2020 Air Heatsink Modification Thread

[srkirt]

[QUOTE = "ItsASituation, publicación: 28377971, miembro: 1213360"]
Lo mantendré simple y agradable: creo que el nuevo Macbook Air 2020 tiene teclas de sobrecalentamiento. Claro, tal vez no sea tu computadora portátil la que obtuviste de Apple, pero probablemente verás más y más publicaciones en varios foros a medida que las personas lidien con este problema de sobrecalentamiento.

Mi hermano estaba muy emocionado de obtener su nuevo Macbook Air, desempacarlo, etc., todo lo bueno. Vio las reseñas en YouTube, vio a alguien mencionar algo sobre el sobrecalentamiento, pero pensó que estaban bromeando y no pensó en nada porque, en general, las reseñas se veían bien, ¿verdad? De todos modos, mi hermano está desempacando todo emocionado y comienza a hacer algunas pruebas de estrés para ver cómo funciona la computadora portátil.

Abre la aplicación de la calculadora y la cosa se calienta tanto que sus dedos se queman en cuestión de minutos. Quería que publicara esto para él porque sus dedos se han sentido muy extraños y no puede hacer nada. Hice algunas pruebas yo mismo y tenía razón ... esto es una sartén. No importa qué tarea esté haciendo (ver video, aplicación de calculadora, etc.)

Puedes cocinar un bistec bien hecho o huevos revueltos en esta cosa. No es un chiste.

Mi hermano tuvo una reunión importante en la que también iba a volar este fin de semana, donde iba a llevar su Macbook Air para hacer las cosas, pero ¿adivina qué? Eso no sucede porque la cosa se sobrecalienta a los pocos minutos de realizar cualquier tarea.

Apple le dijo que podrían enviarle una unidad defectuosa ... quiero decir, sí, es posible, pero ¿cuántas otras personas en esta comunidad tendrán este problema? ¿Alguien está hablando de esto todavía?

Este problema se mencionó en Youtube y ahora mi hermano tiene este problema a los pocos minutos de desempaquetar. ¿Crees que no tiene suerte y tiene una unidad defectuosa? No lo sé ... Veremos que las reseñas hablan por sí mismas en las próximas semanas, supongo que para cualquiera que tenga la misma experiencia que mi hermano, pero aún no he visto este problema mencionado con más detalle aquí.
[/CITAR]

I'll just keep it nice and simple: I believe the new 2020 Macbook Air has overheating keys. Sure, maybe not your laptop you got from Apple, but you probably will be seeing more and more posts in various forums as people deal with this overheating issue.

My brother was all excited to get his new Macbook Air, unpack it, etc all that good stuff. He saw the reviews on YouTube, he saw someone mention something about overheating but he thought they were joking around and thought nothing of it because overall, the reviews looked great right? Anyways, my brother is unboxing it all excited and starts doing some stress tests to see how the laptop does.

He opens up the calculator app and the thing gets so hot, his fingers are burning within minutes. He wanted me to post this for him because his fingers have been feeling very strange and he is unable to get anything done. I did some testing myself and he was right....this thing is a frying pan. It does not matter what task you are doing (watching video, calculator app, etc)

You can cook a well done steak or scrambled eggs on this thing. Its no joke.

My brother had a important meeting he was flying out too this weekend which he was going to take his Macbook Air to get things done on - but guess what? That's not happening because the thing overheats within minutes of doing any task.

Apple told him they might of send a defective unit to him......i mean yeah, it is possible but how many other people in this community will have this issue? Is anyone talking about this yet?

This issue was mentioned on Youtube and now my brother has this issue within minutes of unboxing. Do you think he is just unlucky and got a defective unit? I dont know....We will see the reviews speak for themselves over the next few weeks i guess for anyone that deals with the same experience that my brother went thru but i have yet to see this issue mentioned in more detail here.

In my case the experiments are more like taking the heat outside or some bad ones to the back cover and I have done it !! I have managed to lower the general temp and dissipate some heat towards the rear. I have bought a case and I think that the little heat that I feel now I will not notice. By the way my always fresh keys.

