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Late 2008 Macbook Pro - Cooling Pad?

K

Kibbles

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 22, 2008
6
0
My Macbook Pro under Windows XP runs hot (CPU @ 60-70, GPU @ 80-90) after just 10 minutes of gaming. The fans ramp up by themselves, yes, and after I quit the game, temps are back down within 10 minutes.

My question is, would a cooling pad be a worthwhile investment to cool it down? (I will be gaming for around 2 - 3 hours daily)

What cooling pad do you recommend?
 
Kibbles said:
My Macbook Pro under Windows XP runs hot (CPU @ 60-70, GPU @ 80-90) after just 10 minutes of gaming. The fans ramp up by themselves, yes, and after I quit the game, temps are back down within 10 minutes.

My question is, would a cooling pad be a worthwhile investment to cool it down? (I will be gaming for around 2 - 3 hours daily)

What cooling pad do you recommend?
Click to expand...

Heat is the number 1 killer of computer components. It is one of the reasons why equipment wears down over time. So to answer your question: yes, having a cooler will keep your laptop healthier in the long run.

The Vizo Ninja is the best cooler that I've found so far. I've been searching for a laptop cooler for my macbook pro for a while. The choices that pop up on google are laughable, and I don't really understand why people aren't recommending better laptop coolers for these hot machines. Here is a link:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Vizo/Ninja_2/

Tell me what you think about it.
 
MyJelleo said:
Heat is the number 1 killer of computer components. It is one of the reasons why equipment wears down over time. So to answer your question: yes, having a cooler will keep your laptop healthier in the long run.

The Vizo Ninja is the best cooler that I've found so far. I've been searching for a laptop cooler for my macbook pro for a while. The choices that pop up on google are laughable, and I don't really understand why people aren't recommending better laptop coolers for these hot machines. Here is a link:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Vizo/Ninja_2/

Tell me what you think about it.
Click to expand...

some updated models:

http://www.vizo.com.tw/front/product/get_product_list/3/1/-1

Im trying to decide which one to get.
 
I ended up getting this one for like $17 http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Note...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1253614518&sr=1-1

posted it on slickdeals.net a while back. I like it a lot. You still have to turn on your fan to max. What you do is download smcfancontrol on your osx partition. Get it to make your fans run max. Then go to system preferences and startdisk. From there you choose your xp partition and click restart--this way the fan settings will remain even as u restart into xp.

It gets annoying that you have to do that every now and then, but w/e. And its much louder. The cooling pad helps a lot too...
 
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I got the enermax aeolous cooling pad its been great. I can easily see a 5c cooling difference (depending on what I'm doing). I cannot recommend this puppy any higher. Build quality is great. Design fits in with the MBP and it works flawlessly. The only complaint I have is the usb cord is a bit shorter then I need.
 
MyJelleo said:
Heat is the number 1 killer of computer components. It is one of the reasons why equipment wears down over time. So to answer your question: yes, having a cooler will keep your laptop healthier in the long run.
Click to expand...

That's mostly incorrect. Overheating something will obviously cause damage, but as long as your machine isn't overheating, a "very hot" computer is perfectly fine with regard to lifespan. The heat damage to most electrical components degrades their lifetime by a few years or months out of a lifespan measured in decades.

Cooling pads are a waste of money, and heat is *not* the number one killer of computer components unless you can provide some evidence to support your claim.
 
miles01110 said:
That's mostly incorrect. Overheating something will obviously cause damage, but as long as your machine isn't overheating, a "very hot" computer is perfectly fine with regard to lifespan. The heat damage to most electrical components degrades their lifetime by a few years or months out of a lifespan measured in decades.

Cooling pads are a waste of money, and heat is *not* the number one killer of computer components unless you can provide some evidence to support your claim.
Click to expand...

True but a properly cooled computer will run better, wouldnt you agree?
Now bringing temp down by 5 degrees is probably a waste of money but if its significant something like 20-30 degrees then its another story.
 
miles01110 said:
That's mostly incorrect. Overheating something will obviously cause damage, but as long as your machine isn't overheating, a "very hot" computer is perfectly fine with regard to lifespan. The heat damage to most electrical components degrades their lifetime by a few years or months out of a lifespan measured in decades.

Cooling pads are a waste of money, and heat is *not* the number one killer of computer components unless you can provide some evidence to support your claim.
Click to expand...

You kind of already proven my statement by saying "The heat damage to most electrical components degrades their lifetime." I'm also certain that having equipment heated for a long period of time degrades equipment even more. Thanks for trying to prove me wrong by agreeing with me. Heat does degrade computer equipment. Cooling it will only increase life span.
 
miles01110 said:
That's mostly incorrect. Overheating something will obviously cause damage, but as long as your machine isn't overheating, a "very hot" computer is perfectly fine with regard to lifespan. The heat damage to most electrical components degrades their lifetime by a few years or months out of a lifespan measured in decades.

Cooling pads are a waste of money, and heat is *not* the number one killer of computer components unless you can provide some evidence to support your claim.
Click to expand...

I have to agree with MyJelleo. It's a little absurd to think that heat isn't the main cause of component degradation over time. This is especially the case if components are kept heated for long periods of time. This is why there is so much science that goes into cooling the inside of computer cases. Cooling the Macbook pros with a fan will only prolong its life. And in my book a few years is a LOT.

Miles01110, it would be nice to see evidence that proves heat isn't one of the main causes of premature computer death.
 
