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

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201–210 of 390 posts

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

#201
post #197

This is one of the philosophical beefs I've developed against discrete GPU's, particularly in laptops. I've been using 13" unibodies with iGP's (Sandy, Ivy, Hassy vintages) and haven't had any of these problems. Bad stick of RAM, sure, but I blame samsung or whoever their supplier was. But most of the MBP deaths I've heard about from friends have been with AMD/nVidia GPU daughter cards on the 15's. My rMBP 13" also h…

Why the beef against discrete GPUs? Shouldn't the complaint be against cases not properly designed to house them? MacBooks also use, quite frustratingly so, damn near the slowest Nvidia mobile GPU you can buy! A newer model might actually run faster and cooler.

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

#202

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?

2010 MBP were very good, 2011 MBP had the issues highlighted in the article, 2012 MBP seem to be ok.

2012 Retina MBP are generally good but have some known issues (eg LG display losing pixels). Mine's currently getting a bunch of things fixed which will probably end up being a new keyboard, logic board, and another LCD.

2013-2014 rMBP seem to have the 2012 issues fixed.

Airs are ok so long as you don't intend on flogging them. They can have overheating issues too.

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

#203
Reminds me of my parents' Sony Trinitron TV. The thing is 20 years old. From time to time TV starts misbehaving, they call up some local guy, who refreshes soldering on TV's internal components and the TV just works after that. Twenty years old - still can't believe this!

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

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put those few bucks each month into some interest bearing account and then it can be used for many purposes instead of just a new laptop?

$40 a year in a savings account isn't going to net you much.

I don't have comprehensive insurance on my car, and the premiums have over time added up to more than its value.

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

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put those few bucks each month into some interest bearing account and then it can be used for many purposes instead of just a new laptop?

$40 a year in a savings account isn't going to net you much.

No, but consider all of the things that you might insure - appliances and electronics. Now take the total cost of insuring them and put it in a bank account. In the case that one of them breaks, the savings will likely cover that replacement. Chance are none of them will break. Do the same thing next year. Not only to you make a little interest, you have all of last year's left-over premiums.

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

#206

I'll never understand those that insist on doing real work, or gaming, with a laptop. When dealing with a GPU, and especially one made by nvidia, you're battling with the laws of physics. Super hot things make other, nearby things, super hot. Even with proper cooling, nvidia chips overheat and die. Anyone that has had nvidia already knows this. They have a lifetime of a year or two, max. Get a desktop already. At lea…

Not always possible. I can't speak to gaming, but I use a laptop for "real work" almost exclusively. My reason is because I not only write code at home, but often have meetings or go to a coffee shop to do a demo, etc. There's no way I'm carrying a box and monitor to all those places.

What I trade for portability is performance and I replace the machine more. I just keep everything important stored online and when my laptop dies I grab another and keep going.

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

#207
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Perhaps your unit? I have a T61p still in regular use here and it's never had a heat issue?

Have you got dedicated graphics ?

To me the issue was present mostly when gaming, not really during normal use (with the Macbook is the same).

It failed me after a few years and sold it for spares.

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

#208
I had a mini-ITX case where the AGP port (yes, it was a while ago) was right up against one of the walls, so the GPU fan was pinned against the wall. As expected, the machine crashed every time I started up a game. We fixed it by drilling holes in the wall right where the GPU fan faces it. The next version of the same case came with an array of holes drilled in that exact same spot, so I guess we were on to something.

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

#209
post #197

This is one of the philosophical beefs I've developed against discrete GPU's, particularly in laptops. I've been using 13" unibodies with iGP's (Sandy, Ivy, Hassy vintages) and haven't had any of these problems. Bad stick of RAM, sure, but I blame samsung or whoever their supplier was. But most of the MBP deaths I've heard about from friends have been with AMD/nVidia GPU daughter cards on the 15's. My rMBP 13" also h…

Can you post a link to the picture of the side vents? I thought all rMBP has vents in the screen hinge area. Also does this feature exist on 15" rMBP too?

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

#210
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, people keep replying and I can't help but tease the reality distortion field. Why do you care so much? It's just a laptop, who cares what a bunch of us neckbeards laugh at? Nothing should be beyond reproach here. This is hacker news not daring fireball.

If you want flame wars and care about upvotes/downvotes, there are plenty of other websites that will oblige. Here posts are supposed to add something to the discussion, not to "tease" or provoke a response.

When someone is blatantly exhibiting cognitive dissonance and reasoning has failed to sway them why not tease them a bit? They deserve it.
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