Does the next MacBook Pro REALLY need to be thinner?

[Adidas Addict]

Need to be thinner? Nope.

Will it be thinner? Maybe.

 

[KohPhiPhi]

Thinner? nah no need. Lighter? absolutely.

 

[macrem]

I'm looking forward to a laptop that's more powerful than my current MBP, thin like the Air (or close) with retina display, plus the other rumored MBP inclusions like USB3. I want power, better portability & will gladly sarifice the optical drive, trade the 2.5 SATA bay for SSD modules, etc. At this point my optical drive is dead weight & space. It sounds like the new MBP will be this machine. I don't care though if it's the new Air that gets these features while the new MBP keeps its optical drive, etc. (+relative thickness). Then, I'd switch to the Air. Sounds like it will be the MBP, though, that gets thinner.

 

[ivoruest]

Really? I'm an engineer too! How nice for us!

Considering semiconductor resistance DECREASES with increasing temperature, the energy efficiency of such devices will increase with temperature, as voltage can be lowered while keeping the same current. However realistically, the efficiency difference is insignificant compared to inductive and capacitive losses that are not affected at all by heat.

But of course, being an engineer, you already know that.

Well this is true. Thanks for reminding. But the thing is; having a cpu running at 90° which is about 10° away from the throttling is not very good... (specially if you are about to play a game in you Mac)

A LAPTOP is meant to be light. Having a huge heat sink and power sucking fans that keep the CPU at 50˚C at full load is a complete waste. The CPU isn't going to fail just because it hits 90˚C degrees, because they are designed to get that hot without problems.

And a general note, CPU temperature and case temperature are not necessarily linked. There are a lot of other bits in a computer that can generate a lot of heat, for example the battery. All a hot case means is that the heat from the CPU and other sources is not being transferred to the air through the heat sinks well enough, and is instead going through the case, likely because of a poor thermal paste job...

...And therefore people who have MBP cases that regularly get uncomfortably hot should GET THEM FIXED!

...And you have to take into account that the MBP uses the whole body as a Heat Sink so that means it will get hot. So I think that if Apple were to make the next computer thinner it will have to make significant cooling modifications to the new design to keep the case cool, thus it will need to run cooler.

*** This is just my opinion. I'm not trying to start a fight or something. Just trying to explain why, in my opinion, Apple should consider designing a better* cooling solution if they are planning to make the new Macbook Pro thinner.
*Better means: with more cooling capacity.

 

[MisterSensitive]

Thank god they didn't. That medium is dying a slow death like all disk media.

Down vote me if you want but this can't be disputed.

In fairness, all current technology is dying a slow death. That's kind of what progress is all about.

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In my IT shop we joke that folks want laptops as tiny as possible, with huge screens, full sized keyboards, tons of ports, storage, speed, etc...

 

[takeshi74]

The MacBook Pro is thin enough as it is, I think Apple is forgetting that it is a PRO line after all. There is no need for Apple to make it thinner.

The point of the Pro line is to have it powerful and feature-rich. Instead of removing the optical drive, they should have blu-ray in there. They should have lots of ports like HDMI, like ethernet etc.

That's your take. However, no mass produced product is every designed for just one single customer. You're forgetting that Apple doesn't make all its money from you alone. What the MBP needs depends on who you ask.

Thank god they didn't. That medium is dying a slow death like all disk media.

Down vote me if you want but this can't be disputed.

Everything is dying a slow death. That doesn't mean that people don't use those things. By your reasoning they shouldn't be making MBP's at all.

 

[Krazy Bill]

Everything is dying a slow death. That doesn't mean that people don't use those things.

But why should I pay a manufacturer to build those devices into my MBP and force me to lug around that dead weight just so the "few" can have them?

You want Blu Ray? Get an external BR device and leave me out of it.

By your reasoning they shouldn't be making MBP's at all.

On the contrary... keep making them upgradeable with higher powered CPU's unlike the Air. Eliminate the crap I don't need (or at least give me external options for when I do need it).