2020 Air Heatsink Modification Thread

[RiaKoobcam]

The results obtained after putting the thermal pad ON TOP of the heatsink make me think that the bigger problems of the cooling system are:

• air flow, as already said
• but especially no good contact between heatsink and bottom cover of the laptop

If you're using it on a desk, sure. But if you contact the heatsink to the bottom aluminium cover of the case, it'll act as a radiator, sure, but it'll drastically increase case temps.

I think shim + paste + thin thermal pad is the way to go if you're planning on ever using it on your lap or off a level service.

 

[agaskew]

The results obtained after putting the thermal pad ON TOP of the heatsink make me think that the bigger problems of the cooling system are:

• air flow, as already said
• but especially no good contact between heatsink and bottom cover of the laptop

There is a mixed bag of problems:

• Some machines appear to perform well out of the box. Understandably, no one has dismantled their nicely running laptop to check out how its been built
• Some machines have copper heatsinks, others have aluminium. No idea which is better based on this thread.
• Some heatsinks appear to have a recess in the underside which means that when attached over the CPU, instead of the heatsink underside sitting flush with the top of the CPU, with a thin layer of paste between them, there is a gap. between the CPU and the heatsink underside. Apple appear to have simply filled this gap with paste. Cleaning this out, filling the gap with a copper shim and applying the usual thin paste layer (using better quality paste) has improved the heat transfer away from the CPU to the heatsink, so less CPU throttling and faster performance.
• There's no heat pipe between the fan and the heatsink, so the heatsink is only cooled by air flow inside the case area as induced by the fan, not directly. The induced air flow design seems to be less than ideal.
• The heatsink is not connected to the bottom cover. Should it be? Its a trade off - as above this may increase the capacity of the heatsink to draw heat away from the CPU, but the cover may get really hot, plus the overall air temperature inside the case may go up as a result, possibly heating up the VRMs and other components.

The best and maybe safest results seem to come from taking off the heatsink, cleaning out the paste, adding a shim IF there's a gap between heatsink and CPU, and repasting with a very small amount of better quality paste.

 

[Saul Giordani]

There is a mixed bag of problems:

• Some machines appear to perform well out of the box. Understandably, no one has dismantled their nicely running laptop to check out how its been built
• Some machines have copper heatsinks, others have aluminium. No idea which is better based on this thread.
• Some heatsinks appear to have a recess in the underside which means that when attached over the CPU, instead of the heatsink underside sitting flush with the top of the CPU, with a thin layer of paste between them, there is a gap. between the CPU and the heatsink underside. Apple appear to have simply filled this gap with paste. Cleaning this out, filling the gap with a copper shim and applying the usual thin paste layer (using better quality paste) has improved the heat transfer away from the CPU to the heatsink, so less CPU throttling and faster performance.
• There's no heat pipe between the fan and the heatsink, so the heatsink is only cooled by air flow inside the case area as induced by the fan, not directly. The induced air flow design seems to be less than ideal.
• The heatsink is not connected to the bottom cover. Should it be? Its a trade off - as above this may increase the capacity of the heatsink to draw heat away from the CPU, but the cover may get really hot, plus the overall air temperature inside the case may go up as a result, possibly heating up the VRMs and other components.

The best and maybe safest results seem to come from taking off the heatsink, cleaning out the paste, adding a shim IF there's a gap between heatsink and CPU, and repasting with a very small amount of better quality paste.

Great explanation

Normally I use the laptop with a cooling pad, so I'll keep the thermal pad I've installed (not the carbon I wrongly bought at first, but the 1.5mm thick I bought yesterday). It seems to do the job.

I'd like to wait at least the end of the guarantee before opening the heatsink and adding a shim

 

[Loog]

MaxTech review of the MBA 2020 1 month in just out. I keep pushing for him to come over and take a look at the good work we're doing here so opinions could be re-balanced.

 

[agaskew]

Great explanation

Normally I use the laptop with a cooling pad, so I'll keep the thermal pad I've installed (not the carbon I wrongly bought at first, but the 1.5mm thick I bought yesterday). It seems to do the job.

I'd like to wait at least the end of the guarantee before opening the heatsink and adding a shim

Yep, they aren't cheap so I can understand anyone not wanting to do this right away.

 

[violentlychill]

MaxTech review of the MBA 2020 1 month in just out. I keep pushing for him to come over and take a look at the good work we're doing here so opinions could be re-balanced.

I think his opinion is relatively balanced. He could come here and see how we're improving it, but the reality is most consumers wouldn't even try this even if they ever saw it. They'd just get stuck with a potentially thermally gimped product.

The only thing I'd correct is I'm starting to think that not having a heatpipe isn't that big of a deal. As we've seen simply improving just the contact between CPU and heatsink seems to give very acceptable results, especially with the (imo acceptable) hard-coded limits on the CPU. But again, 99.9% of the people buying this will never open it up.

 

[excelsior.ink]

But again, 99.9% of the people buying this will never open it up.

I've opened it in the first day. And it's a very good laptop with acceptable performance if you solve this cooling issue.

