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15" MacBook Pro (SB) Thermal application/guide
- Thread starter fr4c
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+1 thanks alphaod for the confirmation. I will put this information on the first page.As I already replied to your PM, for everyone else's benefit
Do not reapply the thermal paste under those heatsinks. They are for better or worse nothing more than just a cover; the gap between those piece of metal and the chips is about .5mm so you can only use thermal pads or if you must use thermal paste, you need a mesh to enforce it.
If you try to put more than a thin layer of thermal paste in that space you are probably doing more harm than good; I had to order replacement thermal pads to replace the one I removed out of ignorance.
AS5 is capacitive, not conductive.
I just use the standard precision sets (philips/torx). You can wear a ESD bracelet if you'd prefer.jtyrrell said:
Last stupid question I PROMISE . Is it alright to use the foam that comes in the laptop box to work on. Been doing that awhile now but not with components themselves
You pretty much nailed it with your pictures highlighting the screws; but if you find that you have trouble lifting the logic board out stop and check to make sure all screws are out. I know I missed one the first time around. I think the hardest part was removing the ribbon cables, and vice versa when putting it back together. You really have to keep track of them and make sure you don't forget one and end up covering it with the logic board.
You need to remove the fans, but they are probably the easiest (held down by 3 small philips screws and the cable).
You do not need a tri-wing screwdriver for this job, only torx and philips/crosshair. The battery will be unplugged from the logic board but does not need to be removed from the body.
Thanks so much your a credit to the community and a big Thank You. I own and run a Photo forum so I am a good judge of people that truly want to help others so Thanks. Your help here is invaluable to folks that want to do this and do it right the first time out.
BTW if anyone is curious www.getdpi.com
BTW if anyone is curious www.getdpi.com
i've just completed this as well, and have dropped the max temperature at full load by ~8C (from 100C to 92C). it was a bit nerve-wracking to take the laptop apart, but overall the process is very smooth once you figure out how to pull the various cables and ribbons out of the motherboard with a soft plastic spudger.
if you're following the iFixit guide, make note that you don't need to remove the battery or the wifi/bluetooth antenna to free the motherboard - just unhook their corresponding ribbons on the mainboard itself.
and a tip for the 15" - when the laptop is upside-down and the battery is closest to you, there is a tiny, tiny ribbon situated close to the bottom curve of the left fan that you may miss. i almost ripped the darn thing trying to life the mainboard out.
good luck everyone!
if you're following the iFixit guide, make note that you don't need to remove the battery or the wifi/bluetooth antenna to free the motherboard - just unhook their corresponding ribbons on the mainboard itself.
and a tip for the 15" - when the laptop is upside-down and the battery is closest to you, there is a tiny, tiny ribbon situated close to the bottom curve of the left fan that you may miss. i almost ripped the darn thing trying to life the mainboard out.
good luck everyone!
Interested to know this too, though from sounds of it they were probably talking in windows also.
mine is idling at around 60c when on dedicated, 40c when on integrated, if thats any help.
though temperature will be somewhat effected by ambient temperature too.
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I went back to the first page to re-read this new info along with the photos and I don't quite understand it. Is alphaod saying not to reapply the thermal paste at all? I feel like I must be mis-understanding that.
Miss Terri
He was talking about another heat sink that he did.
I'm sitting here waiting for parts to start. Looking for brown truck right now.
I will update after i get it all done.
I'm sitting here waiting for parts to start. Looking for brown truck right now.
I will update after i get it all done.
A note to all:
After ripping open my brand new 17" and reapplying the as5 compound I can tell you that there is no way I can idle around 31c. In fact booting the system up now after about 10 cycles (on and off) with prime95 tests show the CPU idle at about 48-55c. Unless u live in an arctic climate living room I don't see how it can idle so low unless you Do absolutely nothing on your mbp even then you are idling about 44c+
And also these pictures are worthless about how to dismantle. Go to ifixit.com and get the 17" 2009 manual on heat sink removal (I own a mbp17"). The instructions are close except for 4 different cables (on the 2011 17" model). the process is easy if you take it real slow. You don't need a spudger and u can do it with a tiny flat heat screwdriver and credit card.
