Comment by luke5441

12 hours ago

I have an Air. Maybe active cooling prevents it from getting too hot. With the Air, the metal body is kind of the heatsink.

I can configure my Snapdragon plastic laptop such that the fan doesn't turn on, so the body being metal isn't a requirement for not turning on the fan...

4 comments

luke5441

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p_ing  11 hours ago

If the body was a heatsink, it would be extremely hot to the touch.

https://hothardware.com/news/make-your-m1-macbook-air-perfor...

  • nandomrumber  11 hours ago

    From your link:

    Essentially the bottom cover of the MacBook Air becomes one large heatsink

    Anyway, the author claims:

    you are the type that likes to work with the MacBook Air on your lap it will be quite a bit more toasty than before.

    Does toasty mean extremely hot?

    The Apple M4 CPU is, if I recall correctly, capable of converting 20 watts of electrical energy in to heat, at full throttle.

    Is that likely to bring the back plate or a MBA above 45 degrees?

    You’re probably right, with sustained workloads it could.

    Everything’s a trade off.