If you’re the kind of tech tinkerer and don’t mind voiding your MacBook Neo warranty, you can make a quick little modification to your Neo that can make it 20% faster with less hard work. This is an excellent mod that aims to reduce the thermal behavior of the CPU, and is achieved by sticking a thermal pad on the A18 chip that allows it to release heat through the aluminum enclosure on the MacBook Neo.
All you need is the following:
The result? Performance is achieved by reducing CPU jitter under load, reported online with up to 20% improvement under heavy load, and higher frame rates of 10-12+ FPS in games.
Evil? Your MacBook Neo bottom case will be much warmer, as the thermal pad now dissipates heat from the aluminum chassis. Oh, and this may void your MacBook Neo warranty, and may shorten battery life as well since batteries don’t like heat.
The MacBook Neo is a multi-user laptop but if you want to push it a little while keeping costs down, and have a flexible mind, a thermal mod might be just what you’re after. Thermal throttling is a common behavior for all modern devices and computers, but for fan-infused Macs like the Neo and Air, these thermal modes can slightly improve their performance.
And yes this works the same for the base model MacBook Neo and the 512GB Touch ID model too, in all colors.
Thermal mod pads were first used by some MacBook Air users to improve performance, with the same caveat, and now tinkerers are using the same thermal mod on the MacBook Neo with the same performance (and again, the same caveats). Thanks to the brainrot clips on TikTok and YouTube, the thermal mod for the MacBook Neo will somehow go viral, so it’s possible that a fair number of users will end up trying this on their own.
Check out the videos below, from TikTok and YouTube, for more information and video tutorials on how to make the mod yourself, if you’re interested.
Viral TikTok:
@mryeester Testing the hot pad conversion on the MacBook Neo. By adding a thin strip of thermal pad directly to the laptop’s CPU, we can actually use the bottom of the case as a heatsink, which helps prevent the processor from moving! #pc #pctips #pcbuilding #mryeester ♬ original sound – mryeester
Other video views:
And another one in thermal mode:
And this video at the top is great but skip the first two minutes (skip to 1:50) because it has the typical two minute intro that litters all YouTube videos these days:
And don’t forget if you buy Neo, Amazon has them available at a small discount with fast delivery, and yes these are affiliate links which means if you buy the site we make a few bucks to help cover our costs:
WHAT DO YOU THINK? Is it worth repairing the MacBook Neo and voiding the warranty to reduce thermal shock and get more performance under load and gaming? Or would you prefer to go for some less fussy routes to keep your Mac cool to improve performance? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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