2020 Air Heatsink Modification Thread

[TimmuJapan]

holy crap u did this on a m1? thats bloody amazing

Ummm….. amazing if you wanna burn a hole through your pants when you put the computer in your lap….

 

[Gussycorker]

I hope someone could help me out quickly as my mba is currently open. I planned to use PTM 7950 pads on the cpu as I have successfully done on my old MacBook, however now I’m unsure of the mounting pressure. The pad is supposedly 0.2mm thin. It’s a phase change pad. Is this too thin with the bad mounting pressure of the heatsink ? I also have syy paste.

 

[Muadebe01]

I decided to do a cpu and heatsink mod on my MacBook Air 2020 i5 laptop.

I decided against the shim mod and instead used an Artic TP-3 0.5mm thermal pad. On top of the heatsink I placed an Aairhut 1.5mm thermal pad and removed the heat shield form the bottom of the case. I have a cooling stand that I put my MacBook on.

I had fcracer’s guide open as reference, appreciate the effort he put in to it, thank you.

I opened the case, disconnected the battery and removed the heatsink - those screws are so small I couldn’t focus on them!

After completing the mod I ran Geekbench 5:

Before mod: Single: 1056. Multi: 2663.

After mod: Single: 1133 (+7%). Multi: 3657 (+37%)

Now the performance increase of the mod is good but this laptop is not purchased for its performance prowess.

The temperature improvement has been outstanding.

The laptop now idles at 34c it was previously 47c. I ran Cinebench R23 before and after but have misplaced the score for before, the temperature would hit 90c-98c for the majority of the test (which lasts over 10mins). Post mod it didn't go over 79c. The score post mod for Cinebanch R23 was Multi: 2690.

More Post mod benchmarks only:

Geekbench 6 : Single: 1375. Multi: 4331. GPU: 6185.

Geekbench 5 : GPU: 8658.

When watching YouTube the temp remains cool and the fans silent. The same goes for Netflix, Prime, AppleTV and all other streaming services tested.

I play the odd retro game - some games pushed the laptop hard whilst emulating. One example is Grandia on the Saturn, it would cause temps to sit in the 90’s, post mod this remains below 70c.

Overall I am very happy with the results. I know this is a very old thread but I wanted to show that using a good thermal pad instead of the shim mod is a viable option.

Thanks to everyone who has spent time contributing to this and the many other threads around, it made it a much easier decision for me to give it a try. My 3 year warranty ran out this year so I felt some attention to the laptop would help keep it going strong.

 

[Muadebe01]

I hope someone could help me out quickly as my mba is currently open. I planned to use PTM 7950 pads on the cpu as I have successfully done on my old MacBook, however now I’m unsure of the mounting pressure. The pad is supposedly 0.2mm thin. It’s a phase change pad. Is this too thin with the bad mounting pressure of the heatsink ? I also have syy paste.

All my reading suggests you need 0.5mm thermal pad for the cpu-heatsink.

 

[Homeduck]

Hi folks, my Wife has just received her new MBA M3 so the old MBA 2018 (code a1932, Intel I5 dual core) is now in my hands for home tasks (browsing, mails, some video on YouTube, Spotify, simple Word and Excel). Now I am considering to do the heatsink mod (only the part on cpu: to add a 0.5 mm thick Copper shim and to apply new arctic mx-4 thermal paste). Do you suggest to apply the mod or does not it make any sense?
Thank you

 

[ObiKeahloa]

Hi folks, my Wife has just received her new MBA M3 so the old MBA 2018 (code a1932, Intel I5 dual core) is now in my hands for home tasks (browsing, mails, some video on YouTube, Spotify, simple Word and Excel). Now I am considering to do the heatsink mod (only the part on cpu: to add a 0.5 mm thick Copper shim and to apply new arctic mx-4 thermal paste). Do you suggest to apply the mod or does not it make any sense?
Thank you

There are two sections to the mod:

-Copper shim on heat-sink
-Copper shim + thermal pads

I'll list pros & cons for you to decide
--Copper shim only
Pros: Better heat dissipation, maintains apple's thermal design, doesn't heat up bottom case (may affect battery health)
Cons: Not as effective as adding thermal pads

--Copper shim and thermal pads
Pros: Improves thermal performance drastically
Cons: Makes bottom panel also heat up (uncomfortable for lap use, can deteriorate battery health faster)

My opinion? I think for your use, no modding is probably just fine, if you feel that the laptop seems to throttle during use, you can do just the heat-sink mod (only the part on the cpu, as you mentioned). Enjoy modding (or not)!

 

[A4orce84]

Hey Everyone,

I picked up a used M1 MBA and interested in doing this mod. Can I use the following thermal pads:

ARCTIC TP-3: Premium Performance Thermal Pad, 100 x 100 x 1.5 mm (Stackable to 2.0 mm Without Performance Loss), 1 Piece - High Performance, Particularly Soft, Ideal Gap Filler, Bridging Gaps

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/GPU coolers and fans, ARCTIC produces high-quality monitor arms and wall brackets as well as practical tech equ...

www.amazon.com

Thanks in advance to everyone for your time and help. It is greatly appreciated!