even work nowadays anymore...i dont feel right about it.
Other then that you could always try a USB powered laptopcooler with fans.
It will be a lot harder to transport all that around however and that nice "Retina" benefit concerning weight, thickness and so on will be gone as well..

 

[Queen6]

If you are concerned with the temperatures and want to reduce them elevation of the rear of the machine helps, as sitting flat on the desk only reflects the head back to the base of the Mac. You can buy passive aluminium coolers like Rain Designs Mstand or iLap. Most powered coolers are designed for PC notebooks and don't work overly well with Mac`s one cooler that does work efficiently is the Moshi Zefyr 2, as it`s principle of cooling is specifically designed for Apple portables, by blowing the air horizontally across the base of the computer, however don't expect miracles.

Link: Moshi Zefyr 2
A cheap USB fan cab achieve the same if strategically placed, not as elegant mind, but they do help to reduce case temperatures.

You can use software to override Apple`s own cooling algorithm by manually taking control of fan RPM and setting up power profile presets with SMC Fan Control 2.4, or here with UltraFan which allows you stipulate a preset temperature and the software will automatically raise and lower fan RPM`s to keep the system at the predefined temp, which i personally feel is a far more elegant solution. At the end of the day you want to control your system temperature, not your fan rpm`s. For me SMC is now pretty much redundant with the latest release of UltraFan having manual control of the fans RPM, and i am starting to uninstall it from my own Mac`s. SMC FC is a great app, however although it`s recently updated, functionality is limited compared to some newer apps, equally SMC Fan Control is rock steady stable.

Strictly speaking Apple`s own cooling algorithm works, albeit at sacrifice of increased temps for quieter operation. This has always been the Apple way and is really nothing detrimental to the system, i have one MBP from 2008 all original barring a recent fan change that has an uptime of over 30K hours. The latest MBP`s need less assistance in remaining cool; for some it`s simply disconcerting the heat generated and transferred to the case, although it`s perfectly normal as the aluminium acts as a heat-sync. i have to deal with elevated ambient temperature so at times a software solution is useful. Apart from the passive cooling the Mstands bring they also offer a very sound ergonomic solution. A passive cooler and UltraFan will maximise the cooling, there is little else you can do short of reducing the ambient temperature or the system load. If I know i am going to push a system i will close all apps that are not essential as this can and does make an impact to system temperature.

High temperatures in general is not overly harmful to your systems, what is far more detrimental is thermal stress, when temperatures rapidly fluctuate by significant margins in a short period of time. Anyone striving for great longevity should look to minimise rapid fluctuation of temperature.

The old adage still applies; it`s easier to keep a system cool, than cool-down an already hot machine. This being said it`s not strictly necessary, equally it`s nice to know that there are options for reducing temperature out there.

 

[icecoldart]

Imperialnavy: I know what type of passive cooling pad you are talking about, did see reviews and they do work foran hour or so until they get the liquid form and then it just heats up even more, so that won't work.

Regarding the carrying problem u fear, well the Notepal U2/3 are designed to be a carrying case by themselves, so that's kinda neat. Plus i will only use this when doing some intensive work or playing games.

I forgot to mention that i will be running bootcamp for sure to get all the goodness of Photodex Pro Show program which i use every now and then on my windows machine. ( what it does, it creates a video presentation, so yes video rendering included ) That will get the Macbook hot for sure.

To be precise i'm not so much worried about the temperatures of the inside, but the upper case with the keyboard on it getting up to 50 Celsius ( 122 Fahrenheit ) degrees which is SCARY!


EDIT: Queen6 thank you for your response, much apreciated! I was typing mine while your's was not up yet

 

[MCAsan]

One option at the desktop is to use an external mouse, keyboard, and monitor. If so, put the rMBP vertically in a Bookarc stand so that it radiates heat in all directions. Also it will take up a lot less desk space.

 

[icecoldart]

One option at the desktop is to use an external mouse, keyboard, and monitor. If so, put the rMBP vertically in a Bookarc stand so that it radiates heat in all directions. Also it will take up a lot less desk space.

Well that's not possible in my case, i'll be staying in San Diego for 6 months learning at a local art atelier and that's the main reason why i'm buying a notebook, otherwise i'd get the updated ( hopeully this year ) 27'' iMac.

Please if there's anyone out there using a fan based cooling pad can do some tests with and without it and provide us some numbers? Thanks!

 

[MCAsan]

Sorry the Bookarc is not a solution for you. As luck would have it, our Bookarcs arrived today. They come with the silicone insert for a cMBP installed (insert #5) and the insert for rMBP (insert #7) in the box. It took much longer to open the packing boxes than to swap the inserts. Both the wife and like these stands very much.

 

[icecoldart]

Thanks mate, apreciate your help anyway.
Have a nice day!

 

[Queen6]

Queen6 thank you for your response, much apreciated! I was typing mine while your's was not up yet

Running BootCamp and video transcoding you are without any doubt going push your Mac to the limit and most likely throttling of the CPU/GPU will occur.

Running Handbrake - 782% or a real world 98.4% CPU utilisation while transcoding a 1080P 7Gb mkv to m4v, High Profile; temp topped out 104C with the fans slowly spooling up to 5.4K (L-fan 5.5K, R-ran 5K), temp settled a 99C, ambient 25C. So yep the Retina`s just like their predecessors run real hot while under heavy load, in this case all eight Cores pretty much maxed all under OS X 10.8.1, likely you will be pushing your system harder.

SMC Fan Control is persistent on booting into Windows with bootCamp (restart not cold start). so setting fans to max can help. An external fan well place will wick away heat from the case, portability the Moshi Zefyr 2 is the best option, however pricy at around $80 build quality is up there with Apple as is the price.

 

[Dark Void]

Any 15'' notebook cooling pad will suffice. Go to Amazon or Newegg and find a cheap one with solid reviews. They are like $30-$40 I believe.