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This is odd. My i5 is running nearly the same temps at the i7 did. I wonder if it has anything to do with the actual OS or the programs. When it's idle, the i5 wins. But who buys a computer to have it idle all day?
 
Thanks Apple Expert and jbouklas. Think you saved me some time and grief. 5 - 10 degree's cooler is enough to make me want the i5.

This is one data point. There's easily this much variance or more, simply due to inconsistent application of thermal material between two duplicate machines.
 
Hmmm, I have the 13in. i7 1.8ghz model and my cpu (using iStat) gets up to almost 95 Celsius when watching 1080p youtube video.

This is with mail and ical running and with firefox with 7 or so tabs open.

Thoughts?
 
Hmmm, I have the 13in. i7 1.8ghz model and my cpu (using iStat) gets up to almost 95 Celsius when watching 1080p youtube video.

This is with mail and ical running and with firefox with 7 or so tabs open.

Thoughts?

Something is appears to be wrong with your unit. My 13in. i7 1.8Ghz never gets past 89 degress And that is playing World of Warcraft. During regular web browsing and video playback it is even less, usually 60 degrees or so.
 
I was installing Windows 7 64 earlier tonight and the screen is at 100% the first moment the computer restarts to run the installation. My 13'' i5 MBA ran pretty cool during the entire process. I've also watched 1080p videos and didn't notice it getting real hot.
 
Hmmm, I have the 13in. i7 1.8ghz model and my cpu (using iStat) gets up to almost 95 Celsius when watching 1080p youtube video.

This is with mail and ical running and with firefox with 7 or so tabs open.

Thoughts?

go to youtube.com/html5 and activate it, if you have installed flash remove it and get chrome for sites which only work with flash.
 
We will return our MBA13 i7 due to heat issue and fan noise

Hi everyone,

We recently got a 13" i7 Macbook Air because of its portability. But we found out that it overheats and generates extremely loud fan noise. It is so loud that its noise exceeds my quad core workstation class laptop under heavy load. We find this unacceptable since we are not trying to do heavy 3D work or anything like that on the MBA as we do on our other laptop.
We will return our Macbook Air i7 today because of the overheating and excessive fan noise. We will get an i5 model instead and I will post my findings here so that it may help you on your decisions.

Best
 
We will return our Macbook Air i7 today because of the overheating and excessive fan noise. We will get an i5 model instead and I will post my findings here so that it may help you on your decisions.

If you're wanting max battery life for light duty computing, you might want a 2010 model. It got about 25% more battery life in Anand's review. I'm getting 10+ hours on my 2010 with Coolbook, I think Anand got 11+ hours in one of his tests.
 
Hi everyone,

We recently got a 13" i7 Macbook Air because of its portability. But we found out that it overheats and generates extremely loud fan noise. It is so loud that its noise exceeds my quad core workstation class laptop under heavy load. We find this unacceptable since we are not trying to do heavy 3D work or anything like that on the MBA as we do on our other laptop.
We will return our Macbook Air i7 today because of the overheating and excessive fan noise. We will get an i5 model instead and I will post my findings here so that it may help you on your decisions.

Best

Might want to give it a day or two. The computer is probably indexing itself and should iron itself out over the next few days.
 
Something is appears to be wrong with your unit. My 13in. i7 1.8Ghz never gets past 89 degress And that is playing World of Warcraft. During regular web browsing and video playback it is even less, usually 60 degrees or so.

Mine hit 95 on the benchmark I ran.
 
Might want to give it a day or two. The computer is probably indexing itself and should iron itself out over the next few days.

It's been running for 4 days now. I checked the processes during the excessive fan noise but there were no processes that used cpu by the time. I prefer a little more silent laptop than a little faster one. I don't need the extra 10% performance anyway. Our primary reason for choosing the i7 over i5 at Apple Store was because we change our gear every 6 months and we thought that i7 could be easier to sell because of being the top of the line. But apparently we were wrong, because if I would've seen these discussions before we picked up our MBA, I would've definitely gone with the i5.
 
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Hi applexpert you have the i5 now after swapping it the i7? How are you finding the i5 for your needs. Is there any noticeable difference from the i7 other than heat?
 
13 base here, world of warcraft seems to always be at 77 even when raiding maybe take some time for the fan to spin up. Really should not be so high.
 
Hmmm, I have the 13in. i7 1.8ghz model and my cpu (using iStat) gets up to almost 95 Celsius when watching 1080p youtube video.

This is with mail and ical running and with firefox with 7 or so tabs open.

Thoughts?

I just tested my i7.
With one youtube video at 1080p playing in fullscreen, temp spikes to 95c then the fans kick in to about 4k+. Then the temp drops to about 67-70c and the fans start to spin down to 3k.

I then opened up 2 more tabs in chrome and played 2 more 1080p videos in youtube. The temp stayed at 90-95c and the fan was at 5k+. And it got quite warm on the top left and bottom left.

I had the i5 before the i7 and it does run a lil cooler, but when pushed it gets just as hot.

