And I and others said go to ifixit with their tear downs and see for yourself
Just search for each Mac
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Which Mac is easiest to open, clean the fans, repaste the CPU
- Thread starter Trusteft
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Just search for each Mac
It doesn’t look that hard to me, especially considering how infrequently you might need to do it. I guess it would depend on how often you plan to replace the thermal paste, and it might even be worth just getting a thermal pad and calling it a day.
Yes.
I'm gana try to step-back a little, and share a quote from one of my favourite authors (David Zindell) that always resonates with me.
“Before, you are wise;
after, you are wise.
In between you are otherwise”
My Grandad once shared that if someone cursed in his presence, it was really easy for him to close his ears.
My Grandma never sucked any eggs; but--if she did--there was really never any time for her to explain such things
If you would allow me to be so bold, Trusteft: my suggestion would be to cognate a little longer before you respond.
Other than that: great question!
My money (to your query) is on "None".
All Apple laptops are more or less tedious to disassemble. Particularly for thermal paste replacement. I’ve experience negligible benefit from changing the thermal paste on the half dozen MBPs I’ve done since 2011. Only my 2019 16” MBP appeared to benefit in an appreciable way (running cooler ~1-3° C under load). New paste didn’t change anything for my 2011s, 2012s with Nvidia discrete GPU or the recent paste and battery replacement on my 2015 MBP with AMD discrete GPU. I was hoping new paste would make a difference with my 15” 2019 with AMD Vega 20, but only realized about a 1° C reduction in temp. All this to say that I’ve opened up and cleaned out and repasted a fair share of MBPs going back to 2011. Unless you’re running a 2019 16” MBP under regular heavy load, repasting may not be worth the effort. But everyone’s experience is different, mileage may vary etc.
Bottom line, they were all easy to clean out with compressed air. Just pop the bottom plate off and blow out the vents, the fins, the fans. That has done more good (in my experience) than repasting. For all the MBPs I’ve owned the past 14 years, the disassembly needed to repaste is a relative pain. For me, I’d say 2011-2012 was easiest, 2013-2015 roughly the same, 2016-15” 2019 moderately more difficult in the sense that there are more screws and ribbons to disconnect. Lastly, I felt the 2019 16” was slightly more challenging because of a few more screws than prior years and the way some connectors and ribbon cables were routed. And for the 16” with the 5500M graphics, at least on mine, you have to be careful as there is a bit of thermal heat sink tape (?) that goes from the actual heat sink to over the video memory and it’s on there with adhesive. If you don’t lift that off the video memory first before lifting up the motherboard, the thermal tape or whatever it’s called will tear off.
I haven’t done anything to Apple Silicon MBPs mainly due to their superior cooling, and the systems really aren’t old enough yet to warrant the effort of a repast (imho). But as with Intel MBPs, quite easy to remove the bottom plate of Apple Silicon MBPs and blow out the dust on occasion with a can of air.
Bottom line, they were all easy to clean out with compressed air. Just pop the bottom plate off and blow out the vents, the fins, the fans. That has done more good (in my experience) than repasting. For all the MBPs I’ve owned the past 14 years, the disassembly needed to repaste is a relative pain. For me, I’d say 2011-2012 was easiest, 2013-2015 roughly the same, 2016-15” 2019 moderately more difficult in the sense that there are more screws and ribbons to disconnect. Lastly, I felt the 2019 16” was slightly more challenging because of a few more screws than prior years and the way some connectors and ribbon cables were routed. And for the 16” with the 5500M graphics, at least on mine, you have to be careful as there is a bit of thermal heat sink tape (?) that goes from the actual heat sink to over the video memory and it’s on there with adhesive. If you don’t lift that off the video memory first before lifting up the motherboard, the thermal tape or whatever it’s called will tear off.
I haven’t done anything to Apple Silicon MBPs mainly due to their superior cooling, and the systems really aren’t old enough yet to warrant the effort of a repast (imho). But as with Intel MBPs, quite easy to remove the bottom plate of Apple Silicon MBPs and blow out the dust on occasion with a can of air.
I agree, especially because your very first reply was snarky and rude. And, quite frankly, there’s behavior I would say at least borders against the rules. Anyway… Trying to ignore your evident lack of ability to play nice with others...
Seemingly at least some “PC” aspects — more Dell-like but still:
If you’re willing to be a little patient.
The following video is regarding NAND upgrade but, in our current context, provides a good demo of the disassembly and reassembly to reach at least the fan/blower.
One of the teardowns with fewest tabs and no adhesive. Which is in contrast to something like the Macbook Air or most MacBooks:
And even though I haven’t put a lot of concern into cleaning my Macs, except for the Intel Mac mini that needed to have hair dryer equivalent airflow to cool almost any workload state, I can still respect planning ahead if you keep and want to maintain a system for several years. And amounts of dust and other debris in a cooling system that would significantly lower airflow could cause notable performance (blips).
Let’s begin with some explanation:
Thinking about repasting my laptop - is it worth it?
First of all, my laptop: Lenovo L340-17IRH Gaming (81LL00F5CK) Nvidia GTX 1650 Intel Core i5-9300HF 16 GB RAM 1 TB SSD (from how many posts about the l340 i've seen here, it looks this laptop has really crappy cooling lol) So i've had thermal throttling problems while gaming for a few months...
www.techpowerup.com
I could scour the Internet for hours and find all kinds of examples/demonstrations though I’ll stop with this collection:
Last edited:
If you know and you just decide to tell someone who is asking a question, go find yourself, there is a name for your type.
Yes helpful. We are literately handing you the answers to your query, all you have to do is go to ifixit but for some reason you're looking to insult and/or lash out.
Do your own research.
Its not a question of rightness, but rather providing you the means and tools for you to get the answers you seek.
Someone asks a question and anyone who knows the answer and who can read a question, answers it. Some people did do that here.
Some people think that giving an answer to a question that was never asked, is the proper way of replying. Perhaps because they don't understand the question, or perhaps because they really think that is the answer. Fine.
Some others think that telling to the person who asked the question, "go online and look it up", is the right answer.
From all these people, the last one thinks they gave the best answer. And they continue. If your answer is go online to look it up, to a specific question that was posted online, you are better off not replying to people. Because you are either trolling, or something else. Though to be fair I am not sure which is worse from the two possible reasons for this type of reply.
Stop replying to me @maflynn
Seriously.
Have you even considered the fact that the majority of the membership is only familiar with the Macs they own, and the most of them never even opened the macs?
For example, I've never opened up a Mini, Studio, Macbook air, I have opened a 2012 MBP, how can I say what the Mac is easiest with just opening one.
You seem to be on a mission to prove your way is the only way and its wrong for people to provide a website that holds all of the answers you seek. When my kids were younger, I didn't tell them the answers to their homework, I showed them how to find the answers. That life lesson has helped them, its the old adage, give the man fish and eats for one day, teach him how to fish and he can eat everyday type of mentality. We're providing you a means for you to learn on your own.
What you ask is a highly specific question that is likely not going to be answered to your satisfaction, yet there is one organization who's mission is to report on how hard/easy opening, repairing/upgrading computers and yet you find it insulting that we try to point you to them.
You've spent two days arguing where as you could have had your answer already.
Last edited: