Fixing Apple's GOOD Engineering - M1 MacBook Air thermal pads
Linus Tech Tips2 HN recommenders · recommended in 2 months, 2021–2023
demo · general · 2021–2023 on HN
Linus Tech Tips opens up an M1 MacBook Air to test whether better thermal pads could improve performance in the fanless design. It looks at what Apple left on the table.
It is linked in laptop thermal threads for a layman's overview of why Apple limits surface temperature and why the mod is not simple.
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5 comments from Hacker News
For a layman's overview of this, Linus from LinusTechTips gives a basic rundown of the relevant safety regulation and some numbers in one of his videos featuring the M1 Macbook Air and its cooling solution.[1] [1]: ▶ this video
Interesting video about how the only reason you even need a fan in the mac book pro is because how hot the shell of a laptop is allowed to get is legislated so you don't burn yourself on it. ▶ this video
LTT Tech literally did a video with an identical thermal pad mod a year and a half ago with the M1 Air. ▶ this video TLDR - Adding the thermal pads wouldn't pass regulatory muster.
To be clear, the real reason Apple don't do this themselves, is because there are legal regulations preventing them from selling products that are any hotter to the touch. According to the IEC, metal contact surfaces on machines are considered unsafe above 55.5C. And unmodded, Apple's notebooks already scrape up against that upper limit. With the mod, they go quite a bit over it — well into "causes pain to touch" territory. (See: ▶ this video )
The same “issue” was present on the M1 air. LTT did a video on it. Same as this article. He didn’t recommend the mod. ▶ this video