CoolBook makes your MacBook/MacBook Pro cooler

Definitely a great app, thank you for writing about it.

Another thing. If your notebook is running hot, remove the battery as often as you can. The heat is killing it!

http://mobilityguru.com/2006/11/02/how_notebook_batteries_work_and_why_they_blow_up/page3.html

"As a matter of fact Fan Control/SmcFanControl can also save you power, but just at the expense of heat."

As the fan speed increases, the power consumption increases as well.
Another problem with the higher fan speed is the dust accumulation in the heatsink.
Some laptop manufacturers recommended that you clean the heatsink on a regular basis because of this.

This thing really works, i used to constantly be over 60 degrees (celcius), with this i'm around 50

I've had my MacBook Pro since last Friday and it hasn't really gotten to hot to have on my lap. I wonder if they've changed things in recent models or if this is a benefit of the new Core 2 Dual

Yeah... I'm not sure about this. It seems like one of those "accidents waiting to happen" kind of things. I was just checking out Intel's website about the core duo and found the thermal specs to be at 100ºC. Other documentation listed max temp at 125ºC! I also found the minimum voltage to operate correctly is 1.25V to 1.4V.

I switched over a year ago and used an iBook for that time. It got warm, but not hot—it never got uncomfortable. It's my opinion Mac users have just been spoiled. We have powerful machines and Intel has given us good stuff. Other laptop users have been dealing with heat for a while (with the exception of those tiny laptops), we're just learning the ropes here.

I have a 17"MBP Core Duo and the thing can run awfully hot, but never gets near 100º. Nothing is broken. We should just leave well enough alone.

Most of you are forgetting that a under-clocked system can be just as unstable much as it is with a over-clocked one.

I HIGHLY recommend you don't mess with voltage/freq settings unless you are absolutely sure you know what you are doing. And know the consequences that you can permanently damage your laptop.

SmcFanControl is a nice piece of software, but after trying "Fan Control," I feel it is better in its execution.

As a matter of fact Fan Control/SmcFanControl can also save you power, but just at the expense of heat.

Yes, finally. When I'm on the road (i.e. on battery power), I've always thought it would be nice if I could lock the core at its lowest frequency. Normally the Core * Duo's dynamically raise and lower the CPU frequency, depending on a variety of factors (system load -- or how "busy" the CPU is, etc.). So, theoretically, the CPU should run at its slowest (and most power saving mode) when you aren't doing much of anything, and it gradually increases core frequency (and hence uses more power) as you start doing more intensive tasks.

HOWEVER, I notice that even when I'm doing nothing special (e.g. just web browsing, or typing something in TextEdit without anything but the normal Unix background processes), my CPU frequency still jumps around like a teenage rabbit with a bad case of ADD. This is particularly annoying when I'm using the computer on the road (i.e. untethered to power), as in those situations I tend to want to squeeze every last drop of juice out of the battery.

Obviously, if I were doing something like encoding video or whatever (i.e. highly demanding tasks), I'd want the CPU to ramp up; but if I'm just doing normal web stuff, word processing, or even listening/watching to podcasts/iTunes videos or DVD's (the lowest core freq of 1.0GHz is still way more than is necessary for DVD playback, word processing, web surfing, or other menial tasks), I can, with this program, lock the CPU to its lowest and slowest setting and still get acceptable performance but eke out as much battery life as I can in the process.

Perfect, I can wait to try this app out. This was one of the few things I missed from my old Compaq notebook, and had almost given up hope of finding something similar for my MBP.

How do I know if my mac is running too warm? Typically it sits between 120F and 140F during normal usage. If it ever gets above 140F I usually put it to rest.

But those are just arbitrary numbers and I don't know if it can run hotter or if it should be running cooler