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Coding for fun since 1996, Learn by doing and sharing.

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Heat

I am moving away from Apple hardware

February 3, 2019 by Simon

My Late 2012 Mac Book Pro Retina laptop is all but dead, it has many dead pixels and because of the poor cooling and is NOT a joy to use anymore. It does not “JUST WORK” and personally, I do not think “thinner” laptops can handle Australian summers as its hardware cooling it inadequate above 40c air temperatures.

My laptop processor would spend more time thermal throttling (at 104c)  in Web Browsers and text editors that at normal speeds. Opening up productivity apps like Photoshop or Premiere Pro would send the laptop into meltdown.

Image of temperate monitoring showing an overheating macbook when the apple is idle

Frequent high temps were common.

Temp monitoring showing 100+c temps

Attempted Fixes

Warning Disclaimer: My laptop is out of warranty and I know my way around the inside of computer hardware without zapping it. Do not attempt to open your laptop unless you know what you are doing, have backed up your data and are prepared to brick your computer.

  • I removed dust from inside the laptop.
  • I tried to only use the laptop refrigerative air conditioning
  • I replaced the thermal paste on the CPU and GPU (3 times)
  • I reinstalled OSX Mojave and reset the SMC and PRAM multiple times.
  • I ran the fans at 100% (see post here), The fans were operating at full capacity and were not broken.

The stock thermal paste was crusty after 5 years. The plastic CPU/GPU cover was visibly cooked.

Picture of dry stock thermal paste

I ordered some new Thermal grizzly thermal paste, I had some older silicone paste on hand just in case.

Picture of thermal paste options

After many reapplications of the Thermal Grizzly, the older silicone paste seemed to work the better???

Picture of thermal paste applied on a processor

After a few months, all of the fixes above did not seem to work. OSX Mojave would spin up the CPU and GPU into a frenzy overloading the single heat pipe within minutes.

Time to try some more drastic cooling modifications?

I tried improving the efficiency of the single (copper) heat pipe that is shared between an Intel i7 2.6 GHz and an Nvidia Video Card by removing the black paint by stripping the paint with acetone.

Picture of the apple heat pipe in a jar of acetone

I manually removed paint from in between the heat sink fins with a LED to reveal the metal.

Picture of paint being removed from the apple heat pipe fins

I reinstalled the heat pipe with high hopes? That looks nice 🙂Picture of the heat pipe minus paint reinstalled

I removed the old thermal paste and added new paste. First I tried Thermal Grizzly Cryonaut. I re-applied the paste three separate times as each application was not that much better than the old crusty stock paste from Apple. Did I have a bad batch of Thermal Grizzly?, It seemed thick and not very viscous. I ended up using an old tube of silicone paste (the white stuff) as my Arctic Silver was too old to try and I did not want to order more.

More heatpipe post re installation pictures

With the silicone paste applied and the paint removed temperatures were about 15c lower at max, I still had frequent thermal throttling but at least I had a reserve buffer.

This was all before the Aussie Heatwaves and high temperatures soon returned.

Is there still room for improvement?

How heat pipes work

Picture of how heatpipes work

Heat pipes have an evaporating (hot part) and condensing zone (cool part) on the heat pipe. I noticed Apple’s “stock” condensing fins were small, would improving this zone help?. Time to improve the condensers zones by adding larger copper heat sinks to the bare side of the heat pipe.

I purchased a few copper Xeon/Sun server sized heat sinks and thermal epoxied them to the condensing end of the heat pipe. Yes, they would protrude out the bottom of the case but #Meh.  I can fix that by extending the base of the laptop down and making it thicker (old school style).

The server heat sinks arrived

Side on picture of server heatpipes

I cut the heat sinks in half.

Picture of a hacksaw cutting heatsinks

I packed the fins with paper before cutting to ensure the cut did not damage the fins.

Picture of a cut heatsink

After cutting, I wiped the copper heat sinks with vinegar to restore the surface to a nice copper shine.

I tested the heat sink idea with silicone paste first

picture of silicone tested on the heatsink

Temps were 25c lower, Now it’s time to use Arctic Silver Thermal Epoxy 

Picture of two part thermal epoxy

I applied the Thermal Epoxy to the heat pipe (I temporary had foil strips above the fans so I did not block them while the epoxy dried.

Picture of epoxy applied

I then stuck the heat sink’s to the heat pipe (with Arctic Silver Thermal Epoxy).

Heatsinks Thermal Expoxied on

I toyed with a clear case but decided against it for static electricity and stability reasons.

Clear Case pon the botom of the laptop picture

I purchased a second Mac Book base for so I could cut holes for the heat sinks to protrude and use the original base to hide the modification.

Cut holes in the base of the laptop base and purchased a second case bottom

I made a 30 mm base wall so I could use it as a wall between the laptop base and the new 30mm lower base.

picture of the base side wall i made

I added some 5-volt and 12 -volt fans inside the new extended 30mm base.

Collage of base assembly, screws and wires

Finished Product

A normal looking Mac Book except for the 30mm lower base and internal 5V or 12V fans.

Picture of the final mod with 50c lower temps and a 30mm bottom slab under the laptop

External power plugs on the left side, I will add lights at a later stage.

picture of the external power plugs flush with the case on the side of the laptop

Are the temps lower?

