2020 Air Heatsink Modification Thread

[k27]

I did not read the thread.
But it's a joke that as a user you obviously have to do Apple's homework...
Or does Apple do it on purpose to make the ARM Macs look better.

 

[fcracer]

I did not read the thread.
But it's a joke that as a user you obviously have to do Apple's homework...
Or does Apple do it on purpose to make the ARM Macs look better.

Everything in life is about trade offs and compromises. The MBA 2020is exactly the laptop people would expect of an Air and perhaps even more if the four core is purchased.

Apple is balancing weight, portability, power consumption, battery capacity, Heat, noise, performance, and of course, price. When you factor all those things in, it would be hard to balance it better than Apple has.

However, if you’re willing to live with some trade offs like extra heat on your thighs, and a bit more power consumption, then you can tilt the Air towards more performance by making these modifications.

 

[srkirt]

Total test 1
[automerge]1592744022[/automerge]
Total Test 2.

 

[ctrlzone]

Quickcool is a german company that makes custom heatpipes, maybe this could lead somewhere

 

[kinchee87]

Update: went ahead with the heatsink and heat pad mods and oh...my...

The performance gains are absolutely amazing, but the temperature drop and stability is even more impressive in my opinion. This has turned my MBA into the powerhouse it ought to be.

View attachment 925596

Left side is pre-mod GeekBench testing; right side is post-mod. Look at how much more stable the frequencies and temperatures are. Also, note how much lower the temps are post-mod, with only a single 100*C peak.

GeekBench before the mods:

View attachment 925597

GeekBench after the mods:

View attachment 925598


I added a couple of my test results in PhightinPhils26's spreadsheet here. I'll continue some tests tomorrow, but early indicators are extremely positive.

Lastly, I documented much of the process and put together a thread with instructions here. This is 100% credited to everyone here like @DanSilov, @Robotronic, @kinchee87, etc. Thanks for the advice and how-tos. I couldn't be happier with the results.

Nice going! We're getting pretty much the same performance

 

[ilikewhey]

Update: went ahead with the heatsink and heat pad mods and oh...my...

The performance gains are absolutely amazing, but the temperature drop and stability is even more impressive in my opinion. This has turned my MBA into the powerhouse it ought to be.

View attachment 925596

Left side is pre-mod GeekBench testing; right side is post-mod. Look at how much more stable the frequencies and temperatures are. Also, note how much lower the temps are post-mod, with only a single 100*C peak.

GeekBench before the mods:

View attachment 925597

GeekBench after the mods:

View attachment 925598


I added a couple of my test results in PhightinPhils26's spreadsheet here. I'll continue some tests tomorrow, but early indicators are extremely positive.

Lastly, I documented much of the process and put together a thread with instructions here. This is 100% credited to everyone here like @DanSilov, @Robotronic, @kinchee87, etc. Thanks for the advice and how-tos. I couldn't be happier with the results.

adding the spreadsheet to page one,

 

[undertaker1981]

Quickcool is a german company that makes custom heatpipes, maybe this could lead somewhere

With or without heatpipe, if there is a gap between the CPU and the heatsink is impossibleto have a good cooling.
All the mod performed with the shim have demostrated that the designed cooling system it is enough for that kind of CPU. The real problem is that it has been poorly assemled.

 

[srkirt]

Sorry to say it but Apple is not up to it ... I regret having spent more than € 1,000 for later with a Chinese laptop to have better performance at the level of a Pro ... I can view YouTube videos at 8K 60fps without jerks and without heat or noise ... Even being an 8th generation Intel when wearing a Geforce MX250 you can see a brutality. To anyone who has not bought a Mac at least I recommend you look at the Huawei 13 2K. Yes, it goes with Windows but so what ??? I have both platforms (I have a 2015 MBP) and the truth is I keep this one.
These tests are with battery mode.

 

[excelsior.ink]

Sorry to say it but Apple is not up to it ... I regret having spent more than € 1,000 for later with a Chinese laptop to have better performance at the level of a Pro ... I can view YouTube videos at 8K 60fps without jerks and without heat or noise ... Even being an 8th generation Intel when wearing a Geforce MX250 you can see a brutality. To anyone who has not bought a Mac at least I recommend you look at the Huawei 13 2K. Yes, it goes with Windows but so what ??? I have both platforms (I have a 2015 MBP) and the truth is I keep this one.

The reason why you cannot watch > 1080p videos on YouTube smoothly on a Mac is the codec war (VP9 vs H.265), not a hardware problem.

 

[adrianstuartt]

Sorry to say it but Apple is not up to it ... I regret having spent more than € 1,000 for later with a Chinese laptop to have better performance at the level of a Pro ... I can view YouTube videos at 8K 60fps without jerks and without heat or noise ... Even being an 8th generation Intel when wearing a Geforce MX250 you can see a brutality. To anyone who has not bought a Mac at least I recommend you look at the Huawei 13 2K. Yes, it goes with Windows but so what ??? I have both platforms (I have a 2015 MBP) and the truth is I keep this one.

