I am using the "12 South" Book Arc with a 13" MacBook Pro. Does it make a difference whether the clam opening of the laptop is up or down during use? i.e. Apple logo right side up or upside down when in an upright MacBook stand?
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.2)
Well, it is considered sacrilege to have the Apple logo upside down, 😉 but it will not effect the functioning of the computer. The only other concerns would be cooling and cabling.
When closed, your MBP blows hot air out of the hinged section, so you might prefer to have the hinge facing upwards for quicker heat dissipation. Otherwise you will blow hot air into the space directly underneath the MBP, which seems counter-intuitive for optimum cooling.
Another option is to place your MBP into the stand with the hinge side down, but with the screen cracked open very slightly (up to, say, 2.5cm). At this distance, the MBP will still think the screen is closed, so the internal screen stays off and all video memory is allocated to the external display. However, you will gain the added benefit of allowing heat to dissipate and rise up / out through the keyboard (in addition to the fan's normal cooling activities) and reducing direct heat radiation into the MBP's internal display. In order to create enough room in the stand to allow this lid opening, you may need to use a rubber insert that's intended for a 15" MBP instead of one that's supplied for use with your 13" model.
Depending upon how important you feel it is, you could try testing whether there's any observable difference in operating temperatures between these options by using the iStat nano dashboard gadget.
I have one back-ordered from Amazon for my 15" - and I was planning on placing the computer so that the Apple logo was 'upside down' so that the vents would be on 'top'. On the other hand, that kind of defeats the purpose of the cable-management scheme, I would think, as I have my TB and MagSafe adapter coming in from my Apple TB Display.
I don't know - I'm just waiting until they're back in stock!
Clinton
Ah, this brings up an interesting point; I know that Mac is not equal to overclock, far from it, as a matter of fact, but is there any instance where I should incorporate a Thermalright Silver Arrow Extreme Heatsink or a Corsair Hydro H100?
Hi FYall
I think you'd be better off starting a separate thread for that question (for better visibility / response).
Jonathan
I am using the 12 South Book Arc with a 13" MacBook Pro. Does it make a difference whether the clam opening of the laptop is up or down during use?
