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Just changed the thermal paste

MLM

MLM

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 23, 2006
45
17
Denmark
Hi, I just want to share a success with you, since I just succeeded in replacing the thermal paste on my 2.2 GHz Santa Rosa MacBook Pro.

Here is the before-after picture: http://up-it.dk/dl/5fa/

Isn't it incredible, how bad Chinese people apply thermal paste? :p
 
Nice - what is your temperatures like now? I was thinking of doing the same, as my temperatures get very high.

What is the three chips, out of interest?
 
SpookyLars said:
Is the change has affected the heat emitted by the MBP?
Click to expand...

Kilamite said:
Nice - what is your temperatures like now? I was thinking of doing the same, as my temperatures get very high.

What is the three chips, out of interest?
Click to expand...

I didn't check the temperatures before, because they are too different in different situations. But it's noticeably cooler to touch now. I suspect that about 5 degress celcius has been cut off.

What do you mean by "What is the three chips" ? sry to ask :)
 
i'm interested in seeing actual temps reported by the sensors.
 
e12a said:
i'm interested in seeing actual temps reported by the sensors.
Click to expand...

http://up-it.dk/dl/a13/

- Pretty much idle. (watching a SD divx-movie)
- It has been on for about 6 hours.
- The ambient room temp. is 26 degress celcius.
- The fans are running at their lowest level.

besides that, it's seems much cooler to touch than it used to be.
 
my macbook pro just went out of warranty, been thinking about doing this as well. i did it to my g4 powerbook and it made enough of a difference to be worth it. it also had as much (if not a bit more) paste slopped onto the chips as your mbp did.
 
it's really not the assembler's fault. Its apples, if anyone's ever looked at the service manual.
 
e12a said:
it's really not the assembler's fault. Its apples, if anyone's ever looked at the service manual.
Click to expand...

Isn't something that comes in the box, and I don't fancy paying for it either.

Where do you actually get the service manual anyway, out of interest?
 
MLM said:
I didn't check the temperatures before, because they are too different in different situations. But it's noticeably cooler to touch now. I suspect that about 5 degress celcius has been cut off.

What do you mean by "What is the three chips" ? sry to ask :)
Click to expand...

I find that a bit hard to believe. 5 degrees Celsius? That would be a marked drop for applying thermal paste where there was none before. Are you sure it's that much? Usually you get a max of about 5-7 degrees (Fahrenheit) from using thermal paste vs. not.
 
I guess the problem there is that since they applied it in gobs the paste is so uneven that it does a bad job of transferring heat to the heatsink, so probably it may be similar to having no paste at all.
 
Manzana said:
I guess the problem there is that since they applied it in gobs the paste is so uneven that it does a bad job of transferring heat to the heatsink, so probably it may be similar to having no paste at all.
Click to expand...

No when there is too much paste, it becomes a capacity, storing the heat, rather than transferring it. When you apply too little, well it can't transfer anything.

MLM said:
Don't be.. it was meant as a joke :)
Click to expand...

I know… :D
 
Firefly2002 said:
I find that a bit hard to believe. 5 degrees Celsius? That would be a marked drop for applying thermal paste where there was none before. Are you sure it's that much? Usually you get a max of about 5-7 degrees (Fahrenheit) from using thermal paste vs. not.
Click to expand...
I don't know where you've heard that, but it's certainly not true.

Here's a chart for no thermal paste: http://www.tweakup.dk/images/article/1350/temperatur-ingenpasta.jpg

Here's a chart for too much thermal paste: http://www.tweakup.dk/images/article/1350/temperatur-megetpasta.jpg

Here's a chart for correct amount of thermal paste: http://www.tweakup.dk/images/article/1350/temperatur-korrektpasta.jpg

(only look at the blue bar)
Those temperatures are in Celsius, so you can clearly tell what a massive difference it actually makes.
 
good job there - nice and neat (at the end)

some people get lucky, some dont :)

but there is a massive difference between having thermal paste smoothly applied and not applied at all!
 
MLM said:
I don't know where you've heard that, but it's certainly not true.

Here's a chart for no thermal paste: http://www.tweakup.dk/images/article/1350/temperatur-ingenpasta.jpg

Here's a chart for too much thermal paste: http://www.tweakup.dk/images/article/1350/temperatur-megetpasta.jpg

Here's a chart for correct amount of thermal paste: http://www.tweakup.dk/images/article/1350/temperatur-korrektpasta.jpg

(only look at the blue bar)
Those temperatures are in Celsius, so you can clearly tell what a massive difference it actually makes.
Click to expand...

So better to have no thermal paste then too much… :rolleyes:
 
f1sh3r said:
i've seen cpus fried with no thermal paste before, so i'd not suggest trying it!
Click to expand...

Apple didn't used to use thermal paste as late as the B&W G3s. I doubt the early Yikes! based G4s used it either.... probably not even the Sawtooths..

I thought thermal paste didn't make nearly that much difference. That's... just odd.

Maybe it's because when I was reading about it CPUs usually hovered around 100-120F instead of the much higher temps they seem to be "enjoying" today.
 
Firefly2002 said:
Apple didn't used to use thermal paste as late as the B&W G3s. I doubt the early Yikes! based G4s used it either.... probably not even the Sawtooths..

I thought thermal paste didn't make nearly that much difference. That's... just odd.

Maybe it's because when I was reading about it CPUs usually hovered around 100-120F instead of the much higher temps they seem to be "enjoying" today.
Click to expand...

perhaps it's different for laptops, but as a former pc tech i saw many a cpu burnt up from not having thermal paste or a thermal pad between the heat sink and the cpu. basically what it does is allow the imperfections in the heatsink and the cpu surface to mate together, allowing better heat transfer between the two. it also fills any gaps between the two to once again keep the heat moving, as air sucks at conducting heat! it's interesting that they didn't use cpu paste in the past, but it's possible their clamp system kept the two solid against each other, or perhaps the chips just didn't generate enough heat? i don't know enough about those machines to say one way or the other.

one of the problems with heat sink paste is that too much can function as an insulator, rather than a conductor. that's what people seem to be seeing here, but honestly, if it's properly clamped down it should be squeezing most of that muck out anyway, which is why it looks so messy in the pics. if you look closely, for the most part the layer between the chip and the heatsink is pretty thin (of course my eyes aren't what they used to be), but there's gobs of the stuff around the chips from getting squeezed out. i think this is why you see varying results from replacing the thermal paste.
 
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