2020 Air Heatsink Modification Thread

[Supaslash]

Hi everybody!
I'm the fresh owner of a i5/16GB/256GB 2020 MBA (received it around 3 weeks ago)
First Mac ever and really happy with the overall experience except, like everyone i guess, for the noise of the airplane inside it every now and then.
I have to admit that when the fans goes on i'm playing some not that much demanding 2D games like
Unheard

Save 60% on Unheard - Voices of Crime on Steam

What if you could hear every word spoken at the scene of a crime? “Acoustic Detectives” wanted for testing our new device! Return aurally to crime scenes and use the voices you hear to identify potential suspects and solve the mysteries. What is it that’s connecting these seemingly unrelated cases?

store.steampowered.com

or
Donut County

Donut County on Steam

Donut County is a story-based physics puzzle game where you play as an ever-growing hole in the ground. Meet cute characters, steal their trash, and throw them in a hole.

store.steampowered.com

So i decided, after reading all the posts of this thread about 4 times to be sure of what to do and if worth to do the shim mod, to jump in the mod train in order to have a silent machine more than to max the power of the MBA... it's a MBA after all.

I will receive all the parts needed to do the mod in less than a week:
- Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut | 12,5 W/MK
- Copper shims 15 x 15 x 0.3 mm
- GELID GP-Extreme - Termal Pad 80x40x1.5mm | 12 W/MK

I wanted to thank you and do a review of my numbers so this morning i started the benchmarks.
And the numbers are somehow... i'm not sure of what to understand cause i'm higher than i should be without the mod.
My mac is almost always on. Rarely shut it down. This morning the temps when i did my tests was around 35-40° Celcius both CPU and GPU and Palm rest was arout 22/24° Celcius according to "Mac Fans".
Temperature outdoor was around 20. I almost forgot to tell that i have almost 20 tabs opened in safari.

Between each tests i wait to the temps get back to the initial one and here are my results :

Pre Mod :

- Cinebench : 1124
- Geekbench :
- Single-Core Score: 1183 / Multi-Core Score: 3480
(https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/2471811)
- OpenCL Score: 8415
(https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/1046121)
- Metal Score: 10064
(https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/1046414)

I did more tests to check if the score was good and i had a +/- 20 points so i guess the numbers are right.
Can someone have an explanation ? I mean do you think the number can be better with the mod then... or the MBA is optimal and i shouldn't touch anything, knowing the fans start when i really push it, doing thing it's not build to do.

 

[SeñorNewton]

with shim mod my max GB score was 3914 with an I5 the heatpad just lowered the temperatures so no gains there. I think with an i5 3800-3900 is the maximum score in GB 5.

I tried using just a coaster (paper) instead of a thermal pad to see if just blocking the air from going overtop and not through the heatsink would help. It did not.

I then used Minus Pad 8 instead of the coaster, not expecting anything to really change since the cover has a small piece of foam to prevent heat transfer to the cover. Well, I was wrong. The Minus Pad made quite a difference and does transfer some heat to the back cover.

My scores didn't increase at all. My I5 seems to be at its max performance similar to what you stated. What did change with the Minus Pad 8 is that my fans didn't break 3k RPMs during GB or CB testing.

It's as fast as I can get it. It is silent to my ears.

I am happy.

Señor Out....

 

[kazune_karin]

MacBook Air 2020 i5/16GB/256GB heatpipe mod

We need your help to keep this non-profit!
To help battling against commercial usage and keep this as a non-profit community input, if you adapt this mod, please DO NOT SHARE ANY MESAUREMENTS regarding any componenets. This will keep out pure opportunists because they will have to buy themselves a MacBook before doing commercialization.

Background and acknowledgement
Hi guys. Here is a new Air user from Japan. Thanks to all brilliant challengers from this thread (including srkirt, kinchee87, vyruzreaper, RiaKoobcam, Robotronic and DanSilov). I tried the shim mod which is great. The performance is better and more quiet, but the heat dissipation still worries me. I tried the heat pad mod but the bottom is too warm for me and the mod seems to stress the insulating material at the bottom case too much. So, I tried to transfer the heat from the heatsink to the spinning fan without touching the bottom case.

Process
I read this thread for guys who used metal pipe to transfer the heat to somewhere near the fan. I think the improvement is limited because the heat conduction from the metal pipe is not efficient and most air to the fan does not need to pass through the metal pipe. My plan is to make a metal punching mesh to force the spinning fan to cool it.
Here is the overall idea before installation.
View attachment 921971
I used the remaining 0.3mm copper plate (same as shim mod) to make the copper pipe. And I bought an aluminum punching mesh 0.5mm (I think) because I cannot find a copper mesh on Amazon Japan here.

