[P1] Portable Heat

[Richard McKay]

Video International wrote the following:

> I too, am troubled by the heat issues of the 12". I'm currently
> debating on whether to get a 12" G4 iBook or the PowerBook 12". I had
> thought though that the extreme heat problem was limited to the 12" PB
> (AKA The Ouch Book).

The PowerBook series is known to be considerably hotter than the iBook
series (G3). The G4 series iBooks may well be in the middle of this range of
heat due to the processor.

I personally do not find the G3 iBook heat to be a problem, rather mostly
unnoticeable unless as the original post mentioned when placed on cloth or
other bad conductive surfaces (its also the only time I hear the fan come
on, especially when watching a movie using DVD player). There is no doubt
that heat is not good for the components and that the higher the heat the
shorter life the components will have *but* just how long are you
realistically planning on using that iBook? I would imagine that after 3-5
years there will be some new interesting Gwhatever processor and other
hardware that one may wish to consider...thereby eliminating the component
life issue...
 
> Besides the possibility of the heat decreasing the life of the
> components, there have been reported cases of the heat actually warping
> the body of the 12" PBs! At least on the 1st generation models.

That is certainly more of an issue to this user (me)!
 
> I believe the discomfort from the heat is more prevalent on the PBs, as
> their aluminum cases are better at dissipating heat (right onto your
> lap!). So the components may be safer in the hotter book. I too have
> heard that the problem stems not from the processor, but from the hard
> drive, which is only 4200 RPM.

Agreed, the heat is greatest where the HD is located...this is not really a
new realisation though, any tower (regardless of platform) will have the HD
bays at the top not because of ease of access but due to heat
production...no good having all that heat rising past other components and
adding to their own heat....HD and CD drives are notorious heat producers...
 
> There was a post awhile back on a possible fix (reduction) at Apples
> website:
> <http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?14@141.Qif3abvHk8p.6@.3bc109fc>
> I was told recently by an employee at a Mac retailer that using the
> Panther OS will reduce some of the heat. How, he didn't explain.

Well any advantages from other parts of the OS will no doubt be negated by
the features of the Filevault and defragmentation of smaller files features
that are part of 10.3...suspect more hype here than reality, but that only
my opinion.
 
> So I've been leaning towards getting the G4 iBook and was hoping I
> might come across a hack that would allow me to install iDVD (an
> internal SuperDrive is needed to install iDVD) and another hack to be
> able to use an external DVD drive. But after reading your post about
> the iBooks getting hot as well, it makes the decision that much more
> difficult.

Price may be the best deciding choice...

Not sure about iDVD hacks but the external DVD drive problem is long solved
if I understand you correctly...there are several external DVD drives that
work under X. (careful about Firewire and 10.3 for a while though!) I am
using 10.2.8 (still need time to update to 10.3) and a G3 700 icebook with a
Sony DVD burner (RW+-) by using Toast Titanium 6...(of course the Sony is
not listed as Mac compatible but what's new!)


HTH,

Richard
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