Thermal paste replaced, temp dropped but case is hotter

[ilikewhey]

so i decided to finally get rid of the factory thermal paste, which to no one surprise is a mess, i used noctua n-1 which i have on hand, and the temps are much improved, the fans haven't spun past 1400rpm out of total 6199rpm, and the temp looks great, i'm avg 40-50c on idle and 74c loaded playing youtube and multi tasking, however i did notice the laptop case, specifically the backend top right corner where the heatsink and cpu area is more hot to the touch than usual. is this normal? can anyone share some input.

 

[Supra Mac]

Yes makes sense. I have a 2020 MacBook Air that I did the shim and paste mod. It will lower the CPU temp but that heat has to go somewhere (heat sink and surrounding components) with less fan and it runs turbo boost longer, that means more power and more heat.

Also in my case, it cause the fan to run less as the cpu temp is lower. So I can zoom and not have the fan run at all. Now before the mod, that heat has been carried away by the fan but turned on earlier since the cpu had a harder time releasing heat.

Clear as mud?

 

[ilikewhey]

Yes makes sense. I have a 2020 MacBook Air that I did the shim and paste mod. It will lower the CPU temp but that heat has to go somewhere (heat sink and surrounding components) with less fan and in my case it runs turbo boost longer, that means more power and more heat.

Also in may case, it cause the fan to run less as the cpu temp is lower. So I can zoom and not have the fan run at all. Now before the mod, that heat was been carried away by the fan but turned on earlier since the cpu had a harder time releasing heat.

Clear as mud?

so basically, the thermal paste concluded in better heat transfer to the heatsink. the heat that was previously trapped within the cpu is now outwards and more into the case?

 

[Supra Mac]

so basically, the thermal paste concluded in better heat transfer to the heatsink. the heat that was previously trapped within the cpu is now outwards and more into the case?

Correct and since cpu temps affect fan profile, then your fan comes on less. Thus you will get more heat soak. So when you have bad heat transfer, like the MacBook Airs are terrible. They actually run cooler case wise, but louder, as they return to base clock quicker while having the fan on more.

 

[ilikewhey]

Correct and since cpu temps affect fan profile, then your fan comes on less. Thus you will get more heat soak. So when you have bad heat transfer, like the MacBook Airs are terrible. They actually run cooler case wise, but louder, as they return to base clock quicker while having the fan on more.

looking at the heatsink, i definitely feel like they could've put a bigger one in there, but then again thats better than no heatsink in the air 😂