Comparing the temps of a Core Duo to a Core 2 Duo

I took some temperature benchmarks comparing the MacBook Pro (Core Duo) and MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo). The results substantiate what I uncovered in a previous post about the Core 2 Duo running significantly cooler than the Core Duo.

For this test I took both a Core Duo MBP (2.0GHz) and a Core 2 Duo MBP (2.33GHz) and booted them into a clean OS X account at the same time. Both were connected to power and Energy Saver settings were optimized for high performance.

I let both machines run the Nature Patterns screen saver for an hour then took 12 temperature readings from the top and 12 readings from the bottom and compared them. Readings were taken using a MasterCool 52224 infrared thermometer gun.

Click through for the numbers...

Temperatures (in °F) from 12 locations on the top case after one hour:

Top	CD (°F)	C2D (°F)	Difference (°F)
1	111	90	21°F
2	104	89	15
3	103	90	13
4	103	90	13
5	99	85	14
6	98	85	13
7	96	84	12
8	91	83	8
9	90	80	10
10	92	80	12
11	83	80	3
12	80	80	0

Temperatures (in °F) from 12 locations on the bottom case after one hour:

Bottom	CD (°F)	C2D (°F)	Difference (°F)
1	104	91	13°F
2	110	96	14
3	113	96	17
4	110	92	18
5	96	86	10
6	99	87	12
7	101	83	18
8	101	87	14
9	89	82	7
10	90	82	8
11	94	82	12
12	93	82	11

As you can see the Core 2 Duo machine runs significantly cooler than the Core Duo it replaces. Observed temperatures were as much as 21°F cooler (on the top) and as much as 18°F cooler (on the bottom).