WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.240 there's no denying the macbook air 2020 is a pretty sleek little machine except 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:14.320 for one small flaw instead of doing what every other laptop manufacturer ever 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:15.519 does and put a fan right next to the CPU 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:20.400 where the majority of the heat is generated apple opted to put the fan 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:24.560 data over yonder somewhere leaving the CPU with only about 10 watts of cooling 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:29.679 capacity to work with how much performance did they leave on the table 00:00:27.279 --> 00:00:35.200 to find out the answer to that we have collected this bin of cooling 00:00:32.239 --> 00:00:40.399 apparatus with everything from upside down air things to water cooling 00:00:39.040 --> 00:00:46.079 pumps to this tray which you guys might recognize from our 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:53.039 video from several years back water cooling the original macbook 2015 by 00:00:50.559 --> 00:00:57.840 actually submerging it in water yes my friends today is gonna be 00:00:55.280 --> 00:01:02.480 a lot of fun and it's brought to you by ting why pay for what you're not going 00:01:00.160 --> 00:01:06.400 to use with ting you only pay for the mobile data that you use and you can 00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:09.400 learn more at the link in the video description 00:01:16.159 --> 00:01:22.080 to tell if our wacky cooling solutions are doing anything we will first need to 00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:28.320 establish a performance baseline running our macbook air which is a quad core 00:01:24.320 --> 00:01:29.840 eight thread CPU with no aids whatsoever 00:01:28.320 --> 00:01:35.280 i'm just going to fire up Intel power gadget here and you can also see we've 00:01:32.320 --> 00:01:39.200 got a quad core 8 thread macbook pro 13 inch running right next to it now it 00:01:37.119 --> 00:01:44.720 does run a different CPU but it should give us some idea of what we might 00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:48.799 strive for with a properly cooled chip looking at the power draw of these cpus 00:01:46.399 --> 00:01:54.560 our macbook pro starts by shooting up to about 40 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:57.840 45 watts and then dips down closer to 30 00:01:54.560 --> 00:02:00.719 35 and finishes out the test there so 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:06.159 there's no way that a 25 watt peak CPU is going to be able to 00:02:04.079 --> 00:02:12.879 match that in terms of performance but you can see that over time we fall 00:02:09.200 --> 00:02:14.480 down as low as 10 watts so i think we 00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:18.959 should be able to close the gap a fair bit here 100 degrees 00:02:16.959 --> 00:02:24.200 that seems perfectly reasonable actually they both run at 100 degrees just this 00:02:21.040 --> 00:02:26.800 one doesn't have a fan attached to it 00:02:24.200 --> 00:02:30.239 1016 points darn it 00:02:28.400 --> 00:02:33.680 about half the speed let's try and close that gap cooling 00:02:31.599 --> 00:02:38.720 method number one a stand well and a fan oh and we're 00:02:36.160 --> 00:02:42.239 gonna add a fan to it put that there yeah that's why the the rubber chummies 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:45.840 are on it that's pretty cheesy so between 40 and 45 we'll consider that 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:50.879 baseline before we start each test yeah sounds good is that reasonable okay so 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:54.400 here we go 1016 so score to beat conspiracy theory time 00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:58.319 tell me i'm wrong here apple has been sandbagging the 00:02:56.400 --> 00:03:01.519 performance of their Intel based macbooks 00:02:59.760 --> 00:03:06.800 for years now so that when they announce the ARM-based 00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:11.040 macbooks they can be like bam it runs at like half the temperature 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:16.000 no no applause nothing all right it is amazing how quickly this thing shoots up 00:03:13.200 --> 00:03:19.599 to 100 degrees isn't it it's pretty much instant how can it not love itself if 00:03:17.760 --> 00:03:24.000 itself is so hot hey 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:28.400 got on lttstore.com okay you told me this was gonna work i don't think this 00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:34.720 is working we're down to like 11.6 watts already so tell me brandon where do you 00:03:31.040 --> 00:03:36.879 think the CPU is i don't know Linus 00:03:34.720 --> 00:03:39.599 in the middle of the pc could it be here no 00:03:37.920 --> 00:03:42.879 or here no 10 34. 