Underclocking and Undervolting

Welcome to the forums!

I doubt it will do any obvious real harm, Kevin, other than slowing you down, but haxies like this that mess around with some fairly fundamental processes have a pretty poor record on Macs. If you run into any problems after installing it I reckon it is pretty clear what the first thing you should try dumping would be! Even then you will need to be careful, as the app has some very un-Maclike uninstall requirements.

If everything else is fine with your MBP you simply shouldn't need hacks like this. Better to try to resolve the original problem, if there really is one, than to grab hold of 3rd party offerings that play around with such things as CPU speed IMHO.

Cheers

Rod

Message was edited by: Rod Hagen

Kevin,

What is the machine doing to where flash is such a problem? That's a pretty nice machine you've got and I know of several machines that handle Hulu, YouTube and pretty intensive gaming just fine. So relying on CoolBook to bypass the problem seems more like a crutch than trying to address the issue. Are you getting overheating issue, system lock ups, sluggishness across the OS?

Kevin, looking through the reviews on line of this software one thing that stands out is that quite a few of them were probably actually written by the author!

xlr8yourmac - one of the better sources on on clocking issues and the like when it comes to Macs - expresses more than a little caution about this particular offering. see: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/coolbookutility/coolbook_utilitytests.html

You shouldn't worry in the slightest if your CPU is reaching 60 to 65ºC. The fans are only just beginning to kick in at these temps and the CPU is capable of far more before it starts its own , automatic, throttling down routines. Add another 40ºC and you would be closer to the throttling cut off marks!

Flash is a pain because it chews up cycles , runs down batteries, and hopefully a less offensive version of it will arrive before too long or other things will supersede it, but don't worry about temps in the 60ºC range!

I'd be far more worried about installing this haxie than I would about temps like that!

Cheers

Rod

Kevin, the temps that really matter with CPUs depend on the particular one fitted to your computer, and when you should worry about them depends on the efficiency of control of the cooling system.

iMac G5s , for example, had CPUs that would get to 65ºC far faster than an Intel MBP does, and had a maximum rated temp of only about 85ºC. But their fans cut in earlier and, as long as they were working properly, CPU temps were very rarely any sort of real issue with them.

MBPs regularly operate in that 60º to 70º C range that you mention if they are under a bit of stress. The fans tend to kick in somewhere in between these temps, and the maximum temperature they are capable of handling before the CPU itself does just what the "Coolbook" software claims to do (throttling back the CPU speed etc) varies between about 95ºC and 105ºC.

Now, being a bit conservative about such things I wouldn't be happy either if my CPU was hitting the 95ºC to 105ºC range regularly , but the manufacturers of these CPUs, Intel, reckon this is the area where we should start to get worried, and have therefore introduced their own "throttles" on CPU speed , and ultimately cut offs to prevent damage, at around those points. It is pretty hard to imagine that they don't know what they are talking about, given that they actually manufacture the processors, and the catastrophic costs of replacement which could ensue if they got it wrong, don't you think?

When should you worry? Conservatively I'd say if your CPU is running constantly above 80ºC . If I accept the word of the CPU manufacturers, at a minimum of about 15ºc above that.

I'd worry, too, if you aren't seeing some increased fan activity by about the 75ºC mark. By this temp OSX should be kicking the fans in enough for you to notice (If you are running under Windows and Bootcamp it may even be somewhat higher, so I guess MIcrosoft have greater faith in Intel's own figures than Apple! 😉 )

But 60º to 65ºC is nothing for a modern C2D CPU temp. At this point the thing is barely getting into stride. Your friends speaking about such things might be remembering the far, far lower temps that older Wintel Pentiums could cope with. In those days, when macs were running PPC or G series processors, temps in the 60's for some Windows machines with Intel Pentiums were getting close to the maximum they could cope with. But that is ancient history, even in the Windows world.

Cheers

Rod

Kevin Paquet wrote:
But I haven't really come to ask a Mac User about this.

I should add, Kevin, that I am intrigued by that comment. I guess you could ask a "non Mac User" instead (though it would probably be easier to do so on a "non-Mac" board, rather than here! 😉 ) , but I'm bemused that you imagine I would want to mislead you about such things!

Do you imagine that "Mac Users" are part of some sort of secret society determined to blow the processors of anyone venturing over from the Windows world by letting them run their computers at excessive temperatures? Why on earth would we want to?

Do you imagine that I have been doing what I can to help out new users here for the last decade (and more, if you count the Apple forums before this one arrived on the scene) to cause people like you damage? Why on earth would I want too? I promise you, I'll be more than happy if you have no problems at all with your Mac, and get every possible moment of enjoyment you can out of it, rather than worrying about things like CPU temps of 60ºC which are, I again promise you, no issue at all.

I'm sorry, but I'm not a 12 year old concerned about "my "processor can run hotter than your processor" sorts of nonsense, and nor are the vast majority of people here. Hey, I'm a grandfather! Like most here, I'll help you if I can when you need help, and tell you not to worry when I don't think you need to.

Just by the way, you'll find any knowledgeable Dell or ThinkPad or Sony user with a C2Duo processor will tell you exactly the same thing if you don't trust "Mac Users". 60º to 70ºC is absolutely nothing to be worried about with these processors. If you don't believe me because you imagine, for reasons completely beyond my ken, that I'm trying to "do you wrong" then I suggest you simply look up the thermal temperature specs of the C2D processors used in all these computers, regardless of brand, on the Intel site.

And if you run into any other matters that concern you with your new Mac, or that you need help with, don't hesitate to post. I promise that what ever you may have heard before hand that we aren't a bunch of Windows hating, processor burning, dragons over here!

Cheers

Rod

Ah!

In that case I sincerely apologise for the lecture, Kevin!

Wishing you well with your Mac.

Cheers

Rod