MacBook Pro and the Winter Cold

Lately I've gotten used to the idea of taking my laptop outside, simply because of the ambient effect. It is far more enjoyable to sit outside in the sun with eyes resting on the green grass below, the surrounding vegetation or whatever scenery is offered in the sky above.

The feeling of being on the Internet while simultaneously rolling around in the grass brings along a somewhat perverse pleasure of comforting thought that for that one moment everything seems to be at hand's reach and yet still remaining completely relaxed.

The only obstacle is laptop's battery life... and in the winter - low temperatures. These make my usually sweaty Toppy dangerously cold and though it may seem that freezing air is beneficial for my silver companion, the truth is quite the opposite.

As I already wrote before about a faulty nVidia GPU when talking about my Toppy, the GPU temperature as seen on the picture seems much too high to be viewed as regular in these freezing conditions, especially when you compare it to the CPU temperature.

In addition, if it does actually have a faulty GPU, then exposing Toppy to extreme temperature shifts during its operation will significantly reduce its GPU's lifespan.

The same goes for its hard disk drive whose temperature of around 20ºC is almost pushing the limit of safe operating temperature. As Google's research on this subject has shown, lower temperatures in hard disks are associated with higher failure rates.

The reason for that most likely lies in devastating contraction of materials that hardware components are made of during temperature shifts and their physical properties that favor warmer environments.

Of course, in the end it's still up to me to decide whether I prefer a healthier laptop or some fresh winter air on a peaceful sunny day. For now I'll stick to the latter.