Difficulty
Moderate
Steps
2
Time Required
30 minutes
Sections
1
- How to Reduce MacBook Pro Core Temperature
- 2 steps
Flags
3
Needs More Images
A few more images would make this guide’s procedures crystal clear.
Missed a Step
Oops! This guide is currently missing some important steps.
Member-Contributed Guide
An awesome member of our community made this guide. It is not managed by iFixit staff.
BackMacBook Pro
Full Screen
Options
History
Save to Favorites
Download PDF
Edit
Translate
Get Shareable Link
Embed This Guide
Notify Me of Changes
Stop Notifications
Introduction
This could be particularly beneficial if your MacBook overheats and should be accompanied (if not already done) by a thermal paste change.
The downside: It’s a bodge. But it does seem to work.
What you need
Step 1
Dissassembly
- First off you’ll need to locate a disassembly guide for your machine and follow it carefully to remove the logic board.
- If you haven’t already, this would be a good opportunity to follow a guide for replacing the thermal paste.
First off you’ll need to locate a disassembly guide for your machine and follow it carefully to remove the logic board.
If you haven’t already, this would be a good opportunity to follow a guide for replacing the thermal paste.
1024
Step 2
Thermally bonding the heatsinks
- The aim here is to sandwich thick thermal pads under you MacBook’s heatsinks to contact the upper case, and atop them to contact the bottom cover. This will help conduct heat away from the machine by effectively making the entire unibody one big heatsink.
- On my machine, a mid-2010 15 inch MBP, I needed to use three strips of a 2mm thick thermal pad under the centre heatsink, two strips under the side one and one strip atop each to make contact with the bottom cover.
- Try to use enough layers that the heatsinks are in good contact, but not so many that anything needs to bend to fit back.
The aim here is to sandwich thick thermal pads under you MacBook’s heatsinks to contact the upper case, and atop them to contact the bottom cover. This will help conduct heat away from the machine by effectively making the entire unibody one big heatsink.
On my machine, a mid-2010 15 inch MBP, I needed to use three strips of a 2mm thick thermal pad under the centre heatsink, two strips under the side one and one strip atop each to make contact with the bottom cover.
Try to use enough layers that the heatsinks are in good contact, but not so many that anything needs to bend to fit back.
Now reassemble your MacBook by following the disassembly guide in reverse-order. Always monitor your system’s temperatures before running any heavy applications just in case something went wrong.
Cancel: I did not complete this guide.
14 other people completed this guide.
Author
with 2 other contributors
Dan
Member since: 10/22/2014
2,223 Reputation
3 Guides authored
Badges:
11
+8 more badges
Peter Nemeth - Dec 23, 2018
Reply
This ist crazy.
Went from 55 idle to 30 idle and a top end of 83°c instead of throttling.
(13” retina macbook pro)