Changed Thermal Paste in 15" rMBP

[bkribbs]

Bringing this back- if I reapply without breaking anything, how would the techs know I replaced the paste? Would they actually have to look at it? Also there's no way that they would want to remove the heat sink right?

And no other way they can tell?

 

[dusk007]

I doubt they would ever check and even if, unless your paste has a very strange color, they probably couldn't tell the difference except for amount.

Peoply who try that are so so few in number from the total customer base, I doubt Apple even bothers for these. The care more about liquid damage for which there are probably sensors in side. Stripes that turn a certain color if exposed to too much liquid and such. Though I am not even sure such a thing is in the notebooks as they aren't too reliable compared to just humid air.

 

[ehfz]

So I just ordered some 220 grit sand paper. I have the 2013 macbook pro and I think I have wayyyy less space. Do I just rub back n forth as much as I can with water or a circular motion? Goal is to make it flat right?

Just to chime in to anyone considering lapping their heatsinks, keep in mind you do NOT want to hold the heatsink in your hand and try to rub the surface with sandpaper with the other hand, this is very likely to HURT your overall thermals because it will create an uneven surface! If you are going to sand anything, it is recommended to find a very flat and hard surface to lay your sandpaper on, then to gently rub the heatsink on that flat surface to ensure that you are grinding down to an even plane. Whether this is even possible with these heatsinks I do not know but please be careful with this procedure, as it is considered pretty extreme even among the hardcore PC building crowd (of which I consider myself a member).

 

[matthewadams]

What people sometimes forgot is that the ambient temp makes a huge difference to the CPU temp.

It's not just that.
Some people take their idle temps after the laptop has run for 6 hours, reapply the paste and then see the idle-temps of a laptop with a freshly cooled-down chassis (this also plays a large role).

Also the load-temps often vary largely anyway, due to the way the thermal hit on the CPU is handled starting with Sandy Bridge. These CPUs are designed to hit almost 100° at least for a short period, before eventually going down to the 80s [1]. The advantage with better thermal paste may be a more sustained period of higher-TDP and thus more power on the CPU. Reports of CPUs being lower than that, may often be caused by various other factors leading to a deviation on the algorithm (even using a different Preset in Handbrake can lead to a completely different outcome in temperature due to different "ramp ups" of Intel's Turbo Boost).

[1] http://www.hotchips.org/wp-content/...3.19.921.SandyBridge_Power_10-Rotem-Intel.pdf

 

[zOlid]

People have been asking how Apple know you have changed paste.
They dont unless they remove the sink.
How ever they do see when you have opened the computer, they look at the screws, they are more or less impossible to remove without doing some small scratches on them. If they see these scratches they can say "you've opened the computer, and that voids your warranty."
I've heard they do this here in Sweden, where you have 3 years warranty by law. And if you try to do a warranty claim after the 1 year Apple warranty, they check the screws to see if you have opened the computer.
I have never had this happen to me my self, but I've read about another guy on a Swedish forum that had this problem.
AFAIK opening the computer shouldn't remove warranty, but apparently for this guy they said it did.
How ever it's very possible that they just said it did, and that "he needed apple care." Even tho there where no truth to that statement.
I dont really know.

So be aware of this, I'm not sure how it is in your country, but it's something to think about.

 

[Doward]

It's not just that.
Some people take their idle temps after the laptop has run for 6 hours, reapply the paste and then see the idle-temps of a laptop with a freshly cooled-down chassis (this also plays a large role).

That's why I did a 90 minute load on mine, same ambient temps.

 

[bkribbs]

I doubt they would ever check and even if, unless your paste has a very strange color, they probably couldn't tell the difference except for amount.

Peoply who try that are so so few in number from the total customer base, I doubt Apple even bothers for these. The care more about liquid damage for which there are probably sensors in side. Stripes that turn a certain color if exposed to too much liquid and such. Though I am not even sure such a thing is in the notebooks as they aren't too reliable compared to just humid air.

What sort of screws are there? I've heard possible tamper revealing ones?