I think it's just the design of the Air and actually of all the aluminum Macbooks. It's gonna get hot period. My old 1,2 MBP 17" literally gets hotter and the whole top half of the keyboard is uncomfortable to use.
So this is actually not bad. I've noticed all the MBP run hotter.

It's just the design.
 
Hi weespeed. Will that sort of heat over a long period of time cause damage internally to the machine? Is that he sort of thing AppleCare would cover it if so ?:)
 
Hi applexpert you have the i5 now after swapping it the i7? How are you finding the i5 for your needs. Is there any noticeable difference from the i7 other than heat?

I did exchange the i7 for i5. So far it's done the job with less heat. Speed wise I really haven't noticed a difference. The apps open on the first bounce or sooner. Except for photoshop which is two. I do missing not owning the i7. I'm so used to buying the ultimate models. :D
 
I just tested my i7.
With one youtube video at 1080p playing in fullscreen, temp spikes to 95c then the fans kick in to about 4k+. Then the temp drops to about 67-70c and the fans start to spin down to 3k.

I then opened up 2 more tabs in chrome and played 2 more 1080p videos in youtube. The temp stayed at 90-95c and the fan was at 5k+. And it got quite warm on the top left and bottom left.

I had the i5 before the i7 and it does run a lil cooler, but when pushed it gets just as hot.

I think it's just the design of the Air and actually of all the aluminum Macbooks. It's gonna get hot period. My old 1,2 MBP 17" literally gets hotter and the whole top half of the keyboard is uncomfortable to use.
So this is actually not bad. I've noticed all the MBP run hotter.

It's just the design.

Disagree & Agree

Yes Macbook Pro's is a warm running unit, all of them.
&
No the last gen Air did not heat up like the current I7 I have right now on my lap. I don't care what the temp says on the screen, I care whether I'm comfortable using it for a period of time and more than 5 minutes and not getting third degree burns.

This i7 is hot, period end of story. Now if I may very well have a defective one and I am thinking of going to the idiot bar to find out. But this is not what I bought into. I liked the last gen and the relatively cool experience I had using it, never got toasty at all.

Frankly the only reason I got this was for the backlit keyboard and I have had it off most of the time because I did not want it to get any warmer using it.

My unibody macbook pro doesn't get this warm on the bottom and on the track pad.
 
My 11" i7 definitely gets warm under the top left corner, but I don't consider it uncomfortably so. It does seem warmer than my 2010, but given that it's turbo boost up to 2.6GHz that's to be expected. My 2010 was a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo model.

That said, after a few minutes of idle, it is back to normal. It heats up quickly, but also cools quickly.
 
I think any of the sandy bridge processors will heat up when pushed. It's probably just the chip design.
 
Hi weespeed. Will that sort of heat over a long period of time cause damage internally to the machine? Is that he sort of thing AppleCare would cover it if so ?:)

I can't tell you what it will do to the new Air. But heat is a killer to electronic components.

I can only tell you my old 1,2 17" MBP gets way hotter and is still working. It's just slow and only limited to 2gb ram.
 
Disagree & Agree
.

I agree that the Air with i7 gets hot. What I noticed with my i5 before I exchanged it with my i7 is that they both got hot when pushed.

The i5 was cooler doing regular things like surfing and email etc.

And I agree that for some the heat may be an issue. It bothers me a little too, and I've been going back and forth on whether I should return the Air and get a maxed out 13" MBP. It's hard because I love the form factor of the Air.

And going back to an i5 for me is the same as an i7, just a lil cooler at idle but still gets toasty when pushed.

I just ran another a test with a coworkers 13" MBP core2duo. Running 3 1080p videos on chrome his temp was at 77c, but his fans were screaming at 6.5k rpms. I can only guess that the new MBP with i7 will do the dame but get as hot as an air. I'll try and get a hold of a new 15" MBP with i7. We just purchased one for a sales rep. Hope he lets me test it.
 
I agree that the Air with i7 gets hot. What I noticed with my i5 before I exchanged it with my i7 is that they both got hot when pushed.

The i5 was cooler doing regular things like surfing and email etc.

And I agree that for some the heat may be an issue. It bothers me a little too, and I've been going back and forth on whether I should return the Air and get a maxed out 13" MBP. It's hard because I love the form factor of the Air.

And going back to an i5 for me is the same as an i7, just a lil cooler at idle but still gets toasty when pushed.

I just ran another a test with a coworkers 13" MBP core2duo. Running 3 1080p videos on chrome his temp was at 77c, but his fans were screaming at 6.5k rpms. I can only guess that the new MBP with i7 will do the dame but get as hot as an air. I'll try and get a hold of a new 15" MBP with i7. We just purchased one for a sales rep. Hope he lets me test it.

Seems like all of the i7 get pretty warm. It's just a matter of what you want. Faster speed, but you get warmer temps. Slower speed, cooler temps. Plain and simple. It appear with these CPUs we can't have our cake and eat it. :rolleyes:
 
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