What you're wanting to do is connect the MBP to your monitor, and use your external keyboard and mice instead of working right on the laptop itself, right? And if the question you want answered is the heat problem, I believe that as long as you have some sort of compatible laptop stand or rest, the space between it and the desk ought to be enough. Depends, I suppose.
If the fans or the heat are bothering you, perhaps regulating energy use will help. Under System Preferences, go to "Energy Savings". If you plan on using it as a desktop replacement, you'll want to keep the charger plugged in, so under Power Adapter, click on "Better Energy Savings", or configure it to use less power for you. And if you need to change the battery settings, go to "Battery" in the energy savings pane and optimize it for better life when it's not plugged in. Also, reducing screen brightness helps.
That said, running multiple CPU intensive tasks will make your fans work. Download the iStat Pro widget from Apple's Downloads site if you want to monitor how the MBP is working from the Dashboard.
I bet that this may help some, but your fans will continue to work hard. My MBP generates lots of heat whether I'm doing a lot of things at once with it or not. Since you'll be using external devices, you may not be able to prevent it completely. As long as there is some circulation, you should be fan. There are some stands and pads that have fans built in to cool off laptops, so you could look into those if you want.
Hope this helps,
-BMF
I've switched my main computer from a desktop Dell to a macbook pro (running vmfusion windows as needed). It slides very nicely under my flat-screen monitor and I have depth on my desk to allow a wireless keyboard and mouse in front of it. But I can't turn it on without opening it up which involves moving the keyboard, sliding it out, etc, so I'm inclined to let it sleep rather than turning it off.
What concerns me is the heat generated. I can raise it off the desktop about 1/2 inch so there's some air circulation, but is this enough? It seems awfully hot in the morning. Is there any setting I can make to run the fan (if there is one?) more efficiently?
Otherwise, I'm quite happy with the switch (I used macs for years, so it's a kind of return home for me).
TIA for advice
Clare (Briegull)

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