Effectiveness of cooling pads on Unibody Macbooks

My friend has a 15'' unibody Macbook Pro. He's thinking about getting a cooling pad for it, and he asked me for suggestions. I said that I really couldn't advise him as Macbooks aren't built like regular laptops with the fans on the bottom. Even still, would a traditional active cooling pad lower temperatures by any significant amount, or would it not be worth it. I would usually advise anyone who asks to get a large all metal cooling pad, but if it's not going to do that much, I don't want him to waste his money.

 

I have a targus cooling pad that has the dual fans and the built in USB hub and I haven't noticed it's fans helping all that much. My UMB (baby pro basically) does do a good job keeping itself cool though.

I have heard of people using the gel pads that absorb heat having success helping cool the MBP. Basically the aluminum body gets hot as it acts as a heat sink so the gel makes sense. I have not tried it though...

 

Yeah, I know the cooling pad you have. I had that too, and I hated it. Gel pads make some sense, but do they dissipate the heat fast enough? I guess you could get 2 and alternate.

 

I have what your friend has. Maybe he does more demanding things than I do, but personally, I wouldn't bother. I think the MBP does a fine job of managing heat as it is.

 

Or you could do what a couple members have done....

They drilled a few holes in the base plate to allow more airflow into the machine.

 

I use coolfeet whenever I am encoding. They are simple and effective.

 

I just bought a cheap one to lift it off my desk and give it some airflow. It has 3 fans, but I haven't really noticed a difference.

 

HEY !!! I resemble that remark ... had better luck with the drilling then the cooling pads as well. but the drill mod is NOT for everyone

 

Yeah, buddy. Was referring to the likes of you there. Cooling pads are for sissies.

The cooling pad just won't move much heat when the heat is contained inside the body.

 

I have one of these... it does help airflow some, but it barely effects the actual temps... so not really worth it overall...

http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1135&ID=1883

 

Ditto.
Honestly, these notebook coolers are pretty useless with Apple Notebooks in general. The design of the Apple chassis and cooling mechanism is through the gap between the LCD panel and the top of the keyboard, there's only 1/16" of airflow that cools both the CPU and GPU heatsink. Infact, if you haven't noticed already, that most of the backplate and the top unibody aluminum chassis gets warm as well. This acts as a passive heatsink for the system.

I would not recommend any drilling or modifications to the back panels, it may drop temperatures on the sensor areas, but that doesn't mean that the core temps would have the same drop in temperature. Besides, anything less than 95 degrees celsius would be still in perfect working operation and within normal thermal limits.

If you think that your temperatures are bothering you, you might want to look into CoolBook, a undervolting utility for your CPU and allows for lower operating temperatures as well as slightly better battery consumption. Take heed though, it would take some knowledge and heavy testing for this to work correctly otherwise you may have an unstable system if done incorrectly. My system droppped about 8-9 degrees overall, and the fan spins up much slower than stock when pushed. It still maxes out at 85 degrees on full load, but the fan never goes beyond 5K Rpm.

 

you are aware the maximum recomended temp for most C2d Cpu's are around 70C and shutdown temp is 100 to 105C. running a chip at 95 really shortens the lifespan and increases power draw

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/143/5

please note maxtemp values are for maximum power efficiency and lifespan. Intel specifies you can exceed temps but reccomends that it be not continious.

 

Mobile chips have a higher maxtemp value. That link you provided have very dated CPUs, listed in their mobile maxtemp test are the Core Duo, Core Solo and the Pentium M, which all have a 100C Max temp. Like those older Intel mobile chips, the new ones have the same specification.

 

105º C is max operating temp on Core 2 Duo mobiles.... Intel lists 125º C as catastrophic and the chip will auto turn itself off.

I dont really let mine ever get past 85ish

 

105 ain't much higher than 100. :laugh: :laugh: