Intel MacBook Pro Owner Adds Water Cooling to Silence Noisy Fans and Boost Performance

[MacRumors]

An inventive MacRumors forums member has successfully retrofitted a water-cooling system to their 15-inch Intel-based MacBook Pro, thereby eliminating fan noise and boosting performance.

MacRumors forums member "theodric" explained that the noise of their MacBook Pro's fans had become disruptive during conference calls, so amid ordering an M1 MacBook Air, they decided to fit a water cooling system to their machine.

theodric used inexpensive parts such as Bitcoin ASIC miner blocks from AliExpress, an Aquastream XT Ultra water pump, and a Zalman radiator and reservoir from 2005 to create the system.

High-transmissivity thermal pads were added between the case shell and various motherboard components to conduct heat away from the MacBook Pro and into the water cooling system. The thermal shielding from the bottom of the case was also removed, as well as the feet, to ensure full contact with the new cooling plates. The pump, which requires Windows software to operate, was run via a virtual machine, and a Raspberry Pi was used for monitoring.

theodric says that they have "hardly heard the fan since I started using it" and have seen benchmark scores significantly improve under the system. See theodric's full post for more information about the ambitious project.

Although water-cooling a Mac makes for a challenging project, with the advent of Apple silicon chips, which are able to run much cooler than Intel chips, it is very unlikely that we will ever see an official Mac with water-cooling in the future. Nevertheless, there are still cooling upgrades slated to come to the Mac, with the next model due a thermal upgrade seemingly being the new 14-inch MacBook Pro.

The upcoming 14-inch MacBook Pro is expected to adopt the improved thermals of the current 16-inch MacBook Pro model, with a larger heat pipe, added thermal pads, and a 35 percent larger heat sink to increase the machine's performance potential and allow it to run at cooler temperatures.

Article Link: Intel MacBook Pro Owner Adds Water Cooling to Silence Noisy Fans and Boost Performance

 

[Rochy Bay]

Perhaps Apple should hire him to design better cooling systems LOL

 

[madmin]

Nice idea, but not enough to wet my appetite for Intel chips

 

[Serban55]

"The upcoming 14-inch MacBook Pro is expected to adopt the improved thermals of the current 16-inch MacBook Pro model"

Along side with a much efficient and colder SoC....it will be hard to beat in every way

 

[DNichter]

Pretty cool, but also seems like a waste of time/resources. I would imagine anyone would be better off just moving to an M1.

 

[ozziegn]

The things you gotta do to keep an Intel based MBP cooled at bay. Where do I sign up? lol

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Water cooling system for an iPhone is up NEXT...

Apple: please hire him!!!

 

[AngerDanger]

MacRumors forums member "theodric" explained that the noise of their MacBook Pro's fans had become disruptive during conference calls, so amid ordering an M1 MacBook Air, they decided to fit a water cooling system to their machine.

The fan noise never really bothered me; it was the mid-work flights that were irritating.

Eventually, the battery dies, and the thing comes back down.

 

[MHenr]

Although water-cooling a Mac makes for a challenging project, with the advent of Apple silicon chips, which are able to run much cooler than Intel chips, it is very unlikely that we will ever see an official Mac with water-cooling.

Some Powermac G5's were liquid/water-cooled. So we have seen it in the past.

 

[ArPe]

But why

 

[spyguy10709]

Some Powermac G5's were liquid/water-cooled. So we have seen it in the past.

beat me to it by moments, george. LC G5 quad for life!

 

[iBluetooth]

Perhaps Apple should hire him to design better cooling systems LOL

Or just get the M1 macs out

 

[Euroamerican]

I like it. Shows initiative and getting the job done!

 

[BigMcGuire]

The rubber feet at the bottom would have to be removed right? I use an EGPU with my 2019 15' MBP and it seems to keep the fan from running excessively. I just got this a few days ago (work provided) and ... was amazed at how it actually hurt to use on my lap due to the heat. (An experience I haven't had with my personal 13' MBP). That was a bit of a shocker.

Some of us need to use Windows so we're stuck with Intel for awhile.


Edit: Just read the post - "I also removed the thermal shielding from the case bottom, as well as the feet, to ensure a full metal-on-metal contact with the cooling plates." - yep, wow.

 

[darngooddesign]

Perhaps Apple should hire him to design better cooling systems LOL

Apple designed the M1 instead.

 

[haunebu]

Amazed that this article didn't mention the Power Mac G5's remarkable liquid cooling system.

 

[jz0309]

he would be better served at Intel

 

[Mousse]

The results of Apple's obsession with thinner. None of this would have been necessary if they made it a few mm thicker and had proper cooling. Form over function. Meh. I'm waiting on a thicker MacBook with ports.

 

[JitteryJimmy]

A decent quality external mic prevented all machine noise from impacting my video conferences.

Since then I bought an M1-based MBP and I have yet to hear any fan noise, despite some hefty compiles during my (extraordinarily boring) Zoom meetings.

 

[eicca]

That's pretty cool.

I did something similar to that years and years ago for my N64. Not water cooled, but a little cardboard dock thing with a laptop fan in it. Worked like a charm.

 

[EmotionalSnow]

Perhaps Apple should hire him to design better cooling systems LOL

Not if they want their MacBooks to be portable.

 

[0815]

pretty cool ... but it would be cheaper to upgrade to a new M1 MacBook .... never heard the fan on mine and its crazy fast. No matter how much load I throw at it, its super quite and no signs of slow down.

 

[Rochy Bay]

pretty cool ... but it would be cheaper to upgrade to a new M1 MacBook .... never heard the fan on mine and its crazy fast. No matter how much load I throw at it, its super quite and no signs of slow down.

Yeah right.

 

[Mad Man]

just shows how much Intel sucks ... M1 does not have these issues

 

[diogenis]

The results of Apple's obsession with thinner. None of this would have been necessary if they made it a few mm thicker and had proper cooling. Form over function. Meh. I'm waiting on a thicker MacBook with ports.

Apple solved this problem by designing energy efficient CPUs. A few mm won't save you if the cpu is running at 300watts.