View attachment 921973 View attachment 921974
I used heat insulating double-side adhesive to seal the fan border and brown heat insulating tape to seal the copper plate not to overheat other components. Between the heatsink and copper pipe I used a heated (0.5mm, 6mW only) to hold the pipe in place. On top I used the brown heat insulating tape again to ensure no contact and heating up of bottom case.

Results
I found that the startup CPU temperature with shim mod alone still reaches 100 degree. But with heated mod it was 70 degree. This one is 80 degree but the temperature drops very quickly with fan spinning. I used TG Pro to setup a custom profile (4500 rpm always and maximum 7000 rpm over 90 degree).

I ran Geekbench Multicore CPU test and found that the score is very good
3169 (shim mod)
3595 (shim + heatpipe mod)
View attachment 921976

The heat profile also proves that heat is transferred properly. The frequency (light blue) during early low utilization part of the test caught up the requested one (pink) than shim pad alone. And heavy load part is better also (though heatpad mod is better because the heatpipe and fan speed capacity). You can find the comparison quoted from DanSilov thread below.
View attachment 921978



Conclusion
I am very happy to have this little reversible fix to help my Air performing better. I don't want the touch bar, and this mod helps me to have a comfortable use of my Air for years (at least I think). Thank you all.

I tried to add more thermal paste and increase the thermal pad size to cover more area.
I ran Geekbench and Cinebench and did not get improved results.
Similar to SeñorNewton, I think my i5 Air has reached the maximum.
Without transferring heat to bottom case, my Cinebench test never throttled, and the fan stayed below 4000 rpm.
And more importantly, my bottom case stayed cool!

I think this the best my i5-1030NG7 can reach. As Apple limiting frequency to 10W/1.8Ghz, maybe the way out is to over volt? But I think it is not very feasible. Or I don't know if I can over volt to i7-1060NG7 settings?

Anyway, my final scores are below, for everyone's reference.
Shim + heatpipe mod:
Geekbench multi-core: 3755
Geekbench Metal: 10073
Cinebench: 1081

 

[hmhmmhmmm?]

new scores with gelid pad 1.5mm
i5/16/256 (shim + pad)

temp under 80 during cinebench

 

[kinchee87]

I tried using just a coaster (paper) instead of a thermal pad to see if just blocking the air from going overtop and not through the heatsink would help. It did not.

Did you test your Air with the fan at full blast? At the minimum fan speed (~2.7k RPM) the airflow through the heatsink might not have been that significant.

I guess the thin sponge on the back case is for thermal insulation and maybe to prevent the heatsink from hitting the back case.

 

[srkirt]

Well, I don't know why, but the T2 chip fails ... I don't have a microphone, Siri, or a fingerprint detector ... I reviewed it well and then I found out from people that updating Catalina's T2 data has been erased and laptop for garbage ... There are many failures with the T2 that carries the Bios of the boot and the systems decryption and security. Apple is not responsible and they change the entire motherboard ... I of course have no guarantee but I have seen that Rossmman manages to renew the firmware with another Mac. So watch out for the updates that you run out of Mac ...

WARNING macOS Catalina 10.15.4 Supplemental Update BRICKED my 13 inch Macbook 2018!

What have you got to lose?

forums.macrumors.com

 

[IngerMan]

I got bored for a few hours and wanted to see if the 1.5mm Artic pad was sticking to the heatsink. It was not, it still lifted up and not breaking apart on the sink. I could see the impression left from my pad on the bottom cover pad, its definitely pushing against the inside bottom cover. So I would advise 2.0mm is too much. But I decided to fill the rest of the thermal with 6mm x 24mm and 3mm x 24mm strips. I got my highest Single core and Multi Core this afternoon.

i7 16GB 256SSD 1.5mm Thermal Pad only Artic.

 

[kazune_karin]

Did you test your Air with the fan at full blast? At the minimum fan speed (~2.7k RPM) the airflow through the heatsink might not have been that significant.

I guess the thin sponge on the back case is for thermal insulation and maybe to prevent the heatsink from hitting the back case.

Yes, full blast did not have any difference. My system got no throttling without fan full-blast.
Looking at the frequency profile, my system (light blue line) can handle the requested job (pink line) perfectly. So, unless the system requests more, my system cannot do more.