 

[srkirt]

[QUOTE = "KPOM, publicación: 28378279, miembro: 505893"]
Apple lo ha construido para funcionar entre 90 y 100 grados cuando la CPU está activa. Pero eso no significa que el caso sea candente. No lo es, en parte porque Apple no está usando la carcasa inferior para la gestión del calor de la CPU por lo que puedo decir.

El problema del video 4K es cuando se reproduce contenido VP9 (que incluye YouTube 4K) porque Apple no admite el códec. Si instala Windows 10 en Boot Camp, funciona, por lo que no es la CPU. El contenido H.265 funciona bien. 1080p funciona bien. Si espera procesar o reproducir contenido VP9 4K, espere el MacBook Pro 2020 (u obtenga un 2019 si no le importa el teclado mariposa).
[/CITAR]

Apple has built it to run between 90-100 degrees when the CPU is active. But that doesn’t mean the case is hot. It isn’t, partly because Apple isn’t using the bottom case for CPU heat management from what I can tell.

The 4K video issue is when playing VP9 content (which includes YouTube 4K) because Apple doesn’t support the codec. If you install Windows 10 in Boot Camp it works so it’s not the CPU. H.265 content works fine. 1080p works fine. If you expect to process or play VP9 4K content, wait for the 2020 MacBook Pro (or get a 2019 if you don’t mind the butterfly keyboard).

I have been surprised !!! It reproduces it without problem and with HDR and it only increases the brightness !!!.
How is it possible that Apple is behind Microsoft in video formats ???
What a disappointment ... and I have tried that on a Macbook 12 "from my wife that is less powerful.
Thanks, I'll take other alternatives for performance ... not that 4K 60fps documentary.

 

[KPOM]

[QUOTE = "KPOM, publicación: 28378279, miembro: 505893"]
Apple lo ha construido para funcionar entre 90 y 100 grados cuando la CPU está activa. Pero eso no significa que el caso sea candente. No lo es, en parte porque Apple no está usando la carcasa inferior para la gestión del calor de la CPU por lo que puedo decir.

El problema del video 4K es cuando se reproduce contenido VP9 (que incluye YouTube 4K) porque Apple no admite el códec. Si instala Windows 10 en Boot Camp, funciona, por lo que no es la CPU. El contenido H.265 funciona bien. 1080p funciona bien. Si espera procesar o reproducir contenido VP9 4K, espere el MacBook Pro 2020 (u obtenga un 2019 si no le importa el teclado mariposa).
[/CITAR]

I have been surprised !!! It reproduces it without problem and with HDR and it only increases the brightness !!!.
How is it possible that Apple is behind Microsoft in video formats ???
What a disappointment ... and I have tried that on a Macbook 12 "from my wife that is less powerful.
Thanks, I'll take other alternatives for performance ... not that 4K 60fps documentary.

Apple is basically in a fight with Google over codecs for 4K. They want the world to adopt h.265 so as not to pay license fees to Google for VP9. Google, naturally, wants to promote VP9.

 

[bill-p]

Apple is basically in a fight with Google over codecs for 4K. They want the world to adopt h.265 so as not to pay license fees to Google for VP9. Google, naturally, wants to promote VP9.

It's not that simple. VP9 is actually more efficient than h.265 as well.

The Great UHD Codec Debate: Google's VP9 Vs. HEVC/H.265

Which delivers better quality, encoding time, and CPU performance-HEVC or VP9? We put them to the test to decide once and for all.

www.streamingmedia.com

So it's not like Google is just pushing the codec for no reason at all. Many of Google's own employees have MacBooks after all. This is more on Apple for not supporting the codec.

Apple's feud with nVidia is also what's hampering OpenGL performance on Mac. Even now, many developers still aren't taking advantage of Metal and their Mac apps suffer compared to the Windows counterpart.

 

[KPOM]

It's not that simple. VP9 is actually more efficient than h.265 as well.

The Great UHD Codec Debate: Google's VP9 Vs. HEVC/H.265

Which delivers better quality, encoding time, and CPU performance-HEVC or VP9? We put them to the test to decide once and for all.

www.streamingmedia.com

So it's not like Google is just pushing the codec for no reason at all. Many of Google's own employees have MacBooks after all. This is more on Apple for not supporting the codec.

