need suggestions for cooling MBP

Just got a replacement MacBook Pro yesterday for one I purchased in January & I'm looking to replace my laptop stand/cooler. It gets pretty warm when I run Second Life. Any recommendations or specific things to look for?

Also I've seen references to a fan controller application, but I can't remember what it was. Any suggestions?

Pull the battery and run purely from AC while you're playing SL.

Argent has promoted this idea before. I thought he was crazy, but it is really a very good tip. My MBP has gotten a serious heat problem, and crash after a short while (stops to react to input - but keeps playing music) if I try to run SL without removing the battery.

I have a "fan to place under the laptop", and combined with the removed battery, the internal fans do often not even spin up.

Thanks Argent.

I use smcFanControl2 - a free app that allows you to adjust your MBP's fan speed to get it to the temperature you want it to be.

http://conscius.de/~eidac/software/smcfancontrol2/index.html

I have been using this for about 1.5 years now and keep my fans running at about 5k RPM when running SL - my MacBook Pro never goes over 60 degrees. Sometimes I need to set it at max (6k rpm), but it's rare.

smcFanControl has presets - so setup once and then pick from a menu to set the fan speed.

I tried notebook coolers - I went through several types - none worked as well as smcFanControl.

(I'm not affiliated with smcFanControl - just happy with it)

-2fast

I use SMCFanControl. It's not good enough, when things get hot I pull the battery as well.

Whether this reduces the heat load because it directly addresses a cooling or airflow problem (my original theory), or it reduces the heat load because the firmware throttles the CPU when the battery is removed (what I've been told in these forums), the result is a dramatic drop in temperature without any noticeable drop in performance.

I find that running my MBP while charging and running SL makes charging take ages and makes the MBP run hot even at 6k rpm fan speed.

Now I avoid charging my MBP while running SL. Maybe by pulling the battery you stop charging it. If that's the case, try to run SL on a fully charged battery and on AC and see what happens.

Just my L$0.00007 ($0.02)

-2fast

Done that. No difference.

i have an hp notebook,i always use A/C power,and have two notebook coolers side by side,each one has two fans so i have 4 fans at all times keeping it cool and it works really well
At times i feel the underside of my laptop and it is usually just warm

Ahh well...was worth a try

I have a HP laptop and it used to shut itself down everytime it got too hot (from running SL). I purchased a laptop fan ($20) and it does the trick . The internal fan doesn't even come on and my laptop rarely gets overly warm. I use AC power too.

Z

I turned the frame rate down on my macbook pro. The fans hardly go over 2k on my slow setting and dont rev up much on the medium setting. Keeping temps below 70C.

My early 2007 MBP used to turn into a waffle iron with SL. The audio would get strange. I got a Brookstone laptop desk and a Zalman laptop cooler. It's not perfect, since the MBP has no fan vents underneath it, but the Zalman keeps it cool enough to keep operating. I also have smcFanControl, and leave it on max all the time.

Smcfancintrol works great

unplugging you battery is an option because it will underclock your CPU. This can be a good thing since most of the time the CPU is much faster than SL needs. This is not an option for quick underclocking on the new machines though since you can't easily remove the battery.