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Idk, I am no expert but I tend to believe that a design that is shipped to millions of customers and only a handful report problems is probably designed better

by pokot0 5y ago

Idk, I am no expert but I tend to believe that a design that is shipped to millions of customers and only a handful report problems is probably designed better than what the average youtuber or forum commenter can assess. Apple is known to remove elements from their design in order to optimize. That big and heavy heat pipe seems like a perfect element to remove. And maybe it is a mistake. That happened before and they iterated over it and turned the design into an advantage most of the times. Judging and say "does nothing" is very naive in my opinion and I am pretty confident that everything in that designed is planned pretty accurately.

slezyr 5y ago
Cool, but why does a new and more power-efficient M1 laptop has it[1], and it's much bigger than this one? Apple is also known for not admitting its design failures. 1: https://www.zdnet.com/a/hub/i/2020/11/20/ab77bd9b-edc0-419f-aae5-bc14ea000bf6/2020-11-20-08-11-01.jpg https://www.zdnet.com/a/hub/i/2020/11/20/ab77bd9b-edc0-419f-...
- foldr 5y ago
  The M1 MacBook Air has no fan, so you can’t really compare its cooling design to the previous MacBook Air. Given that it’s fanless, it would hardly be surprising if it had bigger passive cooling devices. The idea that a cooling fan needs to “blow on” the thing that it’s cooling is just dumb. As long as the path from the fan to the CPU is sealed, it makes no difference at all how far away the fan is. (Think of a wing being tested in a wind tunnel. The fan that’s making the ‘wind’ doesn’t need to be placed right up against the wing for this to work!) A heat pipe gives you more layout flexibility because it lets you place the fan somewhere where it can’t generate airflow directly over the CPU. Given that a heat pipe can’t be 100% efficient at transferring heat, a design with a heat pipe is actually less efficient, all else being equal.
hu3 5y ago
They also shipped millions of faulty butterfly keyboards for years. So history tells me your confidence is misplaced. > I am pretty confident that everything in that designed is planned pretty accurately.

by pokot0 5y ago

slezyr 5y ago

Cool, but why does a new and more power-efficient M1 laptop has it[1], and it's much bigger than this one? Apple is also known for not admitting its design failures. 1: https://www.zdnet.com/a/hub/i/2020/11/20/ab77bd9b-edc0-419f-aae5-bc14ea000bf6/2020-11-20-08-11-01.jpg https://www.zdnet.com/a/hub/i/2020/11/20/ab77bd9b-edc0-419f-...

foldr 5y ago
The M1 MacBook Air has no fan, so you can’t really compare its cooling design to the previous MacBook Air. Given that it’s fanless, it would hardly be surprising if it had bigger passive cooling devices. The idea that a cooling fan needs to “blow on” the thing that it’s cooling is just dumb. As long as the path from the fan to the CPU is sealed, it makes no difference at all how far away the fan is. (Think of a wing being tested in a wind tunnel. The fan that’s making the ‘wind’ doesn’t need to be placed right up against the wing for this to work!) A heat pipe gives you more layout flexibility because it lets you place the fan somewhere where it can’t generate airflow directly over the CPU. Given that a heat pipe can’t be 100% efficient at transferring heat, a design with a heat pipe is actually less efficient, all else being equal.

hu3 5y ago

They also shipped millions of faulty butterfly keyboards for years. So history tells me your confidence is misplaced. > I am pretty confident that everything in that designed is planned pretty accurately.