2020 Air Heatsink Modification Thread

[srkirt]

[QUOTE = "skriatok, publicación: 28732863, miembro: 1225115"]
Para ser honesto, tu ejecución fue desordenada y yo contaba días, cuando la matas. Las ideas eran un punto excelente, que cruzó muchas mentes, pero cuando miro esas fotos, nunca las tomaría como punto de referencia, es su máquina y ya hay ejecuciones casi limpias.
La transferencia de calor con papel de aluminio es inadecuada.
[/CITAR]
Naciones Unidas
Aluminio ???? Es estaño

 

[ilikewhey]

More things that I tried on my machine has not been done by anyone from this forum ... in the end he died of so much tinkering ...
BTW I have found a better paste than the NX4, Thermalright TF8 Thermal Composite Paste 13.8 W / mK.
In my Hauwei I have reached almost 1500 points in R20 with an AMD Ryzen, (by the way much colder and faster than an i5)

Nx4 is by no means a good quality Tim, I recommend ac5 or noctua, thermal grizzly is on the more expensive side

 

[stinkycheese1]

To be honest, your execution was messy and I was counting days, when you kill it. Ideas were excelent point, which crossed many minds, but when I look at those pictures, I wouldnt ever take them as a benchmark, its your machine and there are alredy clean executions.
Transfer of heat with just coper foil is ineadequate.

I was thinking the same thing. No offense to @ srkirt as it's 100% your money, your MBA, leaving you entitled to do whatever you want(ed) to do it if you thought it brought with it measurable performance increases, but def the execution needed work. It was just sloppy looking in general, with thermal paste residue all over the inside. But hey, again to each their own. Hopefully getting a replacement laptop/MacBook doesn't hurt too much financially and maybe next time you'll go with a simpler design in terms of mods.

 

[stinkycheese1]

Hey ya'll. Been lurking on here for some time going over all of the different variations of mods that you guys have done and despite my MBA2020 i5/16/256 being less than a month old, I decided to open her up in the name of performance. Coming from the heyday of overclocking desktop rigs with antifreeze water-cooled CPU's and CCL lights, the keywords cooler and faster were all it took to convince me. I don't have any before/after pictures - just one before as I was way too excited to get started and finish but my list of parts purchased are as follows:

JIUWU 20x20x0.3 Copper Shim
Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut Thermal Paste, 1 gram
ARCTIC Thermal Pad 50 x 50 x 1 mm
3M 800, 1000, 1500 Grit Sandpaper
ArctiClean 1 & 2 Thermal Paste Compound Remover & Purifier

I sanded the shims mainly to get rid of any surface impurities with a dry sand, making sure not too remove too much Copper in the process. I eyeballed it but users have said that 20 mm was the better size, compared to the 15mm copper shims. My final shim was 2 pieces - roughly 17 mm x 15mm and a smaller piece on top measuring roughly 3 mm x 15mm. Not too sure of these dimensions but I ended up with a shim that fit in the i5 heatsink insert with roughly a 1~2 mm of space free on each size. I figured some empty space would help the extra heat that the heatsink wasn't absorbing would run off the sides, either into the heatsink or the thermal pad on top.

The Grizzy Paste was expensive but is advertised as having one of the best thermal shedding rating so I figured why not. I would be curious to have some data on those whom have done the same mods with the only difference being the choice of brand of thermal paste to see if it actually keeps temps down better than say - Arctic MX-4.

The Thermal Pad went on top and I trimmed a little bit off the top right hand side, by the gold washer/nut piece thingy as the i5 heatsink is not perfectly square. Someone suggested 1mm ought to do it as someone on one of these forums went with 1.5mm first and said the bottom of the case got way too hot. I left the stock rubber padding on the bottom of the case as well. From what I've read it seems members are rather divided on whether or not the bottom of the case should have a perfect seal with the heat pad, or not and I don't own an IR gun but even when running GC and Power Gadget at full settings, even with the core approaching 90 degrees, the bottom of the laptop never got unbearably hot.

So, the moment you've all been waiting for. Benchmark scores! Overall, very very satisfied with the performance bump given the relatively cheap cost of the materials used. I'm still torn about Apple deliberately limiting power on the new MBA's with the placement of the fan relative to the heatsink, but I'm reminded they are a billion dollar company and pricing and slotting of products is tantamount to their success.

