2020 Air Heatsink Modification Thread

[Saul Giordani]

Do you think it would be ok to put a piece of thermal pad instead of the copper shim, between the cpu and the heatsink?
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Nothing ... there is no better option than this ... if there are no copper fins where the air circulates at high speed there is no drop of up to 10º !! and sometimes 15º. Now I have put a thicker wedge that protrudes from the heatsink ... 1mm I have tightened in a cross but without reaching the bottom because some thread could break from the cpu. At the moment a test that has left me open ... I have been able to see this 5K video without any jerk and without reaching more than 90º. At 4K I see it at 70º !!!

Between 70 and 72º with Chrome

 

[srkirt]

[CITA = "Saul Giordani, publicación: 28514809, miembro: 1211657"]
¿Crees que estaría bien poner un trozo de almohadilla térmica en lugar de la cuña de cobre, entre la CPU y el disipador térmico?
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Entre 47 y 49º con cromo : oops:
[/CITAR]
nooooo !!!
https://www.ebay.es/itm/10-Placa-de-Cobre-20x20mm-0-3-0-5-0-8-1-1-2-Almohadilla-CPU-Conductoras-Calor/173475284071?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649[/automerge]
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Do you think it would be ok to put a piece of thermal pad instead of the copper shim, between the cpu and the heatsink?
[automerge]1590775972[/automerge]

Between 47 and 49º with Chrome

Nooooo!!!

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[daystar]

Nothing ... there is no better option than this ... if there are no copper fins where the air circulates at high speed there is no drop of up to 10º !! and sometimes 15º. Now I have put a thicker wedge that protrudes from the heatsink ... 1mm I have tightened in a cross but without reaching the bottom because some thread could break from the cpu. At the moment a test that has left me open ... I have been able to see this 5K video without any jerk and without reaching more than 90º. At 4K I see it at 70º !!!

Just tested with the same video and 5K played clean and max CPU temps where 81 but stayed below 80 most of the time. The fans didn't even turn on

 

[srkirt]

Just tested with the same video and 5K played clean and max CPU temps where 81 but stayed below 80 most of the time. The fans didn't even turn on

My MBA is a 2019 ...

 

[srkirt]

Record !!! Original 541.
Today with DeepCool Z5 thermal paste (the Grizzly arrives tomorrow) 715 !!!
I don't know how much percentage I have earned since I bought it two months ago, but I am reaching the limit ... 359 a quad core i7 6400HQ ...
From Barcelona Happy weekend friends !!!

 

[dcicer1]

Do you think it would be ok to put a piece of thermal pad instead of the copper shim, between the cpu and the heatsink?
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Yes, a good thermal pad (I just bought a 12 W/mK one) is better than a mx4 thermal paste-shim combo..

 

[IngerMan]

I have been using my awesome MBA for 36 hours now and I went back through this thread starting around page 38. My temps are 38-40C if I let it sit and wake it up. It runs about 50C streaming the web. I can get it to 100 running Cinebench but it does not get too loud with the fans for a very long time.

Looking back at other i7 bench mark scores and temps earlier on 10.15.4, it seems I am almost there with out the mod. Maybe this is the latest update since this machine has never seen 10.15.4, only 10.15.5? Actually I am thrilled with the temps and performance and benchmarks now.

I decided I am only going to do the thermal pad mod next week, the least invasive and least risk of voiding the warranty, the least risk of self inflicted damage. And from the posts it seem the biggest improvements are from the pad mod, not the paste and shim. Maybe down the road I will re-paste and shim if it starts heating up, but at this time I say its a pretty cool machine. 48C at Post Reply

Current Bench Marks MBA 2020 i7/16GB/256SSD No MODS

 

[Bones13]

Definitely worth bench marking the stock MBA before opening her up. Many have had great luck with the machine that came out of the box. My laptop is still about a week and a half away.

Spending a day with update / indexing, then run some bench marks. Then decide if/which mods to do.

 

[daystar]

I have been using my awesome MBA for 36 hours now and I went back through this thread starting around page 38. My temps are 38-40C if I let it sit and wake it up. It runs about 50C streaming the web. I can get it to 100 running Cinebench but it does not get too loud with the fans for a very long time.

Looking back at other i7 bench mark scores and temps earlier on 10.15.4, it seems I am almost there with out the mod. Maybe this is the latest update since this machine has never seen 10.15.4, only 10.15.5? Actually I am thrilled with the temps and performance and benchmarks now.