It does take a long while to cure the as5 compound. But most importantly is you let the compound heat up and then cool down (by turning off machine). Enough of these cycles will cure the grease and the temperatures will fall.
Before you go and tell me I didn't put the compound on right note that my temperatures after running prime95 in os x using 8-8k ffts for 20 minutes each resulted in CPU temps of about 86c with my fans on at 5500rpm. When prime95 stops the temps fall down to 49-55c idle. It falls within one minute and fan goes back down to 2000rpm. So it is installed correctly.
Don't expect crazy temperature drops just with the as5 compound. In fact the heatsink matters more and the compound is just used to ensure full contact to the heatsink. My cpu and gpu from the stock 2011 17" mbp wasn't badly covered with too much paste but yes it was a crap job by the Chinese.
If you want to risk damaging something along the way of dismantling the laptop to get to the logic board just to reapply the grease go ahead. Just be aware before my reapplication I was getting the same temps under load anyway. It's how fast the temp drops back down is what makes this whole process worth it.
Even with the thick gunk on my original CPU the temps with full load on CPU never exceeded 91c with fans on max fell to the same 85-86c. But it took way longer to fall back to idle temps than the as5 application.
I love to take stuff apart and I don't mind doing this but if you aren't comfortable enough don't do it it's not worth it. It wasn't really broken in the first place and my results prove to me that I was right. Does it make me feel better well it does because I know I put in the right amount of paste.
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I got my lappie today and ran some tests. When the CPU is fully maxed out on all cores i get 86C with 5400RPM fans. At idle with nothing on it drops to 44C (i got it to 42C at one point). But with Safari (Flash 720p), Adium, iTunes, Mail, Dashboard and some other utilities on i get an idle temp of 47-49C with 1999-2010RPM fans.
These look like decent temps to me so i'm not gonna bother disassembling the machine.
These look like decent temps to me so i'm not gonna bother disassembling the machine.
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I just got my 17" yesterday. I was planning on doing the re-application. I'm an ex-electrical engineer and the insides of computers don't bother me. BUT, when I first turned on my computer, not doing anything but just seeing where the temps stabilized, I was rather pleased.
iStat was showing idle temps of about 37±2 degrees for CPU and GPU, and fans at 2000.
Right after my migration and starting apps to make sure everything operated as they should, I did get a brief temp spike up to about 90, and the fans sped up to about 90 as several apps were doing things all at once.
I caught a glance of the fans spinning at about 4800 during that spike.
Now, with all my usual background apps running, Time Machine doing a full backup via ethernet to a Time Capsule, and Safari open, I have the CPU at 61, the GPU at 57, and the fans are both around 2300.
I bought it with the Apple 256GBb SSD. It' connected to a 27" ACD.
I don't think I'll bother messing with the heatsinks.
iStat was showing idle temps of about 37±2 degrees for CPU and GPU, and fans at 2000.
Right after my migration and starting apps to make sure everything operated as they should, I did get a brief temp spike up to about 90, and the fans sped up to about 90 as several apps were doing things all at once.
I caught a glance of the fans spinning at about 4800 during that spike.
Now, with all my usual background apps running, Time Machine doing a full backup via ethernet to a Time Capsule, and Safari open, I have the CPU at 61, the GPU at 57, and the fans are both around 2300.
I bought it with the Apple 256GBb SSD. It' connected to a 27" ACD.
I don't think I'll bother messing with the heatsinks.
This whole discussion got me interested in the subject, so I downloaded iStat Pro widget for Dashboard. Oh, how fun! I love being able to see all this data so easily. If only I could put one on my car with the click of a mouse
I do have a question, and I'm sure the answer will be obvious once I read it. But, here goes:
Say I'm looking at the CPU temp and it is 48º C
And say Heatsink B (only one shown) is at 38º C
^^^ What they actually are right now on my 2010 MBP 13"
Now, would a larger or smaller temperature gap between the heatsink and the CPU be better (presuming same usage/fan speed/etc. to eliminate variables)?
