Macbook Air temperature + cooling pad

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Hello,

I was wondering if temperatures of 70-80 degrees while playing games on the 2013 13inch macbook air safe. Also, since the bottom side of the mac is sealed and there is visible fan sucking in cool air, is there a cooling pad that can help cool down the laptop?

Thanks
 

Raz0rEdge

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70-80 degC I'm guessing? As long as it comes back down to lesser values once you stop gaming, yep that's fine..

What are you using to check the temps and is this the CPU temp?
 
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70-80 degC I'm guessing? As long as it comes back down to lesser values once you stop gaming, yep that's fine..

What are you using to check the temps and is this the CPU temp?

Yes this is in degrees celsius and this is the CPU temp. I am reading it using iStats.
 

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Yes this is in degrees celsius and this is the CPU temp. I am reading it using iStats.

70-80°C is pretty normal while gaming (some games are more demanding than others).

Also, since the bottom side of the mac is sealed and there is visible fan sucking in cool air, is there a cooling pad that can help cool down the laptop?

The MacBook Air (as with all Apple laptop/notebook computers)...is designed to properly cool itself. Just because the bottom is "sealed" and you cannot see a fan...does not mean that it hasn't been designed to keep itself cool. The cooling air flow pattern just isn't what you expect it to be.

Believe me...the design engineers at Apple know what they're doing!:)

As far as the cooling pad. Well...maybe if you use one...MAYBE it will cool things a little bit...but I'm betting it won't be anything major. The computer is fine as it is.:)

- Nick
 
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Thank you for your help. Can you quote some safe normal temperature for the macbook when under little to no stress.
 

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Thank you for your help. Can you quote some safe normal temperature for the macbook when under little to no stress.

Depends on the temperature of the room (Summer vs. Winter, etc.). But for "non-stressful" activities like:

- checking e-mail
- surfing the internet (no internet gaming or videos)
- word processing or spreadsheet work
- etc.

Somewhere around 55°C (give or take for individual conditions).

- Nick
 

Raz0rEdge

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Yeah, as Nick said the temps vary greatly..my iMac for example with an ambient temperature of about 68 deg F runs around 40-45 degC across the various temp sensors..as I crank up a VM and start doing some work, the CPU gets up to the 60-70 degC, but nothing bad..

There isn't a "normal" temperature really..there is, however, a max temp and on these CPUs it's just over 100 degC, once you get to that level and stay there for extended periods of time, you're going to slowly begin to degrade the part and staying there forever will likely lead to failure..
 
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Hello, thanks for all your replies. So does this mean if I game on the macbook air and it sustain a temperature of 70-80 degrees celsius, I will slowly ruin the computer? I am not a heavy gamer and only play league of legends but it will suck if the laptop can't even handle the game for long periods without "dying". After all, the game only uses 30-40% of the CPU's power
 

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Hello, thanks for all your replies. So does this mean if I game on the macbook air and it sustain a temperature of 70-80 degrees celsius, I will slowly ruin the computer?

I don't think anyone said this. If the computer was running too hot...it will simply shut off on its own.

When I'm gaming...I'm probably in the 75°C+ area...and I do it for hours & hours sometimes. We've had folks post theads where they were running 90°C+...and the computer was ok (just hot).

"Hot" does not necessarily = "bad". "Hot" just = "hot";)

Windows based laptops can run hot as well.

- Nick
 

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