Do you dock your macbook?

March 14, 2008 2:07 PM

Which would make a better Mostly-Always-On-Mac: a Mini, or a MacBook running with the lid closed?

I'm soon to be replacing my trusty old G4 Mini with an Intel Mac.
I use it like the desktop that it is, and the tiny size fits my tiny space.

I'm torn between simply replacing it with a newer Intel Mini, or getting a Black MacBook.

The MacBook gives me several options that the Mini doesn't:
1) I can have a laptop for when I want a laptop, duh
2) I can have more than 2gb RAM without having to break out the putty knife and void my warranties, applecare, etc.
3) ?-your contribution here-?

On the other hand, 90% of the time, my hypothetical MacBook would be on the desk, running with the lid closed under the monitor stand (it's a small desk) grabbing torrents, being remotely accessed, etc - so really running, not sleeping peacefully.

Which raises questions:
1) will that work? can / how do macbooks run with lid closed?
I'm not going to have to open it up and juggle settings every time I restart or something, am I?
2) does that risk damage/performance issues? I know the old mac laptops used to vent CPU heat through the keyboard - I don't wanna bake the thing.
3) ?-your contribution here-?

Of course, all this would be solved by the existence of the long-awaited-by-some Apple Docking Station (hint hint, Steve). Two products intrigue me: a kind of ugly port replicator (except for power) by BookEndz, and a vertical clamp type thing from Balmuda which I could hack together myself instead of paying $300 for a chunk of machined aluminum.

So, does anyone run a macbook with the lid closed 24/7 (okay, maybe 21/6.25)? What works for you?

posted by bartleby to computers & internet (15 comments total)

Are you sure the MacBook doesn't disconnect your network connections when you close it? My iBook G4 does this. If it doesn't, I would go with the MacBook. I have both an iBook and a Mac Mini G4, and while I love both, the iBook is one damn fine computer; of the MacBooks I've used, I'm sure I would say the same of them if I owned one.
posted by Brocktoon at 2:13 PM on March 14, 2008

I can argue both sides of this one...

I have done this most of my grown-up life, using a MacBook (or PowerBook in the olden days) closed more than 90 percent of the time. Basically, it's been on my desk unless I went on a trip somewhere. It has always worked fine and well. Even with the "risky" old laptops that you weren't supposed to run closed, I still did this, and didn't ever have a problem in many many years (decades) of use.

(At the moment, I use Mac Pros on some desks and Minis on others, depending if I'm doing hardcore work or just lightweight web/writing stuff, with a MacBook that's ONLY a portable, but this period in my MacLife is the exception to my usual pattern. I'm sure I'll be back to the portable-as-desktop sooner or later.)

Minis and MacBooks of the same generation can be configured with almost identical specs, and the performance is similarly identical. A Mini has more USB ports... but there's really not much difference, since a Mini is pretty much made from laptop parts anyway.

A comparable MacBook, though (same HD, same memory, same optical drive) will cost more than the Mini, since you're paying for a screen you never use. I don't know how much of a factor that is for you.

Those port replicators are silly. If you're not taking it in and out every day (you say it'll be 90 percent desktop), how much work is it, exactly, to plug in a few USB cables and a monitor? 10 seconds? If you bundle the cables all together tidily, it's even organized looking.

You can take a laptop to bed to watch a movie after you're done at your desk.

You won't drop and break a Mini you never move.
posted by rokusan at 2:17 PM on March 14, 2008

Brock, my MBP loses its network connection for a moment when I close/open it, but it finds it again, along with any new ones (wifi networks etc) in about five seconds. It's like a brief sleep/wake cycle. This might snap an FTP or HTTP download, but it definitely wouldn't hurt any torrents, which are by nature very resilient things. When traveling, I've had torrents finish in different time zones than they started, with several hours of pausing in between.

Some folks at work have BlackBooks. I think they're sexier-looking than the Pros, and they have a great feel. Apple's got things kind of backwards, line-wise.
posted by rokusan at 2:22 PM on March 14, 2008

My wife does this with her MBP, using it as a desktop 95% of the time... In typically Apple style, it just seems to work, without her having to do anything other than attach the USB kb/mouse and monitor (via DVI). The only time she opens the lid is when she shuts it down (not often) and has to push the power switch to start it again (why does apple put the power switch on the inside, anyway?).. BTW, this is unlike Vista on the bootcamp partition, where you have to boot with the screen open and then open and close it three times until Vista finally realises that you want it to display JUST on the external monitor!

The advantage for her is that it is still a laptop when we do go away, so she justs packs it up and still has all her same files, programs etc when we stay at the father-in-laws house... Of course, with MBP, we paid a big premium for this convenience and I wonder sometimes whether it was worth it (we don't use it as a laptop much!)...
posted by ranglin at 3:24 PM on March 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

I think a macbook is going to get a lot hotter if it's constantly running in lid-closed mode than a mac mini will. I basically don't use mine in lid-closed mode because it gets so much hotter (and I like having two screens -- don't forget that macbooks, unlike unmodded ibooks, can run in screen-spanning mode, not just mirroring). The heat is presumably within the design tolerances (unlike ibooks, they do not vent through the keyboard, and are designed to allow lid-closed mode), but I personally wouldn't want mine to be that hot all the time.
posted by advil at 3:26 PM on March 14, 2008

I think a macbook is going to get a lot hotter if it's constantly running

Weird. My Minis get hotter than my closed MacBook Pro, and the fans run more often. The MBP gets much hotter used open than when closed, in fact.

