Australian Mag Says 17-inch MacBook Pro Hot Enough to Boil Water

Posted 04/27/2010 at 3:12:06am | by Jason Whong

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• An Australian computer magazine says the inside of the new MacBook Pro is reaching temperatures higher than the boiling point of water when running benchmarks, but may be confused about what processor is in the hardware they tested.

Zara Baxter and John Gillooly of Australian PC Authority said in a recent report that they noticed the high temperatures while reviewing the new 17-inch MacBook Pro.

The pair did not report temperatures on the outside of the case hot enough to boil water. (Sorry, multitaskers who like tea.)

Though the magazine said repeatedly its MacBook Pro had a Core i7 processor in it, there is no such product in the U.S. or Australian Apple Stores, nor did Apple make any reference to such a product in its recent announcements. Rather, the 17-inch MacBook Pro listed in both stores uses a 2.53 GHz Core i5.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro is available with a 2.66 GHz Core i7.

Australian PC Authority said while they were testing the "Core i7-620M based 17-inch MacBook Pro" they noticed problems running benchmarks, and wondered if the processor was getting too hot.

They said they alleviated the problem by turning the MacBook Pro onto its side, exposing the bottom of the computer to the air.

The reviewers then booted into Windows and ran more tests, and said the processor's cores approached the boiling point of water.

Baxter and Gillooly left the MacBook Pro to cool off overnight, and were able to make the processor's temperature go past water's boling point on the next day, in both Windows and Mac OS X. They said the chassis was hot to the touch, at about 102 degrees Celsius.

Though their screenshot of a tool called HWMonitor says their MacBook Pro has a Core i5, the writers added an update at the end of the article, saying the software was out of date and "incorrectly reports the CPU as a Core i5."

To make matters more confusing, Intel publishes maximum temperatures for processor cases, but the reviewers were looking at core temperature, not case temperature. But if they were indeed using a MacBook with a Core i7, the high temperatures are within Intel's operating specifications for the processor.

Baxter and Gillooly made no indication of whether they had contacted Apple for a resolution. They did not say whether they used a thermometer to verify the temperatures reported by their software tools.

Moreover, Baxter and Gillooly said nothing about how they acquired a 17-inch MacBook Pro that came equipped with a Core i7 processor.

MacDailyNews has used strong language in a rebuttal.

Editor's note: There is indeed a 17-inch MacBook Pro with a Core i7 processor available in the Apple store. We apologize for any confusion.