{"video_id":"ghDvyItIHTY","title":"Fixing Apple's GOOD Engineering - M1 MacBook Air thermal pads","channel":"Linus Tech Tips","show":"Linus Tech Tips","published_at":"2021-05-05T14:53:29Z","duration_s":511,"segments":[{"start_s":0.04,"end_s":8.0,"text":"here we have the new M1 MacBook Air and this is the new Macbook Pro externally","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":5.24,"end_s":13.44,"text":"they differ very little brighter screen here a fan there but under the hood","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":10.759,"end_s":19.439,"text":"these two machines have exactly the same processor with just one catch because","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":16.52,"end_s":23.76,"text":"there's no fan in the MacBook Air its only way of cooling is passively","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":21.32,"end_s":28.679,"text":"radiating heat away and once the cooler has soaked up all the heat it can handle","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":26.24,"end_s":34.16,"text":"it's got to slow down the processor to keep itself safe but never fear because","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":31.439,"end_s":41.399,"text":"for about $30 I'm going to show you how to make this perform just like this or","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":38.6,"end_s":41.399,"text":"maybe even","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":47.84,"end_s":54.52,"text":"better by forcing air across the heat sink inside the MacBook Pro is able to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":52.32,"end_s":59.6,"text":"maintain its performance better because it's actively removing heat from the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":56.92,"end_s":63.239,"text":"system enclosure the MacBook Air on the other hand and as counterintuitive as","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":61.84,"end_s":68.96,"text":"that might sound it's got air right in the name has no air flow and uses a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":65.96,"end_s":71.28,"text":"completely passive cooling solution so","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":68.96,"end_s":76.72,"text":"in Le of a fan Apple's Engineers opted to use a large heat sink inside which is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":74.52,"end_s":81.439,"text":"essentially using the thermal mass of a block of metal to soak up the heat and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":79.36,"end_s":85.96,"text":"then passively radiate it away through air channels below the screen and for","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":83.6,"end_s":91.52,"text":"short bursty workloads this isn't a problem that thermal mass is able to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":88.04,"end_s":93.399,"text":"contain the short spike in heat output","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":91.52,"end_s":99.36,"text":"unfortunately when it comes to longer workloads the heat sink well heats up","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":96.759,"end_s":103.52,"text":"essentially filling up its thermal tank until it's at equilibrium with the CPU","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":101.479,"end_s":108.68,"text":"with no way to further remove heat the air will reduce its clock speeds and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":105.88,"end_s":113.0,"text":"slow itself down so that the heat input matches the heat output and we can see","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":111.56,"end_s":117.2,"text":"this when we Benchmark these two machines side by side if the Benchmark","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":115.119,"end_s":122.039,"text":"is relatively short meaning that it doesn't heat soak the cooler both","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":119.88,"end_s":125.6,"text":"machines perform nearly identically coming within margin of error in terms","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":123.64,"end_s":129.28,"text":"of performance but when we get to more extended workloads the performance Gap","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":127.6,"end_s":134.319,"text":"widens significantly let's take a look at how","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":131.08,"end_s":136.599,"text":"it works here is the CPU and this over","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":134.319,"end_s":141.28,"text":"here is the heat sink all the heat the CPU generates is transferred into this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":138.64,"end_s":148.319,"text":"heat sink and then the only place it can go is radiating around inside the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":144.2,"end_s":152.12,"text":"chassis except for one exception it can","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":148.319,"end_s":154.4,"text":"actually waft this Gap at the back of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":152.12,"end_s":159.159,"text":"the machine right here but that ain't much so it stands to reason that if we","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":156.76,"end_s":164.0,"text":"can improve the ability of the heat sink to get that heat out of the system we","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":161.72,"end_s":168.8,"text":"could improve the performance of the CPU but besides the low hanging fruit of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":166.04,"end_s":173.319,"text":"like slapping a water block on it with like tubes and a radiator hanging off of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":170.72,"end_s":178.599,"text":"it and calling it a day what can we do if we don't want to make permanent","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":175.4,"end_s":181.48,"text":"unwieldy modifications well that I'm","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":178.599,"end_s":186.319,"text":"glad you asked is where these come in these are thermal pads and they're","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":183.36,"end_s":190.72,"text":"designed