I killed my M2 MacBook Air following Linus & Max Tech's advice!

In this video, I checked if the thermal pad hack really works in M2 MacBook and if it fixes the cooling! What unexpected result did I get? Can a MacBook based on the M2 chip in 2022 die because of this life hack with a thermal pad?! How to save your laptop? Recently, the new MacBook M2 went on sale. What is the biggest flaw in them I noticed? What life hacks related to them should not be repeated? What shortens the life of your laptop? Watch this video from start to finish to learn how to save your MacBook in 2022!

#m2macbookair #apple #macbookair

[JackWebb]

The content is good but when the title and description are lies, my reaction is to avoid channels that do that.

[davs]

You say in the video *"I didnt try such temperings with my new M2 MacBook Air"* and Your video title says "I killed my M2 MacBook Air following Linus & Max Tech's advice!". Totally MISLEADING!! Even though the content was informative but..

[martinhoffmann]

Like you, I wondered whether using thermal pads inside the MacBook Air might be bad for other components in the laptop — but unlike you, I didn’t publish a video whose title claims that I ruined an M2 MacBook Air, when I actually didn’t. Shame on you for that.

[MaxTechOfficial]

Great Video! Just saw this after putting out our video testing a laptop cooling stand and a Magsafe cooler which had really good results and helped everything stay cooler than factory! I wish you tested out the M2 Air though, because the results are a lot different than with the M1 Air! 
First off, Apple allows everything to get hotter with the stock M2 Air than with M1 and faster at that. You're right about the batteries needing to not get too hot, and thankfully Apple has full control of that no matter what you do which is why even if you use the thermal mod if the batteries, charging chips, ssd, or chassis get too hot they will slow down the chip to keep them in the proper range. 
In fact, in many of our extended tests (even longer ones than the showed on screen) the hottest point in the system along with the bottom cover never went over 47C which is the same temp that it reaches with the M2 air stock. At first we were surprised by the CPU throttling even if it wasn't running at the full 108C that Apple now allows for the chip instead of 100C for the M1 Air, but it was because the other components were reaching their Max temps like they would with the stock M2 Air. After that, the M2 chip actually ran cooler than factory, and the bottom case was at the same temp as a factory M2.
Using the pads and a cooling fan was really quiet even though we used a thin one, and the whole system ran really cool. Its great for extended workloads especially gaming on an M2 Air which ended up running more consistently than even the M2 Pro as well as running cooler.

Fantastic video production, and ether way like we said in our review, for most its best to just stick to the stock system and enjoy what it is!

[suisinghoraceho]

So you didn’t actually kill your M2?

Jokes aside, it looks like there are some variations on temperature measure of other components when the mod is added. I wonder if there is a tolerance variation and battery of some individual laptops maybe touching the bottom case (which would be a very bad situation).

[stupendousboycttranspor]

good info, but i didn’t see your air killed

[FromDesertTown]

I disagree strongly with the "don't take apart your macbook" advice. That is how you stay dumb and get price gouged by Apple.
Get comfortable with taking apart your laptop apart SAFELY, and enjoy learning where the parts are. Use your incredible mind to come up with SMART modifications that improve performance without causing any long-term damage.

One idea: Buy a new base plate, install a perforated grill into the area around the processor, then use a cooling pad to blow air up through the grill as you use your macbook. That will improve performance and INCREASE the longevity of your hardware. Or course, keep your original base plate so you can put it back on to get any warranty work done through Apple later on.

[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.

[organiccold]

I done that mod to a friends M1Air but i installed heat shield in the batteries due to this. You use the gold tape heath shield used in automotive competition and apply it to the various components around does a huge diference, also cut a grill for air using a laser cuter and applied a filter. Overkill but does the job.

[ukulelewhistler]

Good video! I’m a subscriber. But you didn’t actually kill your M2 MBA like the title says.

[Brandon]

I have done the thermal mod to my M2 MacBook Air and the battery temps have not reached over 37 degrees under stress test in the last 7 days. I think this video may be a little exaggerated. Have a look at the temps in test with thermal pad mod and a laptop cooler!

[MyDreamLife]

The temperature registered lower without the Mod because there is a Gap between the back panel and the CPU and the heat is in fact trapped inside the laptop causing the batteries to heat even more. Once you apply the Mod, the heat is transferred to the back lid causing the internal temperature to drop while increasing the lid temperature. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[iamBede]

Excellent video! There is really no point in getting an MBA and expect it to perform like MBP. Let the laptop work as designed.

[swetea]

Yeah sure when the battery is charging for most safe and effective charge temps should be under 45°c but when it's draining it's perfectly fine for it to even reach up to 60°c

[blitzcrank]

I have thermal pads installed on my m1 air since 1 year now and it's working great. Battery still at 100% and says "normal status". However, when playing metro exodus, it gets super hot, so I would not recommend doing that.

[gilchristdavid]

Didnt linus also say specifically say he wouldnt do it because it heats the case too much

[mozestobi]

I have used an M1 air for software development for about 2 years with thermal pads, I am not saying that I used always all the capabilities of the M1 chip thus the benefits of the pads, but when i had ran some performance intensive tasks which used all the resources of the M1 chip - usually not for long times - that was a huge difference and the air 's battery is now at 80% so that 20% degradation maybe in two years is expected in factory conditions as well.

[АндрейАнтипов-Кормин]

You can make the thermo-mode, and when you need more performance, put the macbook on a laptop stand with fans. Then the lid will be cold, and productivity will not fall. Without heat transfer to the bottom lid by thermal padding, such stands are practically useless for MacBook Air. Because the M1/M2 radiator has no direct contact with the lid, and there are no holes from below for the movement of the cooling air flow inside the MacBook.

[blakeshively]

1. Most lithium batteries have temp sensors. Mac's in particular used to be prone to that kind of shut down in the sun.

2. Where do you think that heat goes when it's not transferred to the lid? It stays in the laptop. Builds up in the empty space and the processor throttles to cool that space. It's still going to do that with more heat being transferred outside the laptop. It just has higher thermal headroom. As the empty space is no longer absorbing as much heat.

3. Air is an insulator it actually doesn't conduct heat well. So the pocket between the battery and the outside of the case could be significantly cooler than the outside of the case. Also, the heat is going to go to the place with the most thermally conductive environment which is going to be the cooler air outside of the laptop, not the internal air.

4. It would be a cool video to do the cooling mat with the thermal pads. That's the case is acting like a giant heat sink and then you're just putting active cooling on it. You could probably even write a script to control the fans on the cooling pad based on the internal temperatures of the MacBook Air.

PS. Thermal pads aren't magic. They're very commonly used, including in a lot of Apple product over the years. They're cheap because they've been around for years and have been used in industrial applications. A lot of times it's how the processors in your cars are cooled.

[NapsterBaaaad]

Video content: Tampering with the thermal engineering of your device could shorten its life, and you should trust that the engineers know what they're doing.

YouTube video title: i kIlLEd mY mACbOoK aIr aLMoST DIeD HaUNtEd GoNE sEXuaL aT 3am