Nor is this the forum to post this in.

 

[srkirt]

[QUOTE = "adrianstuartt, publicación: 28580523, miembro: 1220909"]
Tampoco es este el foro para publicar esto.
[/CITAR]

Nor is this the forum to post this in.

Are you going to tell me that I have to publish ???

 

[agaskew]

I hope you all enjoy this:

 

[adrianstuartt]

I hope you all enjoy this:

Just got the notification xD they milled out the screw holes to move the heatsink closer to the dies rather than just add copper shims. this seems like a mistake due to being a lot less material to heat soak than the unmodified heatsink + copper shim...

 

[SuperMatt]

If I were these engineers I would Ask my money back from whatever phd program they came out of.

As it stand it can’t load 100% for more than couple minutes without throttling, never mind 24/7

No doubt Apple hires the best but it doesn’t mean they don’t blunder, the utter failure of butterfly keyboard is a pure example of that

They don’t need to add another fan, just add a heat pipe, the thermal cooling benefit it brings would actually reduce fan rpm, thus lowering battery usage

the 2018 mba internal design is clear they went with form over function

If you’re running CPU at 100%, why are you buying an Air? Clearly you need something with more computing power.

 

[ilikewhey]

If you’re running CPU at 100%, why are you buying an Air? Clearly you need something with more computing power.

because i ran 100% just fine at least for 10 mins exporting short videos and the likes on my old 2014 mba, clearly the newer mba are less capable.

 

[srkirt]

I hope you all enjoy this:

These two have no idea of imagination ... I have done more without resources than they ... total pantente is the **** that Apple has made portable ...
[automerge]1592769845[/automerge]
Now for a Hackintosh ...

 

[Loog]

Sorry to say it but Apple is not up to it ... I regret having spent more than € 1,000 for later with a Chinese laptop to have better performance at the level of a Pro ... I can view YouTube videos at 8K 60fps without jerks and without heat or noise ... Even being an 8th generation Intel when wearing a Geforce MX250 you can see a brutality. To anyone who has not bought a Mac at least I recommend you look at the Huawei 13 2K. Yes, it goes with Windows but so what ??? I have both platforms (I have a 2015 MBP) and the truth is I keep this one.
These tests are with battery mode.

@srkirt, I'm quite tempted by Huawei and even the AMD version which is even cheaper for a windows feel but on a mac type platform. I still won't let the MBA go as I love the OS and settled with the performance of the 2018 model post mod (it was ok before but better now). The Matebook AMD is on sale here in the UK for £579, 8GB/256GB
[automerge]1592772983[/automerge]

These two have no idea of imagination ... I have done more without resources than they ... total pantente is the **** that Apple has made portable ...
[automerge]1592769845[/automerge]
Now for a Hackintosh ...

Does the MX250 work ok MacOS ?

 

[twintin]

because i ran 100% just fine at least for 10 mins exporting short videos and the likes on my old 2014 mba, clearly the newer mba are less capable.

In what way ? Are they slower than your 2014 mba ?

 

[jgorman]

There has to be some kind of story behind the 2020 MBA. There are just too many odd quirks. Why does the heat sink not sit flush against the CPU die? Why is there a fan, but no heat pipe connecting it to the heat sink?

Also, why does Apple now give consumers three CPU choices in the 2020 MBA? The i5 upgrade only costs $100, a relatively-small amount compared to other upgrades. It is as if Apple had difficulty deciding what the base model CPU should be because of the trade-off between the i3 and i5.

The 2020 MBA largely shares the same chassis as the 2018 MBA. Apple and the rest of the industry had planned for more power-efficient chips from Intel by this point, so Apple made the 2018 MBA chassis with a fan, but no heat pipe. The problem is those power-efficient chips never came. I wonder if Apple initially tested the i5 CPU as the base model CPU, but it turned out to run hotter than what Apple (and Intel) expected when Apple designed the chassis years ago. Intel then offered the i3 to Apple as an option to lower heat (and cost). Apple tried many heat sink designs, but they all ran hot. In the end, they went with the lightest heat sink tested: one with less copper and more paste. Apple might have been more sensitive to weight because the 2020 MBA is already thicker and heavier due to the switch to the Magic Keyboard. Then, Apple and Intel were about to have a huge fight, but looked deep into each other's eyes and kissed.

 

[Loog]

There has to be some kind of story behind the 2020 MBA. There are just too many odd quirks. Why does the heat sink not make sit flush against the CPU die? Why is there a fan, but no heat pipe connecting it to the heat sink?

Also, why does Apple now give consumers three CPU choices in the 2020 MBA? The i5 upgrade only costs $100, a relatively-small amount compared to other upgrades. It is as if Apple had difficulty deciding what the base model CPU should be because of the trade-off between the i3 and i5.