P.S. During my research I came across these heatsinks used on Rasberry Pi devices and was wondering if anyone had successfully incorporated one of these heatsinks in their MBA2020 cooling systems. I think I saw a picture of someone who replaced the factory heatsink with one of these Rasberry Pi Copper heatsinks but he/she might have made some mention of it not working as effectively as predicted. Anyway, thanks for the DIY guides and the seemingly endless amount of information on this forum regarding these mods. Couldn't have done it without ya'll. Can't wait to see what you guys think of next.

 

[McFlulle]

I've got a few DM's from people asking about the modifications. To make it easier for people contemplating the paste/shim/pad modifications, I've put a how-to guide online with pictures and test results. Hope you find it useful.

This is brilliant. I wish I would have had your guide before I did my mod. Thanks for putting in the work!

 

[stinkycheese1]

This is brilliant. I wish I would have had your guide before I did my mod. Thanks for putting in the work!

+2 on the kudos for the DIY guide. I remember using his website as a reference guide when doing the mods on my MBA as well.

 

[srkirt]

I was thinking the same thing. No offense to @ srkirt as it's 100% your money, your MBA, leaving you entitled to do whatever you want(ed) to do it if you thought it brought with it measurable performance increases, but def the execution needed work. It was just sloppy looking in general, with thermal paste residue all over the inside. But hey, again to each their own. Hopefully getting a replacement laptop/MacBook doesn't hurt too much financially and maybe next time you'll go with a simpler design in terms of mods.

Thank you!!! it is a compliment to read your words. By the way I have it for sale for € 350.

 

[fcracer]

This is brilliant. I wish I would have had your guide before I did my mod. Thanks for putting in the work!

+2 on the kudos for the DIY guide. I remember using his website as a reference guide when doing the mods on my MBA as well.

Thanks! It was the least I could do for all the help I've gotten from MR over the years. Glad that you both found it of use! I'm loving my MBA 2020 with the mods and have finally decided to sell the 2018 MBP as I never reach for it. This MBA will hold me over just fine until Apple silicon arrives...

 

[firegun9]

Exactly right, but the copper still can flow and expose heat to the air current.
Here’s a quick two-minute example comparing and explaining heat pipes for those that are interested:

This video explains better to me.

 

[firegun9]

MacBook Air 13" (Mid 2013-2017) Heat Sink

Replace a damaged or bent heat sink in a Mid 2013 to 2017 13" MacBook Air. This part attaches to the main processor and helps dissipate heat.

www.ifixit.com

If only I could install this one on.

 

[Random123]

There are still 2 questions that I believe need to be answered about the copper shim mod and the thermal pad mod. First for the thermal pad which thickness is better 1.5mm or 1.0mm. Also which copper shim size is better .03 or .05. If we find this out then we can make the machine the best it can be using these mods.

 

[Declan Brown]

Will apple eventually offer a modification where the mac can be upgraded after sale to have the heatsink installed?

If the customers complain enough will that not become inevitable?

Get your designs patented and sell them to apple?

I don't know how the mac world works obviously. I am waiting for a i5 MBA and am just doing the classic fear searching for all the things that could be wrong. This seems like a big issue but the solutions are here, I want it running optimally but I want warranty. I just wish my dreams listed as questions would come true.

Has apple ever offered these design improvements post release before?

 

[jmilan0302]

MacBook Air 13" (Mid 2013-2017) Heat Sink

Replace a damaged or bent heat sink in a Mid 2013 to 2017 13" MacBook Air. This part attaches to the main processor and helps dissipate heat.

www.ifixit.com

If only I could install this one on.

Maybe, if there is nothing in front of the fan just an air guide and there is enough vertical space it is possible, you can buy heatpipes from aliexpress but it's quite hard to bend and solder them. However the macbook air being so thin I have no idea if there is space or even if that heatsink would perform than stock. Also I think we have no way of unlocking power limits on new macbooks because of Apple locking down everything, editing firmware would probably cause the T2 chip to freak out, it's possible to max out the 10W power limit already set with just copper shims and thermal pads.
People have already been adding heatpipes to laptops for years now, here are some examples:

 

[stinkycheese1]

There are still 2 questions that I believe need to be answered about the copper shim mod and the thermal pad mod. First for the thermal pad which thickness is better 1.5mm or 1.0mm. Also which copper shim size is better .03 or .05. If we find this out then we can make the machine the best it can be using these mods.

