I recently got a brand new MacBook Pro. I want to thank my boss Max for it and my buddy Glenn, Panama’s top Apple guy for giving me the best price available for my new Mac. It is such an incredible piece of machine I can not describe how cool it is.

But for such a cool design, I started to notice it got pretty hot, specially if working in places with no or little air conditioning systems. It affected me in my Bogota hotel, where I had the A/C system off since it was kind of chilly outside. But the temperature widget I had installed flashed 62 degrees Celsius and I started to worry abut the issue. I like my laptops to run as cold as possible. I know the cooler the system, the better the life span and performance.

While goggling around for solutions, I came across many in which some individuals actually reapplied the thermal grease used to ensure the proper dissipation of heat. Some say it voids your warranty, but I think it is a good advice given to people who are used to tinkering with hardware, and who are close enough to the best thermal grease money can buy. Since my Mac was getting hot on Sunday in downtown Bogota, I was as far away from the solution as ever.

After some research and a couple of misses, I downloaded and installed Hendrik Holtmann’s smcFanControl 2.1. It is a great program with GPL license that allows you to change the rate of your fan. For example, instead of letting my fan kick in at Mac’s standard temperature to start cooling the system at 2,000 RPM, I decided to have mine run all the time at 4,000 RPM. The program loads itself on start-up and is visible in the top menu bar.

In a properly cooled room, my average temperature of 54 degrees Celsius dropped to 42 degrees Celsius, and in some occasions to 38 degrees. It was late at night in Bogota and I opened my window (I was staying at the Habitel hotel, a great place to go!) It was really chilly, and the combination of fan and cold dropped the temperature way down.

In an improperly cooled room, I would have highs of 62 degrees Celsius, and at times even 70 degrees Celsius. This have dropped to around 48 degrees with some peaks at 52 degrees, but much less than the average stated above.

My only reserve is the fact that the fan spinning faster than the standard could ruin it. But I am willing to bet a cooler system is preferable to a well rested fan when the whole motherboard fries itself.

My friend Hendrik, congratulations for such a fine tool! Although I can not donate anything on my meager Panama salary, if you are ever on the Ithmus, I will buy you dinner or lunch!

Download the program from Hendrk’s website at http://homepage.mac.com/holtmann/eidac/software/smcfancontrol2/index.html

written by Administrator