"though the difference between x265 and VP9 was negligible and commercially irrelevant"

 

[bill-p]

"though the difference between x265 and VP9 was negligible and commercially irrelevant"

Please don't cherry pick out of context now. That was related to quality.

Here are the relevant bits:

"As you can see, VP9 required slightly lower CPU horsepower than HEVC with the 1280x800 file and was able to play the 1920x1080 VP9 file, while the 1920x1080 HEVC file stopped playing after a few moments. On this relatively old MacBook Pro, VP9 is more playback-friendly."

I'm not defending Google, but I'm totally blaming Apple. And Apple deserves all of the blame. VP9 is royalty-free for playback.

 

[srkirt]

Surprise!!! I have found through the junk in my basement an old pc with a large heatsink. I have taken several plates and put them on top of each other and replaced them with the coins ...
I have increased the power even more and to lower the temp.

 

[ARJR84]

Surprise!!! I have found through the junk in my basement an old pc with a large heatsink. I have taken several plates and put them on top of each other and replaced them with the coins ...
I have increased the power even more and to lower the temp.

what are the temps with the copper plate?

 

[esphil]

You put it between the heat sink and case? Did it make the case alot hotter? What temp improvement did you have?

 

[RiaKoobcam]

You put it between the heat sink and case? Did it make the case alot hotter? What temp improvement did you have?

Unless my i5 is extremely defective (I don't think it is), putting copper between the heatsink and the aluminium case of the notebook would make it much hotter.

The case over the heatsink was on the verge of uncomfortable on my unit without direct contact. Transferring that heat to a dissipation model using the case to radiate heat would, I think, make it a lot hotter - in order to get proper cooling with that model (let along avoid potential bare leg scorches), you'd need to prop it up or use it exclusively on a desk.

 

[srkirt]

what are the temps with the copper plate?

I never make it to 95 on the test.

 

[RiaKoobcam]

I'll just keep it nice and simple: I believe the new 2020 Macbook Air has overheating keys. Sure, maybe not your laptop you got from Apple, but you probably will be seeing more and more posts in various forums as people deal with this overheating issue.

My brother was all excited to get his new Macbook Air, unpack it, etc all that good stuff. He saw the reviews on YouTube, he saw someone mention something about overheating but he thought they were joking around and thought nothing of it because overall, the reviews looked great right? Anyways, my brother is unboxing it all excited and starts doing some stress tests to see how the laptop does.

He opens up the calculator app and the thing gets so hot, his fingers are burning within minutes. He wanted me to post this for him because his fingers have been feeling very strange and he is unable to get anything done. I did some testing myself and he was right....this thing is a frying pan. It does not matter what task you are doing (watching video, calculator app, etc)

You can cook a well done steak or scrambled eggs on this thing. Its no joke.

My brother had a important meeting he was flying out too this weekend which he was going to take his Macbook Air to get things done on - but guess what? That's not happening because the thing overheats within minutes of doing any task.

Apple told him they might of send a defective unit to him......i mean yeah, it is possible but how many other people in this community will have this issue? Is anyone talking about this yet?

This issue was mentioned on Youtube and now my brother has this issue within minutes of unboxing. Do you think he is just unlucky and got a defective unit? I dont know....We will see the reviews speak for themselves over the next few weeks i guess for anyone that deals with the same experience that my brother went thru but i have yet to see this issue mentioned in more detail here.

This sounds entirely made up. 'You can cook a well done steak'? He left his fingers on the keyboard while they burned without removing them? Your brother (whose fingers are so burned he cannot type) asked you to come and post this? He had an important, physical meeting that he was flying for during a global pandemic?

I don't doubt that you or somebody you know might have gotten a defective MBA. I also don't doubt that it runs warm. But come on.

 

[srkirt]

You put it between the heat sink and case? Did it make the case alot hotter? What temp improvement did you have?

You put it between the heat sink and case? Did it make the case alot hotter? What temp improvement did you have?

 

[RiaKoobcam]

I think he was looking for a surface temperature measurement of the underside of the MBA - intel power gadget isn't going to provide that, you'll need an infra red thermometer.