 

[violentlychill]

I've opened it in the first day. And it's a very good laptop with acceptable performance if you solve this cooling issue.

You are the .1%. Welcome to the club of tinkerers.

For the price and the target demographic, this should be acceptable out of the box consistently without any potential warranty-voiding modification.

 

[vyruzreaper]

The results obtained after putting the thermal pad ON TOP of the heatsink make me think that the bigger problems of the cooling system are:

• air flow, as already said
• but especially no good contact between heatsink and bottom cover of the laptop

How about we go with Apple's makeshift pseudo "windtunnel heatpipe" (to move air from die to fan) solution actually sucks. lol

 

[srkirt]

And I was the first to open it ...

 

[Nocstar]

And I was the first to open it ...

lol

 

[srkirt]

 

[nobackup]

How about we go with Apple's makeshift pseudo "windtunnel heatpipe" (to move air from die to fan) solution actually sucks. lol

I seem to remember back when i bought the original Macbook with the m5 processor reading some where here that's its actually intel the writes the rules on no you can't combine this chip with a real "Active" cooling (FAN+HeatPipe) system with these chips ... corrected me if I'm wrong (and I'm sure some one will) but i don't know of any other manufacture that uses these m5 / core i5 (what ever intel calls them now aka <10w) that has actually combined them with a proper active cooling solution, so I'm not sure us calling Apple stupid is quite right in this instance ....

 

[violentlychill]

I seem to remember back when i bought the original Macbook with the m5 processor reading some where here that's its actually intel the writes the rules on no you can't combine this chip with a real "Active" cooling (FAN+HeatPipe) system with these chips ... corrected me if I'm wrong (and I'm sure some one will) but i don't know of any other manufacture that uses these m5 / core i5 (what ever intel calls them now aka <10w) that has actually combined them with a proper active cooling solution, so I'm not sure us calling Apple stupid is quite right in this instance ....

Yeah, this method of cooling isn't specific to Apple. A lot of ultrabook designs throw in a fan without a pipe and use it to create airflow via negative pressure. I think the optimal design is to have the pipe, but Apple should've been able to pull this off adequately without one. Based on comments and fixes in this thread it appears the bigger issue is the design for the CPU to heatsink contact is bad or QC on it is bad.

 

[kinchee87]

Here is mine after same 15min all frequency test (i7 shim+repaste+heatpad)

View attachment 919311

Those are really cool temperatures! Were you by any chance sitting outside in an igloo?

 

[excelsior.ink]

Yeah, this method of cooling isn't specific to Apple. A lot of ultrabook designs throw in a fan without a pipe and use it to create airflow via negative pressure. I think the optimal design is to have the pipe, but Apple should've been able to pull this off adequately without one. Based on comments and fixes in this thread it appears the bigger issue is the design for the CPU to heatsink contact is bad or QC on it is bad.

I wonder if this is by poor QC or by design. We are talking here about a company which today is valued at 1.379 trillions (according to Stocks app). They have plenty of talent, resources and the laptop is in general top quality. Except the poor contact between the CPU and the heatsink.

 

[IngerMan]

I got my i7 MBA this morning. I was going to do the mod after setting up but realized I did not have the P5 tool so it will wait till early next week.

I been putting it through some tasks while it is still indexing 10,000 photos to the cloud. I have run some benchmarks as well during the same time frame.

What I noticed is it does get to 100C quickly when tasked but the fans will stay silent until it is there a given period of time. Honestly when it hits a 100c for a short period I would not know it unless I had the power gadget running.
At resting and indexing it runs about 60C, I am doing a TM backup while indexing and it runs about 70C doing that. I don't think I seen it below 60 since I started up about 9 hours ago. I did do a fresh install as well.

I will run the benchmarks again in the morning when the photos are done. Overall very happy with it, but I am looking forward to doing the mod. I hope to see idol in the 40's. I have all my supplies except the P5. a few more days.

Update next morning. The idle temps did settle down to the low 40's or just browsing the web. They still peg 100C in a minute running the geekbench 5 CPU test, but no audible fan running this test.

 

[daystar]

Those are really cool temperatures! Were you by any chance sitting outside in an igloo?

Allmost: Finnish summer

 

[srkirt]

I got my i7 MBA this morning. I was going to do the mod after setting up but realized I did not have the P5 tool so it will wait till early next week.

I been putting it through some tasks while it is still indexing 10,000 photos to the cloud. I have run some benchmarks as well during the same time frame.

What I noticed is it does get to 100C quickly when tasked but the fans will stay silent until it is there a given period of time. Honestly when it hits a 100c for a short period I would not know it unless I had the power gadget running.
At resting and indexing it runs about 60C, I am doing a TM backup while indexing and it runs about 70C doing that. I don't think I seen it below 60 since I started up about 9 hours ago. I did do a fresh install as well.

I will run the benchmarks again in the morning when the photos are done. Overall very happy with it, but I am looking forward to doing the mod. I hope to see idol in the 40's. I have all my supplies except the P5. a few more days.

