Best way to cool my Macbook Pro?

My MBP tends to heat up when I watch movies, so this is what I do to keep it cool. I just wrap a frozen Blue Ice with a thin towel and place it under the keyboard of my laptop. This effectively reduces the temp. from hot to moderately warm for the length of a 2-3 hour movie. You can swap the Blue Ice with another frozen one if necessary. Works as well or better than any expensive cooling pad!

http://eshop.macsales.com/articles/keep-you-and-your-macbook-pro-cool

Burninrock24 wrote:

... I play video games on it and the fan is running almost the whole time. The laptop its self doesnt heat up much, but the fan is so loud.

Sounds like it is working exactly as it should. The fans are going to be loud when doing cpu/gpu and memory intensive things, like gaming. The only way for the system to cope with the increased heat is to ramp up the airflow to dump the heat outside of the case.

The monitor won't matter as the LCD display is not a source of intense heat - the cpu, gpu and RAM are the primary sources of heat inside the laptop. There really is no effective way to cool the internals other than having the fans ramp up, so as long as you are pushing the system hard, the fan noise will be there.

Found this post while doing my own search for similar reasons. It is hard to find a cooler that will have much effect on that upper left area that gets really warm. Most seem to be designed to blow air up into the middle/bottom of the machine and exhaust from the sides. That is little help. If I play an mmorpg like swtor, the machine runs very hot even over a short period of time. Here is where I am starting.

I am waiting on a Cooler Master notepal U3. It is aluminum and has 3-80mm fans that can be placed where you want them to blow. If I am able to get the result I am looking for I will probably replace the fans with something a little more robust and quieter.

http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-NotePal-Notebook-R9-NBC-8PCK-G/dp/B003ZMF27G /ref=pd_cp_e_0

Hope this helps.

Hi,

I share exactly this same scenario.

I have a Macbook Pro 13'' 2.4Ghz Intel Core Duo with 4Gb RAM and some games do cause some excessive heat.

Two questions:

1. Did you find a satisfying cool pad?

I had a quick look around and so far the http://thermapak.com/ seems good but I didn't get as far as comparing prices yet...

2. I'm also thinking of upgrading RAM to 8gb. Would this help with the temperature issue?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Regards.

Adding RAM will not solve this issue. I have the Late 2011 MBP 17" with the 2.4GHz i7 processor. I have since updated it with 16GB RAM and Dual 128GB SSD's (Stripped). Needless to say my system is screaming fast. However playing even simple online game like Dragons of Atlantis from Kabam my fans are running non-stop and the underneath and top row of my keyboard is hot, were talking internal temp is measured at 180F+

The intensity that the CPU and GPU take up causes the heat build up. I know that the machine is suppose to push air out the back between the display lid but, it seems all it does is build up heat there and not spread it out. There should be air ports that allow air to come into the system as well as leave with ease.

A lot of times I have to work with my mchine on my lap and it gets so hot that if I leave it too long it will start burning my legs...

I'm looking for options that are best for clamshell mode. Anyone have any experience with a good product?

I use a Cool Master Cooling Pad whenever I am doing something CPU intensive for periods of time. It sure does help and keeping cool will maximize performance as well.

This was a life saver! My MBP was getting SO HOT to the touch...and after having a GPU issue....even with new high grade thermal paste, I was afraid of repeat issues.

I cranked the fans up to about 4,200 RPM and my system runs in the low 40s (celsius) so far. Also, the machine is no longer hot enough on the outside to easily fry an egg.

Thank you, wjosten.

you could always take it apart and clean out the fan to make more efficient.