 

[srkirt]

Unless my i5 is extremely defective (I don't think it is), putting copper between the heatsink and the aluminium case of the notebook would make it much hotter.

The case over the heatsink was on the verge of uncomfortable on my unit without direct contact. Transferring that heat to a dissipation model using the case to radiate heat would, I think, make it a lot hotter - in order to get proper cooling with that model (let along avoid potential bare leg scorches), you'd need to prop it up or use it exclusively on a desk.

Unless my i5 is extremely defective (I don't think it is), putting copper between the heatsink and the aluminium case of the notebook would make it much hotter.

The case over the heatsink was on the verge of uncomfortable on my unit without direct contact. Transferring that heat to a dissipation model using the case to radiate heat would, I think, make it a lot hotter - in order to get proper cooling with that model (let along avoid potential bare leg scorches), you'd need to prop it up or use it exclusively on a desk.

You are wrong, it only gets hotter than normal when doing tasks that require 80/90% of the cpu. In my case I prefer that the case is a little hot to have all the electronics at 100º to see a video at 1080p ... anyway I am going to buy a protector of both covers and I will not feel any heat. My cover inside has a strip of copper bone from the cpu passes to the "heatsink" of this to the sheets and these pass to more sheets stuck in the case. I have been testing for days and days and I have come to the conclusion that this laptop is cooled more by dissipation than by air, I put the two together.

 

[esphil]

Has anyone tried "high performance server mode"? Just heard of it today. Saw it mentioned on reddit with someone who boosted his macbook pro performance. Apparently it will adjust kernel parameters for higher output.

開啟「macOS 伺服器」的效能模式 - Apple 支援 (澳門)

效能模式會改變 Mac 的系統參數，讓你更有效地善用硬件功能，執行需要大量資源的伺服器應用程式。

support.apple.com

sudo nvram boot-args="serverperfmode=1 $(nvram boot-args 2>/dev/null | cut -f 2-)"

 

[RiaKoobcam]

You are wrong, it only gets hotter than normal when doing tasks that require 80/90% of the cpu. In my case I prefer that the case is a little hot to have all the electronics at 100º to see a video at 1080p ... anyway I am going to buy a protector of both covers and I will not feel any heat. My cover inside has a strip of copper bone from the cpu passes to the "heatsink" of this to the sheets and these pass to more sheets stuck in the case. I have been testing for days and days and I have come to the conclusion that this laptop is cooled more by dissipation than by air, I put the two together.

Okay cool - but to be clear, your thermal cooling solution transfers heat from the interior components (which are rated for the temperatures they experience, hence the 100c boost cap), and radiates it out to the exterior components. Putting a cover on it will mean you're insulating the aluminum, so you might not be able to feel it, but you could be on track to creating a mini-oven.

I think some external temperature tests would be good if you want to develop this solution, so people can know the tradeoffs they're making if they want to attempt what you have.

If you don't feel the heat, that's great, but it's something people should be aware of in case they want to try it. You might turn your notebook into a real ball-roaster, cover or no cover.

 

[KPOM]

Okay cool - but to be clear, your thermal cooling solution transfers heat from the interior components (which are rated for the temperatures they experience, hence the 100c boost cap), and radiates it out to the exterior components. Putting a cover on it will mean you're insulating the aluminum, so you might not be able to feel it, but you could be on track to creating a mini-oven.

I think some external temperature tests would be good if you want to develop this solution, so people can know the tradeoffs they're making if they want to attempt what you have.

If you don't feel the heat, that's great, but it's something people should be aware of in case they want to try it. You might turn your notebook into a real ball-roaster, cover or no cover.

Agreed. People on this thread are obsessed with extracting the maximum power from Intel’s lowest power chips. It’s like debating whether VW could have extracted another 20hp from a 1.4l 4-cyl engine if they put in a better turbocharger. Perhaps they could. And perhaps Apple could have squeezed a few more points on Cinebench with a heat pipe or bigger heat sink. But they didn’t. There is probably a good reason why they didn’t.

