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The 2022 MacBook Air just came out last week. It has a brand new look and Apple’s latest M2 chip. And even though M2 is faster than M1 and still works well, the MacBook Air doesn’t have an internal fan, which can cause the laptop to get very hot when it’s doing a lot of work. But there is a cheap mod that can improve the M2 MacBook Air’s performance in the long run.
YouTuber Max Tech has already posted multiple videos showing the inside of the 2022 MacBook Air. He decided to try a cheap mod on his laptop to see if it would make it run faster. Even though Apple Silicon chips can work well without a sophisticated cooling system, they still get very hot depending on what the user is doing.
And iFixit has already shown that the new M2 MacBook Air only uses thermal paste and graphite tape to get rid of heat from its internal parts. So Max Tech has found a “solution” to help the new MacBook get rid of heat better.
A $15 thermal pad will help you do better.
Max took off the bottom cover of his laptop, as seen in one of his most recent videos, so he could put a $15 thermal pad above the logic board, where the M2 chip is. The heat from the chip and logic board can quickly move from the thermal pad to the surface of the MacBook. As a result, the Mac should run even cooler, which should make it run better for longer.
It turns out that it does work. In one of his tests, the YouTuber used Adobe Lightroom to send out 50 images that were each 42 megapixels. This task took 2 minutes and 55 seconds on the laptop that hadn’t been changed, but only 1 minute and 56 seconds on the MacBook with the thermal pad.
Benchmark tests also showed that the modified M2 MacBook Air did better, which shows that the better cooling system helps the machine run faster. When running heavy tasks for four to five minutes, the original MacBook starts to lose performance, but it takes the modified laptop almost 10 minutes to lose performance because of the temperature inside.
During the tests, the M2 MacBook Air that hadn’t been changed got as hot as 108°C, while the modified MacBook got as hot as 97°C.
Should people who own an M2 MacBook Air be worried?
In fact, no. As we’ve already said, these scenarios take into account a lot of work over a long period of time. This probably won’t be a problem for you if you don’t plan to do things like render long, high-resolution videos every day.
The M2 chip is fast enough to run most tasks, like web browsing, streaming, and even simple photo and video editing, without the need for thermal throttling. Thermal throttling is the process of slowing down the processor speed to keep the components from overheating. Also, if you change anything on your MacBook, Apple’s 1-year warranty will be void.
Even so, it’s still interesting to see that a better way to cool the computer makes it work better. Apple sells the M2 MacBook Pro, which doesn’t come as a surprise, with an internal fan for better performance that lasts longer. If you had an M2 MacBook Air, would you add a thermal pad to it? Tell us in the comments section below.
In the United States, the new MacBook Air starts at $1,199.
Check out Amazon to see if they have any deals on MacBooks. Here is also where you can buy thermal pads for your laptop.
