Heating up a MBP

[panoz7]

Ok... this might sound strange but bear with me. I want to deliberately try and heat up a MBP at my local apple store as much as possible.

Here's why:

My major at school requires windows only software so I was forced to buy a non-apple notebook. Obviously it doesn’t run OS X and I’m sick of windows, so I’m (hopefully) going to upgrade to a MBP this summer now that I can dual boot. My only concern is heat.

Currently I have an Asus laptop. Its similar to the MBP in that it is as powerful as most of the desktop replacement laptops while being significantly thinner. Mine is less then an inch thick and weighs a little under 5 pounds. They seem to have managed to save weight by using extensive amounts of carbon fiber throughout the case. It also has the fastest centrino that was available at the time (I think 2 ghz).

Thinness, combined with Carbon Fiber not absorbing much heat, and a fairly powerful processor mean that this laptop gets hot. Really really hot, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating (but I'm not sure... that's why I'm asking). As I’m typing this its at 66 C. It usually idles around 62, and when actually working peaks at around 80. That’s hot enough that it becomes uncomfortable to leave your hands on it to type, and my finger actually starts to hurt when using the track pad for extended amounts of time. The fan runs constantly.

I’ve heard that the MBP runs hot also. Is it anywhere near as my current computer? I went to the apple store today and they seemed relatively cool. They weren’t doing too much though, so I want to try and get them to heat up. How should I do this? They don’t seem to have any really processor intensive apps (like photoshop) installed. What should I do?

 

[lamina]

Download the Doom 3 demo from Apple.com. Not only is it a high-end game, it will be running through Rosetta.

Doing this at work made the MBP 1.83GHz too hot to hold your hand on for more than a few seconds (on the bottom near the screen). My PB gets hot when playing games, but has never got that hot.

 

[iGary]

Turn it on.

That's usually sufficient.

 

[panoz7]

Turn it on.

That's usually sufficient.

Seriously? Wow. That thing was cool compared to mine. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Guess who's getting a MBP in a month?

 

[Kingsly]

Guess who's getting a MBP in a month?

Uhh... hold on, don't tell me!

Seriously though, the MBP's at the Apple store have been on all day and are probablty up to normal operating temps. Sometimes when I am doing something intensive, such as running soundtrack under rosetta with 15 tracks and checking mail and MR at the same time, It gets too hot to touch for more than a second. Thankfully, its only that hot on the speaker grilles and the behind the keyboard. Never the actual mousepad or keyboard! The underside of the machine gets rrreeeaaallllyyy hot under the previously described heavy load.
Like: "cant...believe...how...hot...this...is..., must...talk...like...this..."

And then you wake up in the local burn center. It has happened to me a few times, thankfully a neighbor called an ambulance when they saw my unconscious on the floor clutching my MBP.
Otherwise its an excellent computer that is well worth the extra insurance policy!