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

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

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..

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.

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!

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.

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).

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

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

First off, it’s pronounced “Lie-nus,” not “linnus.” Secondly, you said M1 MacBook Air users were “grim” until Linus released a fix? What? Basically nobody noticed any performance problems whatsoever because most people who use a MacBook Air don’t even stress it at all.

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. RU-vid video title: i kIlLEd mY mACbOoK aIr aLMoST DIeD HaUNtEd GoNE sEXuaL aT 3am

I can confirm that Linus and Max Tech's advise was perfect and there is nothing worth watching in this 9 minute long video. I have used the modded M1 macbook air for 2 years straight with running iOS builds with no problems on the battery end whatsoever so yea.. nothing is wrong with that. The laptop cooling pads don't work because the bottom of the laptop is not even directly connected with the heat sink. So NO! cooling pads won't work.

04:49 "the lithium polymer battery can withstand up to 46°C" Adelaide, South Australia January 24, 2019 maximum ambient temperature that day, 48°C. And yet there's still an Apple store and Apple still sells their laptops there.

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.

i've never really had problems with throttling on my m1 air and i can't say i've ever even felt it get very warm. However it sounds to me that people might be expecting a bit more from the macbook airs than what is reasonable to expect from a thin and light with passive cooling. also if i recall correctly the throttling wasn't even all that bad in the benchmarks especially compared to other thin and light laptops that throttle just as much or even more while also having fans blaring. Sounds more to me like people bought the wrong type of laptop for their use case, and were disappointed when that laptop was in fact the wrong laptop for their use case.

Meh. Unnecessary fear mongering. My M1 has been modded for more than a year now with no repercussions. I’m not the only one either. Just check the macrumours forum where this mod originated. A year later and my M1 is still at 100% battery capacity.

Been runing my m1 MBA with thermal pad mod for 2 years. Playing Dota 2 everyday for a few hours, and everything is working fine. Battery health is 86% at 300 cycles. Not sure it's still normal, time will tell.

Wrong, guides saying Safe usage and storage temperature for the lithium battery of almost any modern equipment is 20°C to 60°C (-4°F to 140°F). Eventualy this makes a content a noncence

Canceled my M2 air with 16gb ram and 512ssd. Best buy has the 14'' Macbook Pro $300 off.

well, he is clickbaiting using big youtubers name don't care about the message, scam is a scam no broken m2

Yeah this title is why I’m not going to tell RU-vid I’m not interested

It's was never advice. They both state to not do this (Max does, and I'm sure Linus does too)

so much fearmongering about 5°c higher temps XD

dude make a 9:30 min video with a 1:30 min worth of informations. gotta love the algorithm driven content

How about sticking the thermal pads and laying a thin insulator over the batteries to shield it from the heat now spreading over the entire bottom lid of the machine?

I know this may sound crazy.. but… what if… you place thermal pads on cpu and heat sinks and, you place thermal insulation adhesives on batteries?

“I don’t want to put down any channel or creator…” ..You just want to use their name in your misleading title.

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.

Well then just put a isolation sticker between the lid and batteries LOL

why don’t you buy a MacBook Pro for the better performance? Why did this to MacBook Air hoping for the performance?

The thermal pad hack is a neat trick that works. The problem is that tech reviewers are doing this on throwaway laptops, because nothing gets used regularly for more than a year. The typical viewer who is trying to save money by buying an MB Air for professional use as their only system may not be in that same "I buy and use a new laptop every product refresh cycle" category as they guy who buys and reviews products for a living. In fact, they probably aren't. Kudos for being the ONLY tech reviewer to point out the trade off cost of the hack.

So where is the dead M2 Air?

all macbooks should have air exhaust ports on the bottom case to let some heat escape

Love the audio of your voice its strong can hear from lowest volume thank you!

99% of users arent "Stressing" their laptops, therefore don't care about all of this.

The masses are always misinterpreting these creators. These DIY projects are purely for fun and experiments, but the audience draw the conclusion that an M1 or M2 MacBook Air cannot function without these quirks. These laptops still provide great performances on their own and people can still use them for their workflows.

Clickbaited again... Also, lithium ion batteries can be safely discharged at 60 degrees celsius. Yes high temperatures effect battery longevity. No, small temperature spikes are perfectly safe at 45 degrees c and wont affect longevity. Not trying to be mean, but I hate it when some rando youtuber teaches me about a problem that doesn't exist, makes a promise of fixing said problem, then 5 minutes in we see the 'danger', only for it to be a complete non issue. Also, love the glasses.

