Fixing Apple's GOOD Engineering - M1 MacBook Air thermal pads
Why Hacker News recommends it
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.
What it is
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.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2021 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Recommends maximus-decimus · 2021-11 · on “How can MacBooks be so slim compared to others laptops”
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]
Recommends Dalewyn · 2023-03 · on “Fix Intel CPU Throttling on Linux”
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]
Cites GeekyBear · 2022-07 · on “Thermal Pad ‘Mod’ Makes M2 MacBook Air Faster Than 13″ M2 Pro”
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.
Cites derefr · 2022-07 · on “Thermal Pad ‘Mod’ Makes M2 MacBook Air Faster Than 13″ M2 Pro”
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] )
Cites dijit · 2022-07 · on “The new MacBook Air runs so hot that it affects performance”
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]