Macbook refresh rumours....?

Okay I've had the laptop since last Friday - Been using it since this Monday - and I love it :)

I haven't been able to take some pictures yet because I'm still having way too much fun playing around with it :p

One complaint with it - is I've found that it runs quite hot when I'm not even really doing anything. I've tried playing a game on it - And it wasn't graphically intensive - And it was burning my leg :eek:

I've never had a laptop before - so I can't compare and say if that's normal or not - but I think I'm going to download a temperature program to see what temps it is.
 
Marky said:
One complaint with it - is I've found that it runs quite hot when I'm not even really doing anything. I've tried playing a game on it - And it wasn't graphically intensive - And it was burning my leg :eek:

I've never had a laptop before - so I can't compare and say if that's normal or not - but I think I'm going to download a temperature program to see what temps it is.
Click to expand...
It is normal on Macbook Pros, not so normal in the Windows world tbh. You get used to it after a while. I believe they are not allowed to advertise these as Laptops in the as they would be left open to being sued (Man puts "Lap"top on Lap and burns Lap/Legs...you can guess the rest!!). Part of the reason they get hotter (externally) is that it is made of aluminium which conducts the heat and acts like a big heatsink (I think!).


On a separate note:

Quick question, I had a play with the new ones in the store the other day (just browsing, not interested in buying 1). What I noticed was that Activity Monitor only showed 1 CPU graph/bar etc. My Core2Duo model shows 2 (as did the Airs on display). How come the i series don't show this on OS X (I am fairly sure they do on windows). Just curious really, seemed a bit strange to me.


rp2000
 
Last edited:
Got my 13" today, and all I can say is 'WOW!'. :D I'm never buying or building a Windows PC again. It's so intuitively easy to use, and basically (not meant offensively!) it's like working in Linux with a beautiful GUI that is actually easy to use. :)

I'm hooked.

BTW, mine runs lovely and cool (so far) but I read that the thermal paste is hit and miss on MBPs and many people re-do the TP which is an instant cure for running hot. YMMV.

I've checked Activity Monitor and mine's showing 4 cores (Core i5 cpu).
 
rp2000 said:
It is normal on Macbook Pros, not so normal in the Windows world tbh. You get used to it after a while. I believe they are not allowed to advertise these as Laptops in the as they would be left open to being sued (Man puts "Lap"top on Lap and burns Lap/Legs...you can guess the rest!!). Part of the reason they get hotter (externally) is that it is made of aluminium which conducts the heat and acts like a big heatsink (I think!).


On a separate note:

Quick question, I had a play with the new ones in the store the other day (just browsing, not interested in buying 1). What I noticed was that Activity Monitor only showed 1 CPU graph/bar etc. My Core2Duo model shows 2 (as did the Airs on display). How come the i series don't show this on OS X (I am fairly sure they do on windows). Just curious really, seemed a bit strange to me.


rp2000
Click to expand...

Oh I see!
Mine definitely shows four cores... =/

Rainmaker said:
Got my 13" today, and all I can say is 'WOW!'. :D I'm never buying or building a Windows PC again. It's so intuitively easy to use, and basically (not meant offensively!) it's like working in Linux with a beautiful GUI that is actually easy to use. :)

I'm hooked.

BTW, mine runs lovely and cool (so far) but I read that the thermal paste is hit and miss on MBPs and many people re-do the TP which is an instant cure for running hot. YMMV.

I've checked Activity Monitor and mine's showing 4 cores (Core i5 cpu).
Click to expand...

Hmm that's interesting...
Might have to bust out the ol' Arctic Silver 5 :p Must have had it for about five years... wonder if it's still good to use :p
 
I've fixed lots of computers in the past, even built a few completely from scratch.... so why am I absolutely terrified to even contemplate opening my new mbp up to apply thermal paste :D It was bad enough putting in the RAM hands shaking all over the place :P
 
Last edited:
rp2000 said:
On a separate note:

Quick question, I had a play with the new ones in the store the other day (just browsing, not interested in buying 1). What I noticed was that Activity Monitor only showed 1 CPU graph/bar etc. My Core2Duo model shows 2 (as did the Airs on display). How come the i series don't show this on OS X (I am fairly sure they do on windows). Just curious really, seemed a bit strange to me.


rp2000
Click to expand...

I've seen a few people talking about that around the web. Mine definitely shows all four cores though (2x physical, 2x logical) on my 13" core i5. Maybe it's a user-configurable option?

osx-2011-corei5-cores.png
 
Deku said:
I've fixed lots of computers in the past, even built a few completely from scratch.... so why am I absolutely terrified to even contemplate opening my new mbp up to apply thermal paste :D It was bad enough putting in the RAM hands shaking all over the place :P
Click to expand...

Why do you need to crack open a new MBP to apply thermal paste?
 
Rainmaker said:
I've seen a few people talking about that around the web. Mine definitely shows all four cores though (2x physical, 2x logical) on my 13" core i5. Maybe it's a user-configurable option?

http://www.rainmakerkennels.co.uk/images/osx-2011-corei5-cores.png[img][/QUOTE]

Hmm... Mine looks different...

[img]http://i53.tinypic.com/bhwq6u.png
Click to expand...
 
My new 15" also only has one CPU usage block, but i guess that's because if they split it up into 8 it would look silly?

I've just been looking at the temps and mine seems to idle around the high 40's low 50's which doesn't particularly fill me with confidence about the TP condition inside.

EDIT: Added screen shot: http://i51.tinypic.com/155qfdk.png
 
Last edited:
Here are my temps...

e80b2c.png


I've been using the Macbook for about 5 hrs now just for browsing the web - nothing too intensive - it's currently sitting on my bed idling 100%
 
Those temps look about right, here's mine:

temps.png


Looking around the internet the problem MBP's have had temps up to 100 c!
 
Marky said:
Tomorrow I'll try playing a game for a while and see the temperature - It was red hot :eek:
Click to expand...

Which model have you got? if you have the 15 or 17 then use gfxcardstatus to lock the gpu in osx if you want to keep the idle heat down. On my 17" I leave it in integrated in osx and game in bootcamp on the 6750.

Now with regards to temps I recommend you up the fans to at least 4200 whilst gaming. I found with the fans at this level I can game with it on my lap.

If you leave the default profile it lets the laptop reach 90c or so before ramping the fans up and by that time the bottom is scorching.

I use macfan in windows (but you can also use lubbos or what ever its called). I like macfan as I set up a couple of shortcuts on my W7 desktop with different fan speeds and then launch them before gaming or encoding.
 
I believe the activity monitor only shows 1 CPU, until you get some intense apps open.

Perhaps someone can try this. I've seen it myself on a Mac Pro.

I know it shows multi-cores in Bootcamp.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom