Hydrocarbon fuel cell? 600 degrees Celsius.
Large Hadron Collider? -271 degrees.
Microwave drill? 2,000. Your run of the mill Core i7 MacBook Pro can't compete with these extreme temperatures, but that doesn't mean it can't get pretty darn warm under pressure.
PC Authority recently put the latest edition of Apple's sleek silver classic through a series of torture tests, and found that running Cinebench could cause the CPU temperature to climb over 100 degrees Celsius. The metal shell proved ineffective at dissipating the heat as well as the similarly equipped Fujitsu Lifebook SH760, which finished the same test at 81 degrees, and actually required
PC Authority to run the MacBook Pro on its side (see pic above) to complete certain tests. The site thinks that Apple's cooling solution may be inadequate for a Core i7, but these results could be a fluke --
in our experience with the machine, we actually noticed an improvement over the
egg-cooking solutions of yesteryear.
Update: We'd like to point out that the temperatures described were related to the CPU internally, and not the actual case of the laptop.
posted April 26th 2010 7:42AM
Wow. Cook some food up on that bitch.
@Slygathor
So much for paying a premium for "superior" hardware.
@Slygathor
Seriously what I cant stand about Apple products is the people who buy them...
Just like GM cars these people buy any crap they put out and keep them going...
so when GM fails they had to get bailed out, because all those so called " rich people" could not buy the crap anymore.
But yet a good company like PALM gets its ass handed to it?
WTF?
people need to know how to vote with $$$ instedad of trying to fill thier life with crap the minute it comes out...
@AppleDrank What does this have to do in any context to what this article is about? Nothing, that's what.
@Slygathor Probably Apple was too confident with the older generations' non-overheating capabilities.
@Slygathor "can't compete with these extreme temperatures, but that won't keep it from burning your lap"
really. makes no sense to me.
@emopoops He's saying that no one else's laptop's get this hot. But a trade off to getting your laptop running this hot you'll burn the fuck out of your lap.
@AppleDrank
You odviously don't own a GM or Apple product. Sent from my iPhone in my 2008 GMC Truck.
A more appropriate title would be "Your nutsack contracts in fear"... Or is it "expands"?
@Slygathor Its clearly a patent pending feature that lets you double your macbook pro as a hot plate when traveling away from home.
@Slygathor If a laptop overheats, they blew it.
@Slygathor
Superior Apple engineering.
Well, at least a MacBook pro isn't all a waste. It's your new stove too...for those that can afford this.
@AppleDrank
Are you confusing "rich people" with suburban consumerist Republicans? I only know one wealthy person that drives a GMC vehicle, and he's the CEO of an energy company. More common are Lexus (for boring people), BMW (for liberals), Mercedes-Benz (for conservatives), or Bentleys and Rolls-Royces (for those who have no tact or the 40 year old mooching children of old money). Interesting side fact: according to a vehicle ownership and political self-identification survey, Porsche is the "most conservative" car brand. And yes, AppleDrank's comment had nothing to do with the article
@Slygathor
...or boil some water.
@Slygathor So the graphics switching doesn't work properly and they overheat like a bitch and they cost a couple of thousand dollars....Why do people buy these again?
@David Bailey
If you're running CineBench I'd expect it to switch to the fastest GPU option available. Or isn't CineBench GPU accelerated?
Anyway, nice going Engadget, some more ammo for the Apple haters. They've been a little down since the iPad review actually turned out to be quite positive.
So 1 single laptop, one with the fastest CPU option, runs hot in a video transcoding torture test? Groundbreaking stuff... Now please repeat that test for 20 i7 MBP's and 20 similarly specced laptops from a different manufacturer and get back to me if it turns out MBP's really run this hot.
@drange Considering they switch to the fastest GPU option wen running twitter programmes I'd say the graphics switching doesn't work very well. Engadget did a post about it.
And if you aren't pushing the system to it's limits, then what is the point in having all that power? You might as well have a lower spec one if you aren't going to use the extra power. If it can't do intensive stuff without cooking your nuts, then the laptop is just so that you can boast to your chums about your high spec Macbook. Though that's all it is for a lot of their market anyway.
@David Bailey
Do light work -> laptop stays cool = laptop on lap
Do hours of transcoding video -> laptop runs hot = laptop on table.
I have a Dell Precision laptop with a C2D that probably doesn't run half as hot as this thing, but still it gets too hot to keep it on my lap for longer than 30 minutes. I used to have an old P233MMX one that had similar issues. Personally I don't see why anyone would be surprised having a laptop transcoding video on your lap isn't comfortable.
Anyway, my point was that one laptop tested doesn't really make a reliable sample. Wake me up if people everywhere around the globe start complaining about MBP's running hot.
@drange "Do hours of transcoding video -> laptop runs hot = laptop on table."