Like, say the CPU was at 48º C
And Heatsink B was at 44º C
Would that be better in theory? I'm thinking the smaller temperature gap would be better because that would mean the heatsink is efficiently absorbing the heat from the CPU, and a larger gap would be worse because there is less efficient heat transfer. But.... is that correct? I'm not worrying about mine, mind you -- I just want to understand the concept; obviously the overall CPU temp is the main thing.
One other question: There is a temperature category called "Northbridge." What is that?
Thanks to you experts for the great info
Miss Terri
2010 MBP 13"
Plus assorted other older Macs
I do have a question, and I'm sure the answer will be obvious once I read it. But, here goes:
Say I'm looking at the CPU temp and it is 48º C
And say Heatsink B (only one shown) is at 38º C
^^^ What they actually are right now on my 2010 MBP 13"
Now, would a larger or smaller temperature gap between the heatsink and the CPU be better (presuming same usage/fan speed/etc. to eliminate variables)?
Like, say the CPU was at 48º C
And Heatsink B was at 44º C
Would that be better in theory? I'm thinking the smaller temperature gap would be better because that would mean the heatsink is efficiently absorbing the heat from the CPU, and a larger gap would be worse because there is less efficient heat transfer. But.... is that correct? I'm not worrying about mine, mind you -- I just want to understand the concept; obviously the overall CPU temp is the main thing.
One other question: There is a temperature category called "Northbridge." What is that?
Thanks to you experts for the great info
Miss Terri
2010 MBP 13"
Plus assorted other older Macs
I replaced the thermal paste on both the Thunderbolt Chip and the GFX Switching chip (It was thermal paste that apple used on mine, Not Thermal pads...) Works great... Also, On my MBP there is no real "Gap" between the black plate and the chip, So I was able to easily apply a thin layer of MX-4 and use the plate to "Wiggle-Spread" the compound around to make sure it got a good fit.
It's a town in Western Australia
Well, and a chip on the motherboard.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northbridge_(computing)
No one said it was a problem, but rather a DIY process that users can do themselves to lower MBP temperatures from 5-10C. For the small percentage of MR users that have the tools, skills, and patience to accomplish this it's well worth the effort.
Properly done right, this is more of a long-term benefit as heat is one of the major attributes to hardware failure. Since this is the first quad-core MBP Apple has ever released, who knows what the benefits are 2 years from now. The Sandy Bridge CPU has a higher TDW than previous generation i5/i7's, and the new MBP's from reviews definitely run hotter under load than previous MBP's.
I'm idling at 35C for the CPU and 31C for the GPU while browsing in Safari (4 tabs), Adium, and Mail running. In fact I'm replying to you right this moment from the said 15" MBP. Perhaps you applied too much TC
And I'm sorry if my pictures are worthless and not to your standards, I'll do better next time. But yes that's what the iFixit guide is for, but they have yet to have a write up for the new 2011 revisions.
I for one is thankful for the pictures the OP has posted
However, I know I'm slightly beating a dead horse here but can somebody post a detailed picture of amount of thermal paste to lap onto the processor?
I heard about the rice grain method but I have a feeling that the paste won't reach the corners. Furthermore, the Arctic Silver guide stated that processors without those metal heat spreads/caps should have a full layer of paste before applying the heat sink, yet they don't provide a picture in the guide as to the amount/thickness.
However, I know I'm slightly beating a dead horse here but can somebody post a detailed picture of amount of thermal paste to lap onto the processor?
I heard about the rice grain method but I have a feeling that the paste won't reach the corners. Furthermore, the Arctic Silver guide stated that processors without those metal heat spreads/caps should have a full layer of paste before applying the heat sink, yet they don't provide a picture in the guide as to the amount/thickness.