Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

#71

Post by PuffinBlue » Tue, Dec 30, 2014, 12:39 PM UTC

LeonM wrote: post #52

I own the same laptop, I have it for about 2.5 years now and never experienced such temperatures. During a normal workday, (programming, compiling, git etc) I never once heard the fans spin up. I have a BookArc[1] laptop stand, which is about the worst possible way to keep a running MBP (lid closed, fan slots pointing down) and even with lots of gaming, I have never experienced any problems. Yes, I do clean the fans…

Right...except for the tens of thousands of people with the 2011 machine experiencing heat related damage to the GPU.

Your study size of one doesn't 'go to show' anything at all regarding the MacBooks thermal performance. It shows that you yourself haven't experienced any issues but that's where it ends.

I for instance have a 2010 i7 MacBook Pro and it will spin up and get ridiculously hot (too hot to touch) simply watching a 1080p flash video on YouTube. Not the greatest thermal design there with my study size of one :-)

What I will say though is that Apple seems to use the Aluminium case as a heat transfer device, so it purposefully gets hot to disapate heat. That's great until there is a fault with the solder being too thin to withstand the planned temperatures like is happening to the 2011 MacBooks with the discrete GPU.

Re: Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

#72

Post by rimantas » Tue, Dec 30, 2014, 12:41 PM UTC

ars wrote: post #31

gpvos wrote: post #21

Is it normal in the US to use Celsius for computer inside temperatures, and Fahrenheit for the oven? Aren't you converting back and forth the whole time?

Yes, pretty normal. For temperatures near 100C the conversion is easy. Ovens report temperatures in F, computers in C, shrug. In general you use F for human temperatures (air temperature, fever, and cooking), and C for everything else. F has a better range for air and body temperature anyway. Maybe Europeans will switch to F, and Americans will switch to Km :) (In case you wonder why F is better: The coldest temperat…

Your "F is better" is nothing more than "I am used to it". I am used to C and it is just good: 25 is warm, 0 - water is freezing, -10 - getting cold.

Re: Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

#73

Post by gnarbarian » Tue, Dec 30, 2014, 12:51 PM UTC

hmottestad wrote: post #61

gnarbarian wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So why didn't apple adapt their cases to fit the new thermal profile by placing a couple ghastly holes where they were needed?

They did. The retina macbook pro has vents on the sides.

Not in time for the OP it would seem.

Re: Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

#74

Post by Morphling » Tue, Dec 30, 2014, 12:55 PM UTC

wingerlang wrote: post #43

joeblau wrote: post #16

This story is awesome. It would be hilarious if the OP ever tried to sell his laptop. I can imagine him trying to explain to a layperson why all of the drilled holes in the bottom are actually a benefit and not a problem.

"They increase the airflow, making the computer never overheat and die" It's not that hard to understand.

"But they are ugly and now everyone is teasing me about them. I want a refund"

Re: Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

#75

Post by mike-cardwell » Tue, Dec 30, 2014, 12:57 PM UTC

Kurtz79 wrote: post #36

mike-cardwell wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Thinkpad has air vents on the left hand side, and also on the back. Except, the ones on the back aren't blocked like they are on Macbooks, because the Thinkpads design is based on what is sensible rather than on what will make the thinnest possible computer.

I don't know what model you have, but my old T61p with dedicated graphics had the same heating issues as my newer Macbook Pro.

A T420 with no heat issues whatsoever.

[edit] Not a great image but you can see where the vents are on the back and the left hand side on this image:

https://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSpIDoMt_OkYzjIF9E6...

Doesn't matter how far I fold the screen back, the vents aren't blocked by it.

Re: Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

#76

Post by jbrooksuk » Tue, Dec 30, 2014, 1:01 PM UTC

rtpg wrote: post #37

chroma wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where else can one put air vents on a laptop? The sides are taken up by expansion ports and speakers. The front is blocked by the battery. The bottom is often obstructed by blankets, clothing, etc. The top is for the keyboard, trackpad, and palm rest. Putting vents at the hinge actually makes the most sense. It guarantees ventilation ports won't be fully obstructed. The vents face away from the user, reducing fan noi…

they have little feet, they could totally put ventilation on the bottom (in fact many laptops do that already)

Except the feet can come off, thus rendering the ventilation useless if that were to happen.

Re: Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

#77

Post by stefantalpalaru » Tue, Dec 30, 2014, 1:02 PM UTC

chroma wrote: post #30

gnarbarian wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gotta hand it to apple on this one. They clogged the vents so you don't have to worry about it. Laptop overheats? Must be Intel's fault. This is the reality distortion field.

Please stop.

Who are you to tell somebody else to stop posting in a public forum? No, putting "please" in front does not make your aggression any less impolite.

Re: Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

#78

Post by stefantalpalaru » Tue, Dec 30, 2014, 1:05 PM UTC

proveanegative wrote: post #41

I have question related to this issue. Which MacBook model, new, refurbished or used, should I buy if I want it to last as long as possible and be useful for doing OS X-specific programming tasks?

As long as possible? Run OS X in a VM.

Re: Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

#79

Post by uptown » Tue, Dec 30, 2014, 1:06 PM UTC

My early 2011 MBP has had one logic board replaced so far at my own expense a short while after AppleCare expired. This site has been compiling relevant information to those experiencing the same problem, and the #mbp2011 hashtag on Twitter is also a good resource for those affected:

http://mbp2011.org/

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23mbp2011

Re: Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven

#80

Post by mike-cardwell » Tue, Dec 30, 2014, 1:09 PM UTC

chroma wrote: post #26

gnarbarian wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Latitude E5430 has them on the left side near the back, and two places on the bottom (the rear left side and the front middle).

That laptop is twice as thick as a rMBP and puts out less than half as much heat. Even if Apple put vents in those places, it wouldn't cool adequately; the vent area would be half that of the Dell. To get the same temperatures, airflow would have to be 4x faster than in the Dell. And as I said before, vents on the bottom increase the risk of overheating when used on a bed or carpet. Critics hold Apple to a higher sta…

"In general, Apple makes quality hardware. If it were otherwise, they wouldn't be able to charge so much."

My experience of Apple hardware, from owning it myself and from seeing how it fares for those around me who also use it, is that it's pretty, but poorly designed, lacking in features, and very unreliable.

They are able to charge so much because they market it well. Also, OSX is a decent OS in comparison to Windows, for those who can't be bothered to learn Linux.