00:03:41.200 --> 00:03:46.239 all right well so much for this idea working hey that's a two percent 00:03:44.799 --> 00:03:50.560 increase two percent all right we're gonna have to get more extreme what's test number two 00:03:48.799 --> 00:03:54.560 fan with no bottom so this is kind of the test where like 00:03:53.200 --> 00:03:59.439 if they just put a fan in there this is how good it would perform all right with the unit open we've got a great look at 00:03:57.760 --> 00:04:03.680 what we were talking about before so here's the CPU right under this 00:04:02.159 --> 00:04:08.879 tiny little sort of a heat sink so it's got 00:04:06.239 --> 00:04:12.720 some little folded metal fins over it it's like it's a heat sink and then 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:17.840 here's the fan that they went and they put it in the 00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:21.919 laptop so like it has a fan they just didn't bother to have the fan draw air 00:04:19.840 --> 00:04:26.320 over the heatsink to cool the CPU before exhausting it i don't think anyone has 00:04:24.080 --> 00:04:29.600 yet offered up a clear unbelievable explanation for why they 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:33.440 would have done this they went and they they put the heatsink 00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:37.680 and the fan in there they just didn't bring them together you know run number 00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:41.600 three definitely going slower it's making its way to 100 degrees slower now 00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:46.880 we're having a look at the heart of the system here that is 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:50.080 almost 10 degrees lower maybe not 10 but 00:04:46.880 --> 00:04:52.560 more than five for sure dang macbook you 00:04:50.080 --> 00:04:55.680 fly our package power consumption is higher than last time which means i'm 00:04:54.000 --> 00:05:00.639 expecting better performance but our utilization is only about 87 percent 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:04.000 and of course we did hit 100 degrees here so it looks like it looks like 00:05:02.479 --> 00:05:09.680 anyway that we are thermally limited right now why is it asking for 3.4 gigahertz it's 00:05:07.280 --> 00:05:14.720 got to know it's not going to get that there it is 1088. 00:05:12.800 --> 00:05:18.880 what's that like another 4 but we can do better 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:24.080 so far we've got about an 8 uplift in performance over our stock configuration 00:05:22.080 --> 00:05:28.000 but that's without changing out our thermal compound so that's going to be 00:05:26.560 --> 00:05:33.199 the next leg of our journey we're going to go with Noctua nth2 thermal compound 00:05:30.880 --> 00:05:38.479 see i'm pushing that down flat it seems like it's not actually designed to sit 00:05:35.520 --> 00:05:42.479 right against the die that makes no sense i mean it makes sense if you want 00:05:40.880 --> 00:05:48.960 the thermal performance to not be as good as it could be do you wanna just put it back on and like give it a wiggle 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:53.919 it's not gonna do anything because it doesn't go down far enough 00:05:52.479 --> 00:05:58.720 see so i can i can wiggle it all i want but it's 00:05:56.800 --> 00:06:01.680 it can't go down any farther hmm 00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:06.960 see oh shoot are we taking a trip to the 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:09.600 milling machine i think we have to huh 00:06:06.960 --> 00:06:13.680 that's fun i knew you'd like that recessed those a little bit please don't 00:06:11.520 --> 00:06:18.960 ruin it that's the plan stressed out alex 00:06:16.639 --> 00:06:22.240 you and me both they don't exactly sell this replacement part on apple.com have 00:06:21.039 --> 00:06:26.720 you tried getting the apple card maybe they have it then now it's touching 00:06:24.639 --> 00:06:29.759 we want to take this nut right here that controls the depth 00:06:29.919 --> 00:06:36.479 it's nice and snug there we're going to back it off just 00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:37.919 that much i'm uncomfortable yeah i 00:06:36.479 --> 00:06:42.199 i was not thinking we'd be doing this here today well i guess 00:06:42.639 --> 00:06:51.910 i can't look but i can't look away 00:06:53.840 --> 00:07:03.360 okay that's lots that's enough 00:07:03.360 --> 00:07:09.840 oh i think that's more than we needed i hate this why did i buy you this you 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:13.520 know what sucks though alex is while we might be getting better contact