Using Handbrake on rMBP ?

[augustya]

I was today converting a 10GB MKV movie File to MP4 using Handbrake I noticed it took more than 4 Hours and the CPU was constantly running hot, making noise and could sense that the fans were running and making sound. This was of course on my windows machine. But since I am soon planning to buy (Waiting for the 15" rMBP announcement at the WWDC) is this a problem on the Mac if someone is constantly converting files using Handbrake and using Handbrake quite often. (Since Handbrake consumes battery, runs cpu hot, makes fan work and make noise etc...)is it good for the health of the MAC to be used in these conditions ?

 

[keysofanxiety]

It'll be fine, they're Pro machines (despite what you may hear around here) and they're designed for stressful workloads. They'll get hot and the CPU will ramp up, but any 2015 or 2016 15" MBP would chew through that work for breakfast and still ask for fries on the side.

 

[Doug Hope]

Here is my experience. I converted 400 movies and 2200 tv shows using my 2013 MacBook pro. I've had 2 failed logic boards and recently it runs hot as soon as I have 2 external displays plugged in in clamshell mode. If I were to do it again I'd have a cheap windows machine doing it overnight and save my mac. My AppleCare has expired so I'll have to foot the bill the next time the logic board fails. Both times were gpu problems. My fans run at full speed with the cpu at 80-90 deg C whenever I'm using handbrake.

 

[Brookzy]

Amongst all the flaws of the 2016 MacBook Pros, thermals is not one of them. They run cooler than any other MacBook Pro. In notebookcheck.net's review, they found that heat was never a restricting factor in the Pro's performance (i.e. there was no thermal throttling). This is quite amazing considering that every other Mac I can think of, from the MacBook to the iMac to the Mac Pro, has some thermal throttling under extended maximum load.

 

[augustya]

Ok we have mixed opinions on this, so is it ok not ok to constantly use Handbrake to convert movies on the MAC ?

 

[BrettApple]

Well, I encoded probably 50 DVD's in Handbrake and played Burnout Paradise, COD4, Portal 1&2, all the Half Life 2 games and more on my 2008 MacBook all through high school and early college (unibody, Core 2 Duo & 9400m) over 7 years and then sold it to my brother and it's still going strong. It would hit around 200 degrees (F) running Handbrake for hours with the fan maxed out but it never overheated, never shut off, and has never died thus far. So, that's good enough for me.

I've also encoded a few on my (late) 2013 rMBP and exported things out of FCPx/iMovie and it's never had an issue with it.

Granted both of these are 13" models with no dGPU in them to die. That being said I had a 2007 MBP with an 8600m go 8 years and still working when I sold it and it was a known problem Mac. Always kept it on Snow Leopard though so it probably wasn't worked all that hard.

All that being said. This is a laptop, and not a well cooled large desktop tower made for running flat out all day long like the Mac Pro, or my work Dell Precision with a Xeon. Those are made for this use case and will stay cool without throttling down. So that would be better, but if the MBP is all you have, it should still work.

 

[avedis]

Am using Handbrake on mine late 2013 15"... Thing I notice heat is the only the left side where the CPU is located, Handbrake did not activate the discrete graphics so I guess it shouldn't do much harm to the longevity of the machine besides battery under heat.

But then again, am actually pretty worried to run it 24/7 as it's maxing out all cores and the fan noise is pretty unsettling.