I decided I am only going to do the thermal pad mod next week, the least invasive and least risk of voiding the warranty, the least risk of self inflicted damage. And from the posts it seem the biggest improvements are from the pad mod, not the paste and shim. Maybe down the road I will re-paste and shim if it starts heating up, but at this time I say its a pretty cool machine. 48C at Post Reply

Current Bench Marks MBA 2020 i7/16GB/256SSD No MODS

View attachment 919902 View attachment 919903 View attachment 919904

Very similar results to my i7 before mods! I think you can expect good temps/results after modding

 

[Loog]

I have been using my awesome MBA for 36 hours now and I went back through this thread starting around page 38. My temps are 38-40C if I let it sit and wake it up. It runs about 50C streaming the web. I can get it to 100 running Cinebench but it does not get too loud with the fans for a very long time.

Looking back at other i7 bench mark scores and temps earlier on 10.15.4, it seems I am almost there with out the mod. Maybe this is the latest update since this machine has never seen 10.15.4, only 10.15.5? Actually I am thrilled with the temps and performance and benchmarks now.

I decided I am only going to do the thermal pad mod next week, the least invasive and least risk of voiding the warranty, the least risk of self inflicted damage. And from the posts it seem the biggest improvements are from the pad mod, not the paste and shim. Maybe down the road I will re-paste and shim if it starts heating up, but at this time I say its a pretty cool machine. 48C at Post Reply

Current Bench Marks MBA 2020 i7/16GB/256SSD No MODS

View attachment 919902 View attachment 919903 View attachment 919904

These are some great results from a non invasive modification. I'd be interested to hear thoughts on the case temperature from you and others who have done this as I backed out of that mod due to excessive heat of the device, and just kept the shim especially with the warmer weather coming and the device sitting on your lap in shorts. I don't have an electronic thermometer to provide exact temperatures but the device became uncomfortable. Appreciate this is subjective to what you are doing etc. And as for Apples for Pears mine is a MBA 2018.

Seems that both the shim and the heat pad are providing similar results stand alone with risks and compromises depending on your chosen path.

Also 10.15.5 seems to have had positive effects on my battery.

 

[IngerMan]

These are some great results from a non invasive modification.

Also 10.15.5 seems to have had positive effects on my battery.

Hi @Loog. These are stock results with no Mods. I plan to only add the thermal pad early next week. Waiting for the P5 wrench. I think 10.15.5 addresses many issues. I never ran .4 because I just got my MBA Thursday. But from previous posters results with .4, it seems much better now with .5

my lap use has been nothing but cool. I’ll post a picture with my pad when I install it, with bench results.

 

[TenthDoctor]

I have the Cooler HAVIT HV-F2056, MBA 13"

Thanks!

 

[Viper-FFM]

My scores for the i5

OS10.15.4 Stock
Cinebench R20 891pts
Geekbench5 Singlecore 1081 Multicore 2592


OS10.15.5 Stock
Cinebench R20 979pts
Geekbench5 Singlecore 1118 Multicore 2778


OS10.15.5 with 2mm PAD only between sink and chassis
Cinebench R20 1100pts
Geekbench5 Singlecore 1143 Multicore 3255

Conclusion:
Thanks for the suggestion. Well worth the investment of 5€/$. Apart from better performance especially in the Multi-Core tests, the heatpad causes the fan to spin a lot slower. During Cinebench the average rpm were around 3000 while without the pad it was >6000

 

[nill1234]

After almost stripping a screw I bought new tools and got them out, did the shim mod only with the 0.3 shim from @Loog. I just did a small Geekbench benchmark and this mod is awesome. During the test the CPU never reached 100 Degrees and the Fan NEVER activated. Results are 1137 Single-Core and 3355 Multi-Core and that's without any active fan. In Cinebench I got a score of 1005, but the fan wasn't even at max speed.
Fans at max speed i got in Geekbench 1175 / 3481 and in Cinebench R20 1100.
Catalina 10.15.4


One advice, get decent screwdrivers and get enough pressure, but I have to warn you those screws are real garbage, I measures them and will order decent steel screws for the heatsink.

 

[Loog]

After almost stripping a screw I bought new tools and got them out, did the shim mod only with the 0.3 shim from @Loog. I just did a small Geekbench benchmark and this mod is awesome. During the test the CPU never reached 100 Degrees and the Fan NEVER activated. Results are 1137 Single-Core and 3355 Multi-Core and that's without any active fan. In Cinebench I got a score of 1005, but the fan wasn't even at max speed.
Fans at max speed i got in Geekbench 1175 / 3481 and in Cinebench R20 1100.

