Macbook Pro 16'' 2019 - Official Guide To Applying Liquid Metal

DISCLAIMER: This mod is NOT officially supported on the Macbook Pro 2019 16'', YOU assume all the risk and liability by attempting this repaste/mod on your own laptop. This thread was created merely to guide people on how to repaste/mod their 16'' Macbooks!

If you have never used liquid metal before it is advised that you read up on it, it is a conductive liquid, so if it is accidentally spilt on any components, motherboard etc, it MUST be cleaned completely before turning on the laptop!

Things you will need:

Liquid Metal - preferably thermal grizzly conductonaut.

Some sort of earbud to apply the liquid metal with.

Some sort of tape, Kapton tape is advised. Although adhesive tape will work fine which is what I used. You can alternatively use some form of conformal coating which can be found on ebay or amazon.

This shouldn't affect warranty as Apple does NOT disassemble these machines due to the convoluted assembly process.

Disassembly & Application of LM​

You will need to disassemble the laptop almost entirely to take the heatsink off. Apple ingeniously thought it was a good idea to place the heatsink screws on the other side of the motherboard!

First you'll want to use a Pentalobe 1.2 Screwdriver to open the bottom screws securing the macbook pro lid. Once you have done that you will need to lift the bottom lid at a 20 degree angle, this can be done from using a spudger on either-side of the airflow grills. Now you need to pull the lid towards yourself, this may require a bit of strength lol. Once you see the lid move down and hear a click you can lift the lid.
Do NOT lift the lid too much when its latched at the top otherwise you will dent the top of the bottom base and bend the bottom cover!



Now you should be looking at the internals, aside from the massive battery and big woofers there are a countless number of screws you need to unscrew before you can even think of taking the motherboard out! Luckily I have circled them all to make it easier for you, please organise these screws, most of them vary in length and size:




So now that you've successfully removed 30+ screws you need to remove all the ribbon cables and for some reason there is quite a few of them. Now would be a good time for a break, lol. I've circled the ribbon connectors that need taking out and I've labelled them to make it easier for you. Please be very careful with the battery connector. One side is soldered directly to the motherboard, I almost ripped mine upon removal!:




Who would have thought! 19 ribbon cables, Apple this isn't a phone its a laptop, please design it that way! Now that you have all the ribbon cables safely disconnected you can finally remove the motherboard. What I did was bend each ribbon cable off the motherboard so that I could just lift it out, like so:




Now you can finally access the screws behind the motherboard lol. 2 hours+ of work just to remove a heatsink! Great job Apple!
I have highlighted the screws that will need removing. Note that the cpu and gpu brackets come off, these apply direct pressure to the heatsink, the screws under the gpu-side sticker have been highlighted:





You should now should now be able to remove the heatsink. I lifted and turned the heatsink ever so slightly to remove it. If you try lifting it directly you may bend it, bare in mind this heatsink is very thin!
You will now end up seeing the worst thermal paste application possible:




Now you can clean up that gunk until you end up with very clean/shiny surfaces:




If you are using metal paste you will need to cover the capacitors next to the AMD GPU die, this is so that you don't short out the GPU with liquid metal!
With the liquid metal applied and the capacitors covered your motherboard and heatsink should look something like this:




That's it! You can now assemble the laptop back together. Remember to plug in all the ribbon cables and put the screws in the correct places!


My idle temperatures went from 70c down to 50c after applying the liquid metal. On load the CPU can utilise around 65-70w compared to the 50w before LM. Unfortunately, the laptop still thermally throttles due to the heatsink being saturated by the insane heat the CPU gives out. When the fans kick in my 9880H levels out at around 3.3-3.4GHz, a big improvement from the measly all core 3GHz it was spitting out before. Multi-core scores have gone by around 20% even with the thermal constraint.

Is it worth it? For multi-core loads, such as rendering and virtual machines it most definitely is.
However, for gaming and light loads you should forget about it. There is not much point.

I hope you enjoyed this detailed guide!

 

I have pretty much gone broke after buying this laptop, to support me please donate so I can keep doing the mods that I do best : http://paypal.me/ZeeshanAkhlaq


@Papusan @Spartan @Mr. Fox and other's that I can't think off please enjoy this thread!!

 

Hi Bro. Useful thread to the extent that the teardown guide gives me even more reasons to hate Apple than I had before I read the OP and viewed the images. Nice job on it.

But, I am really curious why you even purchased this in the first place. It's clearly severely overpriced and poorly made (speaking of the overall engineering abortion that it is, but not the excellent materials it is constructed of and chassis fit/finish quality) and offers poor value overall. What were you thinking, bro?

The bottom cover really needs some ventilation grilles over the fan intakes. Those are choked off even worse than the fans were on the Tornado F5. That might knock another 15+ °C off the temps if the fans could actually breathe a little bit.

 

I would've donated in a heartbeat if I had any money but I am broke beyond belief as I bought this laptop and then lost my job a week later! Just PERFECT heh? Once I get my replacement laptop from Apple I might sell it if I get a good price although it's not an easy sale due to how expensive it is.

 

Did the new model need to be replaced, or is it the newer system has not been received yet? Seems like a long time ago if you are still waiting for delivery of the newer model.

Edit: Nevermind. I stumbled onto the answer in another thread.

 

Why would you need to do this ? It already has the best thermal engineering ever.

 

I love sarcasm. My favorite type of humor.

 

Well my friend you get that in spades with me.

 

I think we're similar in that respect. I also love hyperbole. (Which might be obvious to anyone paying attention.)

That is not thermal paste. It is a proprietary blend of magic pixie poop. It makes it special. And, you removed it.

 

it’s actually created from a special blend of fanboy drool and Apple kool aid. Just keeps drawing them in like subliminal messaging. He was right in removing it. Now, he has broken the cycle so he can ditch it for a superior computer.

