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MBP 13" Heat - how hot does it get?

B

belltree

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 17, 2008
395
60
Tokyo, Japan
Hey folks. I'm thinking of buying a 13" MBP for my wife but I was curious about the heat generated by it. How hot does it get after several hours of use? A coworker of mine just bought one last week and loves it but told me it gets quite warm/hot on the bottom side.

When it does get hot, what part of the system gets hottest? Is it isolated to the bottom area or does the keyboard get hot as well? I haven't checked but I assume the CPU is near the hinge area. Is this correct?

If the hardware does get quite hot I may hold off until the next die shrink for the CPU and possibly GPU next year. Appreciate any feedback. Thanks.
 
I'm at 124 on the CPU with casual internet browsing. Most everything else is around 88. Sitting on my lap.

It usually hovers around 120 on a desk and rarely gets hot on the keys. The bottom can get warm but rarely gets uncomfortably warm.

Non-issue for me.
 
When it's working really hard (eg gaming) the bottom of my 2009 can get to around about 35 C, warm but not uncomfortable, certainly not burning hot.
The top case around the function keys F5 to F8 can also get hot. This is where the fan exhausts. Probably a bit warmer than the base but again not outrageously hot.

I often use mine on my lap with it working really hard, no problem. I'm not sure it would be that pleasant if I was wearing shorts though!
 
The bottom probably gets the hottest, the keyboard gets warm but not hot at all

not recommended for on lap use

41 degrees during idle

75 is about the hottest mine gets with a bunch of tasks running

I can't get it past that unless I run a stress test
 
Idle/internet use they hover around 40-45C. Demanding work they can get up towards 80-90C.
 
I use smcFanControl to set the default temps according to usage and room temperatures:

low room temp, low usage: 2500rpm (around 40 to low 50s Celsius)
low room temp, moderate usage: 3200rpm (45-60 C)
low room temp, high usage: 6200rpm (60-75 C)

Basically, you should never allow the CPU to go over 90C and should keep it under 80C.

Even after watching a Flash encoded, Silverlight boosted MLB game in "HD," my CPU temps remain well under 80C if the air temperature is not insanely high (and in Vancouver, it's rarely ever hot).

How all of this has to do with the external temperatures is that the CPU/GPU is the biggest source of heat. If it is hovering around 75C, then you can definitely expect the case bottom to be around 40C and above, and the very top of the keyboard between the miscellaneous keys and the black hinge cover to be even hotter.

I've never had the unibody MBP get so toasty that I couldn't put it on my lap. The palm rests and the keyboard are generally not overly affected by heat.
 
mine is generally not noticeably warm in any way. With regular web browsing I can keep it on my lap & the bottom only feels marginally warmer than the top. I run the fan on the lowest setting with smcfancontrol.
 
When I'm watching twit.tv live and the screen set to full brightness, the temp hovers around 160˚. Before I installed Flash 10.1 and 10.6.4, it was up to 180˚. ;)
 
gets warm like any macbook. but this model doesn't have the throttling problems that the last generation 9400m ones did. lots of prime95 runs on display models confirms this.
 
When I max out the CPU usage, it reaches around 180F-193F, But then the fan brings it back down to 170F. When using it for web browsing and iTunes (NO adobe Flash) Temps are around 115F-130F. When using flash temps get to about 150F-160F. The Mid 2010 base MBP 13" Stays very cool compared to me bros unibody Aluminum macbook base model, and my other bros early 2008 15" MBP
 
During startup: 30C-40C
Normal Usage: 40C-50C
Flash/Video/Hulu: 55C-60C

Handbrake or HEAVY video content: 70C-80C

Hasn't broken over 81C for me yet. No fan control software either. I think it is working fine on its own.

Don't want to speed up the fan and kill the life on the fan. I assume it can only spin so many times!
 
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