Passive Cooling - Cases on MBP

[chefwong]

MBP is generally in clamshell mode with a Andar Helm on it. I can fee it is slightly warm on both top and bottom of the case covers.

I'm terrible with my MBP when it's traveling...

I am second guessing the passive cooling + case since I can feel the warmth that is coming from laptop, through the plastic shell of the case+leather skin ontop. Is this Something to be concern about only if the fans are kicking in high speed , which is has not. I am cognizant that is is not cooling as effective as it should be with the case on it.

 

[benholt]

clamshell + case + a monitor pushing full brightness is a rough combo for these chassis. the whole point of the unibody is that the aluminum top and bottom ARE the heatsink — you slap a plastic/leather sandwich on both faces and you've basically wrapped the radiator in a blanket. fans will kick in earlier and stay on longer, and even then junction temps hold higher than they would without.

I ran my 16" M3 Max in clamshell for about 8 months with a felt sleeve draped over the top for aesthetics and eventually caved once I noticed sustained fan noise on tasks that were dead silent open. now it lives on a vertical stand (BookArc-style) with nothing on the surfaces and the difference is night and day — fans basically never spin on the same workload.

if you can't ditch the case entirely, at minimum leave the bottom uncovered. that's where most of the heat exits on the 14/16.

 

[maflynn]

Get yourself the Macs Fan Control app, this will allow you to manually control the fans in your MBP, and that will definitely help with cooling. Even with faster fan speeds, these MBPs are generally quiet. Only on full blast does the sound become very noticeable.

 

[Chevyguy2021]

Curious, would this allow you to disable fans on a MBP. One reason I never looked at one is because of the sound with fans.

Get yourself the Macs Fan Control app, this will allow you to manually control the fans in your MBP, and that will definitely help with cooling. Even with faster fan speeds, these MBPs are generally quiet. Only on full blast does the sound become very noticeable.

 

[chefwong]

I considered it and due to the post, I just removed the bottom base just to see how much of a difference I would see.....

It's interesting cause even touching the top of the case, it is not as warm as when there was the case bottom installed.

It appears that with the bottom case on, it was warm enough to passively transfer the heat through the hinge of the top case...for me to even feel heat on the upper top case. It's in clamshell mode so the display is not active....so I can't see any heat being generated aside from thermals being transferred through the metal portion of the center hinge

 

[maflynn]

Curious, would this allow you to disable fans on a MBP. One reason I never looked at one is because of the sound with fans.

No, there's a minimum speed, you cannot go below that, on my Studio its 1,000