If you disregard the screen (which is off when closed anyway), there is very very little difference, internally, between a MacBook and same-spec Mini. The motherboard, RAM and video are almost identical components, the drives are even the same... they're just stacked with the HD under the DVD, instead of spread out left-right. A Mini is damn near a screenless MacBook, cut in half and restacked into a square shape.

(why does apple put the power switch on the inside, anyway?)

So it doesn't turn itself on and off by surprise in your bag?
posted by rokusan at 4:31 PM on March 14, 2008

One advantage to using the laptop as a server is that it comes with its own uninterruptible power supply, and shuts down gracefully when that runs out...
posted by Armitage Shanks at 4:57 PM on March 14, 2008

Every morning my MacBook Pro gets "docked" to an external mouse/keyboard/fw drive and a nice 24" Dell monitor. Lid closed, all day. As one expects from Apple, it's "slick by default." No issues with resolution switching, wifi vs. wired (thanks, MarcoPolo).

The comment about it having it's own uninterruptible power supply is a good one, and should be considered, particularly if you live in a place with frequent power anomalies, as I do. It's just one less reason why you might lose work.

Even if the portability isn't a strong consideration for you, it will be a very nice thing to have.

Moving up from a G4 to a Core2Duo machine will be a great upgrade, which ever way you go. I love the size of our Mac mini, people that come over constantly are marveling at it "That's the *whole* computer?"

Cost aside, I'd go with the MacBook, just for the extra portability it provides. You really will be spoiled by it.
posted by eafarris at 5:23 PM on March 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

iBooks weren't designed for closed-lid operation (PowerBooks could handle it): you can dink about with a preference to enable it, but it's not recommended. Both the MB and MBPs set up to allow it, and you can disable the sleep mode.

It really depends on what you do with it. I'm tempted to say that you should get the MB if you actually want a laptop, the mini if you really just want a bit of OS X with a bit more fileserver, and possibly a generic homebuild *NIX box if you want pure fileserver.

The weakest bit of my iBook has been its hard drive, though -- it's on its third -- and having a laptop drive spun up all the time churning on I/O (i.e. torrenting) may shorten the life of that HD. The mini uses a similar HD, though, so that may be much of a muchness.
posted by holgate at 7:10 PM on March 14, 2008

Even with the putty knife, the Mini tops out at 2GB.
posted by Caviar at 7:26 PM on March 14, 2008

In my view, Macbooks already have problems from running too hot even with the screen open. Take it for what it's worth, but I've seen a lot of lemon MBs, and most of them have heat problems.

As for this:


Yeah, the problem I've seen is that it doesn't turn itself OFF when it's in your bag, and you arrive at your destination with a nearly dead battery and a blazing hot machine.

As for Blackbooks being cooler looking than MBPs, I made that mistake when I bough a Blackbook that turned out to be a heat-seeking disaster. Then I got a nice MBP and put a black plastic covering shell on it ($20) so it looks almost like a Blackbook. And it works, which the Macbook did not much of the time.

I hate Macbooks after my experiences with my own and several friends' machines.
posted by fourcheesemac at 11:10 PM on March 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

To echo what others have said, my gut reaction is that a macbook (mine is an amateur edition purchased last August) runs too hot to leave unattended for a long time. I would definitely look at using a mini for this purpose. I used to run a mini-itx homebrew machine as a server running Windows, but decided even it consumed too much electricity, so now I just run a Linksys NAS running Debian with USB flash drives as pictured on my webpage, although that may not be enough horsepower for whatever purpose you have in mind.
posted by thomas144 at 5:02 AM on March 15, 2008

I never understood people who close the lid on their laptops and only use half of their desktop space. It is like only using half your kitchen and leave the rest locked off. You can have a full extra screen that can be used for your email-application or browser or whatever while using the main monitor for work, and the screen on the laptop is not a cheap one, so it is the most expensive dead furniture on the desk if not used.

Apart from that: a desktop machine can also act as a server while a laptop only can while it is not sleeping. I have both and will never give up neither :-)
posted by KimG at 9:13 AM on March 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

I never understood people who close the lid on their laptops and only use half of their desktop space.

I am a big fan of multiple monitors (I have three on my Mac Pro and it's quite lovely), but I don't use my MBP's internal screen when connected to an external monitor... I find the difference in dot pitch, angle, location and so on too distracting. It doesn't feel 'natural' enough.

YM obviously Vs, of course.
posted by rokusan at 7:59 PM on March 20, 2008

Lid closed mode doesn't work for me. I run my keyboard and mouse through a USB hub and it won't turn on when I hit a key. I have to leave it open, as a result. YMMV, but I kind of wish I'd gotten a mini instead.
posted by jewzilla at 5:51 PM on March 25, 2008