Required equipment includes a 3D printer, a CNC mill, and some guts.



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Although it's not designed for it, the MacBook Neo user might naturally wonder: Is there a way to crank even more performance out of the laptop for gaming? To that end, tech YouTubers Jakkuh and Zip Tie Tech are here to help. Happy birthday, Apple.

After noticing the cheap and cheerful Apple MacBook's GPU tends to run at 105 °C "under basically any load", Jakkuh enlisted tech YouTuber Zip Tie Tech to help him set up some water cooling with the Neo.

One reason the Apple MacBook Neo has garnered so much attention, even from non-Apple folk, is undoubtedly because the PC market is so expensive right now. At just $599, the Neo is a bit of a breath of fresh air considering the usual price for Apple laptops. However, it's not got the best specs, and while it does run standard MacOS apps very well, and our Ian's review shows that it's not the worst at gaming, it's certainly far from being the best.

By default, the laptop only has what looks like a thin graphene pad to keep its six-core A18 Pro cool. Before getting things set up for the full water-cooled solution, the duo swapped out this thin pad with a spare M.2 thermal pad. The results were already impressive with just that change, moving from a 1257 to a 1430 score in 3DMark Solar Bay Extreme (14% higher).

The solution they ultimately end up cooking up involves a copper plate and acrylic water block sitting on top of the chip, with tubing connecting things up to a smart home plant watering pump and a Hayden Automotive 1011 power steering oil cooler that's designed for, umm, a steering wheel.

To start with, though, the waters were tested (pun intended) with a 3D printed plate rather than a copper one, which was then fitted to a 3D printed water block, later to be replaced with an acrylic one. The latter required some complicated and expensive measuring and CNC milling to replicate the 3D print design. This was not just to make the overall design and the holes, but even the threads for the holes, which is obviously a very precise and intricate task.



The CNC mill was also used to fashion the copper plate, including some fins: "We don't even ne...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com

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