M1 really makes a world of difference and the fanless design is awesome. did you get yours with 8 or 16gb? Not sure what to go with myself
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
2020 Air Heatsink Modification Thread
- Thread starter ilikewhey
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
8gb the exchange of data once the memory is saturated accesses the HD ultra fast almost like the memory. I have not chosen 16gb because there is no stock in Spain. Anyway, the memory operation is not that of Windows, it works with much less except for the horrible Chrome ...
8GB is fine for most work flows, certainly not for VM's, hence why I've not jumped in. I'll be on the M1x path once this is released. Nice to see you back on MacOS @srkirt
Can you please take links to stores or sellers when did you buy paste, Copper Shim and Thermal Pad? Thank You!
There is a report here that a 21 day old 8 GB MacBook Air has used 61 TB and is already down 4% on lifespan. If you are going to use a lot of memory, it looks like you should choose the 16 GB M1 model.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ssd-swap-high-usage-of-terabytes-written.2284893/post-29612448
I suppose he could be lying but I didn't see any reason to doubt the numbers. I've seen other reports of similar problems.
Edit: I just checked smartmontools again for my M1 MBA, I went up 500 GB in about 24 hours. I don't think I did anything particularly disk intensive and that is way outside my normal since in the previous 90 days I was under 6 TB.
I just checked my machine 2.2 years old MBA 2018, 37TB written, 97% health on 512GB model. I use mine daily home and work with VM so that's really hard going !!
Hi, so... does any of the information here RE: the copper shim mod pertain to an older mid-2011 MBA? or are those heatsinks just fine as far as contact between die and heatsink goes? getting into modding and since my thermal paste is about due to be changed...I figured I might as well research other mod options to lower my temps
I’m not sure. It won’t hurt to take the back off and see what screws retain the heatsink. Then I’d remove the heatsink and fit new thermal paste, that will give you the opportunity to see if there is a gap between the heatsink and the processor die that might be suitable for an appropriate sized shim. You could also check to see if the fan could do with a bit of tlc as it might have ingested some crud over the years.
Be sure to run some before/ after benchmarks and report back 👍
Be sure to run some before/ after benchmarks and report back 👍
Definitely. It still hits 100c under heavy load, but it cools off much, much faster than it did before the thermal pad, which of course allows it to get back up to max clock speed sooner.
What pad did you get? I saw others used 1.5mm.
My 2020 Intel Air i5 8 gigs RAM goes crazy when I'm on a Google Meet.
I think I want to try this...TIA.
This one https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08GSCJ5W1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I left a little space around the edges of the heatsink to ensure airflow. Seems to be working well so far.
It's still nowhere near as fast as my M1 Air, but it's an improvement.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Having done the thermal pad mod on my 2020 i5 air to great success I did the same with my base M1 Air ( 8/7,256 ). The resulting benchmark is on par with the M1 Pro ( which of course has a fan for active cooling )
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
You just did the thermal pad and not new thermal paste and the copper shim?
Also, curious on what pad you used as well.
I did both on the i5 2020 Air, first the shim mod and later the pad. The pad is a doddle, non intrusive. I used a 2mm on the M1, just a £5 cheapie from Amz. On the i5 I originally used an Arctic 1.5 mm.
Edit to add there’s a load of info including benchmarks on both the modding threads
Did the thermal pad just a bit ago.
My Geekbench scores:
First run before thermal pad: 1178 single, 3163 multi.
After thermal pad after first boot: 1097 single, 3380 multi.
I decided to start a Google Meet and try...798 single, 1721 multi.
My temp went immediately pushed 100 degrees C and fand full speed when I started the Meet test, kind of disappointing. Maybe I need to be patient?
I tested again after I closed the Meet, 1138 single, 3006 multi.
My Geekbench scores:
First run before thermal pad: 1178 single, 3163 multi.
After thermal pad after first boot: 1097 single, 3380 multi.
I decided to start a Google Meet and try...798 single, 1721 multi.
My temp went immediately pushed 100 degrees C and fand full speed when I started the Meet test, kind of disappointing. Maybe I need to be patient?
I tested again after I closed the Meet, 1138 single, 3006 multi.