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

[whiteonline]

To all those "just by an M1" comments:
The article summary is rather short. It states in the second sentence, "... amid ordering an M1 MacBook Air, they decided to fit a water cooling system to their machine"

 

[ikramerica]

Nice but maybe just get some fan control software. Apple wishes its machines had no fans (a neurotic leftover from the Jobs era). Though it is nice to have a machine that isn't constantly inhaling and exhaling Covid particles. Just get iStatMenus. Make temp zones, low, low-mid, mid, mid-high and high. Set low to always be on at just above your average lowest temp, should be about 150 F. Then set each zone at 10 degrees warmer than the next. Adjust the fan speeds in those zones to your liking.

Your fans will stay running more often but the overall temps will be much lower. You'll find that fans running more often at lower levels is much less annoying than Apple waiting until the last second (trying to hide the fans) only to have to unleash them at full blast, grabbing everyone's attention in the room. Sad programming, really.

This.

If the fan is on at a very low speed at all times, it doesn’t need to ramp up as quickly when you open safari and 30 old pages load at once.

 

[sw1tcher]

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

Maybe the person spends their time/resources doing things like this for a hobby.

So if you consider this person's hobby a waste of time/resources, then so are yours.

 

[69Mustang]

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

From the article: "...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..." Seems like he imagines the same thing. How would engineering a nifty DIY project be a waste of time and resources?

The new MBA doesn't even have a fan, the M1 Mac Mini can be had for $679, it will not only be completely silent but perform 2x-3x faster, as a DIY proof-of-concept this is interesting, but I'd guess it cost more than a new Mac Mini that wont spin a fan for the afternoon calls.

He was simply making the best of the situation until his MBA arrived. Props to his can do spirit.

 

[mannyvel]

Why didn't he just get one of these?

240W 12V Semiconductor Refrigeration Cooler Module Thermoelectric Peltier Cold Plate Cooling System with Fan USA Stock

240W 12V Semiconductor Refrigeration Cooler Module Thermoelectric Peltier Cold Plate Cooling System with Fan USA Stock

smile.amazon.com

Of course, he probably didn't have one of those lying around.

 

[ImaxGuy]

"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

I hope so. Rumors are showing the M1-X TDP to be 35-45 Watts, up from the M1 TDP of 15-20 Watts. My 2019 15" i9 MBP has a TDP of 45 Watts and the GD fan is almost always running at 4000+ rpm. 😩

 

[Bollockser]

Get MacsFanControl.
Apple's default fan settings are too low for any machine.

 

[TheOldChevy]

Good to see a technical post here ! I used to go to MacBidouille for these but they became very rare.
Thanks !

 

[ImaxGuy]

Fully understand him - I put the MacBookPro into clamshell mode (which reduces load) and upside down on my Satechi vertical stand (upside down, so the cooling vents show up). That usually makes the fan go away.

The only drawback is that I loose touchID.

I should try your vertical approach. With an Apple Watch and Big Sur, I can authenticate most requests with the side button on my watch. Booting the machine from a cold start however, means fiddling with it & then putting it back in place. I wish there was a way around that.

 

[4487549]

That's a lot of work for a 2015 (or older) MBP

 

[jkev57]

Even though forum member "theodric" doesn't capitalize his screen name, it is correct grammar to capitalize the first letter of the first word in a sentence. Example: "I'm going to read a book." and "Book me a flight to Miami." I kept thinking part of the sentence was missing.

 

[jimbobb24]

Some people are so amazing. Very cool hack thanks for sharing. Never get tired of how clever people are.

 

[hailey bee]

There are up to 4% of water molecules in the air. All our Macs are water cooled.

 

[oneMadRssn]

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

Also, technically any computer (of which there are many) with liquid heat pipes is water cooled.

 

[Mousse]

This is partially true but it's a much broader issue. There are few laptops with good cooling. I use a number of Windows-based ones and they are all as bad or worse (unless they are very thick and heavy gaming ones).

A lot of PC manufacturers still follow the Soviet Era design philosophy: under engineer, over build. Apple uses less material, but uses every bit of engineering trickery to get the most out of it.

Apple is partially to blame but Intel's stagnation in chip design is a huge issue.

I blame the design team. Apple's engineers have to work within ridiculous constraints. Reminds me of the joke about the proctologist who trained to be a car mechanic.

 

[DNichter]

From the article: "...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..." Seems like he imagines the same thing. How would engineering a nifty DIY project be a waste of time and resources?

He was simply making the best of the situation until his MBA arrived. Props to his can do spirit.

For me, I see it as a waste. Better things to do in life. For the individual, I am sure they enjoyed it. Just my opinion on the subject.

 

[jlocker]

I use 2 USB low spin fans on each side of the MacBook Pro 16 to push air under the laptop and over it, running full blast, I have never hit 5600 RPM's on the internal fans. And that is running Cyberpunk 2077 and Call of Duty Cold War with a external EGPU box with a 3080 card. Yea nice to have a Intel when you can run windows 10 when you want to play some new computer games.

 

[DNichter]

Maybe the person spends their time/resources doing things like this for a hobby.

So if you consider this person's hobby a waste of time/resources, then so are yours.

People can have different opinions, that's what these forums are. I guess I just lost that need to tinker as I got older.

 

[DNichter]

Thank you for your info Mr.Richguy!

Not everyone can afford new machine so calling this a "waste" is little insulting

Well they could afford purchasing a new M1 and creating this, so I would imagine they have the funds as well. It's just my opinion.

 

[darngooddesign]

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.

I suppose you could read the article.

 

[darngooddesign]

Apple should get this guy to “innovate” for them

Apple decided to innovate with the M1 instead.

 

[MedRed]

Can't wait for an MX 16" Pro so I can put this fan noise behind me!

 

[lkrupp]

Perhaps Apple should hire him to design better cooling systems LOL

Apple could easily design a cooling system that wouldn’t require any fans. The problem is YOU wouldn’t want it because of its size, thickness, and weight.

 

[lkrupp]

Some people are so amazing. Very cool hack thanks for sharing. Never get tired of how clever people are.

Clever but useless. History is filled with ‘clever’ inventions that served no purpose. This is one of those.

 

[qoop]

Looks fun