MacBook (Pro) Tools

Apple’s MacBook Pro computers are awesome, at least mine is. But one thing bothers me since I’ve got it: it’s called Laptop when it should be called “Burns your lap”-top.

I’ve found two tools that remedy the heat problem: CoolBook and smcFanControl.

smcFanControl

smcFanControl allows you to adjust the minimum sped of the fans in you Mac. If necessary, the fans go faster than your setting, but they shouldn’t go far below that setting. Use it if you want a cooler computer, but you need full power. Of course increasing the speed of your fans will consume more power!

I rarely adjust the fan settings, and leave it at 2300 – 2500 rpm (factory default is 2000 rpm).

CoolBook

CoolBook takes a different approach to cool down your Mac. It underclocks, and underpowers it. Instead of a Intel Core Duo 2 with 2171 MHz at 1.1875 V:

I set my Mac to 1002 MHz at 0.95 V:

These are maximum settings, usually the kernel scales the MHz of the CPU up and down as it needs it. With CoolBook, you can set it to a maximum and tune the volts it uses. CoolBook allows you to define standard settings for battery usage and power adapter usage:

At first I was a bit skeptic about this program, but now – after 2 months of usage I’m happy that I bought it… uh, yes it’s not free, you’ll have to pay 10$.

CoolBook helps you to keep your Mac 1) cool, 2) quiet, and 3) the battery will last longer!

Don’t be fooled by 1GHz processor speed – it’s not comparable with a older processor at 1 GHz! I’m only setting my processor to 2 GHz when I’m compiling something big, but most of the time I don’t even notice that I’m underclocking the machine.

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There it was! A AMD Athlon CPU that wasn’t being overclocked! This was a crime! I felt that I had to right this injustice!—megatokyo