What the hell! your entire video could have been 3 minutes if you reduce verbosity and not beating around the bush. Too wordy!

OK so this isn't exactly correct. Apple could not use a thermal pad as there are laws about heat from a mobile computer. The bottom of the case can't go over a certain temperature,

Linus tech tips hasn't made a video about the m2 MBA...

Good video. I think the bottom line is that Apple engineers designed the M2 Air to work a certain way for a certain group of intended users based on a certain price point. If you try and mess with the engineering and try to alter that formula to make it work like a Pro on the cheap, you are bound to cause trouble. If you want more in a computer, reach down into your pocket and find the money for a MacBook Pro or other more powerful computer.

Dude is saying that heating a back panel will degrade the battery but trapping heat inside the lid won’t ? Lol

what is the reference for lithium polymer batteries degrading after 46deg during discharge? Almost every battery manufacturer states lithium polymer can safely discharge up to 60deg celsius before degrading, well within the mod limits. I would be interested to see where this information came from?

how did you kill you m2 macbook air after you firstly returned it to apple? You did a video saying you returned it before this. Right??? Right?

@5:24 that overlay of the internals on top of the casing really looks awesome! I’d love to see a translucent case on a MacBook!

Apple calls a piece of aluminum foil a "heatsink". 😂😂😂😂

I saw someone do a "life hack" on their asus zephyrus g14 in which you put a small piece of paper between the trackpad and the battery, in order to make the trackpad quieter. And it works! Only time will tell if this affects the trackpad's usefulness.

Jesus, could you make this video any longer? It could easily be half the length and not loose anything of value.

Gentleman discusses about MBA thermal issues and throttling. Meanwhile casually keeping the machine on soft furniture... *FP*

If you buy it, it's yours. You can do whatever you want with it. If you want to disassemble it, you have the right to do it. I have an M1 MacBook Pro and I love it. I've disassembled it multiple times. Not only for internal cleaning but also to see the internals. I'm an electrical engineer and I like to see what makes my computer tick.

I still think the Thermal pad is way better because it lets the dust stay outside then I can change the cooling stand when I want.

In car industry user accessible metal surface is considered to fail temperature test, if its temperature is measured higher than +45 °C, when ambient temperature is +20 °C. I think the same applies to consumer electronics. Have being run these tests muself, I can say, that +45 °C feels extremely uncomfortable.

why lie? just put "how their tech advice COULD kill your MacBook". from the 80k views to 3k likes, im guessing your got dislike ratio'd hard

Nice video, but where did you get the info about the temperature of li-ion battery? I've seen around the internet that the working temperature is up to 55 degrees.

A custom bottom plate with thermally isolated sections could solve the problem with the battery.

I’ve been using the thermal pad mod for over a year on my M1 Air and even though the top battery gets hot up to 50c during heavy renders, i havent had any issue yet. The battery health is at 91%

I love my M1 MacBook Air even more.

So you didn't actually kill the computer, and you are recomending NOT using the pads but using a fan that will cool a lid that is thermally isolated by air (remember, one of the best isolators out there) from the rest of components. A much better use of this video would've been some actual solutions, as you can shield heat from components with, for example, gold tape (used in automotive aplications), but i guess that was too much testing to do. First time seeing this channel as well, so i guess that stirring some drama for the algorithm worked.

Idk if that counts as advice Since it's risking it's warranty And these ppl assume you would buy a cooling pad anyway or a metal stand

hear me out, what about a actual new bottom for the laptop, probably slightly bigger than the original and with fans?

Did you really do it, putting thermal pads on your macbook air? Timestamp 8:53 Unless you lied? 🤔

having enthusiast level tech channels reviewing a mainstream laptop is like a F1 driver reviewing a toyota corolla. "Its too slow" is not a good review of it.

M1 Air thermal mod has been here for quite a long time - why not to do some real research/statistics from people using it for a long time instead of "what might theoretically happen in a system that's built to manage cumulated heat anyway"?

You can not get rid of throttling in the macbook. Because the maximum power limit is hard coded. Those CPU's are intentionally underpowered.

Excellent video, I thought Linus mentioned something about the heat on your lap and batteries but perhaps not. Regardless this is an excellent video that everyone should watch. Those mods are great for benchmarks but in reality I would always encourage people to buy the tool they need for their job. If you want pro performance, get a pro. If you want an amazing system you can take everywhere and will do most tasks with speed and ease... get an Air.

this is misleading. mod or unmodded, heat will eventually spread on other components. you didn't even bother to measure the heat on unmodded one and make a comparison to it which makes it more sus.