 

[octoviaa]

Hi everybody!
I'm the fresh owner of a i5/16GB/256GB 2020 MBA (received it around 3 weeks ago)
First Mac ever and really happy with the overall experience except, like everyone i guess, for the noise of the airplane inside it every now and then.
I have to admit that when the fans goes on i'm playing some not that much demanding 2D games like
Unheard

Save 60% on Unheard - Voices of Crime on Steam

What if you could hear every word spoken at the scene of a crime? “Acoustic Detectives” wanted for testing our new device! Return aurally to crime scenes and use the voices you hear to identify potential suspects and solve the mysteries. What is it that’s connecting these seemingly unrelated cases?

store.steampowered.com

or
Donut County

Donut County on Steam

Donut County is a story-based physics puzzle game where you play as an ever-growing hole in the ground. Meet cute characters, steal their trash, and throw them in a hole.

store.steampowered.com

So i decided, after reading all the posts of this thread about 4 times to be sure of what to do and if worth to do the shim mod, to jump in the mod train in order to have a silent machine more than to max the power of the MBA... it's a MBA after all.

I will receive all the parts needed to do the mod in less than a week:
- Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut | 12,5 W/MK
- Copper shims 15 x 15 x 0.3 mm
- GELID GP-Extreme - Termal Pad 80x40x1.5mm | 12 W/MK

I wanted to thank you and do a review of my numbers so this morning i started the benchmarks.
And the numbers are somehow... i'm not sure of what to understand cause i'm higher than i should be without the mod.
My mac is almost always on. Rarely shut it down. This morning the temps when i did my tests was around 35-40° Celcius both CPU and GPU and Palm rest was arout 22/24° Celcius according to "Mac Fans".
Temperature outdoor was around 20. I almost forgot to tell that i have almost 20 tabs opened in safari.

Between each tests i wait to the temps get back to the initial one and here are my results :

Pre Mod :

- Cinebench : 1124
- Geekbench :
- Single-Core Score: 1183 / Multi-Core Score: 3480
(https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/2471811)
- OpenCL Score: 8415
(https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/1046121)
- Metal Score: 10064
(https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/1046414)

I did more tests to check if the score was good and i had a +/- 20 points so i guess the numbers are right.
Can someone have an explanation ? I mean do you think the number can be better with the mod then... or the MBA is optimal and i shouldn't touch anything, knowing the fans start when i really push it, doing thing it's not build to do.

I think your score are pretty impressive out of the box already.
I suggest you just try the thermal-pad, of course if you want to be more adventurous then can go with the shim too.
But I think your apple heatsink is performing very good already so not sure if there are improvement can be gained by the shim but feel free to try

 

[kazune_karin]

Well, I don't know why, but the T2 chip fails ... I don't have a microphone, Siri, or a fingerprint detector ... I reviewed it well and then I found out from people that updating Catalina's T2 data has been erased and laptop for garbage ... There are many failures with the T2 that carries the Bios of the boot and the systems decryption and security. Apple is not responsible and they change the entire motherboard ... I of course have no guarantee but I have seen that Rossmman manages to renew the firmware with another Mac. So watch out for the updates that you run out of Mac ...

WARNING macOS Catalina 10.15.4 Supplemental Update BRICKED my 13 inch Macbook 2018!

What have you got to lose?

forums.macrumors.com

That’s terrible. Did you fix the T2 issue? Can you still use your Air?

 

[RiaKoobcam]

I'm signing off for now guys - I've achieved really great results with the copper mod/repaste on my 2019, and I'm very happy that so many people have been able to improve their 2020 models with the collective help of everyone in this thread.

Massive thanks to my man @Loog for helping out the community with his shims (and showing the way for the 1st gen retina MBA), to @DanSilov for his exhaustive testing and results, and @kinchee87 for his awesome blog posts as an enduring reference.

See you all for the 2021 heatsink thread - hopefully it'll just be a bunch of us all saying 'wow, they really did a great job on thermals for this year's model!' But if not, there's always copper.

Last contribution to the thread: the Carn Halberd, excavated in County Mayo in Ireland, a copper ceremonial and combat polearm, cast and hammered. People have been using copper to fix their problems for over 5000 years, whether that be copper-ing someone's head or copper-ing your heatsink. Here's to the original copper modders!

Peace! ✌

 

[kazune_karin]

I am still waiting for the copper shim from Loog but meanwhile, I have prepared...
Two types of thermal paste and some pads and replacement screws because it seems they are so fragile.
I want to make the MBA run at the highest possible peak performance under sustained load.
View attachment 921472
View attachment 921473
View attachment 921474

Hi. I want to ask do you have T4 screws for the heatsink.
My poor screwdriver worn out the heatsink screws and I wanto find replacement.
Where did you get them?

