Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

2020 Air Heatsink Modification Thread

I'm not sure if this is an anomaly, but after upgrading to Big Sur, and running GeekBench, my fans haven't been kicking up NEARLY as much as before. More impressively, in Safari, I watched a 5 minute, 4K, 60 FPS, HDR video on YouTube and the fans topped out around 3500 rpm and the CPU only got to about 85 C.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tenkaykev and silvia_18
PhightinPhils26 said:
I'm not sure if this is an anomaly, but after upgrading to Big Sur, and running GeekBench, my fans haven't been kicking up NEARLY as much as before. More impressively, in Safari, I watched a 5 minute, 4K, 60 FPS, HDR video on YouTube and the fans topped out around 3500 rpm and the CPU only got to about 85 C.
Click to expand...
Same experience here, I feel like I have a new machine after upgrading to Big Sur!
 
Just out of curiosity, can the fact that my MBA fans run high/noisy (and presumably the machine getting hot) damage the machine? I'm using my i5 2020 MBA to play some older games on an external monitor and obviously it gets pretty damn noisy. The game play is fine, I'm just concerned about long term damage.
 
As others have also noted in this thread, Big Sur has considerably improved performance for me. In my most recent Zoom call, I had 30% CPU usage, 33% fan usage and 70°C CPU temperature on average, on my modded MBA.
 
McFlulle said:
As others have also noted in this thread, Big Sur has considerably improved performance for me. In my most recent Zoom call, I had 30% CPU usage, 33% fan usage and 70°C CPU temperature on average, on my modded MBA.
Click to expand...
That is pretty awesome, now if only Apple had put in half decent SSDs like those in the new M1, I would be a very happy camper.
 
  • Like
Reactions: McFlulle
Any teardown/disassembly or possibility of upgrading M1 MBA with some thermal pads?

I saw one pulling a fan underneath that improved Heaven results in loop to almost non-throttled, like MBP 13, so there is no software power limit but only thermal limitation and there might be a potential there.
 
iFixit's disassembly shows big, flat heatsink but it is impossible to judge how much space is there between it's surface and back cover.

I just found 20x130x2mm 6W/mK and 30x30x3mm 1,5W/mK thermal pads in my leftovers drawer, once I get new Air (currently scheduled to be delivered between 10th and 17th) I will stick it between heatsink and back cover and will report back if it fits, if it helps and if it burns the skin off my legs.
 
Wojciech Lampa said:
Any teardown/disassembly or possibility of upgrading M1 MBA with some thermal pads?

I saw one pulling a fan underneath that improved Heaven results in loop to almost non-throttled, like MBP 13, so there is no software power limit but only thermal limitation and there might be a potential there.
Click to expand...

jay-m said:
iFixit's disassembly shows big, flat heatsink but it is impossible to judge how much space is there between it's surface and back cover.

I just found 20x130x2mm 6W/mK and 30x30x3mm 1,5W/mK thermal pads in my leftovers drawer, once I get new Air (currently scheduled to be delivered between 10th and 17th) I will stick it between heatsink and back cover and will report back if it fits, if it helps and if it burns the skin off my legs.
Click to expand...

What I think would be interesting is, in order to enhance the dissipation from the M1 to the heatsink, to put the copper shim between the M1 and the aluminum heatsink, using a better thermal compound. Or, if there is absolutely no gap between the M1 and the dissipator, just replacing the thermal paste for a better one. But that’s just my 2cents, I think the thermal pad between the Heatsink and bottom case will make the Air unconfortably hot to the touch.
 
Populus said:
What I think would be interesting is, in order to enhance the dissipation from the M1 to the heatsink, to put the copper shim between the M1 and the aluminum heatsink, using a better thermal compound. Or, if there is absolutely no gap between the M1 and the dissipator, just replacing the thermal paste for a better one. But that’s just my 2cents, I think the thermal pad between the Heatsink and bottom case will make the Air unconfortably hot to the touch.
Click to expand...

Why not find a way to add the fan from the intel 2020 version in this one? It looks like it will fit just fine, the only issue will be related to the wiring which could be setup to run at full speed, partial, or creating a dial that can be user adjustable.

