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Dammage

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 26, 2008
8
0
So I made the switch to Mac's and I'm extremely satisfied. However, after looking all over the web and chat with Apple, I can't figure out why this notebook runs so cool. Apple says they have internal fans. I can somewhat hear those but where does the air vent? It really is amazing. It stays so cool. So if anyone has an explanation I would love to hear it.

Thanks,

Jason
 

richard.mac

macrumors 603
Feb 2, 2007
6,292
4
51.50024, -0.12662
the air vent is at the back of the case under the LCD hinge. pipes from the CPU connect to heat sinks underneath the hinge and a fan blows air thru the vents to get the heat off.

MacBooks being aluminium keep cooler than plastic MacBooks as they are conductors and dissipate heat easier.

you are probably just using it at idle speed so it will remain cool. to feel it heat up rip a DVD with Handbrake. it will get hotter and the fan will rev up more. all in safe temps of course.
 

Philflow

macrumors 65816
May 7, 2008
1,276
3
Yeah I ran 3dMark06 last night (2189 @ 1280*800) and it got pretty hot. I could still touch it though.
 

Dammage

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 26, 2008
8
0
Thanks I was really curious. Compared to my HP it is amazing. I could never lay it on my bed without a book or board allowing it to vent. I'm just really satisfied. Wish I would have switched to Mac years ago
 

The Samurai

macrumors 68020
Dec 29, 2007
2,051
738
Glasgow
I also switched this month to Mac. It's a really good experience.

My previous Dell notebook got extremely hot - so hot that under my desk it would be very hot. But then again, that particular Dell model was 2-3 years outdated and I am sure Dell's recently line up wouldn't be as bad.
 

southerndoc

Contributor
May 15, 2006
1,833
504
USA
I'm amazed at how cool this thing runs compared to my black MacBook. I can barely hear anything at all. I don't think it's the fan I'm hearing -- I think it's the hard drive actually.

When I'm watching video, then I can hear the fans crank up a bit. It still stays pretty cool though.
 

jsonli

macrumors member
Oct 26, 2008
42
0
So I made the switch to Mac's and I'm extremely satisfied. However, after looking all over the web and chat with Apple, I can't figure out why this notebook runs so cool. Apple says they have internal fans. I can somewhat hear those but where does the air vent? It really is amazing. It stays so cool. So if anyone has an explanation I would love to hear it.

Thanks,

Jason

Looks like the hinge has vents. That said, surfing/chatting isn't CPU-intensive at all so it'll stay cool. I've gotten my MB pretty hot in boot camp as the fan control doesn't work.
 

Dammage

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 26, 2008
8
0
Looks like the hinge has vents. That said, surfing/chatting isn't CPU-intensive at all so it'll stay cool. I've gotten my MB pretty hot in boot camp as the fan control doesn't work.

So the fan just runs in slow? How does that work?
 

yabai

macrumors member
Apr 27, 2007
38
0
Too lazy to set up a Handbrake conversion to test how hot it can protentially get? Not interested in pulling up the Terminal? Try turning up the AI in the Chess program to max and see the CPU usage rise to 100%. The new models get a bit hot, but nowhere near the older ones.
 

jsonli

macrumors member
Oct 26, 2008
42
0
So the fan just runs in slow? How does that work?

Yeah it seems like it just remains around 1000 RPM in XP. It's barely audible in a quiet room. So if you do something intensive it will really heat the CPU up to dangerous levels.
 

Dammage

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 26, 2008
8
0
Yeah it seems like it just remains around 1000 RPM in XP. It's barely audible in a quiet room. So if you do something intensive it will really heat the CPU up to dangerous levels.

Well that's too bad. I'm sure there is something out there to manually control the fan speed.
 

jsonli

macrumors member
Oct 26, 2008
42
0
Well that's too bad. I'm sure there is something out there to manually control the fan speed.

Umm yeah it's too bad. It's a new chipset from Nvidia so the utilities out there will have to be updated to use it.

Thermally I'm surprised it does as well as it does considering there aren't too many "breathing holes" on this case. In fact, I wish they had stamped a few more holes on the bottom so the fans could run slower and quieter. Would save a bit of battery life too.
 

rowlands

macrumors member
Oct 24, 2008
44
26
Taiwan
Mine runs much cooler than my MBP. I have noticed the same thing.

Wahoo... I'm so pleased to hear that Apple have sorted this out, I have a first gen MBP and this burns even when idle. I had to use a cool pad on my lap to stop it torching me.
 

CaptainCaveMann

macrumors 68000
Oct 5, 2004
1,518
0
So I made the switch to Mac's and I'm extremely satisfied. However, after looking all over the web and chat with Apple, I can't figure out why this notebook runs so cool. Apple says they have internal fans. I can somewhat hear those but where does the air vent? It really is amazing. It stays so cool. So if anyone has an explanation I would love to hear it.

Thanks,

Jason

They complain when it runs hot, and they complain when it runs cool. :rolleyes:
 

hekokimushi

macrumors regular
Oct 27, 2008
150
0
i thought it was very very cool too.

2.4AluMB 4G ram

only up to a point when i start to load quite a few applications.
VM Fusion with XP going
Firefox with a few pages browsing
a few stock live widgets
VNC to another PC
Adium

CPUA went up to 65 degrees, the aluminium went quite warm but touchable fan spinned up to 4000rpm

but loving the new laptop, a new mac switcher.

h
 

GreenEyed85

macrumors member
Oct 27, 2008
39
0
My old white 1.86Ghz macbook or the "hotbook" used to heat up to 80c! and the fans used to always be at 6000rpm even if just firefox was just open. It finally died last month and I just waiting for the new Alu macbook to arrive.
 
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