 

[excelsior.ink]

Hi. I want to ask do you have T4 screws for the heatsink.
My poor screwdriver worn out the heatsink screws and I wanto find replacement.
Where did you get them?

They are actually T3. I worn mine a bit also, but they're still acceptable. I used a high quality tool, but cheap, some Chinese brand. The cost of the tool was less than 5 bucks but I was surprised as the quality was better than my iFixit Manta Kit.

I've also ordered a set of used screws from MBA 2018 but they do not fit.
This is not my first Mac, in the past I have found very high quality replacement screws made of steel instead of aluminium on ebay. But I think 2020 MBA is just too new.
EDIT: The quality of the tool is important not to destroy the fine screws of the heatsink. As it seems you are from Japan, just FYI there is very high quality tools Japanese brand called Engineer, they are very appreciated all over the world.

 

[fcracer]

I got bored for a few hours and wanted to see if the 1.5mm Artic pad was sticking to the heatsink. It was not, it still lifted up and not breaking apart on the sink. I could see the impression left from my pad on the bottom cover pad, its definitely pushing against the inside bottom cover. So I would advise 2.0mm is too much. But I decided to fill the rest of the thermal with 6mm x 24mm and 3mm x 24mm strips. I got my highest Single core and Multi Core this afternoon.

i7 16GB 256SSD 1.5mm Thermal Pad only Artic.

Hi there, thanks for the information. I’m about to embark on the arctic pad install myself, but wanted to confirm something from your insight. Are you saying that the 1.5MM is making an imprint on the back cover and is therefore too thick? Also, you said that the pad is not sticking and came off, can you elaborate on what you mean?

 

[nill1234]

Directly after waking up the mac i can get 3968 with an I5 16 but getting more than 4000 is only possible with an I7 i think. But still 3968 multicore in GB 5 is awesome for such a small device and a 10 W subnotebook chip, pretty impressive. The MBP 10th gen gets 4480 Multicore in GB 5 so its only 10% faster but way more expensive. Thanks to @srkirt, @Loog and all the others the shim and pad mod works .

 

[Supaslash]

I think your score are pretty impressive out of the box already.
I suggest you just try the thermal-pad, of course if you want to be more adventurous then can go with the shim too.
But I think your apple heatsink is performing very good already so not sure if there are improvement can be gained by the shim but feel free to try

Thx for the reply!
I'm not sure yet but I think I will follow your lead, doing the Heatpad Mod for sure but adding some copper shim on top of the heatsink with some thermal paste before.
Did you get the back of your MBA hot and unpleasant ? If on your knees for example.

 

[DanSilov]

Hi there, thanks for the information. I’m about to embark on the arctic pad install myself, but wanted to confirm something from your insight. Are you saying that the 1.5MM is making an imprint on the back cover and is therefore too thick? Also, you said that the pad is not sticking and came off, can you elaborate on what you mean?

This means 1.5mm is perfect, it's not too thick and not to thin to leave the space above it. Also, the fact that it is easy to remove means you can safely remove it before sending MBA for warranty repairs, if anything.

Basically, this is safest and easiest mod you can do.

 

[srkirt]

[QUOTE = "kazune_karin, publicación: 28550465, miembro: 1216360"]
Eso es terrible. ¿Arreglaste el problema de T2? ¿Todavía puedes usar tu Air?
[/CITAR]

That’s terrible. Did you fix the T2 issue? Can you still use your Air?

It works perfect except what the T2 controls, for the moment Id finger, microphone and due to this Siri ... I am not sure if it was while I was doing experiments or it was updated alone ... the formatted 2 times and it shows that everything flows better but still does not go. And reading in this forum I see that there are people who have to throw away a Mac just to update Catalina !!! And of course Apple goes through everything ... it is the last thing I bought from this brand, it is no longer the same ... I will fix the screen of my Pro 2015 that is much more stable and does not have that damn T2 ...

 

[IngerMan]

Hi there, thanks for the information. I’m about to embark on the arctic pad install myself, but wanted to confirm something from your insight. Are you saying that the 1.5MM is making an imprint on the back cover and is therefore too thick? Also, you said that the pad is not sticking and came off, can you elaborate on what you mean?

Basically what @DanSilov said. 1.5mm is perfect and the pad looks like easy removal down the road incase a warranty return.