The 2020 MBA largely shares the same chassis as the 2018 MBA. Apple and the rest of the industry had planned for more power-efficient chips from Intel by this point, so Apple made the 2018 MBA chassis with a fan, but no heat pipe. The problem is those power-efficient chips never came. I wonder if Apple initially tested the i5 CPU as the base model CPU, but it turned out to run hotter than what Apple (and Intel) expected when Apple designed the chassis years ago. Intel then offered the i3 to Apple as an option to lower heat (and cost). Apple tried many heat sink designs, but they all ran hot. In the end, they went with the lightest heat sink tested: one with less copper and more paste. Apple might have been more sensitive to weight because the 2020 MBA is already thicker and heavier due to the switch to the Magic Keyboard. Then, Apple and Intel were about to have a huge fight, but looked deep into each other's eyes and kissed.

The design is the same on the 2018 where there is even more space between the CPU and the heatsink than on the 2020 model, the shim is the way to go unless you want to add additional heat to the bottom case.

 

[Victor Mortimer]

I see no "anacedals" [sic] of overheating.

It's designed to throttle in certain operating conditions. That's what it's supposed to do. If Apple let the processor runaway with heat generation, it could (and probably would) eventually damage the other components.

And heat management isn't just about the CPU. The CPU doesn't live all by itself on a tiny desert island.

Are you not aware that Intel produces families of processors? It's not like Apple could only use this one. Usually there are several choices within a certain TDP.

My guess is that Apple gets dozens if not hundreds of sample units of pretty much any production CPU Intel makes as well as a bunch of pre-production demos to research.

There's also cost which you have completely ignored. Your blinders are strictly on the CPU.

It's not just about the CPU.

This isn't a homebuilt PC from 1997. You don't just drop in a bigger Panasonic case fan, bigger PC Power & Cooling power supply when you upgrade your Pentium II or graphics card in your Lian Li ATX case.

If you think you can design notebook computers better than Apple's current engineering staff, why don't you send in your resume? They're always looking for engineering talent.

A trained monkey could design better thermals than Apple's current engineering staff.

Proper thermal design requires one simple thing: MAKE IT THICKER.

There is simply insufficient thermal mass to handle the heat. There is simply insufficient airflow to handle the heat. And there is simply insufficient battery to handle the power requirements.

Making it as thin as Apple idiotically keeps doing is DESTROYING performance.

 

[Bartłomiej Ławniczak]

Is it even a good idea to buy MAcbok air 2020? I already ordered it but still can cancel the purchase. Will it be better thank my current 2015 MBA?

 

[srkirt]

[QUOTE = "jgorman, publicación: 28580866, miembro: 1184241"]
Tiene que haber algún tipo de historia detrás del MBA 2020. Hay demasiadas peculiaridades extrañas. ¿Por qué el disipador de calor no se apoya al ras de la CPU? ¿Por qué hay un ventilador, pero no hay una tubería de calor que lo conecte al disipador de calor?

Además, ¿por qué Apple ahora ofrece a los consumidores tres opciones de CPU en el MBA 2020? La actualización i5 solo cuesta $ 100, una cantidad relativamente pequeña en comparación con otras actualizaciones. Es como si Apple tuviera dificultades para decidir cuál debería ser la CPU del modelo base debido a la compensación entre el i3 y el i5.

El MBA 2020 comparte en gran medida el mismo chasis que el MBA 2018. Apple y el resto de la industria habían planeado chips de Intel con mayor eficiencia energética en este punto, por lo que Apple fabricó el chasis MBA 2018 con un ventilador, pero sin tubo de calor. El problema es que esos chips de bajo consumo nunca llegaron. Me pregunto si Apple probó inicialmente la CPU i5 como la CPU modelo base, pero resultó funcionar más caliente de lo que Apple (e Intel) esperaban cuando Apple diseñó el chasis hace años. Intel luego ofreció el i3 a Apple como una opción para reducir el calor (y el costo). Apple probó muchos diseños de disipadores de calor, pero todos se pusieron calientes. Al final, fueron con el disipador de calor más ligero probado: uno con menos cobre y más pasta. Apple podría haber sido más sensible al peso porque el MBA 2020 ya es más grueso y pesado debido al cambio al Magic Keyboard. Entonces,
[/ CITAR]
Bravo!!!
[automerge]1592777376[/automerge]

 

[IngerMan]

Happy Fathers Day! I decided to do the shim mod today and the pad again.


Stock i7 16GB 256 SSD


Artic 1.5mm Thermal Pad only on heatsink


Thermal Pad and .3mm Shim 20X16 with MX4 paste

 

[adrianstuartt]

just ordered a thermalpad to put on my i3 for kicks. don't think it'll help me significantly beyond the shim, but now i need to know.