MyJelleo said:
You kind of already proven my statement by saying "The heat damage to most electrical components degrades their lifetime." I'm also certain that having equipment heated for a long period of time degrades equipment even more. Thanks for trying to prove me wrong by agreeing with me. Heat does degrade computer equipment. Cooling it will only increase life span.
Click to expand...

The issue isn't whether or not heat degrades component lifespan, it's whether or not it matters enough to buy a cooling pad. You stated "in the long run" that a cooling pad will contribute to a machine's lifetime. This is true at face value, but when you're talking about decades, a few years tacked onto the end is absolutely meaningless.

Pinkpower said:
Cooling the Macbook pros with a fan will only prolong its life. And in my book a few years is a LOT.
Click to expand...

Again, it's a matter of significance. Years tacked on to the end of decades, especially for relatively short-lived devices like electronics (and especially computers) isn't meaningful. Even if you kept your machine for 20 years you still wouldn't be at risk of component failure due to heat degredation. Of course you might disagree, which is fine. It's not my money being wasted.

Miles01110, it would be nice to see evidence that proves heat isn't one of the main causes of premature computer death.
Click to expand...

I don't think there are meaningful statistics on this, mainly because "death" is tough to define and even tougher to diagnose. Besides, I'm not the one that made such an outrageous claim as MyJelleo did. I will say that components are exposed to extremely high temperatures during the assembly process (soldering) without damage. Soldering temperatures are typically on the order of 3-4 times higher than even the highest temperature one experiences during use of a computer.

Keep in mind that I'm not saying fans, heat sinks, or built-in cooling systems are pointless, that's not the argument. The argument is that cooling pads provide insignificant benefits on top of the systems that are already in place.
 
The problem with these arguments is no one ever talks about
- what components?
- how hot?
- what does "death" mean?

The biggest killer of electronics equipment is almost certainly obsolescence. I've got a whole bunch of computers in my attic (G4 iMac, AMD Sempron tower, etc) in my attic as well as a PlayStation 1, a PS2, digital cameras etc etc. All in perfect working order. Just obsolete.

I guess the 2nd biggest killer for portable devices is user damage:- droppage and Coke, general abuse. That's how my iPods and phones die.

The 3rd is probably mechanical or power system failure. hard disk, hinges, covers, keyboards etc etc. That's why I seem to get through 1 printer every 2 years.

Then component death is probably a distant 4th. How much of that is heat related is highly debatable. But on these forums we only see a very tiny number of logic board deaths against loads of threads on dead batteries, LCDs, mechanical stuff, droppage & coke, HDD. Whether that constitutes evidence or not is hard to say. Interestingly many of the logic board death cases are 8600 graphics chips failing. This is a heat related death but it was IIRC down to poor quality control during manufacture of the solder bumps - a latent defect. Similar problem to the XBox360 RROD.

Then the "what components" and "how hot" debates are interesting. The Mac's cooling system is IMHO well designed. It conducts heat away from the CPU and GPU straight to the edge of the case & dumps it straight into the air (in contrast to many other laptops which dump the heat into the case and then suck it out using fans)*. Because of this your Mac's "components" don't get very hot. Download iStat Pro and take a look. Even redlining my CPU, the case only gets up to 30 C; the HDD in the low 30s. Take a look at the Northbridge. This is in direct thermal contact with the heatsink. And yet it only gets up to about 55 C on my 13". Other components not in contact with the heatsink will get to nothing like this temperature. I'd guess at about 40 C. Which is peanuts for a component rated to 80 C. It won't affect their life materially.

The CPU and GPU do get hot, but the CPU certainly sits well below Intel guideline temps. And Intel is the best in the business. They're not going to let you cook your CPU. Remember also that some of Apple's customers take a MBP and redline it 24/7 for weeks or years. We had a guy on here from Weta who was doing renderings for Avatar on a MBP. Think what his CPU has been through. Also I am pretty sure that Jonny Ive has got a whole test setup of MBPs going through torture tests (or "accelerated life testing" as we used to call it). He has probably got Core2Duo MBPs that have been redlined for >10000 hours, probably 5 years' use for even the most ardent gamer.

Now of course some overclocker will come on here and say they cooked their Pentium 4 by redlining it with no heatsink. Of course if you run your CPU up to 130 C it will fry. That's the "how hot" part. But if you obey the manufacturer's spec sheet it should last a long, long time.

So I'm with miles01110.

Incidentally I guess that's why cooling pads don't work very well on MBPs:- the bottom case doesn't get very warm, and there are no air inlets there, so blowing cool air over it makes little difference.
 
I prop the rear of my MBP up on a small pickle jar lid.

Gives the keyboard a slight angle and lets a little more air underneath.

Be sure to use a brand name pickle jar lid, you don't want to be embarrassed by using a generic or off brand pickle jar lid.
 
snouter said:
I prop the rear of my MBP up on a small pickle jar lid.

Gives the keyboard a slight angle and lets a little more air underneath.

Be sure to use a brand name pickle jar lid, you don't want to be embarrassed by using a generic or off brand pickle jar lid.
Click to expand...

Don't tell too many people that, Steve will get wind of it and lock the Mac down to only using Apple brand lids. $29 from your Apple store.
 
snouter said:
I prop the rear of my MBP up on a small pickle jar lid.

Gives the keyboard a slight angle and lets a little more air underneath.

Be sure to use a brand name pickle jar lid, you don't want to be embarrassed by using a generic or off brand pickle jar lid.
Click to expand...

Heat is the number 1 killer of pickle jar lids. You might want to consider keeping it in the fridge between uses.
 
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