About to tear down a 2009 17" MBP

[ablahblah]

Ello alls.
I have a bud who has a 17" MBP that's been enough for him so far, as he mainly does office work on the machine, however the hard drive space on his SSD has proven too small for the lifespan of the machine. Seeing as he has no knowledge of computer internals, I'll be doing a SSD swap for him, and I was wondering whether anyone could shed some light on how hard it would be to take one down. I'm 99% sure that the HDD bay is exposed under the bottom cover, though I don't know how easy it would be to remove it.

Also, his lap's been toasted by watching some YouTube videos and through light gaming sessions, and after checking his temps, his GPU and CPU temps are scaring me as they're hitting the 90C range without the fans kicking in. I'm thinking that it could just be a result of the factory applying too much thermal paste like they have with other models, and am considering whether swapping TIM with something more efficient like AC MX-2 (which I personally use on my overclocked i7 PC), though the takedown manuals for some MBPs are starting to scare me lol. I haven't sourced a takedown manual for the specific model, so I'm not sure how much time it would take. Preferably, I don't want this to turn into a 2 day project, nor do I want to run the risk of accidentally breaking cables in a perfectly good machine, could anyone advise me on how difficult it usually is to strip down the mobo for TIM replacement?

 

[snaky69]

Ello alls.
I have a bud who has a 17" MBP that's been enough for him so far, as he mainly does office work on the machine, however the hard drive space on his SSD has proven too small for the lifespan of the machine. Seeing as he has no knowledge of computer internals, I'll be doing a SSD swap for him, and I was wondering whether anyone could shed some light on how hard it would be to take one down. I'm 99% sure that the HDD bay is exposed under the bottom cover, though I don't know how easy it would be to remove it.

Also, his lap's been toasted by watching some YouTube videos and through light gaming sessions, and after checking his temps, his GPU and CPU temps are scaring me as they're hitting the 90C range without the fans kicking in. I'm thinking that it could just be a result of the factory applying too much thermal paste like they have with other models, and am considering whether swapping TIM with something more efficient like AC MX-2 (which I personally use on my overclocked i7 PC), though the takedown manuals for some MBPs are starting to scare me lol. I haven't sourced a takedown manual for the specific model, so I'm not sure how much time it would take. Preferably, I don't want this to turn into a 2 day project, nor do I want to run the risk of accidentally breaking cables in a perfectly good machine, could anyone advise me on how difficult it usually is to strip down the mobo for TIM replacement?

The HD is located right behind that panel, in easy reach, hop right in.

Those temps are normal for a MacBook Pro, nothing to worry about. New thermal paste will only delay the time it takes to get there.

 

[-tWv-]

The HDD is really easy to swap out. Go to ifixit.com if you want a step by step guide with pictures on how to do it.

 

[ablahblah]

Still seems a little toasty for me, I never allow my desktop's GPU to reach over 70C and my 46% overclocked i7-920.

 

[-tWv-]

Desktops are a whole different story.. MBPs run hot because of the small space that the CPU and GPU are contained in.

90C is pretty hot but there's really not much you can do about it. One thing that I would recommend is to use a can of compressed air to blow out any dust that is in there when you open it up to replace to HDD. This helped my MBP keep the temperature a little lower. Just make sure that you aren't tipping the can of compressed air at all and use short bursts to prevent the air that is coming out from getting really cold and risking damage to the internals.

Other than physically cleaning the inside of the computer, if the fans aren't kicking in then have him download SMCFanControl and he can ramp up the fans a little bit if the temperature starts to rise.