MBA 2011 i7 Overheating Issues - interesting new findings on page 3

[Mikael]

Others, why are you guys paying £130 for the upgrade? Is that the price in Europe?

I just checked the price in UK and it's £100 for the 13" and £150 for the 11". UK prices seem quite expensive... For the 13" it's actually 14% more expensive than where I live (Sweden). That's despite us having higher sales tax (25% vs 20%).

However, even here in Sweden, the 13" i7 upgrade is very expensive compared to the US. Deducting the 25% sales tax from the Swedish price, the upgrade is still 15% more expensive than in the US. Apple really needs to get their pricing sorted. They made a half-assed attempt with the release of the new Airs, but it's still way off. Examples for the 13" (with the sales tax deducted from the Swedish prices):

Base price: +17% more expensive than US
SSD upgrade: +26% more expensive than US

Sorry for going slightly off topic. Love your report. Really makes me comfortable with ordering the 13" ultimate.

 

[theSeb]

@theSeb

Great work! Do you mind telling us what was the channel you bought your MBA
- Curious as both your display and SSD are Samsung's. I am wondering if that rare combo is helping you achieve the results you got.

Thanks!

I bought mine from the Apple Store in Regent Street, London. I don't think the SSD and display variances could have anything to do with how the MBA runs though.

Edit: just a small FYI for all without making a new post - the i7 is rated to go up to 100 degrees Celsius safely

http://ark.intel.com/products/54617/Intel-Core-i7-2677M-Processor-(4M-Cache-1_80-GHz

 

[Mikael]

Edit: just a small FYI for all without making a new post - the i7 is rated to go up to 100 degrees Celsius safely

http://ark.intel.com/products/54617/Intel-Core-i7-2677M-Processor-(4M-Cache-1_80-GHz

Yep. People have a tendency to think that whenever something is hot enough to burn you, it must be pretty bad. If Intel's rigorous testing and validation has determined that 100C is safe for these chips, I'd trust that.

 

[macgrl]

thanks theSeb for the postings, it sure gives some of those who ordered the i7 and haven't received it yet a nice peace of mind

next time i'm ordering a mac i'll avoid the respective sub forums untill i receive it .. the only thing you get is buyers remore before you even have the thing



compared to the current old pc i'm using (as replacement for my way too old mac mini) it will still be a marvolous and relativly quite machine

very very true, also i think that people who have problems will post and those who don't won't - there must be loads of people with 13 inch i7 without any problems.


I still think it is worth reading peoples posts though to see if there are any big issues

 

[CapnJackGig]

Your screenshots indicate youre using a defective version of Chrome (it has the fullscreen icon in the upper-righthand corner. Might want to try Canary. They've been updating it since Lion came out.

I just did a similar test on my 13 inch 2010 Air running Lion with Chrome Canary and then with Safari, both 1080p and both fullscreen. Canary ran it perfectly, never a hint of the fans. I closed Canary and moved to Safari, let it buffer about 2 minutes and then started playing. Within 15 seconds of starting in Safari the fans were at full blast. Shut down Safari, opened Canary and ran the same video again and no fans and much lower CPU usage. This along with the fact that Safari leaks memory like crazy is why I'm sticking with Chrome.

 

[striker33]

Heatsink and enclosure temps remain at acceptable levels. I would imagine Apple is still looking for the perfect trade offs between fan noise and CPU temps with these computers. CPUs are designed to run at hotter temps than what we're subjecting them to. I do quite a lot with my computers. It's my bread and butter, my passion, and my hobby. If the chip fries, I'll get another one.

Edit: Typswif2fingers, don't stress about it mate

Others, why are you guys paying £130 for the upgrade? Is that the price in Europe?

Its £130 with full educational discount :/ Just like the 256GB SSD upgrade is just over £200.

My 11" Ultimate will cost around £1200, just £400 less than my current maxed out 15" Pro. One thing is for definite, I'll be swapping it over and over until I get all Samsung parts. I'll have plenty of time to spare before Uni starts anyway.

 

[MarkosXT]

Thanks for the information. How about the battery life? How is your battery life when doing simple things like web browsing and listening to music on itunes at the same time on the i7?

 

[aristobrat]

Seb, I wish you could get a small comission for every i7 that gets sold because of this thread! lol

Awesome work!

 

[FAsnakes]

Seb, I wish you could get a small comission for every i7 that gets sold because of this thread! lol

Awesome work!

lol, +1..
If i decide to keep the new MBA to replace my 11" 1.6 Dual Core MBA.. I'll take the i5 (i have in my hands right now) and exchange it for an i7.

 

[engrwpride]

Do you guys think the i7 puts the computer under more stress due to higher thermal loads? If the machine is sitting in a lap i could see a potential issue. I ask due to concerns over longevity of the i7 model.

Does i7 actually run hotter than the i5? I am debating between the 11 inch models but advice or insight on either size would be cool.

 

[Apple Expert]

Do you guys think the i7 puts the computer under more stress due to higher thermal loads? If the machine is sitting in a lap i could see a potential issue. I ask due to concerns over longevity of the i7 model.

Does i7 actually run hotter than the i5? I am debating between the 11 inch models but advice or insight on either size would be cool.

Its been sitting on my lap for the last two hours and not an issue for me. Been anywhere from 55-60C and rpm at 2k.

