How hot is "too hot?"

[Eidorian]

@eidorian. Yes. I did just purchase the istat widget but that app doesn't provide the "normal" or "safe" operating range of the components. Neither did the Apple literature when I bought the computer last May afaik. My heat sink felt "hot" but it didn't seem inordinarily hot to me. And I can tell from these posts that there is no absolute consensus among you guys on precisely what is safe or not. But a least now I have some sort of range to shoot for. So thank you everyone for that!

I do have Apple care but there is no truly convenient way to repair or even replace a unit. It is such a bother. So while the insurance may save me some money down the road, I hope to do whatever possible to avoid a malfunction. Knowing the "normal" operative temperature is one way to do it.

If you are touching a heatsink, you have disassembled the computer. The only documentation we have would be based on Intel's specifications. Apple provides a few environmental suggestions but that does not provide any information on how the hardware temperatures will turn out.

The notebooks get much, much hotter. My record is 88° C over the course of about two weeks.