A little thing for us Mac users!

I would say gaming but with the new Intel Macs and decent graphics crads being used, that's not true anymore either. :)
 
punky_munky said:
Just overly fussy geeks who enjoy whining. The only Macs that have 'overheated' are the ones with the plastic still on the vents (about 0.1% of them), they rest are just a little warm. As for noises, they're still much much quieter than any PC i've used.

I'm afraid thats not really true. Admittedly, there are more people whining as its a known problem, but just as an example my MacBook Pro 2.0ghz runs at 86c with the CPU at full load, and the bottom is literally hot enough to do damage to you. This doesn't bother me as I use it as a portable machine rather than a true laptop, but I am going to RMA it some time before the warranty runs out if they sort out the heat issues.
The famous whine itself is only audible when on battery power with the MagSafe connector unplugged with me, & TBH its no big deal- Annoying yes, but acutally use the CPU and it goes away. Its not even an Apple problem either, but rather a problem with one of the CPU sleep states, and I don't see it getting fixed any time soon.

-Leezer-
 
MichaelHo said:
im new to the mac world, can i ask what is this whine you are talking about?

Its a processor bug, causing a very high-pitched whine when the machine is running on battery power & the processor is not in use. Some people claim to be able to hear it more than others & on different levels with different machines, but I suspect this is little more than differences in ears.

To hear it, get a Macbook or a Macbook pro & boot up normally with no other apps/ dashboard widgets open. Go onto battery power & unplug the power cord, & the noise you can hear is the whine.

-Leezer-
 
MichaelHo said:
is it serious enough to put you off getting a mac?
on the macbook thread, someone said it is 95% silent.
also if widgets are running in the background, will this whine not sound?

Dashboard doesn't stop it. I've only ever heard it when I've used my Macbook in bed and therefore in complete silence. It's a total non-issue, people just enjoy moaning.

I really don't think theres a heat problem, you'd be a fool to run a laptop on your bare skin and a lot of laptop manufacturers do not reccomend having it on your lap even with clothes. I don't have a problem with it through my jeans.
 
punky_munky said:
Dashboard doesn't stop it. I've only ever heard it when I've used my Macbook in bed and therefore in complete silence. It's a total non-issue, people just enjoy moaning.

I really don't think theres a heat problem, you'd be a fool to run a laptop on your bare skin and a lot of laptop manufacturers do not reccomend having it on your lap even with clothes. I don't have a problem with it through my jeans.

Lots of people have reported overheating problems (on the macBook Pros), mainly because there's been far too much thermal paste applied during manufacture. It's not a case of "people who enjoy moaning", it's a real issue.
 
TheVoice said:
Lots of people have reported overheating problems (on the macBook Pros), mainly because there's been far too much thermal paste applied during manufacture. It's not a case of "people who enjoy moaning", it's a real issue.

I'm not convinced by the thermal paste argument. You can clart it on like wallpaper paste but if you apply enough pressure it'll splurge out and still leave a decent contact patch. The extra is left looking messy on the chip package.

A lot of the blogging/forum activity on this is misinformed hype. There have been a couple of what appear to be proper tests conducted on this which concluded that there was a 1-2C difference in temperature after a strip down and application of AS.

I'm not defending Apple to the hilt - it's bad instuctions and sloppy assembly to cut costs. If it genuinely is a problem it will come back to bite them in the ass as warranty repairs. The SMC firmware update has made the fans more willing to spin on my machine which helps more.

The MacBook Pro was always going to run warm - it's got a metal case which will act as a heatsink! The CPU is pretty efficient and a lot of heat appears to be generated from the ATI GPU chip when it has to do some work. Fire up Quake 4 and the fans go ape! My MBP is quieter than the Dell Inspiron 8100 (P3-1133) I hade before and runs only marginally hotter.
 
MagicBoy said:
I'm not convinced by the thermal paste argument. You can clart it on like wallpaper paste but if you apply enough pressure it'll splurge out and still leave a decent contact patch. The extra is left looking messy on the chip package.

A lot of the blogging/forum activity on this is misinformed hype. There have been a couple of what appear to be proper tests conducted on this which concluded that there was a 1-2C difference in temperature after a strip down and application of AS.

I'm not defending Apple to the hilt - it's bad instuctions and sloppy assembly to cut costs. If it genuinely is a problem it will come back to bite them in the ass as warranty repairs. The SMC firmware update has made the fans more willing to spin on my machine which helps more.

The MacBook Pro was always going to run warm - it's got a metal case which will act as a heatsink! The CPU is pretty efficient and a lot of heat appears to be generated from the ATI GPU chip when it has to do some work. Fire up Quake 4 and the fans go ape! My MBP is quieter than the Dell Inspiron 8100 (P3-1133) I hade before and runs only marginally hotter.

I believe the cases where the there was a 10-12c drop is down to other factors than just thermal paste otherwise everyone would be getting the same results. I also believe the 1-2c drops aren't really that much down to Apples generous application but more to do with the fact that AS costs a lot and is of higher quality. Either way, a Macbook Pro or otherwise very very rearely overheats to the point of crashing, it just gets a bit hot.
 
Unless you use your laptop whilst naked, it's really not going to be a problem. White Mac's also discolour if you're dirty and don't wash. I've not had any whining/mooing from my MacBook yet (!) either :)
 
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