Fans turn on while playing - Long term damage?

[ales876]

TL,DR: Got MBP 15" i7, when I play obviously fans turn on, does it have any longterm damage to them if I play from time to time 3-4 hours?




Hi guys,

I got a MBP 15" i7. Normally for my usage its way to much, but as I wanted a 15" and don't like a stuttering system, I bought it in Nov. 2018. I'm happy with it and luckily had none of the problems which user had in the past.

Back in the days I played a lot of Blizzard games, I was lucky that they offered also versions for Mac. Normally I don't like to play on a Macbook as I prefer a Desktop with a bigger screen and separate keyboard and stuff, but as I had a lot of free time recently I started to ply Heroes of the Storm again. I don't know why but Im REALLLLYY picky when it comes to sound from the Macbook, when I do my daily work the fans never ever are loud, but when I play, obviously they do and yes I know they have to.



My question is (as I don't have the technical expertise) how "bad" is it for the MacBook if I play a few hours (3-4) with fans on? Does it have any longterm damage to the machine? As I mentioned, before I stared playing, I really just did basic stuff, nothing that would ever ask for power. Furthermore I was wondering if there is any problem having the machine stick to power, as the game obviously sucks energy.



Thanks for reading, looking forward to your answers.



Edit: or mayybeeeee I overthink everything

 

[BigMcGuire]

Just make sure the airflow is good. I have a laptop cooler I use for my 2017 MBP and that keeps hot air from recycling under the MBP.

I had a 2015 MBA that I played WoW on for 3+ years - hours almost every day. Now it is being used by someone else every day for who knows what. If a MacBook Air can handle 3 years of that, a MacBook Pro is going to be even better.

My 2017 MBP - I've used this for 21 months. I used this for over a year as my work machine with Parallels and fans were running especially when I was working with massive Oracle DBs with Visual Studio. Battery temps never really got past 100F (coconutBattery) and using a laptop cooler helped 6F especially when idle.

My 2017 MBP doing basic web stuff (such as this) sees 96.7F for battery temps without a laptop cooler. Been using my MBP every day this way (fans aren't running now that I can tell).

These things are tough!

I have the Intel Core i5-7287U Processor - 3.3Ghz.

 

[ales876]

I got istats and and this it what came out.
What you guys think? Is it even bad?

 

[maflynn]

Your Temps are in the sixty degree range a little warm but not bad. I can't speak for Macs but my think pad runs in the 50 degree range

 

[smirking]

Heat accelerates aging in all electronics and isn't good for batteries, but I really don't think it's worth your while to worry about 3-4 hours of high load occasionally. Your machine is most likely going to be just fine. Besides, what's the point of having a computer if you don't get to enjoy it?

 

[ales876]

Heat accelerates aging in all electronics and isn't good for batteries, but I really don't think it's worth your while to worry about 3-4 hours of high load occasionally. Your machine is most likely going to be just fine. Besides, what's the point of having a computer if you don't get to enjoy it?

Your last sentence is indeed true. Cheers

 

[simonmet]

Just make sure to open the bottom case and clear out dust with compressed air at least once a year if you use it heavily (a toothpick or similar helps get dust balls out from tight crevices). This will improve airflow and cooling and hopefully minimise the risk of problems.

You can buy an excellent pentalobe screwdriver from iFixit.