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11" + Gaming = Not loud fan?
- Thread starter Bosep
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Yes, I can only hear the fan when I mute the sound and put it up to my ear. This is during gameplay.
I can hear the fan after a while playing an intense game like a FPS. It's not too distracting and im more excited just that it plays my games at all.
It really depends on the game..
My experience has been:
- COD4 MW ~ Could hear the fan on low..
- Command and Conquer 3 ~ didn't notice the fan on at all
- Need for Speed MW ~ didn't notice the fan on at all
- Need for Speed Pro Street ~ didn't notice the fan on at all
- The Sims 3 ~ The fan blows. Nothing obnoxious, but you can hear it..
BTW, i have all these games installed on my 11" at the same time!
My experience has been:
- COD4 MW ~ Could hear the fan on low..
- Command and Conquer 3 ~ didn't notice the fan on at all
- Need for Speed MW ~ didn't notice the fan on at all
- Need for Speed Pro Street ~ didn't notice the fan on at all
- The Sims 3 ~ The fan blows. Nothing obnoxious, but you can hear it..
BTW, i have all these games installed on my 11" at the same time!
Yeah, 11.6" can get pretty loud too, just not as loud as 13" at 6500RPM. I tried playing HL2 Ep.2 on 11" and it took it a 5-10 minutes, but the fan was going at 6500 on it. it's just that the fan is not quite as loud even when running that fast.
You can mitigate this problem significantly by installing coolbook on 13" model, lowering the voltages all the way down and then limiting the fan speed to 5000RPM using SMC Fan Control. 5000 is enough to cool it down pretty quickly after you're done with the game, and I'd say that at 5000, 13" model sounds about as loud as 11" at 6500.
As an extra precautionary step, you can remove the 1800Mhz CPU step from coolbook before running the game. I didn't see any differences in framerate, but the computer was kept cooler.
You can mitigate this problem significantly by installing coolbook on 13" model, lowering the voltages all the way down and then limiting the fan speed to 5000RPM using SMC Fan Control. 5000 is enough to cool it down pretty quickly after you're done with the game, and I'd say that at 5000, 13" model sounds about as loud as 11" at 6500.
As an extra precautionary step, you can remove the 1800Mhz CPU step from coolbook before running the game. I didn't see any differences in framerate, but the computer was kept cooler.
I've got both my 13" MBA and the little netbook model I just bought for my assistant with me over the weekend. I'll install Steam on it tonight and test both running the same games and give a report this weekend.