100º day after day is a stress for all the components and a shortening of the life of the device... programmed obsolescence... so every 3 or 4 years you change the machine... Apple is no longer what it was, it does not innovate, the competition is always ahead of it... and now it is positioning itself as a more generalist brand to attract more clients with cheaper iPhones. The future is in content and applications... One way to earn less by selling more is by reducing manufacturing costs and here we are seeing it. Apple used to be synonymous with status like Louis Vuiton, Hermes, Bugatti etc etc. now it's not like that anymore.

 

[DribbleCastle]

I know you guys are having fun with your heatsink mods but just wanted to let you know that 10.15.5 fixed all of my thermal issues. Gone are they 100 temps / 8000 rpm fans. Of course I’m sure my benchmarks aren’t as high but doesn’t matter to me.

 

[IngerMan]

I know you guys are having fun with your heatsink mods but just wanted to let you know that 10.15.5 fixed all of my thermal issues. Gone are they 100 temps / 8000 rpm fans. Of course I’m sure my benchmarks aren’t as high but doesn’t matter to me.

Well I’m running 10.15.5 on my new i7 and when I ran CCC and a Virus scan it ran it at 100C and after a few minutes sounded like a hair dryer. I’m still indexing but these same programs would cause my 2017 15” MBP to do the same. So if the mod drops it 10+C I’m all over it. I’ll let you know next week.

 

[ionmihaimarian]

Hello everyone and greetings from Germany. I have watched with much interest this thread since I purchased my i3 Macbook 2020. Today I also got the courage to apply the heatsink mod consisting in new paste + shim + thermal pad. I have noticed that the temperatures never reach 100°C anymore, but are more or less around 90°C when running Geekbench or Cinebench. As I am quite a newbie in this kind of modding, can someone, please, see from the screenshots I took that the stats are ok or not? (I mean temperature, CPU freq., etc.). One thing I have noticed (but I am not sure that it wasn't there even before I was doing the mod) is that when I start an 4K/60 FPS YouTube video in either Chrome or Edge browsers, it stutters like hell (this doesn't happens with 1080p / 60FPS ones). Is it normal? Thank you in advance for the answers.

 

[DribbleCastle]

Well I’m running 10.15.5 on my new i7 and when I ran CCC and a Virus scan it ran it at 100C and after a few minutes sounded like a hair dryer. I’m still indexing but these same programs would cause my 2017 15” MBP to do the same. So if the mod drops it 10+C I’m all over it. I’ll let you know next week.

View attachment 919566

Haven’t really pushed it super hard other than some 4K video and video calls. I’m guessing you heard about this bug with CCC and 10.15.5?

APFS Bug in macOS 10.15.5 Catalina Impacts the Creation of Bootable Backups

An Apple File System bug has been discovered in macOS 10.15.5 Catalina that can prevent users from making a bootable clone of their system drive,...

www.macrumors.com

 

[RiaKoobcam]

Hello everyone and greetings from Germany. I have watched with much interest this thread since I purchased my i3 Macbook 2020. Today I also got the courage to apply the heatsink mod consisting in new paste + shim + thermal pad. I have noticed that the temperatures never reach 100°C anymore, but are more or less around 90°C when running Geekbench or Cinebench. As I am quite a newbie in this kind of modding, can someone, please, see from the screenshots I took that the stats are ok or not? (I mean temperature, CPU freq., etc.). One thing I have noticed (but I am not sure that it wasn't there even before I was doing the mod) is that when I start an 4K/60 FPS YouTube video in either Chrome or Edge browsers, it stutters like hell (this doesn't happens with 1080p / 60FPS ones). Is it normal? Thank you in advance for the answers.

Achieving a sustained frequency of 2.6 in Cinebench without hitting 100c on the CPU is great, especially given how demanding the test is.

As far as stuttering in 4k/60FPS video - yes, that's normal. MacOS doesn't support the codec (VP9) used by Youtube/Google, so your machine is having to 'brute force' the streaming of 4k video on that platform. Given it's a dual core i3, you're getting dropped frames. If you were on a Macbook Pro, you might not. But if you boot into Windows 10, you'll be able to watch 4k videos in Chrome and Edge no worries, as both of those browsers on that OS support VP9.

It's not a hardware problem, it's a choice Apple has made in some kind of Codec war, which means even though your i3 is perfectly capable of playing smooth 4k/60FPS video, the software for it hasn't been enabled. It sucks by Apple, but the good news is, nothing wrong with your hardware! 👍

 

[IngerMan]

Haven’t really pushed it super hard other than some 4K video and video calls. I’m guessing you heard about this bug with CCC and 10.15.5?

APFS Bug in macOS 10.15.5 Catalina Impacts the Creation of Bootable Backups

An Apple File System bug has been discovered in macOS 10.15.5 Catalina that can prevent users from making a bootable clone of their system drive,...

www.macrumors.com

Thank you for that report. I have another bootable disk for my Mac Mini. It did tell me I had to do some certain things to make it bootable, I just did data copy for that is all I really needed. I have a few bootable drives if I have to use it that way.