Hot

[Dwanep]

Just purchased a new MBA and it gets rather hot, is this normal and or is there anything that can be done?

MBA, Mac

 

[three]

It's normal.

 

[NC MacGuy]

Don't block the bottom air vents and stay away from flash video as much as possible.

Not much else you can do.
That's what the fan is for.

 

[Dwanep]

Thanks, other wise I love it.

 

[draa]

Ehm, what temperatures do you mean when speaking of "rather hot"?

 

[pukifloyd]

Its aluminum so its normal...

 

[coast1ja]

Yes, keep in mind that the MBA is designed to act as one giant aluminum heatsink. When you open it up, there is a plate over the CPU and GPU heatsink that transfers the heat directly to the case.

That being said, my MBA Rev. A 1.8ghz gets up to 90-92 degrees C at the cpu according to istatpro when playing youtube videos. During normal use, it's around 48-60C.

 

[stoconnell]

Do install the iStatPro or iStatMenu from http://iSlayer.com and report your temps in Celsius to allow for people to comment as to whether it is normal or not. As others have said, make sure the bottom vent is uncovered or your temps will shoot up a bit. The bottom of the machine does get warm to the touch (esp. on the left side toward the screen where the CPU is), but mine has never been as hot as say the first generation MacBook Pro that I use(d) from work or having a cat on your lap . Also, the machine is fairly sensitive to ambient temps as there is very little volume to the machine and only one small fan to move air around.

 

[ayeying]

Yes, keep in mind that the MBA is designed to act as one giant aluminum heatsink. When you open it up, there is a plate over the CPU and GPU heatsink that transfers the heat directly to the case.

That being said, my MBA Rev. A 1.8ghz gets up to 90-92 degrees C at the cpu according to istatpro when playing youtube videos. During normal use, it's around 48-60C.

It doesn't transfer heat onto the casing. The fan blows air across the heatsink layer and exits out at the vents in the back. The bottom casing gets bombarded by warm air from the heatsink which is why the bottom enclosure feels hot very fast.

My Rev C, currently running Folding@home, gets a normal high temperature of 82 deg C, sometimes hitting a top of 85 deg C but even with 100% constant CPU usage temps are around 74 deg C (in a cold room) to 85 deg C (in a warm room)