chet david
Banned
180, 270, 540, 190, 5300, 3400
I had 180c and it boiled hot. I also had 270c and was cool. How do the others compare?
I had 180c and it boiled hot. I also had 270c and was cool. How do the others compare?
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rank from cool to hottest
- Thread starter chet david
- Start date
Franklinstein
Well-known member
I'd say 190, 180, 270, 540, 5400, 3400. I've never noticed any heat problems with any of mine (I have at least one of each). The 3400 was the only one with a fan, though I've never heard any of mine run it.
chet david
Banned
Which ones does bottom get warm/hot on? My 180c had very hot bottom, but my 270c stayed cool.
Dog Cow
Well-known member
I've had a 5300ce get so hot this summer that it melted the rubber footie. I lifted it off the desk and saw this black mark on the surface. I was like, "what the?..." and then I realized it had melted.
I checked the temp on a digital thermometer. It was 90 degrees F.
In my room. Ambient air.
Which means that the Power Book was probably over 100.
I powered down and put the whole computer in the freezer to cool it off. Then I put it away for the day and scrubbed the rubber off of the desk. :lol:
I checked the temp on a digital thermometer. It was 90 degrees F.
In my room. Ambient air.
Which means that the Power Book was probably over 100.
I powered down and put the whole computer in the freezer to cool it off. Then I put it away for the day and scrubbed the rubber off of the desk. :lol:
chet david
Banned
did the Powerbook raise the room temperature?!
Franklinstein
Well-known member
They all get kind of warm, but none were uncomfortable or disconcerting to me, certainly not compared to modern machines.
The 100 series used squishy thermal transfer pads mushed against the keyboards as heat spreaders (when they used heat spreaders), where the 200 series usually had a fairly large flat metal heat spreader. So, the 270 may have had more effective heat distribution than the 180. Or, your 180's thermal pads may have disintegrated over time.
I've had the rubber feet on mine stick to stuff without the computer running. That ancient rubbery stuff tends to turn to glue.
The 5300s I disassembled either had no thermal compound, or very old thermal compound, so I put new stuff on there before I put them back together. The 1400s used some squishy stuff between the processor and heatsink, as did the 2400 and (I think) the Kanga. The 3400 either had no thermal compound, or it used squishy stuff. The WallStreet started using thermal compound between the processor and that little round cap thing, and then squishy stuff on the larger heat spreader. I forget what the original iBooks used. The TiBooks started using some weird stuff that kind of melted and adhered the processor to the heat spreader. iceBooks kept using squishy stuff. AlBooks use regular thermal paste on both the processor and GPU. I don't remember what the iBook G4s used, either the melty junk or regular paste.
The 100 series used squishy thermal transfer pads mushed against the keyboards as heat spreaders (when they used heat spreaders), where the 200 series usually had a fairly large flat metal heat spreader. So, the 270 may have had more effective heat distribution than the 180. Or, your 180's thermal pads may have disintegrated over time.
I've had the rubber feet on mine stick to stuff without the computer running. That ancient rubbery stuff tends to turn to glue.
The 5300s I disassembled either had no thermal compound, or very old thermal compound, so I put new stuff on there before I put them back together. The 1400s used some squishy stuff between the processor and heatsink, as did the 2400 and (I think) the Kanga. The 3400 either had no thermal compound, or it used squishy stuff. The WallStreet started using thermal compound between the processor and that little round cap thing, and then squishy stuff on the larger heat spreader. I forget what the original iBooks used. The TiBooks started using some weird stuff that kind of melted and adhered the processor to the heat spreader. iceBooks kept using squishy stuff. AlBooks use regular thermal paste on both the processor and GPU. I don't remember what the iBook G4s used, either the melty junk or regular paste.
chet david
Banned
I wish there was a cool one. Is the 190 cool? How is Kanga?
chet david
Banned
my man friend said that his pb 190cs was the best computer he ever own. says it ran system 8.1 fast. makes me curious about getting one, but i do not like hot laptops (like my old pb 180c).
Scott Baret
Well-known member
If you can, spin down the hard drives. This will save a bit of warmth. It's possible to do this from the control strip on some machines (it made a huge difference on my Clamshell), but on others you'll have to find other alternatives.
Using programs that don't access the drive much is also a positive. I have a 180c and usually use MacWrite II on it for word processing. I find it hardly ever uses the drive during normal typing and makes the computer comfortable enough to perch on my knees (I never set computers on my lap). It's a little harder to control these sort of things when you're using virtual memory, so turn it off on any pre-OS X machine.
I found the hottest computer I ever used was an iBook G4 (as I've said before on here, probably the worst Mac I owned and definitely one of Apple's worst in history for reliability and performance). The 100 series isn't too bad; the 180c is a little hotter than some of the others (I've used the 150 and 170 extensively and found both a bit cooler). The clamshell runs cool, my Santa Rosa MacBook is OK as long as it's not taxed, and my old DOS-based Toshiba T1200 was perhaps the best-cooled laptop I have ever used (and that design came out in 1987).