to move heat around this this one is really squishy that is a fat","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":188.519,"end_s":194.56,"text":"thermal pad anyway all we have to do is slap these bad boys between the heat","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":192.56,"end_s":198.56,"text":"sink and the bottom of the chassis and we'll turn the back panel which","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":196.599,"end_s":204.84,"text":"conveniently is made of aluminum which happens to be great for dissipating heat","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":200.84,"end_s":207.36,"text":"into one big heat sink as it turns out","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":204.84,"end_s":215.519,"text":"all we need to do to make room for it is take off this insulating sponge right","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":210.48,"end_s":217.64,"text":"here see you later easy peasy but how","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":215.519,"end_s":223.519,"text":"does it perform well we already ran the benchmarks and the improvements are","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":220.28,"end_s":226.239,"text":"nothing short of amazing in bursty loads","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":223.519,"end_s":231.92,"text":"we saw essentially the same scores within our margin of error but on","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":229.08,"end_s":237.4,"text":"moderate to Long benchmarks we got a remarkable result up to an 8%","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":234.92,"end_s":242.799,"text":"Improvement even more impressive is that on the standard length multi-course C","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":239.28,"end_s":245.68,"text":"bench we actually beat the MacBook Pro","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":242.799,"end_s":250.2,"text":"by nearly 100 points our Theory here is that the delay between the load being","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":247.879,"end_s":254.84,"text":"applied and the fans ramping up on the MacBook Pro actually leaves a gap in its","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":252.84,"end_s":259.88,"text":"performance that the air is able to take advantage of with its beefier heat sink","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":258.079,"end_s":264.32,"text":"which is the entire chassis of the device there's essentially no delay it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":262.04,"end_s":270.8,"text":"just immediately shunts the heat out of the case hence the win but that win","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":266.72,"end_s":272.56,"text":"comes at a cost a dire cost Comfort","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":270.8,"end_s":280.4,"text":"because the bottom of our MacBook Air Saw temperatures Rise by 7 1/ 12° to 47°","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":277.88,"end_s":284.16,"text":"C now if you're an old fogy like me you might actually remember a story","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":281.88,"end_s":289.56,"text":"circulating back in the early 2000s about a researcher who managed to burn","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":286.16,"end_s":292.44,"text":"his uh how do you say delicate bits by","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":289.56,"end_s":296.12,"text":"means of a scalding hot laptop well I'm sorry to say the story is probably bogus","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":294.639,"end_s":301.0,"text":"because we couldn't find any actual first party reporting on it but","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":297.96,"end_s":302.28,"text":"nevertheless that is initely a danger so","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":301.0,"end_s":306.72,"text":"there's got to be some kind of Regulation around that right well yeah","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":305.0,"end_s":310.72,"text":"lots of them in fact but the most important is the international","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":308.4,"end_s":316.88,"text":"electrotechnical commission standards the safety standard for information","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":312.4,"end_s":318.72,"text":"technology equipment AKA laptops is this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":316.88,"end_s":323.84,"text":"and it specifies the requirements for products to remain safe during both","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":320.52,"end_s":326.84,"text":"normal operation and abnormal operation","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":323.84,"end_s":329.72,"text":"the specs are pretty exhaustive so to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":326.84,"end_s":336.8,"text":"keep it simple the limit for metal unco or anodized for normal use contact is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":332.639,"end_s":338.84,"text":"55° C at an ambient temperature of 35°","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":336.8,"end_s":342.039,"text":"to get this temperature without using a heated chamber we can calculate it by","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":340.68,"end_s":349.28,"text":"taking the macbook's external temperature subtracting the room temperature then adding 35 so let's do","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":346.68,"end_s":355.36,"text":"the math our office sits at a ball KN 20° so for our stock macbook's Peak temp","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":352.6,"end_s":363.6,"text":"of 392 we subtract 20 for the room plus 35 bringing us to 54 1/ 12° that is half","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":359.24,"end_s":365.56,"text":"a DE below the IEC limit and this right","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":363.6,"end_s":371.0,"text":"here is exactly the trade-off that Apple's Engineers needed to make for the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":367.919,"end_s":373.639,"text":"MacBook