I agree. I've seen some spreadsheets with performance results post mods but if anyone is maybe willing to compile this into a master file using Geekbench and Intel Power Gadget scores as a way to gauge effectiveness/performance that might be useful, no?

 

[agaskew]

Will apple eventually offer a modification where the mac can be upgraded after sale to have the heatsink installed?

If the customers complain enough will that not become inevitable?

Get your designs patented and sell them to apple?

I don't know how the mac world works obviously. I am waiting for a i5 MBA and am just doing the classic fear searching for all the things that could be wrong. This seems like a big issue but the solutions are here, I want it running optimally but I want warranty. I just wish my dreams listed as questions would come true.

Has apple ever offered these design improvements post release before?

Only when Hell freezes over I'm afraid. Best case scenario is they fix this without telling anyone.

When you get yours, don't search for problems - if it does what you want and you're happy with it - great

 

[Tenkaykev]

Only when Hell freezes over I'm afraid. Best case scenario is they fix this without telling anyone.

When you get yours, don't search for problems - if it does what you want and you're happy with it - great

^^^ This^^^

I've done both mods on mine and I'm really pleased with the result. I did it because I'm an inveterate tinkerer who enjoys messing about with projects such as this. The computer, out of the box worked perfectly fine, it just wasn't the best it could theoretically be.
If Apple do tweak the production with tighter tolerances and less thermal paste then we should start seeing improved Geekbench scores from Airs with a later manufacturers date.

 

[Theocean0]

Hey guys! Just purchased my new 2020 i5 8gb 512gb air, and excited to get it a little faster! Just a question, I don’t want to ruin the warranty since I have the Apple 1 year + extra 2 years with my Citi credit card. We travel a lot and get pretty rough with our laptops so I can def see ourselves using that warranty! What would be the best mod to avoid warranty issues, just the pad alone?? I’m assuming the shim + thermal paste would be a no go due to potential warranty issues? Is any one pad better than the other that won’t leave any marks on the heatsink or laptop bottom?? Thanks so much for all your help!!

 

[IngerMan]

@Theocean0

I would say the easiest is the pad alone and probably the safest not to void warranty. I can say that I removed the Artic 1.5mm pad after a few weeks and it left no sign of any residue. It was a clean install and clean un-install.

The thread below is specific to thermal pad only.

MacBook Air 2020 - thermal pad, great results

This is my first time posting here, but I've been a longtime Mac user and hardware enthusiast. I bought the 2020 MacBook Air as I was curious about the ice lake chips and keen to see if a MacBook Air could satisfy me for travelling about. But as I feared, thermal solution meant that trying to...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Theocean0]

Great, thanks!!


I was also wondering, has anyone done benchmark comparison’s between their modified 2020 MacBook air’s vs similarly spec’d out 2020 MacBook Pros?

@Theocean0

I would say the easiest is the pad alone and probably the safest not to void warranty. I can say that I removed the Artic 1.5mm pad after a few weeks and it left no sign of any residue. It was a clean install and clean un-install.

The thread below is specific to thermal pad only.

MacBook Air 2020 - thermal pad, great results

This is my first time posting here, but I've been a longtime Mac user and hardware enthusiast. I bought the 2020 MacBook Air as I was curious about the ice lake chips and keen to see if a MacBook Air could satisfy me for travelling about. But as I feared, thermal solution meant that trying to...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Supra Mac]

Great, thanks!!


I was also wondering, has anyone done benchmark comparison’s between their modified 2020 MacBook air’s vs similarly spec’d out 2020 MacBook Pros?

Depends on the benchmark. Not going to kid myself the Pro is on a whole other level after a few minutes of sustained loads. Car analogy. If the Air and 10th Gen Pro ran a drag race, they could be neck and neck at the 1/8 mile mark (Geekbench), also the iPad Pro would be in there, but the Pro will start to pull away at the 1/4 mile mark (Cinebench, 10th Gen i5 Pro numbers are around 50% higher than some modded i7s, would be interesting to see where a iPad Pro would fall). And if it was an endurance race then the Pro would be lapping the Air and the iPad Pro, they both do not have the thermal envelope to handle the amount of work in the same time period.

