Pushing the MacBook Neo to Its Absolute Limits

If a time traveler from the not-so-distant past — say 2024 — were to suddenly arrive at the present time, they could hardly be surprised by anything more than the price of computer parts. It would have to be quite a shock to see how expensive RAM sticks and laptops are today. Perhaps the greatest shock of all would come from seeing a price tag of over $300 on a little Raspberry Pi board.

It’s a bad situation, but we have to deal with the hand we have been dealt. Hackers still need to hack, and they need computers to do it. That means we have to be creative to get our hands on the computing resources we need without blowing up our budgets. Andy from the YouTube channel Salem Techsperts came up with a clever way to save us some cash on computing hardware. He has turned the budget-friendly MacBook Neo into a more powerful machine with a few hacks.

Apple isn’t traditionally known for offering low-cost hardware, but the recently released MacBook Neo is changing that. For $600, it’s a fairly cheap laptop by today’s standards. However, there are of course some corners that have been cut to get the price down to that level. The most noticeable cutback is in the processor that was chosen for the Neo: an Apple A18 SoC.

This is the same chip that powers the iPhone 16. So while it is reasonably powerful, it is tailored to mobile use cases. Accordingly, it would not be anyone’s first choice if they are looking for a powerful laptop. But Andy recognized that the A18 is more powerful than it gets credit for. Since it powers small, fanless machines, it is artificially throttled to prevent overheating. So in theory, cooling the chip should unlock more performance.

This wouldn’t be as easy as slapping a fan inside the case, however. Andy had to completely disassemble the machine and build a custom cooling assembly designed to attack heat from both sides of the logic board simultaneously.

The Neo was designed such that disconnecting the battery from the logic board immediately forces the system into an ultra-throttled protection mode. That meant Andy could not simply run the board bare on a test bench like a desktop motherboard. Instead, the stripped-down logic board had to remain awkwardly tethered to the original battery while the display, speakers, trackpad, antennas, and most of the chassis were removed.

Once the machine was reduced to its essentials, Andy replaced Apple’s factory thermal interface materials with a collection of enthusiast-grade components more commonly seen in extreme overclocking circles. PTM 7950 phase-change thermal pads were used to improve heat transfer, while UPSIREN thermal putty filled uneven gaps around power delivery components and exposed surface-mount hardware.

The A18 chip itself required additional work because the silicon package sits slightly recessed beneath the surrounding frame. To compensate, Andy installed a 0.5 mm copper shim directly over the processor using Conductonaut Liquid Metal as the interface layer. A large finned heatsink was then clamped onto the assembly to maximize cooling surface area.

A thermoelectric Peltier cooler was mounted directly against the rear of the logic board using thermal putty to bridge microscopic gaps. Peltiers are notoriously inefficient and dump tremendous heat out of their hot side, so a dedicated radiator and fan assembly had to be attached just to keep the cooler itself from overheating.

Andy also routed an industrial air blower to a nearby window so the system could ingest freezing winter air from outdoors. The intake path was sealed with tape to force all of the cold air through the heatsink fins and radiator stack.

The modified MacBook Neo reportedly sustained 11.1 watts of processor power draw, nearly double the machine’s normal operating level before thermal throttling began. Cinebench multi-core scores climbed to 2076, while 3D Mark testing briefly pushed the machine to the top of the mobile Steel Nomad leaderboard. Processor performance improved a whopping 41% compared to a stock Neo.

This is a complex setup, and the upgraded Neo is no longer portable. However, the hack is an interesting way to build a cheap desktop machine. That is, unless you have to buy all of the cooling equipment. If you don’t already have that equipment on hand, you may as well just buy a more expensive machine in the first place and skip the mods.