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Cooling system of the new Macbook Pro

My friend has bought a new Macbook Pro, in England.
He has started to have problems with overheating.
Both I and him live in Russia, where no Apple stores are situated,
and we are not going to visit Europe anytime soon (before the 1-year warranty expires)

So, I am going to fix it myself, because I am quite skilled at this field.
I am going to replace the standard Apple thermal grease.

I have a Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra, one of the best thermal interfaces available:
http://www.coollaboratory.com/en/produkt...-ultra/
The only problem is that it is prohibited to use it if the part of the cooling system
which comes in a direct contact with thermal interface and CPU/GPU
is made of aluminum.

So, please, tell me, what the part of the cooling system,
which comes in a direct contact with thermal interface and CPU/GPU,
is made of?

Macbook Pro (Early 2011), Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Mar 1, 2011 4:56 AM

20 replies

Mar 1, 2011 1:38 PM in response to stuckfootage

I've read the article. It also makes a point in saying that even though the paste was sloppy and excessive, there was no indication that it would affect the performance or cause any heat issues. If we assume that the ifixit sample is the norm, then why aren't we seeing mor instances of this heat problem? I'm not saying that its not the problem, but I highly doubt that it is. I'd just like to hear a little more about the symptoms before I recommend this procedure.

Mar 1, 2011 2:16 PM in response to Andrew Wolczyk

Andrew Wolczyk wrote:
I think that your idea of tearing apart a new MBP to replace the thermal paste is a stupid idea. Don't you think that Apple has used the most efficient paste to begin with? I really don't think they are in the habit of using inferior materials, and think that any attempt to replace them is going to leave your friend in exactly the same situation except without a warranty.

My suggestion to you would be to call Apple and possibly ship the unit back to them. If that isn't an option, look for a utility that will allow you to change the efficiency of the fan behaviour (can't recall the name of it but I'm sure someone will chime in)

It's not so much which brand of thermal paste is applied, but how it's applied. Since you've seen the iFixit pictures, you know how terrible it looks, there's simply way too much paste there. And whilst it may not necessarily lead to any destructive overheating, it definitely isn't helping these powerhouses cool.

This thread on MacRumors will show you that how thermal paste is applied does make quite a bit of difference with temperatures. He's reporting roughly a 10 degree difference.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1105643

I'm actually considering re-applying the thermal paste on my new 17" when I get it.

Mar 1, 2011 5:19 PM in response to Andrew Wolczyk

Andrew Wolczyk wrote:
even though the paste was sloppy and excessive,
there was no indication that it would affect the performance
or cause any heat issues.

Good point, Andrew.

I finally got a chance to actually play with one (15" 2.0GHz),
tried to max it out running a bunch of openGL, downloading,
HD playback, all at once: CPU temps went up to about 90°C,
GPU 70°, fans running at about 4000. I let it run for a half hour.
Pleasantly warm. Fans quiet. No problem.

I'm impressed. Now where did I hide my credit card?

Radiowavers Author

Level 1

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Mar 2, 2011 9:46 AM in response to eww

It seems that I should use another thermal interface -
not a liquid metal, but a high-end thermal grease (like IC Diamond).
The difference will be insignificant (according to many reviews,
liquid metal is just 2-3 C better) and there will not be any risk with aluminum-possible parts.

Thank you for your help, guys! =)

xarq

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Sep 11, 2011 8:54 PM in response to Andrew Wolczyk

Andrew Wolczyk wrote:

If that isn't an option, look for a utility that will allow you to change the efficiency of the fan behaviour (can't recall the name of it but I'm sure someone will chime in)

*chime*

That would be smcFanControl.

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23049/smcfancontrol

I use it every day, I run Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom on a four year old 15" mbpro and preemptively max the fans before any heavy processing. Since still image processing is a "spikey" or intermittent activity as far as processor demand, it works well to keep temps down. However, for sustained demand applications where the processor runs at max consistently, the benefits are greatly reduced. Temps will take longer to climb, but they'll max out eventually.

Cooling system of the new Macbook Pro