How to minimize hinge wear on MBP?

Since I bought my MBP at the end of December, I've been putting it to sleep by closing the lid, mainly because I'm changing locations a lot and need to close the computer before moving it.
This means the lid is being opened and closed many times a day.
But now, after reading a number of posts on these forums regarding hinge issues (popping sounds) I'm wondering whether it's better to minimize wear on the hinge by leaving the MBP lid open whenever possible, i.e. leave it on a desk and just put it to sleep using the finder menu rather than closing the lid.
With my iBook G4 I never worried about this, and after several years of use, the hinge one day made a cracking noise and since then has been slightly wobbly and looser on closing...
Is hinge wear something I need to be concerned about with my MacBook Pro? One of the reasons I upgraded was for the more robust build (aluminum vs plastic).
I hope the hinge is more durable.

Lutetia - I don't think this is something to be overly concerned with. The lids are designed to be opened and closed. I think most of the people in the forum that have had problems with their lid are due to Manf. defects in a small percentage of machines sold. I do the same as you - I open and close the lid probably between 3 to 6 times a day and it still seems solid as a rock and does not make any noise (knock on wood . I've had mine since Nov. '08.
M.

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Dear Mac Users
I know the theme of hot MacBook Pro's has been done to death, but I would like to add my two pennyworth with respect to the specific question: How do I know if my MBP will benefit from reapplication of the heatsink compound? I have trawled numerous very long threads here and not found a satisfactory answer. The reapplication of the heatsink paste is a bit of a schlep and not without some risk of breaking it, so it would be good to know if the benefit is worth the risk.
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http://www.intelmactemp.com/list
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So that fixed the major heat problem. However, the question remained, would I see any further improvements by stripping the thing down and reapplying the heatsink paste? What I was looking for in this forum was a rule of thumb based on temperature measurements to help me make an informed decision on whether to strip the thing down. As my machine was out of warranty, I wasn't worried about voiding that. Also, where I am there is zero support (Africa), so Genius Bar or similar was not an option. But jiggering a 14month (very expensive) laptop was not something I wanted to do for thrills. The data in many of the posts did not provide any answers. In the end I made some measurements and decided to do the fix. The step by step instructions I followed were very clear and can be found for many Macs/models at:
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Note all temperatures were measured at an ambient temperature of 20C on a flat, hard surface using Marcel Bresink's Temperature Monitor. Fan speed was measured using the Fan Control software - set to allow firmware control at idle.
Apple original heat sink paste - big dollop of grey crud and lots of extrusion at the sides.
Idle
CPU 43C
GPU 38C
Heat Sink 2 36C
Heat Sink 3 35C
Fan Speeds 2000rpm
Full Load (all cores maxed with a Boinc Distributed Computing Project (Rosetta - the project, not the Apple technology).
CPU 89C
GPU 57C
Heat Sink 2 52C
Heat Sink 3 49C
Fan Speeds 6200rpm
Arctic Silver heat sink paste
Idle
CPU 38C
GPU 34C
Heat Sink 2 33C
Heat Sink 3 32C
Fan Speeds 2000rpm
Full Load
CPU 86C
GPU 59C
Heat Sink 2 50C
Heat Sink 3 50C
Fan Speeds 6200rpm
Back to my original question: How do I know if my MBP will benefit from reapplication of the heatsink compound? I think temperatures alone will not give a good answer - mainly because the CPU probably has variable output - due to turbo boost. One thing I did notice is that the temperature response of the CPU when it gets switched to full load, does vary according to the quality of the heatsink paste. With the original Apple paste, when I switched the CPU to full load (from idle) the temperature of the CPU went up to its maximum almost instantaneously and stayed at that level ie the graph of temperature vs time was a step function. This suggests that the CPU may be controlling the temperature by throttling itself. Otherwise, as the heatsink warmed up, the CPU should also rise in temperature - mine stayed bang on 90C and fluctuated only by a degree either side. After application of heat sink paste, the CPU has a much larger effective thermal mass and consequently heats up much more slowly. Turning the CPU up to maximum from idle resulted in the temperature climbing to a maximum over about 3-4s. After peaking at around 92C it dropped back as the fans kicked in, to around 86C.
So perhaps one way of assessing the quality of your heatsink paste is to ramp the CPU to maximum from idle and look at the shape of the temperature profile. A step function suggests a lousy job and benefit may be had from reapplication. A more gently sloping profile, followed by a dip due to the fans kicking in, may suggest you are in good shape. Obviously, this presupposes that your Mac temperatures are not insanely hot to start with (i.e. high 90sC+). In which case, if defluffing doesn't do the job, then new heatsink paste is almost certainly required.
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How to minimize hinge wear on MBP?

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