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Should I reapply the thermal paste?

  • Yes-It will void your warranty, but do it anyway.

    Votes: 10 12.8%
  • Yes-It will not void your warranty.

    Votes: 7 9.0%
  • No-It will void your warranty.

    Votes: 32 41.0%
  • Yes-it voids your warranty, but if you don't break anything Apple won't be able to see what you did.

    Votes: 29 37.2%

  • Total voters
    78
Today, I'm seeing idling temps around 40ºC. So I reduced idle temps by 7ºC.

Also, here are some pics of the stock paste:

589639c6.jpg


abfb1d1b.jpg


As you can see, not a huge excess, but there was still way more than needed.
 
The stock TIM doesn't all that bad. I wonder if there really is a difference between AS5 or equivalent vs what they use.
 
Looking back on this, it was not worth it.

For those that go ahead you will gain the experience of rebuilding your machine, and as you can see a slight reduction in temperature can be achieved, possibly just down to the fact that you can take more time & care with the system.

My own Late 2011 15" MBP (2.4 i7) is currently idling at 43C albeit Safari is open with several tabs, iTunes, Activity Monitor, Temperature Monitor, Netshade (auto rotation of proxy on), ClamXav and all the usual background OS X running, ambient room temp is 27.5 (well we live in the Tropics) and fans at 2K.

The recently repaired (new fans) Early 2008 15" MBP (2.4 C2D) is still running at a toasty 60C + it`s older, newer software pushes harder, i use UltraFan to hold the temperature at around 60C (fans at 3K) mainly due to the afflicted Nvidia GPU which is vulnerable to thermal cycling and temperatures greater than 70C, of course the system exceeds this limit, however it clearly helps as over four years and still on the original Logic board, and this has been my primary system until very recently.

I have a Late 2011 Air (i5) with much the same load as the 2.4 i7, only it`s also backing up some 80Gb to the Cloud with a CPU temp of 48C and it`s in a leather case. The later generations of Mac`s still run hot, this is more to do with the "thermal envelope"; TDP, fan capacity & RPM, case volume etc than poor assembly techniques.

Your quad core MBP`s rapidly hits 90C plus for these very reasons and the fact that the CPU is out performing Desktop Workstations from 2-3 years ago, they are extremely powerful machines given their form factor, so dont be surprised, better still dont go there, dont run monitoring programs, dont worry about the internal temperature of the system use your Mac`s as intended push them to the limits, create something fantastic, make some $$$$$$ that what they are designed for ;)

Temperature monitors do have their place as do apps such as SMC Fan Control & UltraFan, you can take pre-emptive measures with SMC Fan Control and manually increase fan RPM`s as it`s far easier to keep a system cool than, cool down an already hot machine. UltraFan will do it`s best to hold a predetermined temperature increasing - decreasing fan RPM as required. Ultimately your Mac is limited by the design`s thermal envelope, in general third party apps will increase fan activity, versus Apples own preference towards slow and silent...

Q-6
 
I'm thinking of doing this to my late 2011 15" along with a few upgrades in about a years time or so. Hope it goes well.
 
I think I heard somewhere that thermal paste deteriorates over time. If so, that's another reason to do this when the machine is out of warranty. If there is a thermal problem that really bugs you OOB, then probably Apple will replace it.

David
 
I think I heard somewhere that thermal paste deteriorates over time. If so, that's another reason to do this when the machine is out of warranty. If there is a thermal problem that really bugs you OOB, then probably Apple will replace it.

David

It does, but it takes years and years. Also, I was just watching a video of someone taking apart an Asus laptop. There was a sticker that they had to remove that kills the warranty. I wonder why Apple doesn't include that in any of their devices...:confused:
 
This is just my opinion but I've replaced thermal paste on a lot of stuff. Game consoles, desktops, laptops and probably some other stuff I can't remember. From my experience the factory paste application isn't the problem. I've seen crappy applications still yield good cooling results. Most of the stuff I see is slightly warped heat sinks. It'll pull away from the factory paste ever so slightly so when somebody reapplies their own paste, it fills in the gap. It works better so they think it was a shoddy factory application.

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It does, but it takes years and years. Also, I was just watching a video of someone taking apart an Asus laptop. There was a sticker that they had to remove that kills the warranty. I wonder why Apple doesn't include that in any of their devices...:confused:

Those stickers can easily be removed without damage with a heat gun. *I've heard*
 
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