50 lower temps screenshot

Videos

Video: Mac Book Pro cooling mod, I can now watch 1080p videos without maxing the CPU

Video: Mac Book Pro cooling mod with external powered 5v or 12v fans

Conclusion

50c lower temps are nicer at idle but in Premiere Pro (exporting video) the laptop was still thermal throttling like mad and temps were terrible (100+). Lets not get started when I start some development VM’s

Conclusion 2 weeks later

This is still not a joy to use. I don’t think I have the right to expect a 5-year-old laptop to keep up running a CPU/GPU intensive OS and applications.

Time to buy a new computer, Apple still makes thin and overheating laptops by the looks of it? 

Maybe I need to buy a fridge to stick a computer in a fridge to use these days?

YouTube users indicate Apple has a problem with heat.

What computer do I get next?

Not an Apple made one. I will be moving back to Windows for local development and Linux on servers

Dell Alienware has many heat pipes.

Picture inside a dell alienware laptop with more heatpies

Acer Predator 500

I read a few reviews (e.g this one from Ultra book reviews) and Acer have good cooling.

picture of Acer Predator cooling and heatpipes

MSI GT Series laptops look the best if cooling is important.

Picture of a MSI GT laptop with 9 heatpipes

Or should I build a custom desktop with way more cores

CPU: Threadripper 2950X 16C 32T 

SSD: M.2 SSD: Samsung 970 PRO 512GB
MOBO: Asus Zenith Extreme
Power: Corsair RM1000x 1000W
MEM: Quad 3600 Mhz 
GPU: AMD Radeon VII Navi 3980

Thanks for reading.

 

v1.3 Added videos

v1.2 Updated alt tag descriptions

v1.1 Added “I will be moving back to Windows for local development and Linux on servers”

1.0 Initial Draft

 

Filed Under: Advice, Apple, Backup, Computer, Copper, Disaster Recovery, Heat, Maintenance, Uncategorized Tagged With: Apple, Heat, Macbook

Why I will never buy a new Apple Laptop until they fix the hardware cooling issues.

July 20, 2018 by Simon

This post will explain why I will never buy a new Apple Laptop until they fix the hardware cooling issues.

Background

I used to work in retail selling computers and I would go to great lengths to open a desktop computer chassis and talk someone out of buying a cheaper/slower computer (usually when it had a Cyrix Media GX processor in it). I would do myself out of higher commission and burn time educating customers. I have blogged about what to look for when buying a computer (here).

2012

In 2012 I bought my first Apple Mac computer to write iOS apps (write your first OSX app). I would call myself an Apple fanboy (previously being a PC fanboy for 15 years). I have never rebuilt my OSX system in 6 years buy would rebuild Windows every 6 months. Some Apple things I like.

2017

My Mid 2012 Mac Book Pro i7 processor overheats like crazy. I have blogged about my Mid 2012 MPB overheating issues (read here). I have even gone and installed third party software to control the speeds of my Mac’s fans (read here).

Inside my Mid 2012 Mac Book Pro (heatsink and fans at the top)

Tiny Mac book pro heatsink

Stupidly thin heatsink (IMHO).

Heatsink is 3mm thick

Complete heatsink (CPU and GPU plate)

MBP Heatsink

I am certain this Mac Book heatsink is too small for the processor and graphics card.

As I type this my Mac Book Pro is Thermal throttling (slowing down the CPU) while typing a blog post (not gaming).

Apple 2012 overheating

My only option is to crank up the fans to 100% and overrise Apple silence first mantra.

TgPro fan speed rules

I am currently sitting here at Winter with my MBP 2012 MBP i7 fans running at 100% to try (try) and prevent thermal throtelling killing my productivity. https://t.co/IM6IlnmjC7

— Simon Fearby (Aussie DevSecOps) (@FearbySoftware) July 18, 2018

Intel Power Gadget showing thermal throttling (CPU dropping t0 almost 1Ghz to drop temps).

Thermal Throtelling

Move forward to 2018

Today I learned that Apple is putting an Intel i9 Procesor into a laptop, great? Hold onto your cash, that thing will run very hot and will never operate at its maximum potential.

Reviews are scathing.

I tweeted..

What a joke, why is @Apple putting an Intel i9 into a stupidly thin Mac Book Pro, my i7 can barely keep cool https://t.co/IM6IlnmjC7
— Simon Fearby (Aussie DevSecOps) (@FearbySoftware) July 13, 2018

Apple’s Website: https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/

Apples website saying it now has i9 macs

What a waste of a good processor.

Below you will see the fallout on YouTube from Apple putting an i9 Processor in the latest 15″ Mac Book Pros.

Dave Lee posted “MacBook Pro 15 (2018) – Beware the Core i9”

TechLinked posted “2018 Macbook ALREADY Overheating?”

AppleInsider – 2018 MacBook Pro i9 Thermal Throttling CONFIRMED!

Best of all, Louis Rossmann summed up the Apple situation perfectly.

 

 

Update 25th July

Apple is doubling down on the lack of cooling (calling it a “missing digital key”).

I will #BoycottAppleProMachines

That’s all.

Revision History

v1.4 Added update 25th July 2018 Missing Digital Key

v1.3 Gizmodo link

v1.2 Test new db server

v1.1 Added Apple Insider video

v1.0 Initial Post

Filed Under: Apple, Heat Tagged With: a, Apple, buy, cooling, fix, Heat, I, issues, l they, Laptop, missing digital key, never, new, the, unti, Why, will

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