we now 00:07:11.840 --> 00:07:17.199 have what i would consider to be a significant amount less copper on the 00:07:15.840 --> 00:07:20.400 heatsink like we didn't remove much but compared 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:25.440 to what's there the worst part is this was supposed to be the like reasonable do it at home 00:07:23.520 --> 00:07:27.840 option we had no way of knowing that they were going to have such a 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:33.599 boneheaded i mean i don't want to call it a flaw because it's clearly 00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:37.039 intentional but design decision we use thermal pads because they allow for 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:41.759 greater tolerances in things like surface mount components like like a 00:07:39.440 --> 00:07:45.360 memory chip to do it with a dye like this where the manufacturing tolerances 00:07:43.599 --> 00:07:50.800 are so tight there's no reason for it 00:07:47.440 --> 00:07:52.560 that i'm aware of other than just 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:56.319 not wanting it to perform well i don't get it well i'd say it's just cheaper 00:07:54.560 --> 00:08:00.560 for them to make all they had to do was put a spring on each one of those screws 00:07:58.479 --> 00:08:06.240 into a spring mount like everyone else ever got a little wiggle wobble 00:08:03.039 --> 00:08:08.639 let's have a look here oh yeah 00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:12.560 that is way better now we just need to be careful not to accidentally over 00:08:10.560 --> 00:08:16.000 tighten these because that is a definite possibility 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:20.800 if it's not immediately at 100 degrees then it's way better we're still at 17 00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:24.840 watts package power huh 00:08:22.319 --> 00:08:30.160 and only 90 degrees really okay so that actually is worse 00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:32.560 than before with the fan but the temps were 00:08:31.440 --> 00:08:36.399 definitely better so i feel like it might just be the turbo profile but 00:08:34.479 --> 00:08:40.560 that's better than our first run isn't it yeah that's three percent better even 00:08:38.479 --> 00:08:46.959 if i'm not sure exactly what to make of that the show must go on so let's move 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:49.200 on to our next idea which is 00:08:46.959 --> 00:08:54.320 expanding the amount of cooling surface area that the machine has 00:08:50.800 --> 00:08:56.320 by putting a thermal pad in between 00:08:54.320 --> 00:08:59.920 this heatsink here and the chassis 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:06.640 it actually seems like apple's using like a thermal insulator 00:09:04.560 --> 00:09:09.920 in order to keep the bottom of the computer cooler so i guess we're going 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:14.160 to have to pull that off first yep that goes rib to be clear the inclusion of 00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:18.560 this insulator here is not something that i actually oppose the difference 00:09:16.560 --> 00:09:24.360 between you know something being comfortable against your skin and being 00:09:21.040 --> 00:09:27.200 literally burned by it is actually a 00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:33.200 surprisingly small amount yeah like 43 degrees is what you shower at and 46.7 00:09:30.800 --> 00:09:37.360 will burn you in 35 minutes 50 degrees will burn you in one minute okay how how 00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:41.360 many layers thick should we go here boys sure why not if we're gonna wing it we 00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:44.240 might as well wing it hard these kinds of pads are hardly the most thermally 00:09:43.040 --> 00:09:48.480 conductive material but they're obviously better than an insulator for 00:09:46.160 --> 00:09:51.680 trying to cool the CPU at the cost of the user 00:09:49.519 --> 00:09:57.120 so if the bottom of the chassis gets above 46 degrees then we're bad if it 00:09:54.959 --> 00:10:01.360 stays below that then we're all good 40 degrees 00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:05.920 now that's a hot bottom no that's actually 00:10:02.839 --> 00:10:08.080 fine well it's also not done yet 00:10:05.920 --> 00:10:11.279 yeah but like 40 degrees is totally comfortable well let's see how 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:16.240 comfortable 43 degrees is like a bit uncomfortable 46 as you bring it too bad 00:10:13.519 --> 00:10:21.760 yeah we are still under 75 degrees what the hell 00:10:19.040 --> 00:10:26.399 well you got so little heat sink area and then you go and spread all that heat 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:30.000 