MacBook 4,1 (Early 2008) Heat Sink / Thermal Compound

[ppc750fx]

I remember that back in 2006 a lot of the Core Duo-based laptops (one of which I had) had some truly horrible thermal paste application jobs done, and that this (along with silicon-based compound) contributed to the overheating problems that some users experienced.

My question is this: do 4th gen MacBooks suffer from this? I've got an early 2008 MacBook (identifier: MacBook4,1 -- the last of the BlackBooks), and I'm debating whether or not to try to redo the application with Arctic Silver. Needless to say, I don't want to strip down the machine if there's no need, so I was wondering if anyone here knows if this generation has the same issue (or if it even uses thermal compound...)

Any input is appreciated.

P.S. I don't have any serious heat concerns, but I'd like to get the laptop as cool as possible. It idles at around 49-53C with the fans @ 1600RPM. It's undervolted: 1200 and below @ 0.95V, 1400/1700 @ 0.965V, 1900 @ 0.975V, 2100 @ 0.9875V, and 2400 @ 1.0625V.

 

[logana]

I doubt it will be worth it - most of the thermal paste is squeezed out of the contact area anyway. Arctic Silver might improve things by a couple of degrees - I have seen one Penryn MacBook 2.4 board with epoxy over the 4 screws that hold the heatsink in place. The screws no longer go through the logicboard connecting eventually to 4 tapped mountings on the bottom case. Instead there are tapped pillars on the logicboard, the screws are shorter and don't go all the way through to the bottom case but held in place with more epoxy.

2.1 Penryn MacBook boards don't seem to have epoxy but some 2.4's do...

Might be worth opening yours up and checking whether it has epoxy or not. If it has I think I would leave it alone

 

[teksurv]

Having also had a 1st generation MacBook, and now a 4,1 model I see no reason to do this. My 2.1 Penryn idles similarly to yours. I did the arctic silver upgrade on the 1st gen, but see no need to do it on the 4,1.

 

[ppc750fx]

Having also had a 1st generation MacBook, and now a 4,1 model I see no reason to do this. My 2.1 Penryn idles similarly to yours. I did the arctic silver upgrade on the 1st gen, but see no need to do it on the 4,1.

Yeah, but that's the undervolted, underclocked idling temp :/

Without CoolBook, using stock freq/voltage I idle about 10C higher than that.

 

[logana]

Mine idles at around 50-54C - that is with Arctic White in the 2.4 Penryn MacBook in my signature. I use SMCfancontrol set to a minimum of 2500 rpm.

It is not undervolted - I also regularly see temperatures of 90-96C using a horrible ppc program...........

And it is getting cold in Scotland this week...and wet and windy....