No doubt about it, the Intel CoreDuo family of processors have changed the mobile device world; you get a nice compromise between computing power and battery life. Rob Bushway left a question earlier today that got me looking for a way to monitor the CPU heat in a MacBook Pro, hence a Freeware of the Moment. CoreDuoTemp is a small, free utility that provides your CPU temperature, usage and clock frequency. This menulet sits in your Menu bar but can be expanded for additional information. The small download is here; while you’re downloading, I’m going to share some CPU information under certain scenarios.
Before I even start, I realize that there are other factors that contribute to notebook heat. For now, I’m just going to focus on the CPU as a starting point. Remember that my MacBook Pro has the 2.33 GHz Intel Core2Duo. I’ve got the computer running with just Finder and my web browser of choice, Camino. I did open Grab to get a screen capture and of course, I’m running the CoreDuoTemp application as well. I’m certainly not taxing the CPU in this situation as it shows only 3% usage with a temperature of 117-degrees Fahrenheit.
OK, let’s fire up Entourage for some e-mail and how about iTunes. I never get to see "Rules of Engagement" on Monday nights because we watch "24", so we’ll view the latest episode of that as well. I’ve already downloaded the show, so that’s not part of the equation here. The temp went up a little bit, we’re at 124-degrees but after a few minutes, the temp seemed to level out around 122-degrees. We’re definitely using more horsepower, but at 25% utilization, we’re still looking good.
I mentioned in a response to Rob’s comment that my MBP runs warm but not unbearably warm…until I run Windows Vista apps under Parallels. Let’s see what the temperature difference is once we kick of the virtual machine. Luckily, I have a pair of asbestos-lined pants to give this a try. ;)
As the virtual machine with Vista started up, I saw the temp spike up near 160, but it generally averaged out to be 154-degrees as shown here. This really isn’t or shouldn’t be an earth-shattering revelation when you think about the situation: you’re essentially running two different operating systems on two different machines using one processor.
This doesn’t mean I won’t use Parallels to run Vista apps on my Mac by any means. I bought this machine for several reasons and running Vista is certainly one of them. I do think I’ll try to find Mac equivalents of software when I can, but I’ll still keep the option to run native Windows apps as well. Although you readers have suggested some great "killer apps" for the Mac, I still think I’ll be using OneNote 2007 for the foreseeable future. ;)
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