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I recently bought a i9 - 32GB/1TB MacBook Pro. I find it very uncomfortable in using it lap. It is very hot after 10 min of use, even with common activities like browsing (Firefox) and couple of text editors open. Any suggestions on designing a custom 3d-printed back panel with more space and ventilation option would help? I do not mind additional thickness, say 2mm. I don’t want to use a cooling pad. And I’m worried about the lifespan of ~$4000 computer due to thermal condition. What would you suggest?
There really is nothing you can do in 2 mm of space. You could use a towel, but the heat will transfer to the towel over time and back onto you. The ideal solution would be to create a water cooled pad to suck the heat and get rid of it in the base sitting on the floor next to you. Apple messed up when they jumped to the i9 in such a thin frame (no room for proper cooling). If you can I would return it and instead get the i7 which runs cooler! When Intel gets to the sub 10 nm scaling then the i9 will be a workable CPU in a thin laptop! Keep in mind your system is throttled from its chips full ability because of the limits of its cooling. I know of two people who returned there’s because of the heat issues.
Depending on where you are, room temperature might as well influence quite a bit the feeling of discomfort caused by a laptop. I don’t have an i9 processor in any of the Macs I have around, but for the last 2 months anything on my lap was more or less intolerable unless it was two legged ;) I’d try recommend a couple of trials to see if it makes things better..try install menumeters https://member.ipmu.jp/yuji.tachikawa/Me…, it’s a beautiful piece of software keeping essential informations at hand in the menubar, including processor usage. Sometimes Firefox gets stuck doing heaven knows what at 35% processor power or above until fans start spinning. At least you’ll be able to tell what’s happening under the hood..activity monitor in utilities folder will give deeper infos if processor seems to be overworking for no reason. Try and install Macsfancontrol https://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-con…, or one of the likes and choose a personalized fan controlling to start increasing fans speed earlier than Apple programmed..you can revert back to Auto anytime with a couple clicks.
Have you updated to the latest macOS? I have the same exact model (MBP 15 2018, i9, 32GB, 1TB) and mine doesn’t heat up unless I do really intensive things like exporting videos, or gaming. I use it on a daily basis for school and I have no issues with it except for weight.
I would recommend to you to use an utility called Turbo Boost Switcher. Thermals are much better when using it and performance drop is negligible (20% in real world but –20 Celsia and 1/2 of battery drainage from CPU)