 

19 ribbon cables? Holy Bantha Fuddo! No wonder these things break.

In all seriousness this honestly makes this look a lot less intimidating than when Linustechtips did it for the last gen model. Still don’t think I’d ever recommend anyone other than power users that are used to taking laptops apart even bother doing this.

 

Indeed. I have even less respect for them after seeing the inside of that thing. It really proves that looks can be deceiving. The outside is the epitome of plain and simple. On the inside it is an absolute mess. Kind of reminds me of some people I know. As they say, "Beauty is only skin deep."

 

With liquid metal how does it compare to my hackintosh N970TF w/i9-9900? In theory it ought to be pretty close if the AMD GPU is not active and the thermal issues are fixed.

 

I am going out a not so large limb and saying that your hackintosh will kill it, pasted or not.

 

Yeah your CPU crushes this MacBooks 9880h. It isn’t even a comparison, I get around 3400 - 3450 on cinebench. Multi-core performance is relative to a Ryzen 7 1700x.

My old HP Omen 2019 would compete with that score, with the same CPU, getting 3900 - 4000! Shows you how much Apple gimp their cpus

 

Very much off topic, but just to verify, did you mean Bantha PooDoo (as in Huttese)?? :LOL:

 

Possibly? They say it in starwars a few times so I was saying it as a way to say to not say something nasty on the forums.

 

Gotcha... Probably along these lines (1st sentence) https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Bantha_fodder

 

Aaahh. Then yes. Lol

 

I don't quite get how this laptop being a pain in the ass to mod makes it poorly made?

Severely overpriced? Something I never understood is seemingly smart people being completely and utterly unable to understand that what they want and value in a product isn't what others might want. If you want the absolute best performances a laptop can provide you obviously don't get this laptop. If you want a fairly powerful but very thin/light laptop with a good accurate screen, very good battery life, in a package that can conveniently be charged with USB-C and all of this with best in class build quality, this laptop is the only one that fits the bill and its price is just fine.

I've had everything from XPS 15s, Blade 15s, Aero 15x, Clevos... and I never mindlessly bashed another product because it doesn't fit my needs / I don't like a brand. I'm not 13 anymore.

 

Poorly made is in reference to the engineering (or lack thereof) including hideous thermal management (actually a lack thereof) and the performance impairment that is a direct result of that. The materials are top notch, and some of the other things you listed are features that some will appreciate and find compelling. Paying a high price for a premium product makes good sense. Paying a price premium for something that overheats and thermal throttles doesn't seem like it rises to the same level of intelligence. That's not an Apple-exclusive problem either. It is merely one of the examples. It is an issue that many, if not most, notebooks are cursed with, and many of them are overpriced.

 

These thin & light laptops are compromises. A compromise between mobility and performance. You are basically arguing against the laws of physics claiming the thermal issues of these laptops are on engineering as if they could make mass produced laptops just as thin/light without thermal constraints. No, the top tier engineers with top tier education working at Apple are not dumb, designing these laptops is a balancing act. If you value mobility as much as you value performances that compromise is a very sensible choice, sacrificing 10-20% of a CPU's theoretical absolute max performance so you get something twice as portable is a fine compromise (theoretical example). This is once again where I just don't get the inability to see beyond one's needs.

It's like you see what I'm writing but refuse to understand it. You value performances above all else and would seemingly sacrifice mobility and other features in a heartbeat for more of it. That's great, more power to you. But can't you understand that some people value mobility and other things just as they value performances? You hyper focus on a CPU not maintaining its max boost clock and write off the entire machine. Can't you see how you're completely missing the point of these machines? For someone who understands that performance and mobility is a balancing act and as of today require compromises, how exactly are these laptops overpriced? They are best in class in their category (thin/light high perf laptops), with not only good mobility but for some of them the best build quality you can find on the market and other added features.

How hard is it to understand that what you need isn't necessarily what the world needs? If you had no choice but to buy MacBooks or XPS 15s I'd understand, but there is plenty of choice for the "performance above all else" crowd and cheaper thin & light laptops for those who don't want to pay for the bells and whistles.

 

No there is almost nothing whatsoever. Therein lies the issue. The options that you can count on one hand that are pitched as the fit for that niche are basically trash, too. Only one or two even qualify as a near miss.

 

Something I've found very helpful is applying thermal pads to the heatpipe itself, it conducting heat to the bottom of the chassis when benching gives you much more headroom, as well it being cooler for general usage. I don't use my MBP on my laptop at all so I don't mind the increased bottom temp.

Also https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/42946114
Not bad for a old girl eh?

 

Yeah, this is a version of an old trick for Macbooks where you can also apply thermal pads.

Heatsink-Thermal Pads-Case.

I have a post somewhere in here where I mention the trifecta (LM, HS->TP->Case) and cutting fan outlets on the bottom to maximize cooling.

Anything to cool 'em down.

Found it:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2018-macbook-pro-cooling-mod.2147106/

 

Thats you? Thats actually where I got my inspiration from lol, the comments in that thread are a little "interesting" if you ask me

 

No, that's not me. That was one of the original threads I stumbled upon when I had mentioned a thermal pad interface between the heatsink and case due to the close proximity here in the forums some time back. I can't take credit for the initial idea.

I know there was a web page someone had dedicated to a full mod build out with the LM, TPs and fan cut outs and the results were excellent.

If I picked up a 16" Macbook, I'd hunt down a replacement bottom and do the thermal pad mod with cut outs.

Best bet would be to hunt down or construct fan guards that are convex in shape so they act as protection and rear elevation all in one.

Maybe @DaMafiaGamer wants to extend his LM job and mod the bottom along with thermal pads so the heatsink won't soak as quick.