MPB temperature questions...

The 2.6ghz Penryn should actually run cooler than the older processors. So at the same load, yours should be cooler.

My 2.2ghz MBP stays in the 50's (celsius) under normal use. Right now I am at 120F/48C running Safari,iTunes, and Azureus. When I am gaming, it hovers in the 80's C. I believe the critical temp is around 100C.

I am also using SMC fan control with my fans at 3000rpm (up from the default 2000rpm), so your temps are normal compared to mine.

Chris,

The Merom's "thermal limit" is 110 C. That's very, very hot. Normally, the upper limit for the CPU in a Macbook Pro should be around 80 - 85 C. You shouldn't ever see temps above this range, even when you push your Macbook Pro to its limits. However, 80 -85 C, even for extended periods of time, is completely normal, and your Macbook Pro is designed to suffer no ill effects from these temps.

Scott

Chris Bedrosian wrote:
I've heard of some macbook pros running much MUCH cooler, as low as 100 F. These might be older models though, with considerably slower processors...
Ive heard of people replacing the thermal paste (I'm VERY reluctant to do this myself)...

Actually, the older MacBook Pros ran hotter - which was when people got really exercised about replacing thermal paste and the like. My first MacBook Pro, which was the first generation ran substantially hotter than my current beast. The first generation was Core Duo rather than Core 2 Duo - hence the temperature problems. When they made the transition to Core 2 Duo the angst about temperatures kind of died down.

As for MacBook Pros running at 100F - I'd be amazed. Desktop processors might, but that is not the way these things are designed to work. Maybe that reading is an external case reading rather than a core reading. But marginally above room temperature would be remarkable for a laptop processor. With the first generation people were happy to get their core temperatures down to 60C ~ 140F. I'd consider that bog standard for my current MBP - a 2.4GHz Santa Rosa (forget what name people give to the processor because I don't care about Meroms, Penryns, Flagelates, Bornswindles or Fliggelhoofers - just that it works.) When you tax the processor it should jump to about 80C ~ 175F. Some websites can do that because they need all those ads to run smooth animation endlessly.

You should worry if you burn yourself or the computer doesn't function properly - otherwise trust that Apple hires thermal engineers that are competent at their jobs and forget about it.

You know I had this question after I bought my first MBP, it seemed to operate a lot hotter then my old gateway and dell laptops. I took the machine back to the apple store and asked them what the normal operating temps were and they said I wasn't even close to being in danger. I was around 85 degrees F.

Right now my machine hovers between 60-65 when running normal operations. When I start to go between 5-10 different programs sometimes it will heat up to about 90 Degrees but always cools down rather fast.

Arentele, Are you sure your temperatures are in fahrenheit? 85F is 30C and you only get that when you first turn it in unless you are using your MBP on a bed of ice.