Low Temps, Silent Fan... yet still Warm?

[JusChexin]

Hey Everyone,

I am the proud, very excited owner of a 2011 11" i5/128gb HD/4gb RAM MacBook Air. Unlike most people in the OS X 10.7 Lion forum, I'm absolutely LOVING Lion -- it runs "happy snappy" on my brand new MBA, and I'm loving the full screen apps (honestly, coming from a 13" 2007 MacBook, the screen doesn't seem any smaller when in full screen app mode, but the footprint of this thing when closed is just too cute!), the swiping gestures, etc... I'm really happy.

The one ODD thing I'm experiencing though is that the bottom of my MBA is warm-to-hot feeling. Definitely warmer than I would feel my 2007 plastic white MacBook feel when not under load. But -- that's just the thing, this MacBook Air ISN'T under load. The temps are averaging 50's/60's/70's and I'm only running Safari and Mail. The fan, I don't think, hasn't gone above 2000RPM yet and is totally silent. Yet the bottom feels really warm... shouldn't it be cool as a cucumber? Do I need more thermal paste or something? Am I crazy? I am just not understanding where this heat is coming from when "iStat Nano" in my Dashboard seems to tell me everything is running fine and nothing intensive seems to be running in Activity Monitor either. Help??

 

[vitzr]

Welcome to the world of aluminum Macs. You'll be fine according to Apple.

 

[misterneums]

When you run an electrical current through something, one form of energy loss is dissipated heat....

 

[alecgold]

what does istat tell you about the enclosure temperature.
The advantage of aluminum is that it conducts thermal energy quite well. The disadvantage of this is that you can feel that warmth much easier. The MacBook insulated the processor much better.
If the bottom says 32C to 36C there isn't much going on. At this moment mine is standing on a cushion doing almost nothing (just one safari screen with this open) and the bottom is 32C.

 

[LRJordan]

I'm sure I posted this somewhere on here the other day, I believe it has been helpful to some people: http://www.gearzap.com/macbook-accessories/cooling-pads.html

 

[orfeas0]

I'm sure I posted this somewhere on here the other day, I believe it has been helpful to some people: http://www.gearzap.com/macbook-accessories/cooling-pads.html

instead of getting a cooling pad you can set the fans a litle bit higher (3000rpm) to make it cooler.
it's impossible for a pc to be both silent and cool...
Either you let it be warm, either speed up the fans.

 

[JusChexin]

Thanks for all the tips/advice everyone. I guess it is running "normal" according to numbers, but it still feels a little "off", if that makes sense. iStat Pro for my "Enclosure Bottom" typically reads 36 or 37-degrees Celcius, I'm just wondering why it's not more in the 32-degrees C. range. Grrr... I'm loving the MBA, but it really does give off way more heat than I expected... Should I go for the cooler?

 

[jsolares]

Thanks for all the tips/advice everyone. I guess it is running "normal" according to numbers, but it still feels a little "off", if that makes sense. iStat Pro for my "Enclosure Bottom" typically reads 36 or 37-degrees Celcius, I'm just wondering why it's not more in the 32-degrees C. range. Grrr... I'm loving the MBA, but it really does give off way more heat than I expected... Should I go for the cooler?

I've been mostly browsing for the past 30mins, the cpu is between 45 and 50, and the enclosure is between 28-29 fan has been @ 2000RPM, i'll let you know how it is in an hour or so.

The temps stayed the same, my just turned on iMac is saying ambient is 16C so maybe that has something to do with it, nice cool temps for being in the tropics (6000 feet, 1830m above sea level) i guess, it hovers around 20, haven't gotten hotter than 26 inside the house in a while.