What’s inside the new MacBook with M1 chip?

While Apple introduced the M1-powered MacBook as revolutionary, on the inside, they are almost identical to their predecessors.

“The new 13-inch MacBook Pro looks so familiar on the inside, we had to re-check to make sure we didn’t accidentally buy the old model,” iFixit shared in the familiar machine-release post for new Apple laptops. launch.

MacBook Air removes the heatsink fan

The biggest change for the new MacBook Air is fan removal. Instead, Apple inserted a simple aluminum heatsink, mounted on the left side of the circuit board.

This change can make users suspect. The MacBook Air line has not done well with heat dissipation for a long time, and the cooling solution in some other Apple laptops is also judged to be quite weak.

On the left is the MacBook Air launched earlier this year, the right is the new MacBook Air M1 chip.

Users can also feel that, the radiator fan suffers from the same fate as the headphone jack, the “victim” of the designers is always aiming for thinness, lightness and minimalism.

But in fact, the iPad was also designed to be fanless, because the new chip ensures no overheating. According to initial reviews, the new MacBook Air-style cooling system is enough to meet the operational needs of the M1, for most jobs.

The features of the new radiator are likely to be less maintenance and less mechanical damage. Normally users can easily remove the laptop to replace the broken fan. However, when there are no moving parts, it will be difficult to fail.

In addition to the new board and heatsink, the rest of the new MacBook Air is still exactly the same as its predecessor. Therefore, the repair procedures are likely to be virtually unchanged.

The MacBook Pro looks almost unchanged

The MacBook Pro made even less changes. The cooling system of the M1 MacBook Pro chip is very similar to the previous Intel chip machine. It’s just a copper tube that conducts heat from the processor towards the heatsink, where the hot air is quickly sent by the fan to the screen door.

On the left is an Intel-chip MacBook Pro, and on the right is the M1 Pro chip. It is difficult to see the difference.

Regarding the fan, there was a prediction that this device of the MacBook Pro M1 chip runs very smoothly even under heavy loads, with some new cooling technologies. However, practically nothing has changed compared to the two-port Intel MacBook Pro 2020 released earlier this year.

Anyway, the MacBook Pro M1’s fan almost never had to run at full speed. Imagine, the M1 chip that supports the MacBook Air works well without a fan. So the MacBook Pro’s cooling fan with the M1 chip also has to bear only a little more load.

The M1 Pro MacBook Pro heatsink is no different from the old generation.

There’s no difference between the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro

Compared with the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro runs the same chip, the same operating system, with almost identical screens. Even if necessary, users can get components from machine to machine.

Besides shiny silver M1 chip, there will be 2 small rectangular pieces of silicon. Those are the new integrated memory chips, SK hynix LPDDR4X 8 GB (2 × 4 GB). Apple calls this Unified Memory Architecture (UMA).

It is possible that some people have noticed this same structure on the iPad recently. It’s no surprise that Apple copied its own “homework”. By inserting RAM into the M1, each part of the M1 (CPU, GPU, Neural Engine, etc.) can access the same group of memory.

Compared with the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro runs the same chip, the same operating system, with almost identical screens. Even if necessary, users can get components from machine to machine.

Besides shiny silver M1 chip, there will be 2 small rectangular pieces of silicon. Those are the new integrated memory chips.

This integrated design increases speed and efficiency, but is also sad news for users who want to be able to upgrade Apple machine memory. The component upgradeability can extend the life of any computer, as applications and media files increase in size, the operating system has more features.

Another noteworthy point is that the new MacBook models do not have the T2 security chip. Now Apple’s security features, including the Secure Enclave, are integrated into the M1 chip, just like with the A-series for the iPhone.

According to iFixit