Air to operate fanless hats off","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":371.0,"end_s":378.28,"text":"by the way guys for hitting that Mark exactly doing the same math for our","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":375.919,"end_s":383.4,"text":"modified version means that we would be 7° over that threshold and that might","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":381.24,"end_s":389.599,"text":"not seem like a lot but the difference in temperature between threshold pain","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":386.319,"end_s":394.96,"text":"and maximum pain according to ASM is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":389.599,"end_s":396.599,"text":"only 8° so that's from 48 to 56° we do","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":394.96,"end_s":400.479,"text":"have some leeway here because the numbers that we calculated are at an","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":398.28,"end_s":407.28,"text":"unreasonable ambient temperature at least for us but in actual use yeah this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":405.08,"end_s":411.919,"text":"thing does get uncomfortably hot with the thermal pads like I could do a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":409.72,"end_s":416.199,"text":"faster 30-minute blender render on my lap but I wouldn't want to and I'd wager","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":414.56,"end_s":421.039,"text":"that you wouldn't want to either so where does that leave us well the mod","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":418.639,"end_s":426.639,"text":"works it brings darn near MacBook Pro level performance to the MacBook Air at","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":423.16,"end_s":429.759,"text":"a cost of like 50 cents worth of thermal","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":426.639,"end_s":432.44,"text":"pads but it also comes at the cost of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":429.759,"end_s":436.28,"text":"external surface temperatures and obviously we wouldn't warrant your","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":434.4,"end_s":440.16,"text":"MacBook once you've modified it in this way because we don't know exactly what","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":438.199,"end_s":444.879,"text":"the long-term effects would be even if we think that they would be minimal for","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":443.12,"end_s":450.199,"text":"a mod that is completely reversible though and cheap I don't see why you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":447.52,"end_s":455.039,"text":"wouldn't do this as long as you use your common sense and uh don't burn your junk","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":453.039,"end_s":460.479,"text":"this Valentine's Day don't let Nicks and cuts ruin your big day manscape has got","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":458.36,"end_s":464.0,"text":"you taken care of when it comes to Men's Grooming and hygiene and they created","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":462.24,"end_s":469.319,"text":"the world's first all-in-one Men's Grooming kit that's got you covered from","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":465.84,"end_s":472.039,"text":"head to uh well toe we've got their","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":469.319,"end_s":476.52,"text":"perfect package 3.0 as well as their new refined cologne the perfect package","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":474.319,"end_s":480.44,"text":"features their awesome lawnmower 3.0 waterproof body trimmer and a whole lot","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":478.52,"end_s":485.44,"text":"of other goodies as well and their new refined cologne is hypoallergenic and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":483.08,"end_s":490.08,"text":"has a super subtle yet enticing woodsy scent that's a perfect compliment to the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":487.599,"end_s":494.479,"text":"scent of other manscaped products so don't wait visit manscaped.com or click","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":492.52,"end_s":502.08,"text":"the link below and enter promo code Tech to get 20% off and free shipping oh my","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":498.96,"end_s":504.72,"text":"gosh we didn't mention LTT Store.com","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":502.08,"end_s":508.199,"text":"we've got new underwear don't miss out this is actually oh crap I think I'm","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":506.879,"end_s":512.159,"text":"wearing the old underwear but the new underwear is really good LTT sp.com","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0}],"full_text":"here we have the new M1 MacBook Air and this is the new Macbook Pro externally they differ very little brighter screen here a fan there but under the hood these two machines have exactly the same processor with just one catch because there's no fan in the MacBook Air its only way of cooling is passively radiating heat away and once the cooler has soaked up all the heat it can handle it's got to slow down the processor to keep itself safe but never fear because for about $30 I'm going to show you how to make this perform just like this or maybe even better by forcing air across the heat sink inside the MacBook Pro is able to maintain its performance better because it's actively removing heat from the system enclosure the MacBook Air on the other hand and as counterintuitive as that might sound it's got air right in the name has no air flow and uses a completely passive cooling solution so in Le of a fan Apple's Engineers opted to use a large heat sink inside which is essentially using the thermal mass of a block of metal to soak up the heat and then passively radiate it away through air channels below the screen and for short bursty workloads this isn't a problem that thermal mass is able to contain the short spike in heat output unfortunately when it comes to longer workloads