[mackandproud]

I love my blackbook. Or at least I tell myself I do.

Overall, it's a nice little 'book. But one thing (actually there are several), but one issue in particular is really driving me batty. It's fan. I'm NOT a fan of the macbook fan. It constantly runs if I try anything associated with video.

Video games? Forget it. The fan whirs away at 6000 rpm within a minute and stays there as long as I play.

VLC? Ripping songs from a CD. It's all the same. Anything processor and/or GPU intensive and there's the infernal fan.

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If I upgrade to a newer macbook or macbook pro with a dedicated graphics card, will I be able to avoid these noisy issues?

I am really used to my previous, quiet as a whisper Pismo.

[JoshuaZ]

It depends. My MBP from two years ago can fan it up when doing games, thus is the nature of the beast.

I find it quite helpful to have my laptop on a stand when at my desk. This helps airflow quite a bit and reduces overall heat. You should pick one up if you're having problems. I have the Targus X-Stand. Very simple, very easy, and fits a wide range of computers.

If your'e really worried you can get a stand with a fan on it... there are quite a few USB powered fan stands around. I've seen them for all of $10.

[mackandproud]

I've used a stand from day one.

edit: I don't see the point of using a fan to prevent a fan from coming on.

[ibook_steve]

I am in the same boat with my 2.33 GHz 15" MBP. While I don't think this is the complete solution, I just recently discovered that the Growl notification software (even the most recent 1.2 for SL), seemed to be keeping my fans pegged at 6000 even if I was doing basically nothing else (under 10% CPU activity). Turning off Growl has helped somewhat.

Flash, Parallels, and games still peg my fans. I'd also be interested in hearing if fans are somewhat better in the newest machines.

Steve

[imitchellg5]

Originally Posted by mackandproud 

If I upgrade to a newer macbook or macbook pro with a dedicated graphics card, will I be able to avoid these noisy issues?

The dedicated card makes the fans come on fairly often, even just watching YouTube. Integrated is much cooler.

[amazing]

Originally Posted by mackandproud 

I've used a stand from day one.

edit: I don't see the point of using a fan to prevent a fan from coming on.

The idea is to move wear and tear on your laptop to a much less expensive piece of equipment. I use you my cheap USB cooler when I know I'm going to be playing a game or watching video--because excessive heat is not my laptop's friend.

Also, if I'm watching hulu or the like, I quit other apps that hog the processors. One stress on the system is enough.

[mackandproud]

One thing I've noticed: if I play back a DVD I've ripped to my hard drive and play back on either DVD Player or VLC, the fan goes crazy. Can I sidestep this issue with a RAM upgrade? I'm at the original 2 GB but could upgrade to 4 GB.

I tried this before hoping it would alleviate the fan issue on video games, but it made no difference...

[imitchellg5]

Well if you had more RAM that could perhaps take some stress off of the CPU and the hard drive (pageins and outs).

[mkerr64]

same thing happened with my TI book. all i had to do was give it to Apple and they repaired it for free.