11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air boxes

We purchased both an 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air. In this photo, the smaller Air is sitting on the larger.

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Under the MacBook Air

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45W MagSafe Power Adapter

Both the 13-inch and 11-inch MacBook Airs use a 45W MagSafe Power Adapter.

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Software Reinstall Drive - Top

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11-inch and 13-inch 2010 MacBook Airs

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Tamper-resistant Torx screws

Although the MacBook Air’s case screws are easily accessible on the bottom panel, Apple used 5-point, tamper-resistant Torx screws.

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Small slotted screwdriver

As with the 11-inch MacBook Air, I was able to remove all 10 case screws with a small slotted screwdriver.

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Case screws removed

While I slightly damaged a few of the screw heads, I should be able to put them back in. If you’re going to work on the new MacBook Air, I recommend getting a screwdriver specifically made for this type of screw.

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Lifting off the bottom panel

With the case screws removed, you can lift the bottom panel away from the case.

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Removing the battery screws

Five Torx T5 screws hold the battery in place.

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Battery - Top

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Battery - Bottom

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Battery Model A1377

The 2010, 13-inch MacBook Air has a 7.3V, 50Wh Li-ion battery. The 11-inch Air has a a 7.3V, 35Wh Li-ion battery.

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Cooling fan still in place

Next, I’ll remove the cooling fan, which is held in place by four Torx T5 screws–one of which is hidden under the cables that run along the bottom of the fan’s housing.

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Left-side circuit board connector

Before removing the fan, you’ll need to detach both ends of a thin ribbon cable that connects the small, left-side circuit board to the main logic board. This smaller board contains the MagSafe power port, one of the unit’s two USB ports, and the headphone jack.

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Removing the fan screws

With all the screws removed, and the cables disconnected, you can lift the cooling fan away from the main logic board.

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Hidden fan screw

As I noted earlier, one of the fan screws is hidden under a cable that runs along the bottom of the fan’s housing. There’s also a single Torx T5 screw that holds the left-side circuit board to the case.

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Left-side circuit board - Top

The small circuit board, located on the case’s left side, contains the MagSafe power port, USB port, and headphone jack.

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Left-side circuit board - Bottom

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Cooling fan - Top

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Cooling fan - Bottom

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Cooling Fan and Left-side Circuit board removed

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Removing the 128GB flash storage unit

The 2010 MacBook Air uses flash storage, exclusively. Our test unit came with 128GB. A single Torx T5 screw holds the unit in place. Once the screws is removed, you can disconnect the unit from the main logic board.

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128GB flash storage unit removed

A logic board screws is hidden under the SSD unit.

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128GB flash storage unit - Front

The MacBook Air’s flash storage unit contains four main components–the circuit board, a Toshiba Solid State Drive controller, a Micron DDR DRAM cache, and the actual Toshiba flash memory chips.

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MSI 0MA17 D9HSJ DRAM cache

The 2010 MacBook Air’s storage unit has a MSI 0MA17 D9HSJ DRAM cache chip.

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Toshiba Solid State Drive Controller

The 2010 MacBook Air uses a Toshiba T6UG1XBG Solid State Drive controller.

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Toshiba TH58NVG8D7FBASB 16GB flash memory chips

Our 128GB MacBook Air’s flash memory storage unit has four Toshiba TH58NVG8D7FBASB 32GB flash chips.

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128GB flash storage unit - Back

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Broadcom Wireless card

A single Torx T5 screw holds the Broadcom BCM943224PCIEBT2 wireless card in place. You’ll also need to disconnect the antenna cables before removing the card.

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Broadcom Wireless card removed

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Broadcom Wireless card - Front

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Broadcom Wireless card - Back

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Disconnecting the display cable

The display cable requires a fair amount of force to pull free of its connector, but luckily it has a small handle to pull on. With this cable separated from its connector, we can lift the logic board away from the case.

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Main logic board screws

Sixe Torx T5 screws hold the main logic board to the case. Five are clearly visible. You’ll also need to disconnect all the remaining cables before removing the logic board from the case.

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Hidden logic board screw

The sixth logic board screws is hidden under the wireless antenna cables. With the screws removed, you can lift the logic board away from the case.

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Main logic board removed

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Wireless antenna cable

The wireless antenna cable runs along the case. You’ll need to pull this cable free from the case, before removing the display and lid.

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Display and Lid hinges

The MacBook Air’s display and lid are connected to the case via two hinges. Each hinge uses three Torx T9 screws–one more than the 11-inch Air.

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Display and lid

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Lid removed

With the lid and display removed, we can turn our attention to the Multi-Touch Trackpad.

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Multi-Touch Trackpad screws

Although the twp brackets that hold the Multi-Touch TrackPad to the case use a total of 12 screws, you only to remove the six screws attached to the case to take out the Trackpad.

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Multi-Touch Trackpad - External

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Keyboard and case - Internal

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TrackPad controller chips - Left side

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TrackPad controller chips - Right side

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Trackpad removed

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Microphone and speakers

The MacBook Air’s built-in microphone is located just above the speaker on the left side. As the speaker is glued to the case, I’m going to leave it in place.

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Main logic board - Top

The top of the main logic board contains three main components of the MacBook Air–the Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and NVIDIA GeForce 320M GPU (covered by the heat sink) and Elpida RAM chips.

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Heat sink removed

We’ll need to clean the thermal paste from the CPU and GPU for a clear look at the chips.

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CPU and GPU

The NVIDIA GPU in located on the left and the Intel CPU is on the right. Let’s take a closer look each chip.

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NVIDIA GeForce 320M GPU

With the thermal paste cleaned off, we can clearly see the marking on the MacBook Air’s NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor.

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Intel Core 2 Duo 1.86 GHz processor

There are no visible marking on the core of our MacBook Air’s Intel Core 2 Duo 1.86 GHz CPU, but there are markings printed onto the chip’s green circuit board.

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Elpida J1108EFBG-AE-F RAM

Our MacBook Air came with 2GB of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM. Like the previous MacBook Air, the RAM is soldered to the main logic board. Upgrading the Air’s RAM after purchase isn’t possible. As the upgrade from 2GB to 4GB is only $100, I recommend going with the 4GB.

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Apple markings on the main logic board

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Main logic board - Bottom

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More Elpida RAM chips

A second set of Elpida RAM chips are located on the bottom of the main logic board.

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TPS 51982 TI 07K ES5T G4

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E4 3041 983P

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E4 3041 983P

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TPS 51116 TI 07I A1V8

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TPS 51980 TI 04K C2H7 G4

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More logic board markings

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More Apple markings on the main logic board

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