the heat sink well heats up essentially filling up its thermal tank until it's at equilibrium with the CPU with no way to further remove heat the air will reduce its clock speeds and slow itself down so that the heat input matches the heat output and we can see this when we Benchmark these two machines side by side if the Benchmark is relatively short meaning that it doesn't heat soak the cooler both machines perform nearly identically coming within margin of error in terms of performance but when we get to more extended workloads the performance Gap widens significantly let's take a look at how it works here is the CPU and this over here is the heat sink all the heat the CPU generates is transferred into this heat sink and then the only place it can go is radiating around inside the chassis except for one exception it can actually waft this Gap at the back of the machine right here but that ain't much so it stands to reason that if we can improve the ability of the heat sink to get that heat out of the system we could improve the performance of the CPU but besides the low hanging fruit of like slapping a water block on it with like tubes and a radiator hanging off of it and calling it a day what can we do if we don't want to make permanent unwieldy modifications well that I'm glad you asked is where these come in these are thermal pads and they're designed to move heat around this this one is really squishy that is a fat thermal pad anyway all we have to do is slap these bad boys between the heat sink and the bottom of the chassis and we'll turn the back panel which conveniently is made of aluminum which happens to be great for dissipating heat into one big heat sink as it turns out all we need to do to make room for it is take off this insulating sponge right here see you later easy peasy but how does it perform well we already ran the benchmarks and the improvements are nothing short of amazing in bursty loads we saw essentially the same scores within our margin of error but on moderate to Long benchmarks we got a remarkable result up to an 8% Improvement even more impressive is that on the standard length multi-course C bench we actually beat the MacBook Pro by nearly 100 points our Theory here is that the delay between the load being applied and the fans ramping up on the MacBook Pro actually leaves a gap in its performance that the air is able to take advantage of with its beefier heat sink which is the entire chassis of the device there's essentially no delay it just immediately shunts the heat out of the case hence the win but that win comes at a cost a dire cost Comfort because the bottom of our MacBook Air Saw temperatures Rise by 7 1/ 12° to 47° C now if you're an old fogy like me you might actually remember a story circulating back in the early 2000s about a researcher who managed to burn his uh how do you say delicate bits by means of a scalding hot laptop well I'm sorry to say the story is probably bogus because we couldn't find any actual first party reporting on it but nevertheless that is initely a danger so there's got to be some kind of Regulation around that right well yeah lots of them in fact but the most important is the international electrotechnical commission standards the safety standard for information technology equipment AKA laptops is this and it specifies the requirements for products to remain safe during both normal operation and abnormal operation the specs are pretty exhaustive so to keep it simple the limit for metal unco or anodized for normal use contact is 55° C at an ambient temperature of 35° to get this temperature without using a heated chamber we can calculate it by taking the macbook's external temperature subtracting the room temperature then adding 35 so let's do the math our office sits at a ball KN 20° so for our stock macbook's Peak temp of 392 we subtract 20 for the room plus 35 bringing us to 54 1/ 12° that is half a DE below the IEC limit and this right here is exactly the trade-off that Apple's Engineers needed to make for the MacBook Air to operate fanless hats off by the way guys for hitting that Mark exactly doing the same math for our modified version means that we would be 7° over that threshold and that might not seem like a lot but the difference in temperature between threshold pain and maximum pain according to ASM is only 8° so that's from 48 to 56° we do have some leeway here because the numbers that we calculated are at an unreasonable ambient temperature at least for us but in actual use yeah this thing does get uncomfortably hot with the thermal pads like I could do a faster 30-minute blender render on my lap but I wouldn't want to and I'd wager that you wouldn't want to either so where does that leave us well the mod works it brings darn near MacBook Pro level performance to the MacBook Air at a cost of like 50 cents worth of thermal pads but it also comes at the cost of external surface temperatures and obviously we wouldn't warrant your MacBook once you've modified it in this way because we don't know exactly what the long-term effects would be even if we think that they would be minimal for a mod that is completely reversible though and cheap I don't see why you wouldn't do this as long as you use your common sense and uh don't burn your junk this Valentine's Day don't let Nicks and cuts ruin your big day manscape has got you taken care of when it comes to Men's Grooming and hygiene and they created the world's first all-in-one Men's Grooming kit that's got you covered from head to uh well toe we've got their perfect package 3.0 as well as their new refined cologne the perfect package features their awesome lawnmower 3.0 waterproof body trimmer and a whole lot of other goodies as well and their new refined cologne is hypoallergenic and has a super subtle yet enticing woodsy scent that's a perfect compliment to the scent of other manscaped products so don't wait visit manscaped.com or click the link below and enter promo code Tech to get 20% off and free shipping oh my gosh we didn't mention LTT Store.com we've got new underwear don't miss out this is actually oh crap I think I'm wearing the old underwear but the new underwear is really good LTT sp.com"}