Uh, it's not only a matter of it being uncomfortably hot - all of that he leads to premature failure of the processor...
@drange "some more ammo for the Apple haters."
Oh, QQ.
@WhyFi
Sure, that's why I suspect this particular machine had some kind of problem. Tjmax for a core i7 is 105 C, case temperature is ~70 C. If this thing goes to 100 C, something is wrong, either with the CPU, the thermal sensor, the interpretation of the thermal sensor, or the internal cooling of the laptop. Like I've now said twice already: before jumping to the conclusion that MBP's run so hot, a larger sample is required.
@Slygathor
Vasectomy alternative?
I guess it's clear now why they don't even have an option for a quad-core i7 in the macbooks - oh well maybe next year they'll re-engineer for better cooling.
@Proud Japanese I think a few more details are in order before one makes that statement.
Such as how long were they running this program, what exactly are the nature of these tests etc.
Cause running a video for 2 hours like a normal user would is one thing, if they were running some processor intense program for 20 hours and it didn't actually start to get hot until hour 19 that's a bit different.
@Slygathor
why do the pictures say Core i5?
the article's pictures are for the Core i5 processor.
@drange did u look at the picture? even the table cant take the heat, thats how hot it is.
@N900
You really can't ask for a better reason than the hardware destroying itself. This sort of hardware is supposed to specifically avoid this sort of thing. The software should also be "smarter", "better" and able to juggle user requirements versus resources and overheating.
Of course it's ammo for "haters". If Linux or Windows were doing this, the Apostles of St. Steve would be all over it.
Funny post critical of Apple products.
@Slygathor
I blame the lack of serious ventilation. For way too long they've eschewed sensible engineering in deference to style (I realize it started the trend, but I hate the mac-style hinges. All they do is create a lower screen viewing angle, causing more neck problems, and disallowing you to open them flat like a normal laptop).
I'd rather have a small flat blow drier on my lap--like my venerable xps M1210--than a hot plate. Someone needs to post a video on youtube, frying an egg on it.
@drange
Hey, this isn't exactly new:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/1/30/
@Slygathor Just in case it gets too hot, there's a liquid nitro for that. A prof's example. http://j.mp/macbook-liquid-nitro
@Slygathor That much heat could also damage the family jewels.
@Slygathor
It is to keep people who buy it from reproducing.
@Slygathor LoL, "If you lipstick on a pig it's still a pig!"
@Charlik
If you buy a mac pro with a core i7 in it
i would suspected you are not doing normal thing like watching a dvd with it
I would suspect your actually using it for work of some kind like editing video and encoding video and photo shop work that kind of stuff that tends to be cpu intensive
if you by a mac pro with core i7 and don't do anything but watch video and surf web pages then your an idiot
a majority of high end macpro sales are to to professionals who do actual editing work on them
so in this case them people would be normal user of this machine and this will be a real issues for them
@Slygathor
Fry up some food on the i7 Macbook, then cool it down and let the oil drain down the keyboard of an i7 Thinkpad.
@Kurian
it expands just make sure you dont leave the macbook there to long "cause nobody likes roasted nuts".
@AppleDrank GM paid us back, early. Probably no one else will even pay the government back
@Slygathor
My Core i7 Envy 15 runs cooler than this...
and I got it RMA'd for running too hot.
@drange Cinebench is not a video transcoding torture test. I know you expect to derive meaning from names of applications in your little ecosystem you are chained to, but in the real world that makes you look out of touch and really desperate to justify boiling point temperatures for that matter. iWizeup man.
@Slygathor and here i was thinking that putting the macbook on their side in a docking station would cause them to run hotter... aren't heat pipes gravity dependent?
surprise? no. its made of friggen aluminum and has some pretty extreme hardware in a small space.
looks like quality control is on the decline, as Apple grows
@brettlewis
New apple laptops leading to unintended acceleration?
Officer, I couldn't stop. My laptop was branding my leather seats like some sort of fruity dude ranch.
News at 11.
@brettlewis
but seriously - if this has any merit, apple needs to recall these things before they get sued by the litigation happy American public. I wouldn't doubt someone would be willing to intentionally burn themselves for the money. Didn't some lady get more than 10 million from McDonalds for a coffee burn?
@brettlewis
So how exactly would "friggen aluminum" contribute to overheating the CPU? You understand that aluminum is a good thermal conductor?
@Ken J
only problem is there's no convection. Try cooking in an aluminum- enclosed room with no windows and you'll see my point.
@soulkamikaze
Your statement insinuates aluminum is somehow retaining the heat, in other words, your saying aluminum is an insulator. The fact that there is no convection is a function of the geometry not the material. Try making the laptop out of plastic or stainless steel and see how the CPU temp reacts.
Steve is trying to burn our junk so we won't want to download porn applications on Android :(