out over this giant piece of aluminum yeah it 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:33.279 makes sense it would do a little better it did so much better when you just had 00:10:31.680 --> 00:10:36.760 the heatsink mounted properly and it probably has a tiny bit more mounting 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:40.320 pressure now 43.9 00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:45.440 oh it's getting hot it's getting hot it's a hot bottom 00:10:42.399 --> 00:10:47.519 results coming in alex you ready 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:53.040 11 55 we never cracked 80 degrees so that's a 00:10:49.760 --> 00:10:54.640 14 improvement that is stock freaking 00:10:53.040 --> 00:10:57.839 nuts hold on i'm gonna start it running again just so that it doesn't really get 00:10:56.320 --> 00:11:03.760 a chance to cool down too much i want to see what our hot bottom temperatures 00:11:00.800 --> 00:11:07.920 ended up at 46. yeah you're getting burned territory now yep that's that's 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:11.040 too hot that's not comfortable now like 00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:14.959 lots of gaming laptops will be hotter than that on the bottom well i mean it 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:18.880 doesn't have to be like that they could have put a fan on it yeah that was an 00:11:17.760 --> 00:11:22.800 option so much performance left on the table 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:27.680 though it's clear that to reach our next performance tier we need to do something 00:11:25.040 --> 00:11:29.839 about the cooling of the chassis itself that 00:11:30.160 --> 00:11:39.040 is where this comes in yes my friends i would like to do a 00:11:35.040 --> 00:11:40.959 recreation of our 2015 experiment 00:11:39.040 --> 00:11:44.079 immersing the laptop we really should not do this in water 00:11:42.640 --> 00:11:48.480 i don't think we should do that at all well what's your brilliant idea we water 00:11:45.920 --> 00:11:53.040 cool it so i got this little thing right here 00:11:49.279 --> 00:11:54.720 off of amazon it was 17 amazon lies yes 00:11:53.040 --> 00:11:59.760 you've been shopping on aliexpress again it was 17 and it says laptop water 00:11:57.519 --> 00:12:02.800 cooling that's it no documentation this is all that came in the box 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:09.040 i think you can do the job way better than that cookie sheet right there okay 00:12:07.200 --> 00:12:12.639 i'm gonna go get water for this look it's not like the thing died last time 00:12:11.360 --> 00:12:18.240 yeah but like you can fall off your motorcycle on the highway and not die just mean you want to do it again that 00:12:15.839 --> 00:12:22.639 is a false equivalency it wasn't even damaged you could just you know slide 00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:26.079 along the road and be like oh it's fine next time i definitely won't turn into 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:30.079 jam so there's that really yeah 00:12:27.839 --> 00:12:34.959 huh you know what i think you might be right this might actually perform better 00:12:31.920 --> 00:12:37.760 than putting it in non-frozen water 00:12:34.959 --> 00:12:42.720 but we could also put it directly in frozen water 00:12:40.079 --> 00:12:46.079 and maybe kill it big brain time that's what the kids say right big brain 00:12:44.399 --> 00:12:50.560 let's just you know have some safety here safety i see you didn't even catch my 00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:53.839 pun safety i see 00:12:54.240 --> 00:13:00.160 oh that's chilly boys 00:12:57.600 --> 00:13:05.279 is it zero degrees give or take it's hard to tell because of like 00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:08.959 emissivity issues or whatever are you able to see like a cold spot on the 00:13:06.880 --> 00:13:13.760 macbook now it's chilly ah nope it's still hot huh 00:13:11.839 --> 00:13:17.200 i mean i'm sure the bottom is a bit of a different oh yeah 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:21.120 the bottom's a different story what's the CPU temperature right now 17 16 00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:25.839 we're sub-ambient here we go boys 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:31.600 what's it at it still hits 70 degrees but 16 really oh well it also spiked to 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:38.320 35 watts damn that's way faster than before attempts are 51 and our package 00:13:35.279 --> 00:13:40.800 power is over 16 watts still wow it 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:44.200 really is a shame how aggressively this thing gets power limited because even 00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:49.440 though we're at 41.5 degrees right now