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The smaller of Apple's MacBook Air laptops featuring dual microphones and 802.11ac Wi-Fi connectivity.

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No Thermal paste on 2nd IC

Hi, I'm cleaning my macbook air after a coffee spill and have disassembled the logic board. when removing the heatsink I noticed that only onw of the two ICs had thermal paste. when I reassemble should I apply thermal paste to both ICs or only the one that had this one initially

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Yes, you should put thermal paste on both of them.

One is the CPU die. The other is the hub controller die.

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The Haswell series has an intergraded GPU chip (the smaller chip on the carrier). The CPU & PCH are combined on the larger chip.

As for thermal paste Intel recommends not applying thermal paste on the GPU element (Yes I know it sounds a bit odd). I think the issue here is the transference of heat from the CPU/PCH to the GPU.

Here's a bit more on the chip: On-Package PCH, The First Single Chip Haswell

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@danj You can go argue with iFixit because I got the information from the teardown.

Step 10.

MacBook Air 11" Mid 2013 Teardown

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Take a look at the either of these IFIXIT guides: MacBook Air 11" Mid 2013 Heat Sink Replacement or MacBook Air 11" Mid 2013 Logic Board Replacement note the small chip is bare.

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@danj I think it would be a good idea to put thermal paste on the Intel platform controller hub regardless.

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Ha, it's a GPU.

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It truly doesn't matter what the IC is. If it's under a heatsink and has its own contact piece, it won't hurt to put thermal paste on it.

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J Lycklama will be eternally grateful.
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