 

[Jago]

its designed to have lower potential performance. by not having a heatpipe connecting the highest thermal output component, apple cannibalized the performance capacity of the mba from the get go. i had a 2013 mba that could go toe to toe in performance with my 2015 mbp 13inch. the 2018 mba throttles under the same workload where my 2015 mbp chucks along just fine.

its definitely about CPU, modern motherboards with solid state choke capacitors are capable of heat tolerance well beyond 100C, it doesn't have to be a home made computer fitting into a lian li case. everything in a modern computer can be passively cooled or not cooled at all, except the cpu/gpu.

again with the appealing to authority statement, apple blunders left and right with the crap show of butterfly keyboard for years, if you think they are doing such a fantastic job why they going back on their designs with old tech that works. just because someone have phd degree, doesn't mean they are always right.

Meanwhile, in the real world, NVME SSDs throttle themselves when above 60c.

 

[Tenkaykev]

It's reported that if you fit a 1.5mm pad and remove the insulator on the inner surface of the case back, then the case gets uncomfortably hot. I wondered if fitting a (slim) external heat pipe on the outside of the case using thermal tape and the space between the rear feet would be an option. Purely a temporary test out of curiosity to see what the Geek bench scores would be.

 

[jmilan0302]

It's reported that if you fit a 1.5mm pad and remove the insulator on the inner surface of the case back, then the case gets uncomfortably hot. I wondered if fitting a (slim) external heat pipe on the outside of the case using thermal tape and the space between the rear feet would be an option. Purely a temporary test out of curiosity to see what the Geek bench scores would be.

You could probably fit one internally, there are 1mm heatpipes and there are 0.5mm thermal pads. There are even 0.4mm heatpipes. This is why I say someone needs to try fitting a proper heatpipe/finstack setup in there, I think there might be space and it will perform great.

 

[Tenkaykev]

You could probably fit one internally, there are 1mm heatpipes and there are 0.5mm thermal pads. There are even 0.4mm heatpipes. This is why I say someone needs to try fitting a proper heatpipe/finstack setup in there, I think there might be space and it will perform great.

Yes, I agree and think that someone has done that. I was thinking about the airflow inside the MacBook with the small fan drawing air over the heat pipe and exhausting it.
The people who have fitted the pad and removed the thermal insulator that sits above the heat sink reported that the temperature of the base at that spot gets too hot for comfort, that's what made me thing about fitting an external low profile heatpipe ( or more than one ) affixed to the case at the place where it gets hottest and extending sideways might work. As long as the profile was below that of the feet then the heat pipe / pipes wouldn't sit proud. Be interesting to see how much heat they would dissipate. They might even look quite cool ( sorry ) especially if they were polished copper.
But as I said, more of a thought experiment

 

[jmilan0302]

Yes, I agree and think that someone has done that. I was thinking about the airflow inside the MacBook with the small fan drawing air over the heat pipe and exhausting it.
The people who have fitted the pad and removed the thermal insulator that sits above the heat sink reported that the temperature of the base at that spot gets too hot for comfort, that's what made me thing about fitting an external low profile heatpipe ( or more than one ) affixed to the case at the place where it gets hottest and extending sideways might work. As long as the profile was below that of the feet then the heat pipe / pipes wouldn't sit proud. Be interesting to see how much heat they would dissipate. They might even look quite cool ( sorry ) especially if they were polished copper.
But as I said, more of a thought experiment

I had another idea. The copper shim mod, since the heatsink has no heatpipes, it should be very easy to solder the copper shim to the heatsink instead of pasting it. Just spread some solder paste on, put the shim on and heat it up on the stove till the solder melts, there is no heatpipe to explode. This might even negate the need for the thermal pad mod so that stops heating up the outside of the machine. Now I wonder if someone is willing to try building a custom heatsink with a heatpipe and fin stack in front of the fan like the old airs had. I bet that would give 85c sustained under full load if not less. There could very well be enough space in there for that.