Does the new i7 MacBook Air run hot ?

Did you install "Click to Plugin 2.4" for Safari? It's really helped my MBA a lot. Doesn't run at 40C constantly anymore, now its more about 32C to 35C depending on load, and my battery life is back to 3 hours ++

http://hoyois.github.com/safariextensions/clicktoplugin/

Is your replacement Air an i5 or i7?

Are you referring to CPU temperature?

Mine shows 50-60C under light load sometimes goes down to 40-45 if you do nothing at all. Parallels or light gaming pushes it up to 80-90C. I'm starting to think it may be faulty.

BTW, I installed Lion update earlier and didn't make any difference at all.

External chassis temperature, the parts that are in contact with my hands, and the table surface.

When idle or just after startup my i7 cpu is about 45C, the next hottest thing is the memory bank at 38C. Under load (e.g. watching a movie) it can rise to 59C. I haven't tried VMWare on it yet though. I suspect that the issue is poor heat dissipation.

iStat Screenshot: Under Light Usage Conditions, open programs are Safari (with Click to Plugin activated), Mail, Skype, Adium, iCal, Photoshop, Dropbox, Evernote and WiFi on. Battery is at 3:39, which is good.

Will post another screenie when I've pushed some heavy stuff through the cpu...

Ambient air temperature at my location is 28-29C. The MBA cools much better when the room is down to 20-22C.

Working in a refrigerator actually does help with the ambient tempurature.

I will revert to SL this weekend if I have time, it's a huuuuge mission, and see if things are more productive.

My productivity has taken a hit with all the tweaks in the software, I think that there is far too much eye-candy versus actual productivity gains.

Dare I say it, Lion needs to be more like Windows 7 - a fanboy version and a pro version that has the ability to get rid of unproductuve, delay tactics interface features... like open a safari window to get to the icon that I have to click! to see the download list - com'on...! a keystroke to the downloads window is way more 'sane'.

I also consider moving to linux where these things are more likely possible... if it would run on the hardware, we're heading back to 1997...

Here's my temps after 30 minutes of light web-activity, browsing this forum, etc. Ambient is now 29C.

The MBA is warm/hot to the touch, usually my MBP Core 2 Duo would still be cool. So yeap definately some issue with heating on the Air.

One hour later and temps seem to have returned to normal ranges, chassis is about 34C. CPU and Mem at around 50C. Temperature rise could have been due to playing a short flash video on the BBC.com site. Overall still doing light stuff only, sending emails, writing notes. Not playing music, nor video.

Looks like anything that makes the graphics chip do work results in high temperatures/fan noise. I just noticed that running Apple's "Cosmos" screensaver brings the CPU temperature to over 80C and fan approaches 5000rpm.

:/ hmm yeah, its irritating...Intel Driver faulty?

The only time my Air is cool is when its idle. What a bother!

I'm wondering if I should return my i7 for an i5 cpu...does anyone using a 11" Air w/ i5 cpu experience the same heating problems?

crh24 wrote:

Another data point...

My 256GB 1.8GHz i7 4GB is currently idling and has been for several minutes. The CPU temp is 33 deg C according to iStat.

Playing an iTunes song from a 1TB USB powered hard drive using the battery in the MBA results in a slight temperature rise to 39 deg C.

Watching a TV Show full screen results in an idle state of 90-94% and an associated temperature rise to 46-48 deg C.

Running apps that result in 70-75% idle raises the CPU temperature to 68-70 deg C.

In all of the above the fan speed remains at about 2000 RPM.

Executing a Handbrake render utilizes virtually all of the CPU horsepower and results in an increase in fan speed that rises slowly from 2000 to the vicinity of 6500 while the temperature ranges from 90 to 93 deg C. I am now 10 minutes into the render and the system seems to have stabilized at 90 dec C and 6496 RPM and my unit is only warm to the touch. It can in no way be called hot.

Within two minutes of completing the render the fan is back to 2000 and the temperature of the CPU has dropped to below 50 deg C. Over the next 5-10 minutes or so it continues to drop until it again hits the 33 deg C point and the case is again cool to the touch.

All of the above is under battery power only, the charger was not connected.

This all seems very reasonable to me. Am I lucky or do most units perform this way?

Message was edited by: crh24

It is normal for Mac Air i5 (Mid Term 2011) to reach 93 degree Celsius over 30 mins? I worry it will overheat the CPU if we prolong using at high load with high temp

What was the ambient temperature? I have actually gotten used to the MBA's heating issues, seems "not as bad now."

The ambient temperature is approx 28 degree C. When open 3 flash video it can hit 93 degree C easily.

Same ambient temperature as me. My CPU temperatures are about the same as yours.

Does your casing temperature (aluminium body) hit 40 - 42 Degrees Celsius?

My casing temperature hits 45 degrees C. Do you run your mac Air under 93 degree C for long?

Wow! That's hot!

No I usually don't run it at 93C. Max I go is about 65C, with the stuff I use.

So it looks like casing temps in the range of 40-45C are normal for a MBA.