 

[RiaKoobcam]

Agreed. People on this thread are obsessed with extracting the maximum power from Intel’s lowest power chips. It’s like debating whether VW could have extracted another 20hp from a 1.4l 4-cyl engine if they put in a better turbocharger. Perhaps they could. And perhaps Apple could have squeezed a few more points on Cinebench with a heat pipe or bigger heat sink. But they didn’t. There is probably a good reason why they didn’t.

Yeah, I mean...

If there really is as much thermal paste between the chip and the heat sink as people are saying (nobody's provided any photos yet...) and there's a gap between the chip and the heatsink filled with poorly conductive goo, then I think it's probably a pretty sensible thing to see if modding the thermal design with a copper shim and a thinner, more conductive layer of thermal paste improves the case cooling design.

I think connecting the heatsink to the underside of the laptop is a recipe for infertility, which is probably why it isn't designed that way. Early Samsung ultrabooks were designed to use the underside of the metal case for cooling - guess what, they stopped using this design, because consumers hated it. Having the entire underside of your laptop radiate heat is not fun.

As far as hoping that improving thermal conductivity and heat levels will get more performance... it's tilting at windmills. As you say KPOM, it's Intel's mobile processor. The boost limits are hard coded in there, and we know Apple is strict about how it locks down its Intel chips.

I think it's probably possible to mod the 2020 Airs to be more thermally efficient using the case cooling design that it was designed to use. If that translates to a cooler, more comfortable notebook, awesome.

I don't think anybody will notice the difference in the real world from a performance perspective, outside of adding a few points to synthetic benchmarks and maybe shaving a couple of minutes off video rendering times (which everybody is obsessed with doing on a sup-portable notebook, for some reason).

 

[ingambe]

Okay cool - but to be clear, your thermal cooling solution transfers heat from the interior components (which are rated for the temperatures they experience, hence the 100c boost cap), and radiates it out to the exterior components. Putting a cover on it will mean you're insulating the aluminum, so you might not be able to feel it, but you could be on track to creating a mini-oven.

I think some external temperature tests would be good if you want to develop this solution, so people can know the tradeoffs they're making if they want to attempt what you have.

If you don't feel the heat, that's great, but it's something people should be aware of in case they want to try it. You might turn your notebook into a real ball-roaster, cover or no cover.

The best isolator is air (that's with double windows systems are so great to conserve heat) so putting a case will help with temperature as there is more surface for the heat to dissipate.
One real issue with his mod is that the heat can go all around the aluminum case and heat other components (battery? flash memory? ...) and damage them.

These kinds of mods are generally not a very bright idea unfortunately, no one could recommend such

 

[srkirt]

Power full !!!

 

[alstrike]

Temp maxi test 74º fan 8.000rpm.

I would definitely throw the MBA out of the window if the fan hits those rpm.

 

[gaanee]

There are some posts here saying since Apple doesn't support VP9 codec which is used by Google on YouTube, so watching 4k video on YouTube in Chrome will heat-up the system but watching the same video in Safari at lower resolution will beokay. So, is the issue with 4k resolution or even for 1080p or 720p videos, since even at low resolution also, the underlying codec should be the same? So how does Safari handle this? Is watching 1080p video on Chrome would be similar to watching it in Safari?

 

[KPOM]

There are some posts here saying since Apple doesn't support VP9 codec which is used by Google on YouTube, so watching 4k video on YouTube in Chrome will heat-up the system but watching the same video in Safari at lower resolution will beokay. So, is the issue with 4k resolution or even for 1080p or 720p videos, since even at low resolution also, the underlying codec should be the same? So how does Safari handle this? Is watching 1080p video on Chrome would be similar to watching it in Safari?

1080p is fine in Chrome. Remember, 4K uses 4x as many pixels as 1080p.

 

[srkirt]

I am now watching YouTube videos at 1080p or 4k but at 30fps not 60 ... with the Macs Fan Control in car at 2,600rpm and 50º in navigation and 69 / 80º in 4k at 30fps. Cool !!! Never again 90º nor 100º !!
[automerge]1587320450[/automerge]

I would definitely throw the MBA out of the window if the fan hits those rpm.

For benchmark I have to test it to the fullest
[automerge]1587320491[/automerge]

I would definitely throw the MBA out of the window if the fan hits those rpm.

Now.