it's still all 00:13:46.959 --> 00:13:54.240 the way down to about 13 watts package power i'm disappointed 00:13:52.560 --> 00:13:58.079 i thought keeping the thermals under control would net us significantly 00:13:56.320 --> 00:14:03.680 better performance it's just power limited yeah did our pump just stop nope 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:08.000 it ain't flowing fast though i was really hoping it would stay up in 00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:11.600 the like 15 to 18 watts neighborhood and we were gonna see like a really big 00:14:09.760 --> 00:14:17.040 performance jump yeah cause it's like 40 degrees now 00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:23.279 definitely not thermally limited oh yeah like the top of this thing is 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:29.279 24 degrees it's cool to the touch so you can see 00:14:25.760 --> 00:14:31.440 this look alex's hand is actually warmer 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:35.040 than the surface of the laptop hey do you have less blood flow in your pinky i 00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:38.720 mean we learned a lot of things today just i didn't expect this i think that 00:14:37.440 --> 00:14:44.320 none of the things that we learned today we expected the score is 11.55 so there 00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:48.560 was no real benefit from going from just putting a thermal pad on the CPU that 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:53.440 helps the bottom of the chassis dissipate heat to putting an ice 00:14:51.440 --> 00:14:59.120 cold water block on the bottom of it that's disappointing we didn't get the 00:14:55.519 --> 00:15:01.199 result that we expected or wanted but we 00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:04.399 still learned a lot today one is that the macbook air is going to be in a 00:15:02.880 --> 00:15:08.720 completely different performance class from the macbook pro no matter what kind 00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:12.240 of cooling you put on it because a even though they've both got four cores and 00:15:10.399 --> 00:15:17.199 eight threads it is a different model of CPU and b because the macbook air just 00:15:15.600 --> 00:15:21.839 doesn't have the power delivery robustness to keep up with allowing that 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:25.279 CPU to really stretch its legs number two 00:15:23.040 --> 00:15:29.519 is that the cooling solution on the macbook air is even worse than we 00:15:27.760 --> 00:15:34.959 thought to the point where even just removing a little bit of material from 00:15:31.760 --> 00:15:37.040 the already minuscule heatsink gave us a 00:15:34.959 --> 00:15:41.760 20-plus degree improvement in temperatures while under sustained load 00:15:39.600 --> 00:15:45.440 unfortunately like i said we didn't get the performance improvement that we 00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:50.240 wanted from that but that's how she goes just like she goes 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:54.880 into our sponsor ting there's no contracts no overage fees and no other 00:15:53.040 --> 00:15:59.199 carrier tricks you just pay a fair price for the talk text and data that you use 00:15:57.120 --> 00:16:03.120 each month it's especially great if you happen to be at home a lot or on an 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:06.160 irregular schedule because that way you're not paying for mobile data that 00:16:05.040 --> 00:16:09.759 you're not going to use because you're going to be on wi-fi all the time tin 00:16:08.160 --> 00:16:13.680 gives you complete control over your account you can set alerts and caps for 00:16:11.680 --> 00:16:18.720 every device on your account and they've got nationwide lte coverage on t-mobile 00:16:16.160 --> 00:16:22.959 sprint and verizon so they've got great coverage from coast to coast almost any 00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:26.720 phone will work with ting but you can check your phone's compatibility at 00:16:25.079 --> 00:16:30.160 Linus.ting.com we're going to have that linked below and if you use our link 00:16:28.320 --> 00:16:33.279 you'll also get 25 in free credit hopefully you guys 00:16:31.920 --> 00:16:37.199 enjoyed this video if you like these kinds of wacky laptop cooling 00:16:34.959 --> 00:16:41.920 experiments maybe you'd enjoy our five gigahertz uh laptop with like blowy 00:16:39.920 --> 00:16:44.720 matrons hooked up to a shroud blown through the bottom of it it's a gaming 00:16:43.199 --> 00:16:48.320 notebook it's pretty crazy it's definitely worth a watch man i really 00:16:46.560 --> 00:16:52.880 wanted to post some crazy performance numbers today but we just couldn't do it 00:16:50.800 --> 00:16:56.800 but it is cool yeah it's a 10 degrees right now get it it's cool