I have gone ahead and re-applied the thermal paste on the 4 chips (CPU, GPU, Thunderbolt controller, southbridge).
Before:
GPU heatsink:
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Dirty. Nice job, Apple "Geniuses"... (I had them re-apply thermal paste on both the CPU and GPU.)
Southbridge heatsink:
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Excess of thermal paste coming out of the edge of the heatsink. Originally, I wasn't planning on re-doing the southbridge or the Thunderbolt controller, but upon seeing such horror, I would'nt have been able to live with myself knowing that such a mess was living underneath my MBP's keyboard.
GPU & CPU:
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Nasty. They told me they cleaned up the stock application and re-applied only the necessary amount. Right
. Not to mention, the screws were only loosely tightened. They did swap the motherboard for a new one, covered by the first year Apple Care (in order to alleviate my doubt about the CPU coming from a poor batch), so I can't complain about them specifically.
Thunderbolt controller:
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Kind of clean, relative to its neighbours, though way too thick and uneven.
Southbridge:
I'm sorry I forgot to take a picture of the southbridge, but it wasn't pretty, as the picture of the corresponding heatsink (above) can attest.
After:
Thunderbolt controller & southbridge:
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As documented by somebody early in this thread, their heatsinks are elevated by a good millimeter above the corresponding chips. Thermal paste isn't appropriate in this case. I put thermal pads leftover from an EK waterblock. They fit perfectly underneath the heatsinks: there's a good, tight contact after screwing them back on.
GPU & CPU:
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All cleaned up. I found a toothpick to be the perfect tool for removing thermal paste between the tiny elements (transistors?) surrounding the main chip. Precise yet soft wood.
GPU & CPU:
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Arctic Cooling MX-2 applied, ready to be spread by the heatsinks. There's a little more than necessary but at least I'm almost certain it spread over the whole surface. Also, the MX-2 is liquid enough that the pressure from the heatsink only leaves the thinnest layer necessary to fill surface imperfections while excess is pushed to the edges (proved over and over after dozens of desktop CPU and GPU heatsink and waterblock un-/mounting).
Results (running on battery, integrated GPU)
Absolute maximum load temperature:
93°C => 88°C
Note: temperature rises to 94°C but only briefly as when when fans reach 6200 RPM, the CPU is cooled town to a stable 88°C. Before, temperature rose to 93-95°C and stayed there.
Idle temperature (no applications loaded, Finder only):
45°C => 37°C
1080P video in VLC:
85°C => ? (not tested yet)
1080P video on YouTube:
85°C => 67°C
Brief initial peak at 76°C tightly controlled by fans speeding up to 2500 RPM for less than a minute.
Average usage (multiple Chrome tabs, paused YouTube videos, iTunes playing, MPlayerX paused):
55-65°C => 45-47°C.
General:
Before the "re-pasting", the top left area of the keyboard was always hot (but still sustainable to the touch). YouTube videos would make it hot the point I couldn't leave my finger on it. Fans rarely spinned at their minimum speed (2000 RPM), and it felt like they were useless.
Fans now stay at 2000 RPM nearly all the time. They did speed up to 2500 RPM (barely audible in a silent room) once when the CPU cores reached 85°C until they got it down to 76°C, and proceeded to progressively slow down to 2000 RPM (their minimum, inaudible). I love this behaviour.
The top left area of the keyboard rarely gets hot anymore. Warm sometimes. Slightly warm most of the time. That's because the CPU never gets to stay hot long enough now: fans actually manage to move heat away from the heatsink now.
To me, that was the whole point of this operation. Temperatures aren't that much lower, but the top left area is now cool and I never hear the fans. Exactly what I expected.
Difficulty:
Very easy, actually!
aznguyen316's teardown video guide on YouTube was the exact and only instructions I needed to proceed. This video is brilliant, really! Much thanks again to him for this gem, a gift to other MBP 15 2011 owners.
Tools needed:
- Phillips screwdriver
- TX6 Torx screwdriver
- Toothpick (in place of spudger): for both unplugging the various kinds of cables, and cleaning up intricate parts of the chips
- Nailpolish remover
- Coffee filters
Conclusion:
Success! Thrilled with the result. Smooth, easy process (for the most part thanks to aznguyen316's video guide). 100% clean chips. I can only recommend thermal paste clean re-application to all owners of an MBP.
As an added bonus, I now know my MBP inside out. It's not a black box anymore. Apple produce some serious quality products, zero doubts about that. The tight internals just speak for themselves. Sturdy components, neat cable routing, sleek black PCB motherboard with robustly soldered elements. Eye-candy for me
. It's a shame that the assembly chain ends with such a poor job at applying thermal paste. Neglected as seemingly irrelevant, but absolutely vital in the end.
