13" MacBook Pro 2010 Thermal Paste Swap

I decided to swap the thermal paste on my 13" MacBook Pro (mid 2010, 2.4 GHz Core2 Duo, NVIDIA 320m) since it was running a bit warm. The MBPs have always been notorious for running hot, and I have extensive experience swapping thermal paste on laptops (have done it with all the rigs in my sig). I figured I'd take a few photos and post them as a resource for anyone else interested in taking the plunge.

I used the awesome guide at ifixit.com for general disassembly. The thermal paste I used was Arctic Cooling MX-4. I have good experience with MX-4 and have had great results.

I don't have too many numbers just yet, but I can definitely see an improvement in heat and cooling. The unit used to idle around 50 C, now it hovers around 45ish C, a little lower sometimes. I also notice that the fans do a better job at cooling while under load and come on faster.

So, onto the pictures!

First, some shots of the stock thermal paste:




Apple really did a crap job on that! Now, after cleaning up the chips and heatsink with some isopropyl and Q-tips, I applied a VERY thin layer of the MX-4 and spread it with my spudger, getting it nice and thin. The key is to have it thin so that it just fills in the micro gaps on the copper heatsink.




(Note: I did thin out the paste a bit after taking the pictures, because it looked a bit too thick. This stuff is like mortar on bricks. The phrase that pays is "thin to win!")


So, that's about it. If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them as best as I can.

 

So you basically put the thermal pasted on those silver squares? I guess it helps with the temperature on the palmrest, as I guess it acts like a buffer would in a solution.

Opening the bottom up is no big deal, but this seems that I would have to completely take apart my Mac. I have a 2011 but I don't think there was a drastic change in design of the nuts & bolts in one year.

 

The silver squares are the GPU & CPU dies, and you only put the thermal paste on them. There are several methods of applying heat paste; I prefer the spreading method (as shown above).

As for the dismantling process, it was fairly straightforward, but I wouldn't recommend it for novices, since there are lots of small wires and connectors. You have to be really careful not to break any of them.

 

yes the dismantling part hasnt change much, you could watcha video on youtube, but its not a thing for the faint hearted

 

Could you tell us the before/after temperatures? I've wanted to reapply some thermal compound to my 2010 MBP 13" as well, but I don't have a Y-wing screwdriver.

 

After using my MBP for a day, I can definitely say that the temps are several degrees lower, especially idle. Before, I idled at around 50 C. After, I'm down to ~45, sometimes lower. Under load, the unit still goes up to around 80 C, but the fans come on quicker and bring the temps under control quicker than with stock thermal paste.

The big reason I did this was to alleviate some of the cooling issues under Windows 7, especially with running games, as I overclock the 320M IGP (right in the NVIDIA control panel). Before, the keyboard would get uncomfortably hot, but with the new paste, it is more tolerable than before.

 

Nice work!

Is the CPU and GPU the exact same height on the 2010 13"MBP? On some portables they differ just ever so slightly, and you have to fill the gap on the lower one with a thicker layer of thermal paste or a copper shim.

Do you have any temps after gaming in Windows? Would be most greatfull for that

 

As far as I could tell, the CPU & GPU dies were the same height. The heatsink was even on both copper pads.

On my next boot I'll get some temps in Windows and post them, with and without overclocks. I have a profile set up in the NVIDIA control panel that ramps up the clocks on the IGP only when certain games are running (Steam, L4D2, TF2, SC2, etc) and clocks it down to stock frequencies when not running.