 

[engrwpride]

Apple Expert: Do you think you notice the speed difference between the i5 and i7 models due to the different SSD manufacturers?

 

[Apple Expert]

Apple Expert: Do you think you notice the speed difference between the i5 and i7 models due to the different SSD manufacturers?

That's a tough one. The xbench on the Samsung was about 360. Thoshiba was 315. Hard to say since the i7 has both display and SSD Samsung. It might, but nothing that will vastly increase it. Wish both computers had Samsung SSD to get a better comparison. So I say minimal at best. The speed here is within the processor.

 

[striker33]

Do you guys think the i7 puts the computer under more stress due to higher thermal loads? If the machine is sitting in a lap i could see a potential issue. I ask due to concerns over longevity of the i7 model.

Does i7 actually run hotter than the i5? I am debating between the 11 inch models but advice or insight on either size would be cool.

Do you honestly think Apple would release the thing if there was issues with heat?

 

[theSeb]

Do you guys think the i7 puts the computer under more stress due to higher thermal loads? If the machine is sitting in a lap i could see a potential issue. I ask due to concerns over longevity of the i7 model.

Does i7 actually run hotter than the i5? I am debating between the 11 inch models but advice or insight on either size would be cool.

As long as it runs within Intel's specs, it does not shutdown or freeze and stays ok to touch and hold on your lap, what's there to worry about? Nothing.

Seb, I wish you could get a small comission for every i7 that gets sold because of this thread! lol

Awesome work!

lol. Thanks mate. Maybe I should email Steve to show how I am spreading the good news.

 

[Apple Expert]

As long as it runs within Intel's specs, it does not shutdown or freeze and stays ok to touch and hold on your lap, what's there to worry about? Nothing.





lol. Thanks mate. Maybe I should email Steve to show how I am spreading the good news.

Agreed! Guys the i7 is a great machine. Don't worry about the heat or fan. I'm probably one of the pickiest guys when it comes to my apple products and I'm happy with mine. Once you iron out all the indexing and loading your apps this thing is a beast!! I'm just amazed on how something so small can be soo powerful. This is by far the best laptop I've ever owned or used.

 

[theSeb]

Thanks for the information. How about the battery life? How is your battery life when doing simple things like web browsing and listening to music on itunes at the same time on the i7?

I've not had a chance to just sit in front of the computer and do simple things in one go to be able to form any opinions. I tend to use the computer for a bit, then let it sleep, work again and so forth. I'll see if I have some time next week to check it out, but I am sure Anandtech will have a comprehensive review soon.

 

[theSeb]

Some interesting new findings:

A couple of days later I've noticed that the CPU stays cooler. It gets up to 95 and then drops back down to below 90.

The fans are obviously going, but the CPU is hovering around 80 - 86

This is the lowest that I've seen during encoding

So I thought that I would try again today to make sure my findings are consistent. Unfortunately I missed all of the drama at the beginning, because I was occupied. The CPU went up to around 95 again and the fans kicked in, but I also noticed that the CPU Usage Idle went to quite high and then the temps started to stabilise. I am not sure if the Idle number going up means that the CPU is actively throttling itself, or not.

Now fans have dropped back down to 5400, which is nice and everything seems to be great

This was really interesting. I decided that I would give the battery a quick charge and also see what happens when you plug it into the charger. I've noticed in the past that a laptop usually gets warmer when you're charging it. This is what happened about 20 seconds, if I recall correctly, after plugging it in.

Fans back up to 6000+ and the temp back to 90+. Also take note of the CPU Usage Idle %

So what happens if I unplug it again? Note the temps, the CPU Idle and the time difference

And we're back to what appears to be a stable place for encoding

Or not? The fans kicked in again and now we're down to 78

 

[xraydoc]

Handbrake will heat any machine up to near it's maximum temp. It turns my 2.93GHz Quad Core i7 iMac in to a blast furnace. I'd be more worried if your machine ram that hot while working in Word or Keynote...

 

[jackyyeow]

That's interesting Seb!

It means if plug in the machine will run on full force (until the extent that one core shuts down due to heat??!?), while on battery it feels like the TB isn't engaged?

 

[Scott6666]

That's interesting Seb!

It means if plug in the machine will run on full force, while on battery it feels like the TB isn't engaged?

I've had similar stuff happen with my 2011 C2D Air. Would be nice and quiet while I did stuff on battery. Then heat up and have fans go to 3600 or so when I plugged it in. Not all the time but enough to notice. And C2D don't have TB. Think it might just be a "fans are more likely when charging" kind of SMC setting.

 

[KPOM]

Base price: +17% more expensive than US
SSD upgrade: +26% more expensive than US

Sorry for going slightly off topic. Love your report. Really makes me comfortable with ordering the 13" ultimate.

Only one solution, then. Come fly over here and get 'em while they're hot!

 

[SteelWheel]

Does smcFanControl work on MBAs? I always have it running with the fans cranked up to 6000 rpm on my 2008 MBP.

 

[haruhiko]

Does smcFanControl work on MBAs? I always have it running with the fans cranked up to 6000 rpm on my 2008 MBP.

It works with the new MBAs running Lion

 

[theSeb]

Handbrake will heat any machine up to near it's maximum temp. It turns my 2.93GHz Quad Core i7 iMac in to a blast furnace. I'd be more worried if your machine ram that hot while working in Word or Keynote...

Oh, I am not worried.