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palpatine

macrumors 68040
Original poster
May 3, 2011
3,130
45
I've been measuring the temperatures on my 2011 MBP 13" / 8GB all day with various workloads. Surprisingly, the plastic case does not seem to have affected the temperature much one way or another.

Do any of these temperatures seem abnormal? I am afraid I don't really know what temperature range my computer "ought" to be within.

WITH CASE / WITHOUT CASE
------------------------------------------------------
CPU=110-146 F / CPU=115-173 F
FAN=1994-2003 RPM / FAN=1992-2001RPM


The workload varied across the day. I took five readings for each one. The higher temperature readings resulted from times when I was working the computer hardest (email, itunes playing music, microsoft word, excel, voodoopad, chrome, bookends, and adobe acrobat combining multiple files into a single pdf).

There is nothing particularly rigorous about the test conditions. I wasn't doing exactly the same work in exactly the same location, and by the end of the day (without the case) the computer was running a little warmer because it had been in use (the highest readings for each were taken within 30 minutes of one another). Obviously, I am not really pushing the computer as much as some users might (this is the most load I would ever put on the computer in a regular workday). I imagine hardcore gamers / programmers / video editors would see different results.

I was a bit surprised by the results. I was expecting the case to have caused the computer to run noticeably warmer. I was thinking about getting a keyboard cover (the moshi one). Has anyone noticed their computer running much hotter with it on?
 
It shouldn't affect CPU temps too much as the fans will simply spin faster.
You'd have to find some specific workload like a long movie and check both fan speed and temps.
The MBP anyway does vent most of the heat through the fans which aren't affected by the case. I can imagine a notebook without case would cool down faster and the case temps on top are probably lower with light loads.
 
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