5 Ways to Cool Down Your Hot MacBook

The hotter your computer gets, the slower it runs. Most modern desktops don’t suffer from over-heating problem, but if your main machine is a laptop, you know the painful slowness that heat produces.

To help get your MacBook running back at top speed, are 5 ways to make your Apple laptop cooler:

Know How Hot Your Laptop Is

Before you can treat a problem, you need to know how bad it is. iStat Menus is a program that will tell you exactly how hot your computer is on the inside.

Once you install iStat Menus, you will see this information at the top of your menu bar:

Start paying attention to how well your computer runs and what temperature it is inside. Don’t be surprised at how high the numbers get. My record is 210 degrees.

Click here to download iStat Menus

Use a Laptop Stand

The most effective way to help your hot MacBook is to get a laptop stand.

When trying to cool down your computer, convection currents are your friends. You want the computer to be able to ‘breath’ from every surface so it can get rid of more heat. Placing the computer on a desk prevents the bottom from breathing, while a soft surface that surrounds your laptop can suffocate it by blocking the vents on the back.

Laptops can get so over-heated on soft surfaces that they have to forcibly shut down to prevent damaging themselves.

A laptop stand that maximizes the surfaces exposed to the air are what you’re looking for. If you want something snazzy, you can try the CURV2 laptop stand pictured below. It’s a solid stand, and comes apart easily for travel.

If you don’t want a big stand like that, even a little elevation goes a long way. For the low budget and super portable, try Lifehacker’s suggestion of a cork cut in half. I keep this in my laptop bag at all times for an effective and light stand.

Run Fewer Applications

The more applications you run at the same time, the more the CPU will be used and the hotter your computer will get. If you can spare it, shut down any programs that you don’t need.

If you are unsure what to shutdown, iStat Menus can help, it will show you exactly how much the CPU is being used.

Clicking this icon will bring up a menu showing the five programs that are using the most of your CPU and thus contributing the most to heating up your MacBook.

In this example, you can see that Firefox is the biggest hog, using 41.2% of the CPU and Pandora is the second largest with 10.8%

If you don’t need to use any of these CPU-intensive applications, then shut them down to give your laptop a break.

However, Firefox is a perpetual problem for over-heated laptops, which brings us to the next tip:

Switch from Firefox to Chrome

Love it though I do, Firefox has gone from being the sleek, fast browser it once was to a grindingly-slow memory and CPU hog.

Google’s browser, Chrome, is now what Firefox used to be. It loads quickly and doesn’t constantly eat up the CPU even when apparently doing nothing.

Switching to Chrome has helped keep my MacBook Air at least ten degrees cooler while browsing the web when compared to Firefox.

Click here to install Google Chrome

Use YouTube’s ‘Feather’ Mode

Watching YouTube on many laptops is a an exercise in frustration if the computer is even a little bit overheated. YouTube’s streaming video instantly spikes the CPU to max and boils the computer’s insides.

Recognizing this, YouTube made a light-weight YouTube mode for laptops that’s easier on the CPU and keeps it cooler.

The light-weight YouTube is called ‘feather’ and you can click here to use it on your laptop.

Other Suggestions?

If you know any other tricks or tips for cooling down your Mac laptop, please leave them in the comments below.

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Header photograph by jeremybarwick