The best scenario would be if someone spent the time to program a chip that can be soldered to the motherboard and to sync the fan speed with the cpu temp (of course this would void your warranty, but it would make it function similar to a macbook pro). That is what im hoping for because I got two airs on the way and I specifically avoided the pro's because of the stupid touchbar so If a mod come to add a fan into the system i'll happily solder it up after the 1 year warranty expires lol.
 
There was a genuine concern with the Intel MBA thermals crippling performance, I can’t understand why anyone would bother trying to do the same with the M1, the gains are likely so marginal that it doesn’t justify the effort, but hey, to each his/her own.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mike Boreham, fcracer and IngerMan
nill1234 said:
I got my M1 and still have the Intel one here. This thing runs cool without any fan. I really like it. But still the Intel one is also very good an no slouch at all.
Click to expand...
I agree, people on M1 koolaid are trashing the Intel.
 
Now that I think about it, even if we want to modify the M1 dissipation, even just replacing the thermal paste, we cannot know if it’s effective because there’s no way to know the temperature of the M1 chip.

Maybe with lots of benchmarks and being sure it throttles way after with the new thermal compound...
 
As a last hurrah for the 2020 Intel MacBook Air modifications, I've rerun the benchmarks on macOS Big Sur 11.0.1, Intel Power Gadget 3.6.0, Geekbench 5.3.1, and Cinebench R23. When I run the multi-core stress test with Intel Power Gadget, it seems that the max sustained frequency is 100MHz lower than before, but the CPU temperature plateaus at about 80ºC. I guess Big Sur is throttling the CPU even more?

Intel Power Gadget 3.6.0​

Test TypeResult (GHz)
CPU (All Thread Frequency, Scalar)2.70
CPU (All Thread Frequency, AVX-256)2.60
CPU (All Thread Frequency, AVX-512)2.40
Intel Graphics Test (Max Frequency)1.00

Geekbench 5.3.1​

Test TypeResults (Points)
CPU (Single-core)1,253
CPU (Multi-core)3,974
Compute (OpenCL)9,034
Compute (Metal)10,383

Cinebench R23​

Test TypeResults (Points)
CPU (Single-core)1,051
CPU (Multi-core)3,089
MP Ratio2.94
 
  • Like
Reactions: TommyYOyoyo and Loog
This is probably why we‘ve noticed the fans kicking on less. I haven’t seen a discernible difference in my benchmarking, but I’ve also mostly turned off my monitoring and have just enjoyed using my computer.
 
Ok, im going to do the pad and maybe paste mode on my i5 256, 16gb MBA,
my before mod GB test results are as follows:
single: 1051
Multi: 2833
Pretty weak for stock, no?
 
IngerMan said:
No! It looks pretty good for what you have. I am sure it feels very zippy as well, yes?
Click to expand...
Yes it does, not too shabby performance but what scores should I be realistically aiming for if I do the shin and pad or just the pad mod?
 
Well no sense risking the shim and new paste. The Pad is a very easy mod and will yield as big of gains of just doing one of the mods. The pad mod is no different then opening up your laptop and cleaning dust out.

Doing the pad mod with a 1.5mm Arctic pad covering as much of the heat sync you can.

That should raise your single to high 1100's maybe 1200 and Multi 3500's

www.amazon.com

ARCTIC TP-2 (APT2560): Economic Thermal Pad, 50 x 50 x 1.5 mm (1 Piece) - Thermal pad, Excellent heat conduction, Low hardness, Ideal gap filler, Easy installation, thermal pads gpu, thermal pad cpu -

ARCTIC, a leading manufacturer of low-noise PC coolers and components, initiated and continues to shape the trend towards quiet cooling systems. In addition to an extensive range of CPU coolers and fans, ARCTIC produces high-quality monitor arms, wall mounts, thermal paste as well as thermal pads...
www.amazon.com
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
prism said:
Bummer, I ordered the 1mm pad as suggested in the first post of this thread!
Click to expand...


That will work as well. I tried a 1mm pad but found it easily broke apart, So I replaced it back to 1.5mm. It was a different brand and that might have been part of it.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back