r/MacbookAirM5

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.