Making my M3 MacBook Air FASTER than M3 14' Pro!

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(I used two in the video, but one would be ok. I suggest 1.0mm for Airs)

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[lilyflower]

Has anyone noticed that the cooling dock is $279? This is not a cheap solution!

[TokyoNeko]

Damn this cooler is $250+. Might as well get Macbook Pro since that will close the gap on the price difference for 16GB/512GB.

[CharlesBarros]

I'm a game developer who regularly works on large projects that demand both the GPU for testing the game in simulators and the CPU to build projects in Unity, Xcode, and Android Studio. My MacBook Air M3 was suffering a lot due to throttling, often reaching more than 95 degrees Celsius. This modification made my top temperature go down to 86 degrees Celsius. The MacBook is running approximately 11 degrees Celsius cooler on average. The batteries never reached more than 41 degrees Celsius in the worst-case scenario. I totally agree that this modification is not something you should consider if you are not a heavy user. But if you do use heavy tasks like video encoding, game development, or building projects, you will get way more out of your hardware by doing it. Additionally, it cools down much faster when I finish heavy tasks. It used to take forever to bring it below 80 degrees Celsius; now it's almost instantaneous. Thanks for the tip. I just used only one thermal pad as recomended in the video description. Thanks for the video.

[dolph]

I put a magnet on my the side of the palm rest, the Mac thinks it's closed, so it cools down better.

[Rowrin]

You can make one of these for like $25. Get yourself an old intel pentium CPU heat sink. These are basically just machined blocks of aluminum with fins. If you want a fan, you have the extra bonus of these being able to mount fans directly on them. Otherwise you can go completely fanless, or even get something like a Dell Dimension heat sink (used in fanless systems) which is literally just a machined block of aluminum. $10 plus shipping.

Grab yourself an extra thermal pad to put between it and the mac book air. $10-15.

Place thermal pad on aluminum heatsink. Place macbook on top of thermal pad. Elevate macbook with something so that it rests level with cooling block. Success.

[accesswireless]

This is exactly what I did before i watched this video, add the thermal pads to my M2 Macbook Air. However, there was a concern about battery health because now the entire lower case of the macbook air gets warm from the thermal transfer, and the case will warm up the macbook air battery. Any temperature above 53 Celcius is bad for the battery. My solution was to tape the inside of the macbook air back cover with thermal protective film so that the cover does not transfer the heat back to the battery locations. I managed to keep the battery temperature at or lower than 53 celcius, while still keeping the benefits of the thermal pads. I also put my m2 macbook air on top of a laptop cooler that uses a fan to cool the macbook air, thus achieving what this video also achieved.

[hs_random]

To most of the average users, if you only need M2/M3 Air for study, browsing, watching content and other stuff not involving heavy load on graphics, which majority% people will do, you won’t need to worry about thermals.

I use my M3 Air for music production too with studying and all other normal stuff, haven’t faced issues.

[syk]

the SVALT Cooling block alone is US$280!!!! not including fan, not inculding thermal pads, might as well spend the money to upgrade to 14inch pro, which hv better sound better screen better everything, so this video is not objective

[amagneto]

Great video! I got MBA M3 24GB 1TB Midnight, my first Mac. In this configuration is faster than my desktop (i9 9900k), this should be more than enough for a such slim/compact machine. I like the thermal pads idea. Thanks.

[jusbefrank]

I honestly think you guys won the silicon lottery with the m3 air, because even with bursty tasks it was faster than the pro of the same spec

[TheoST]

So let me get this straight:
1. Get a 1300€ MacBook Air M3
2. Get a cooling block that costs 300€(not even premium liquid coolers cost that much btw. Let’s not talk about a piece of metal)
3. Void the warranty on a brand new machine to install thermal pads
4. Not run a single test to see temps on other components of the MacBook that may get affected by the installation of the thermal pads such as battery that has a pretty low operating temperature as you came to realise after the same thing you did back with the m2 MacBook Air (and you still suggest the same thing)
All these and you sound pretty excited about the results as it is the best choice for someone that wants a stable machine. I might as well get my 2018 desktop and oc it with liquid nitrogen that will surely boost its performance. Not all options are viable you should know that

[gabrielecarbone]

been doing this also to non-fanless macbooks for years to improve thermals and then performance dramatically

[bushgreen]

*Why doesn't Apple add the thermal pads as standard?*

[spencerlorrigan]

Thats actually awesome that you can have a thin, light fanless Macbook Air on the go, dock it on a heatsink ater installing thermal pads at home, and have it faster than a MacBook Pro. Love it!

[JM-krbi]

I haven’t seen a single reviewer call out some of the limitations on the M3 Air’s inability to push certain resolutions. The scaling options on a 5k display are far inferior to what’s offered by the MBP and not one person has mentioned it in a review

[breinarddocs]

I'd like to see a video that's also comparing the 24gb RAM model too, I haven't seen such yet

[renaudg]

You forgot to mention : $279 for Svalt's cooling dock. Might as well upgrade to the MBP really

[gigihanmandarin]

PSA: Use 1.0mm thermal pads. 1.5 imm is almost too thick, It makes screwing back the lid very difficult and almost buldges the bottom of the MBA.

[romanmenyhart]

I love videos like this, thanks!! When I encoded an hour long video on my M2 iPad the other day, I placed it on a metal pan to help with the heat. Worked like a charm!

[seppfirenze]

May I have a question? I saw you used 1.5mm thermal pad. Why do you suggest 1.0mm?