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    Is this a problem.....

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by LinkRS, Sep 11, 2011.

  1. LinkRS

    LinkRS Notebook Consultant

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    Hello Everyone,

    I picked up a 13" MBP (it is in my signature block) to use for my graduate studies, and for the past two courses had to do much of my work on my Alienware. I had to use the AW as I needed Windows specific programs, Visio and Visual Studio 2010. So, since I got my MBP for school, I broke down today and picked up Parallels 7, and installed a Windows 7 VM. Now, granted I am in the middle of installing Windows 7 and Visual Studio, but iSat Pro is showing my CPU temp at 87 degrees C. The entire notebook is hot to the touch. Is this normal operating temp for a Sandy Bridge MBP? It seems excessively hot to me for a CPU. What temps are you guys seeing? Thanks!

    Rich S.
     
    LinkRS, Sep 11, 2011
    #1
  2. ClearSkies

    ClearSkies Well no, I'm still here..

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    Temps in the middle of a major install are not a good gauge of anything, since the cpu is going to be used at varying levels during that process.

    87 during use after the VM is installed and done, again depends on what you're doing within W7. Pay more attention to what your temps are under minimal use or email/web/etc - that's where you can stumble on a potential problem more than temps under higher load/usage where it will always go up. And make sure you set up the VM parameters correctly with enough resources to avoid excessive page file writes.
     
    ClearSkies, Sep 11, 2011
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  3. xfiregrunt

    xfiregrunt Notebook Evangelist

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    Do you have SMC fan control? If you don't I would get SMC fan control and run it at 6000rpm whenever your temperatures are high. With SMC I never go about 80 degrees celsius and I have the quadcore MBP (which should have higher temperatures). Even when running SC2 on Ultra.
     
    xfiregrunt, Sep 11, 2011
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  4. doh123

    doh123 Without ME its just AWESO

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    When its being pushed hard.. yes thats a normal temp.

    Open Activity Monitor and watch the CPU usage... when something is pulling a lot of CPU, its going to get hot.

    Parallels is emulating a whole virtual computer and running a whole other OS on it. Its definitely not easy on the computer. Now if Windows is sitting mostly idle or barely working, it will cool off, but there isn't much control over its usage until you get Windows installed and the Parallels Tools (driver pack) as well.
     
    doh123, Sep 11, 2011
    #4
  5. ClearSkies

    ClearSkies Well no, I'm still here..

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    The downside of that being, of course, that the MBPs fans running @ 6K are pretty loud ;).
     
    ClearSkies, Sep 11, 2011
    #5