 

[srkirt]

The best formula is that of the radiator on top of the heatsink, I am having a score above a 4 core.
For a 2019 MBA, the performance with only two cores is very good.

 

[McFlulle]

Results of my Copper Shim Only (No Thermal Pad) Mod

Disclaimer: I'm an absolute beginner and have never before done anything like this.

Specs: 2020 MacBook Air i3 / 8GB / 256GB

Pre-mod idle temp: 30°C
Post-mod idle temp: 27°C (10% decrease)

Pre-mod Cinebench 20 scores:
761 pts (CPU)
376 pts (Single Core CPU)

Post-mod Cinebench 20 scores:
843 pts (CPU) (10,7% increase)
380 pts (Single Core CPU) (marginal increase)

Careful with the heat sink screws - they were definitely a T3 on mine, not a T4!

Find some pictures attached.

Thanks again for all the helpful comments in this thread!

 

[octoviaa]

Thx for the reply!
I'm not sure yet but I think I will follow your lead, doing the Heatpad Mod for sure but adding some copper shim on top of the heatsink with some thermal paste before.
Did you get the back of your MBA hot and unpleasant ? If on your knees for example.

I mostly use it on desk for ZOOM.
I think it should be fine on your lap if there is no continuous load (e.g. zoom / Video Conferencing), so writing, browsing (reading news or checking this forum) should be fine .
And the thermal-pad modification is so easy to revert so don't be afraid to try.

 

[Supaslash]

I mostly use it on desk for ZOOM.
I think it should be fine on your lap if there is no continuous load (e.g. zoom / Video Conferencing), so writing, browsing (reading news or checking this forum) should be fine .
And the thermal-pad modification is so easy to revert so don't be afraid to try.

I received my Thermal Pad this morning and i couldn't wait for the shim to arrive.
So i installed it, cutting exactly the right shape of the heatsink.
And as i thought, not munch an improvement in terms of performance.

Pre Mod :

- Cinebench : 1124
- Geekbench :
- Single-Core Score: 1183 / Multi-Core Score: 3480
(https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/2471811)
- OpenCL Score: 8415
(https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/1046121)
- Metal Score: 10064
(https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/1046414)

HeatPad Mod :

- Cinebench : 1155
- Geekbench :
- Single-Core Score: 1176 / Multi-Core Score: 3860
(https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/2487432)
- OpenCL Score: 8429
(https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/1052032)
- Metal Score: 10144
(https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/1051838)

But the bottom case had around a +3° to 5° Celcius rise.
And as long as my differents tests have gone, no fans noise at all and a max of 2800 rpm when i was playing some games.
The temperature was max 80° celcius for about 3 seconds and most of the time during demanding applications likes games or cinebench i was at a low 70° and max 75° Celcius. So i guess we have an agreement with my MBA. I wont open it's heart if things continues to go that way.
As far as i'm concerned the max heat at the bottom case is bearable and i'm not doing that much of hard things with the MBA.

Thank you All

 

[srkirt]

Have any of you thought about reinstalling Mojave ??? I have read that it is less complicated and performs better than Catalina.

 

[octoviaa]

I received my Thermal Pad this morning and i couldn't wait for the shim to arrive.
So i installed it, cutting exactly the right shape of the heatsink.
And as i thought, not munch an improvement in terms of performance.

Pre Mod :

- Cinebench : 1124
- Geekbench :
- Single-Core Score: 1183 / Multi-Core Score: 3480
(https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/2471811)
- OpenCL Score: 8415
(https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/1046121)
- Metal Score: 10064
(https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/1046414)

HeatPad Mod :

- Cinebench : 1155
- Geekbench :
- Single-Core Score: 1176 / Multi-Core Score: 3860
(https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/2487432)
- OpenCL Score: 8429
(https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/1052032)
- Metal Score: 10144
(https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/compute/1051838)

But the bottom case had around a +3° to 5° Celcius rise.
And as long as my differents tests have gone, no fans noise at all and a max of 2800 rpm when i was playing some games.
The temperature was max 80° celcius for about 3 seconds and most of the time during demanding applications likes games or cinebench i was at a low 70° and max 75° Celcius. So i guest we have an agreement with my MBA. I wont open it's heart if things continues to go that way.
As far as i'm concerned the max heat at the bottom case is bearable and i'm not doing that much of hard things with the MBA.

Thank you All

Good one, as we can see your GB multi score increase by almost 400 points.
As we know your out of the box results are excellent already hence no need to do anything risky.