I confess it did not occur to me about the battery....thanks for the efforts you made.

What you said that Apple won't accept your laptop with a sticked thermal pad is not quite right: I returned my M1 laptop with failed screen and Apple replace it despite having that thermal pad in it (they didn't touch it).

Batteries will be fine when used for the more common use cases imo. They are insulated and slightly air-gapped from the chassis. For small bursts of usage this wont degrade anything. I'd be more concerned about the M1 / M2 chips heating up excessively when performing small burst tasks because they have no place to sink the heat into. I'd trade the CPU bursting to only 85-90 degrees over 95-100 degrees for quick 5 minute tasks as these high heating and cooling cycles put more stress on the smaller individual components in and around the CPU. These short bursts ideally shouldn't last long enough to saturate the chassis, and should be seen more as using the chassis as extra thermal headroom to prevent excessive wear to the CPU, rather than a way to outperform an M1/M2 Pro in an Air form-factor.

I actually bought the base model MacBook air m2. I upgraded from MacBook air 2018(i5 intel). This MacBook is amazing so far, I have played cs:go at low settings and it has not throttled but it does get warm, warm not hot) if you are doing light editing, gaming, This MacBook is great.

"I don't mean to criticize any particular creator or RU-vidr" "I killed my M2 MackBook Air following Linus and Max Tech's advice!"🤔

I thought about the problem in the past and now I get an awnser. Thanks

The test is not thorough enough to conclude this My 2016 15” MBP battery will always reach higher temperature than this mod would, Yet its still in the range of normal battery degradation You should test 2 identical MBAs with and without the mod and see if there’s different battery lifetime and lifespan to reach to your level of conclusion

Add thermal pad and down power mac(if its allowed, like undervolting and restrict power limit) to get more life and Performance :)

Great advice for average Josephine. No need to kill your gorgeous new laptop for a benchmark. The 16MB M1 or M2 Air is already a complete beast, I’m recommending our work replace our faulty $3K Intel MBPs with it for 90% of devs.

I would like to see M4 Macs using 100% Liquid Metal thermal paste in addition to graphene pads, vapor chamber

thermal pad plus drill a rectangular hole at the back to at least hot air to flow.

this mod works great on the 2020 intel mba, 30-40 % performance increase. it also helps that the intel mba has a fan inside.

“Life was grim for m1 MacBook Air owners” Broski I live in Australia and even in direct summer sun the machine doesn’t overheat unless you’re going difficult work like video editing

I came here to see a dead M2 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lies ! Deception !! , Very Nice production tho 🙂

I really worry about this but... We paid $1000 for a perfect thin efficient laptop, we can pay the half for a cheap gaming tower and melt it if we like

I can't help to think that this was a purposefully intended video for just views. Like how can put 0 thought into any of the possible risks involved.

What about using thermal glue to add an SSD heatsink to the bottom where the sticker would be? I know, not "aesthetic" but we're not talking about that here.

So then, here's the real thermal mod for the M2 Macbook Air. The rectangular area needs to be completely cut out, then replaced with another material. I would opt for a rectangle edged with an insulating plastic, with the middle being made of copper. An alternative design might involve the rectangle being traced out with a perforated outline of holes, which could then be filled in with plastic or epoxy. A super stealth implementation could involve just engraving interrupted grooves around the outline, on the inside of the cover, which could then be filled in with an insulating material, then painted over in a way making it hard to detect.

Update: 3 years and no issues. This dude is still a clown.

I use an M1 Air for work & I don’t see no over heating of any kind. With all the apps I have open still nothing. The laptop does not even get warm.

Where is the dead macbook ?

To summarize - there is no such thing as a free lunch and get the mac best suited for your work needs and don't try to skimp out to save a few bucks. As for the 'I can't afford it' crowd the MacBook Pro is just $+100 for the same configuration. If you are _really_ *that* pressed for money perhaps looking at a mini with a cheap monitor and keyboard (though yes you do sacrifice mobility) or look for a refurb offered through Apple.

Good view of the problem, I think it is fun to look at Max Tech's video on adding thermal pad to increase the performance of MBA, but you get a good point, it is not worth to put the machine in risk just to squeeze out it's performance.

TL;DW: thermal pads heat up the entire backplate which in turns cooks the battery and ssd.

Theres a middle ground, just put a smaller thermal pad and don't use it for long intense loads

HOW DARE THEY UNDERMINE THE INTELLIGENCE OF APPLE ENGINEERS. We get it you're a fan boy. And apple can do no wrong