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Hackintosh Sr.

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 11, 2008
228
60
Anyone brave enough to change out the thermal paste yet in the 2016 touchbar models? The heatsink is flipped toward the back and I am too scared to replace without step by step. Anyone want to create that?
 
That's one great way to void your warranty. Seriously, I would leave internals of these machines alone at least until off warranty and off consumer protection, which can easily be interpreted in some countries to extend 1-3 years beyond one-year standard warranty in case of a manufacturing or a design defect.
 
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Be similar to this

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/MacBook_Pro_13"_Function_Keys_Late_2016

And if you do it right apple will not know .

The advantage of doing it early is that you protect the laptop from excess heat throughout its life.

Of course you can try to minimize mechanical strain caused by thermal expansion, but modern CPUs do throttle without any external help at the critical temperature limit. Active, intelligent thermal throttling has been a thing for CPUs and GPUs for quite a while now. I suspect that increasing cooling efficiency (which I don't really believe to change much by changing thermal paste) would just make chips run longer at higher frequencies, but not really lower temperatures. Uneven thermal paste might cause problems with some parts of the chip seeing less effective cooling than others, and this might actually cause reduced, not increase component lifetimes...
 
You guys are more scared than I was :) and understandably so. I just got done and it doesn't hit thermal throttling like it used to.

Before Handbrake encoding mkv to mp4 my max ghz was 2.7 and it kept hitting 100 Celsius.

Now it never goes over 96 Celsius and stays at a constant 3.2ghz the whole time. I thought the turbo frequency was higher than that, but seems like 3.2 is all it liked.

Anyway, much cooler now.

Pic of before attached. I didn't do step by step but it basically is about 300 times harder than previous models :p. Took about 2 hours.
 

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You guys are more scared than I was :) and understandably so. I just got done and it doesn't hit thermal throttling like it used to.

Before Handbrake encoding mkv to mp4 my max ghz was 2.7 and it kept hitting 100 Celsius.

Now it never goes over 96 Celsius and stays at a constant 3.2ghz the whole time. I thought the turbo frequency was higher than that, but seems like 3.2 is all it liked.

Anyway, much cooler now.

Pic of before attached. I didn't do step by step but it basically is about 300 times harder than previous models :p. Took about 2 hours.
Ummm, you have the PCB on what appears to be a towel, rug or carpet. That's a pretty great way to have static discharge destroy your laptop. Why would you do this?
 
While the system is still under warranty, if you have concerns about temperature, then have Apple deal with it. They can reapply the thermal paste for you at a Genius Bar, if you want it done bad enough.

If you want to do it yourself, then wait until the system is out of warranty. The new ones, as you said, have the heatsink on the top of the board, as opposed to the bottom like in previous generations, so it requires complete removal of the main board to even get to it, increasing the risk of damage and subsequent voiding of the warranty.

...

Geezuz ... you didn't wait very long at all before you just went and did it anyway ... and on a towel to boot. Makes me wonder why you even bothered asking to begin with. You could've had the Genius Bar do it for you for free.

... and holy moly, that's a lot of paste they put on there. I think that's even more than they put on the older models.
 
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For the record ... I mentioned the towel because it introduces the possibility of components getting caught on the small loops of fabric in the towel, thereby increasing the risk of physical damage to your board when you lift it up ... and that was not a complaint, just an observation.

If that's gotten you that upset, maybe you should just delete the thread ... if you can.
 
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Disrespectful. Good luck getting responses to future requests for opinions around here.

If you don't like the answers, you probably shouldn't ask the question.
 
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You are ridiculous dude. Ill be quite fine if you don't answer any questions.

...

Geezuz ... you didn't wait very long at all before you just went and did it anyway ... and on a towel to boot. Makes me wonder why you even bothered asking to begin with. You could've had the Genius Bar do it for you for free.

How does that answer any question?

I asked if anyone had step by step. I posted findings, then got blasted for using a towel and not going to a Genius Bar to have it done.

Do I care no one had a step by step? No. I took action myself. This was about throttling thresholds, fan rampup, and inevitably better battery life. I posted my findings and was going to reply if anyone had any questions.

Go find another thread to make yourself feel better about your posts.
 
Kudos to you for doing this, and it sounds like it paid off. How did you clean the old paste off?
 
well done! Braver than I! Was gonna swap displays on on a replacement machine but decided against it.
 
Kudos to you for doing this, and it sounds like it paid off. How did you clean the old paste off?

I always use this arcticsilver arcticlean. It seems to get the job done. I apply with qtips and just make sure there isn't any cotton residue on it. Ive also used high percentage isopropyl alcohol, but the articlean seems a little less messier.
 
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You guys are more scared than I was :) and understandably so. I just got done and it doesn't hit thermal throttling like it used to.

Before Handbrake encoding mkv to mp4 my max ghz was 2.7 and it kept hitting 100 Celsius.

Now it never goes over 96 Celsius and stays at a constant 3.2ghz the whole time. I thought the turbo frequency was higher than that, but seems like 3.2 is all it liked.

Anyway, much cooler now.

Pic of before attached. I didn't do step by step but it basically is about 300 times harder than previous models :p. Took about 2 hours.

3.2GHz is the max 4-core turbo for 6820HQ (2.7GHz without turbo). What's the average temperature? Since it's been a year, anything changes?
 
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