One advice, get decent screwdrivers and get enough pressure, but I have to warn you those screws are real garbage, I measures them and will order decent steel screws for the heatsink.

Thanks for the review @nill1234, this is the first I've seen for the custom shims that I got made, I hope the installations was a simple drop in as per the design? Would be great to share some pics if you have these for those who are lurking and wondering if the mod is worth while.

Are you considering the heated mod as well? I did try this and found benefit but reversed due to heat of the case when using video conferencing on your lap in shorts, but if you're using the device on a desk for most of the day its a moot point.

May be worth posting what version of Catalina you are running as @Viper-FFM has seen improvements with 10.15.5

 

[nill1234]

I wont do the heatpad mod because i dont like a hot case. I had to sand a little bit but overall the shim was good. Small scratches will be evened out by the thermal paste

 

[Loog]

I wont do the heatpad mod because i dont like a hot case.

@nill1234 Looks a perfect fit, thanks for the pics and the performance reviews , out of curiosity what version of Catalina are you running?

 

[Saul Giordani]

It seems the thermal pad mod really helps with the temperature. Normally when waking up che cpu temp of my MBA 17 was around 41-42º, now it's 37-38º. And during the normal usage never reaches the 70º, while before it was reaching the 75-80º.

Today or tomorrow I'll have a zoom call and I will be able to really compare the performance.

 

[Loog]

It seems the thermal pad mod really helps with the temperature. Normally when waking up che cpu temp of my MBA 17 was around 41-42º, now it's 37-38º. And during the normal usage never reaches the 70º, while before it was reaching the 75-80º.

Today or tomorrow I'll have a zoom call and I will be able to really compare the performance.

I've found zoom to play quite nice, MS Teams is the real test here .... . Look forward to the feedback.

 

[Saul Giordani]

I've found zoom to play quite nice, MS Teams is the real test here ....

For me zoom was not nice al all
Fans arrived @ 8000 rpm and temp around 80º. I'll let you know!

 

[nill1234]

My catalina version is 10.15.4

 

[IngerMan]

My scores for the i5

OS10.15.5 with 2mm PAD only between sink and chassis
Cinebench R20 1100pts
Geekbench5 Singlecore 1143 Multicore 3255

Results are 1137 Single-Core and 3355 Multi-Core and that's without any active fan. In Cinebench I got a score of 1005, but the fan wasn't even at max speed.

You both have i5's, @Viper-FFM did "Pad Only", and "@nill1234 did shim and paste only"

Pad only
R20 1100
CB 1143/3255

Shim Paste only
R20 1005
CB 1137/3355

Pad Only 2nd Test letting machine cool down after each test
R20 1100
CB 1191/3421

Shim Paste only with Fans set to full blast
R20 1100
CB 1150/3630

This is why I will elect to do the Pad only, it by far is the easiest fastest mod with much less risk for a few factors, warranty, damage, reversal of the mod. It also has shown the largest single gains by some posters for performance increase and temperature drop.

Not saying the shim and new paste is a bad thing or a bad choice, some people like that kind of challenge and have done it several times. I think the gains are minimal if you do the pad then compare adding the shim and paste with the existing pad. Or at least for me the gains to add it do not out weigh the risk of the factors stated above.

 

[nill1234]

keep in mind my score is without any fan activity. With fan at full blast i got 1150 /3630 and 1100 in cinebench and with Catalina 10.15.4. The benefit is, that the case remains cool.

 

[srkirt]

You're obsessed with the fact that fans don't bring a constant flow of air to all the electronics... I recommend the Macs Fan Control software and put a maximum of 80º and start the fans at 45º, you will do a great favor to the memory, capacitors, and mini resistors.
Another thing is that only by placing the pad and placing the wedge is impossible to decrease the temperature of the core of the cpu, impossible! you know that the technician Rossman is tired of repairing Macbook air and pro due to the heating of the entire structure not only the heatsink of the cpu, so I recommend the wedge and soft air flow to cool the chassis and avoid the typical condensation of these machines. You will benefit from having like me now at 42º with 2.300rpm that you don't even hear...
Thank you.

P.D:
I have just updated Catalina and in my case I have not noticed anything, it is logical since my machine is full of ingenuities to refresh the entire structure including the wind tunnel and copper fins.

 

[Saul Giordani]

You're obsessed with the fact that fans don't bring a constant flow of air to all the electronics... I recommend the Macs Fan Control software and put a maximum of 80º and start the fans at 45º, you will do a great favor to the memory, capacitors, and mini resistors.

I have Turbo Boost switcher that does the same, I also think the best is to have a constant air flow when the temp is above 45-50º