5300s are garbage in every respect except performance. Apple made a lot of junk computers from 1994-1996, and the 5300 was definitely one of the worst. The price was raised by the fast processor, but the quality of the machine itself was poor and the batteries, of course, were infamously recalled not long after it came out. The 190 suffers from some of the same quality flaws (especially with the case plastics) but at least it ran cooler and wasn't a terrible computer for the price. Overall, not a bad machine, definitely better than its PPC cousin.
Here's a tip to cut back on warmth and skip an unreliable component in 1xx series PowerBooks--take out the hard drive, install a decent amount of RAM (4MB minimum), strip down System 7.0.1 or 7.1 with the "mini install", use a RAM disk, load the system to the RAM disk, and run your programs from floppies. You'll be limited to older/smaller programs, but you won't have a hard drive creating extra warmth plus you won't have to worry about your SCSI hard drive conking out at an inconvenient time. I'm currently fixing a 140 to run this way (it has a slight display problem that needs fixed and has no hard drive, but the floppy works fine).
Using programs that don't access the drive much is also a positive. I have a 180c and usually use MacWrite II on it for word processing. I find it hardly ever uses the drive during normal typing and makes the computer comfortable enough to perch on my knees (I never set computers on my lap). It's a little harder to control these sort of things when you're using virtual memory, so turn it off on any pre-OS X machine.
I found the hottest computer I ever used was an iBook G4 (as I've said before on here, probably the worst Mac I owned and definitely one of Apple's worst in history for reliability and performance). The 100 series isn't too bad; the 180c is a little hotter than some of the others (I've used the 150 and 170 extensively and found both a bit cooler). The clamshell runs cool, my Santa Rosa MacBook is OK as long as it's not taxed, and my old DOS-based Toshiba T1200 was perhaps the best-cooled laptop I have ever used (and that design came out in 1987).
5300s are garbage in every respect except performance. Apple made a lot of junk computers from 1994-1996, and the 5300 was definitely one of the worst. The price was raised by the fast processor, but the quality of the machine itself was poor and the batteries, of course, were infamously recalled not long after it came out. The 190 suffers from some of the same quality flaws (especially with the case plastics) but at least it ran cooler and wasn't a terrible computer for the price. Overall, not a bad machine, definitely better than its PPC cousin.
Here's a tip to cut back on warmth and skip an unreliable component in 1xx series PowerBooks--take out the hard drive, install a decent amount of RAM (4MB minimum), strip down System 7.0.1 or 7.1 with the "mini install", use a RAM disk, load the system to the RAM disk, and run your programs from floppies. You'll be limited to older/smaller programs, but you won't have a hard drive creating extra warmth plus you won't have to worry about your SCSI hard drive conking out at an inconvenient time. I'm currently fixing a 140 to run this way (it has a slight display problem that needs fixed and has no hard drive, but the floppy works fine).
chet david
Banned
that is what a shame. I thought the case design looked nice, but too bad it sheds. There was repair extension, but were replacements as prone to shedding?
Scott Baret
Well-known member
I always wonder what a 5300 really cost to manufacture in 1995. Apple was in some pretty serious trouble by late 1995, and it wouldn't surprise me if they overcharged for the 5300 in an attempt to grab a few extra bucks.
beachycove
Well-known member
Apple always overcharged for everything, which is one of the reasons the company got into such financial trouble. Ordinary mortals could not afford to buy their machines/ software. Things are a good deal better today, though there is still a residual expectation that the brand is worth perhaps 20% of the price ("worth" here meaning, of course, what people are prepared to pay).
On the question of heat, I would say that in general, 68030 PBs ran cool, though the earliest colour machines were hot. By the 270c, however, those heat problems associated with the graphics had been dealt with, as it is a very cool-running machine. The 540c runs hotter than a 270c, as does a 190cs and a 280c.
603 PBs come in two main flavours: there was the 603e and the 603ev CPU (in the 2400c and 3400c; not sure about the 1400 series). The 603e @100MHz in my 2300c runs reasonably hot, hotter than the 603ev @180MHz in my 2400c. Presumably a 3400c @ 240MHz would run hotter, but I have never had one of those to test.
On the question of heat, I would say that in general, 68030 PBs ran cool, though the earliest colour machines were hot. By the 270c, however, those heat problems associated with the graphics had been dealt with, as it is a very cool-running machine. The 540c runs hotter than a 270c, as does a 190cs and a 280c.
603 PBs come in two main flavours: there was the 603e and the 603ev CPU (in the 2400c and 3400c; not sure about the 1400 series). The 603e @100MHz in my 2300c runs reasonably hot, hotter than the 603ev @180MHz in my 2400c. Presumably a 3400c @ 240MHz would run hotter, but I have never had one of those to test.
chet david
Banned
Does 5300 get hot as 180c? Maybe the grey scale 190 is cooled. Maybe PB 540 grey scale?
