Should I change my Thermal Paste?

[Intrs_tanish]

I am a 14 yr old, I have a macbook air 2017 that i bought around 8 months ago, yes, the thermal paste has dried in 8 months only, the thing is that I have been facing issues while even playing Minecraft, temps hit 104 degrees celcius, hence, resulting in thermal throttling and frame drops. I have already build a PC, I am extremely good in technology and hardware, GOOD THING, i already have some MX4 from my last build lying around, only 4 months old, i also have the necessary tools, the torx t5, pentalobe p5 and stuff, I have done this for a couple of dell and asus laptops, along with a few lenovo all in ones (all mine),

 but the thing is, should i do this or no? In video editing also the same, 104 degrees, and yes this is not farenheit, i am damn sure, when it was new, it used to touch 74 degrees celcius at most while playing and editing. Also, the thermal paste has dried so much in a few days after grinding in CSGO and minecraft hypixel that it dosent even cool it self down back after getting heated up even if i set the fast at max throttle! P.S I did grinding on this because I was away from my main PC, now i regret this, PPS. I have already, with bootcamp, installed windows on half the partition, If anyone wants to know my cinebench score CPU: 292 cb, GPU: 35.32 fps, this was the performance when it used to throttle less, now: CPU: 272 cb, GPU: 34.63 fps, but my question, should I do this, I have everything I need, dont tell me dont do it due to the following reasons:

1. You might break it

2. Throw the macbook in hell

And if you have done this, please share your experience and performance/temperature boost

Thanks in advance

My R.I.G: Core i7 4770k, GTX 1050ti, 8gb 1866 mhz ddr3

My Macbook: Core i5 5350U 2.7Ghz, 256 gb, 8gb ddr3 

Edited September 17, 2019 by Intrs_tanish
wrote pentalbl instead of pentalobe

[Lowbuget]

If your sure and have the right equipment and not worried on breaking the laptop,sure why the hell not!

[SpookyCitrus]

It's not super difficult, if you have experiece taking apart PC Laptops and All in Ones and have a video or ifixit guide on how to take it apart as well as the tools to do so, it should be fairly easy for you to do/learn. In my personal opinion Repaste it then only use it for the basic stuff, you should be using your desktop for your gaming and editing to be honest, unless you absolutely need the portability of the macbook.

[Windows7ge]

The only reason I wouldn't is if it invalidates any warranties (I don't know if it will).

 

If it doesn't, and you have the experience to pull it off then I'd say go for it. As far as I've seen the process to opening most MBPs is a pretty easy process and getting to the CPU isn't as hard as it is on a lot of PC laptops so you should have a fairly easy time. There may be a lot of random wires though. You'll want to keep track of those and the screws.

 

The screws often come in varying lengths too so make sure you don't go screwing a long screw where the screw is suppose to be short. May end up killing something and shipping it to Lewis Rossman for repair.

[SolarNova]

A lesson i hope u eventually learn is that Apple products are very anti consumer.

 

Take it to them and they will likely charge u an arm and a kidney to 'repair' it.

 

I would , if i were u, 1 ) not buy apple products ...but 2) if i had it i would indeed spend the time to fix it myself. Replace the TIM.

[brucechow]

I replaced both thermal pasted on 2 2011 and 2013 macbook airs last month. It’s not that hard and I found out that they clog a lot of dust in the fans and filters

 

There are a couple of easy walkthroughs one ifixit  

[Intrs_tanish]

Update on 7 Oct, 2019 

Yes i changed the thermal pasted successfully without breaking anything! God, the T5 and T8 screws were hard to sort out! And yes I did a stress test (Note: The thermal paste hasnt cured till now, it takes around 24-48 hours for it to cure) I used MX-4 from my last project, iFixit guide helps

Temperatures: Minecraft : 75-85 degrees, yes a lot cooler

Cinebench r15 (I didnt try r20): CPU : 82 degrees, 312 cb, OP

GPU: 79 degrees, 36.23 fps

These temperatures are great! Also the cinebench scores have improved by alot (Note: I tried this in windows OS using bootcamp not macOS) I am happy with this! The fan had a lot of dust build up, took a bottle of canned air and done, also dipped it in an alcohol bath! The motor became very smooth! Also, these results are before the thermal paste has reached 100% efficiency! And this is because the thermal throttling has stopped! Also the fans usually dont kick up! I have got a good 30 degrees benefit! I will update after 48 hours after the thermal paste will cure!

[Intrs_tanish]

Yes, sorry its been a while, so i am updating this post, yes the results are almost the same, like only a 1-2 degree improvement after the curing of the thermal paste, so not too much, also the cinebench scores stayed the same, so FINAL experience: The fan of the Macbook is VERY small and inefficient for its powerful CPU, the cooling mechanics ad the thermal paste given by Apple is very bad, I am strongly against apple for providing such unsufficient cooling for such a price, and also the default fan setting is extremely dangerous as it can cause CPU burn in (Its fans turn up at around 100 degrees), so I also made my own configuration, i.e. boost fan to 3750 rpm at 75 degrees, to 5500 at 85 degrees and to 6500 (highest) if above 90. Also, the fan builds up dust VERY fast. So now i regret buy this utterly crappy cooled laptop for 700 dollars, still 85 degrees is still damn hot! Want to game? Or edit videos? Buy a 'gaming' laptop or build a PC like I did for a much lower price tag than my Macbook Air. Want to just browse the Internet and watch some Youtube Videos, this MacBook Air can serve you for life without hiccups! And I also upgraded my R.I.G, Yay, now i added the 8 gb ram with a new 8gb! Making it 16 gb, now I can easily record Fornite Videos!

[DoctorNick]

2 hours ago, Intrs_tanish said:

Yes, sorry its been a while, so i am updating this post, yes the results are almost the same, like only a 1-2 degree improvement after the curing of the thermal paste, so not too much, also the cinebench scores stayed the same, so FINAL experience: The fan of the Macbook is VERY small and inefficient for its powerful CPU, the cooling mechanics ad the thermal paste given by Apple is very bad, I am strongly against apple for providing such unsufficient cooling for such a price, and also the default fan setting is extremely dangerous as it can cause CPU burn in (Its fans turn up at around 100 degrees), so I also made my own configuration, i.e. boost fan to 3750 rpm at 75 degrees, to 5500 at 85 degrees and to 6500 (highest) if above 90. Also, the fan builds up dust VERY fast. So now i regret buy this utterly crappy cooled laptop for 700 dollars, still 85 degrees is still damn hot! Want to game? Or edit videos? Buy a 'gaming' laptop or build a PC like I did for a much lower price tag than my Macbook Air. Want to just browse the Internet and watch some Youtube Videos, this MacBook Air can serve you for life without hiccups! And I also upgraded my R.I.G, Yay, now i added the 8 gb ram with a new 8gb! Making it 16 gb, now I can easily record Fornite Videos!

Good job! Maybe consider selling the thing? You should be able to use the money for some other laptop.