u/SJSchillinger

Hey everyone!

Wanted to make a follow-up post to my M5 thermal mod post.

I did benchmarks today in Cinebench 2024 and compared them to CNET’s benchmark scores of the M5 MacBook Pro. I did this because I do not own an M5 MacBook Pro. Now, obviously CNET’s scores are just one set of scores and do not necessarily represent the average benchmarking scores for M5 MacBook Pros OR what scores you *can* get with a M5 MacBook Pro. However, it does represent realistic scores a user could have with an M5 MBP.

The results? Well, I will let them speak for themselves.

CNET’s scores in Cinebench 2024 with M5 MBP:
GPU - 5768
Multi-core - 1118
Single-core - 199

My scores in Cinebench 2024 with M5 MBA:
GPU - 5967
Multi-core - 1131
Single-core - 204

Additionally, temps now are almost always under 40 Celsius for my use case, generally below 30 on average. Additionally, temps never exceed 90 degrees Celsius even when under maximum load.

As I am sure people will want to know how I achieved these results, I will explain below. I did NOT come up with this idea and was inspired by users on Reddit and YouTube.

How to get same results:
1. Thermal Pad Mod - did the MBA thermal pad mod using a 1.5mm Arctic pad that I slightly compressed prior to installing to keep casing from bulging.

2. External cooling solution - Now that heat was being transferred to case, I just needed an external solution to cool it. I went with a FlyDigi B9X. It’s a MagSafe Peltier module that uses up to 30W max. It is entirely removable whenever you want to not use it due to it being MagSafe. There are tons of other creative solutions you could go with instead, this is just what I used.

Why did I pick the mobile phone cooler? To be honest, the main reason I went with a Peltier module is I actually have always thought they were cool and it was a good excuse to get one. Additionally, since it attaches using a MagSafe sticker, this means I can easily attach/detach the external cooling solution.

I think that another solution that would be good and fun would be a water cooling block that attaches magnetically.

Edit: Wow. Some people are not happy learning that an Air can outperform a Pro. Just to address use case, I never once said that people *should* do this or that it’s more convenient for most people. I am a big proponent of reducing eWaste and love to do things like this. Most people likely won’t do this: that is perfectly fine. I just wanted to share something that *may* serve certain people’s use cases.

I wanted to share my experience with doing the M5 Air thermal pad mod and explain some things I did.

After doing research online, I decided to go with 1.5mm pads. While some said that this could cause a gap/bulge, I also saw that people said that 1.5mm lead to much better results and that 1mm did not always guarantee contact.

What I decided to try was cutting the 1.5mm pads into the shapes I wanted, then put them between two wood blocks (with the peel-offs still on the pads, of course) and compressed them just a little bit. After that, I cut off the excess sticking out the sides.

However, this was not good enough for preventing gap and making it a little easier to close. I had to also trim off a little from where I circled in the second photo, closer to where the back of the MacBook is, as that is where the slide-clips are and where the hinge gap is. After trimming off just a few millimeters from the back, I had a much easier time reinstalling the bottom cover and noticed almost no major increase in the gap where the hinge is (in my opinion). Sitting here right now, I am at a nice 29 degrees celsius for the highest temp on my CPU.

Also, I made an entirely free AND open source app designed to assist with temperature control and behaviors for MacBooks Airs and Neos. It is called Air Assist. In the app there are presets, such as Lap Mode, that you can control from within the Menu bar dropdown to automatically keep temps *more* suitable for your lap. Now, please do not just throw the laptop down on your lap and turn on lap mode: test it first. The app was designed for stock MacBook Airs, not modified ones. Temps could still in theory get more toasty. Luckily, everything is VERY configurable and adjustable (and open source), so you can get things to be perfect for your own MacBook. Anyways, here is the app if any of you are interested:

https://github.com/sjschillinger/airassist

My next phase for the app is adding in functionality similar to what is present in Al Dente Pro, in order to assist with battery life and health, but I am just a one-man team and don't currently have the $99/yr subscription to Apple Dev, meaning that this is not currently doable until I buy that (as the helper requires it).