2012-03-21, 13:13
First of all, hello to all and thanks in advance for your feedbacks/opinions/ideas and others this thread would bring up
Here is my actual setup :
- Plasma TV (Panasonic TX-PF46ST30)
- Macbook Pro 15" 2010 (i5 2,4 / 4Gb / IntelHd + nVidia GT330m)
- XBMC Eden
- Lion 10.7.3
- Drobo connected to the MBP by firewire.
XBMC works flawlessly and the MBP plays everything I throw at it, mostly 1080p mkvs'.
My predicament :
When XBMC is simply launched and updating the library, the MBP CPU runs high and the fans start throttling at 4000rpm.
When watching big 1080p files (eg. StarWars BD rip or Disney BD rips) the CPU peeks at 70°C and the fans go to 6000rpm.
Speedfan control is installed but seems to have no effect.
I know that having the MBP closed and connected to the TV in station mode doesn't help with it's heat management, and I've abandonned the idea of having it run quieter.
So I décided to replace the MBP with either the latest Mac mini or the latest Apple TV.
But here is where I need your combined help : the MBPs' fans running at 6000rpm is a disturbance and a growing pain when watching movies.
My primary concern is the noise factor.
I have read a fair amount of threads and came up with the following issues :
- Mac Mini i5 + AMD GPU : good solution overall, but I need some feedbacks of owners of this solution concerning the noise factor and performance.
- Mac Mini quad core i7 + Intel HD : obviously overkill CPU wise but assures that is should play everything beeing throwed at it, but seems rather noisy. Any feedbacks on that ?
- ATV jailbreaked : obviously silent because fanless, but limited performances when it comes to 1080p content. Has anyone tried out the latest ATV3 and it's performance ?
Additionnally concerning those who went through similar endeavour of switching MBP based mediacenters for something else, I'd love to have details and experience returns
Here is my actual setup :
- Plasma TV (Panasonic TX-PF46ST30)
- Macbook Pro 15" 2010 (i5 2,4 / 4Gb / IntelHd + nVidia GT330m)
- XBMC Eden
- Lion 10.7.3
- Drobo connected to the MBP by firewire.
XBMC works flawlessly and the MBP plays everything I throw at it, mostly 1080p mkvs'.
My predicament :
When XBMC is simply launched and updating the library, the MBP CPU runs high and the fans start throttling at 4000rpm.
When watching big 1080p files (eg. StarWars BD rip or Disney BD rips) the CPU peeks at 70°C and the fans go to 6000rpm.
Speedfan control is installed but seems to have no effect.
I know that having the MBP closed and connected to the TV in station mode doesn't help with it's heat management, and I've abandonned the idea of having it run quieter.
So I décided to replace the MBP with either the latest Mac mini or the latest Apple TV.
But here is where I need your combined help : the MBPs' fans running at 6000rpm is a disturbance and a growing pain when watching movies.
My primary concern is the noise factor.
I have read a fair amount of threads and came up with the following issues :
- Mac Mini i5 + AMD GPU : good solution overall, but I need some feedbacks of owners of this solution concerning the noise factor and performance.
- Mac Mini quad core i7 + Intel HD : obviously overkill CPU wise but assures that is should play everything beeing throwed at it, but seems rather noisy. Any feedbacks on that ?
- ATV jailbreaked : obviously silent because fanless, but limited performances when it comes to 1080p content. Has anyone tried out the latest ATV3 and it's performance ?
Additionnally concerning those who went through similar endeavour of switching MBP based mediacenters for something else, I'd love to have details and experience returns