World’s first liquid-cooled MacBook Neo: YouTuber mods $600 Apple laptop to achieve record-breaking performance
For budget-conscious consumers, a $600 MacBook Neo powered by Apple’s A18 Pro chip sounds like a dream come true. But it is still a passively cooled machine. Under load, the MacBook Neo can thermally throttle to prevent internal damage, leaving a noticeable amount of performance on the table.
So rather than settling for sluggish speeds, YouTuber Jack and Alex set out to see just how far the silicon could be pushed if the heat constraints were entirely removed.
The practical fix: A thermal pad
Before resorting to extreme measures, the duo tested a practical solution accessible to the average consumer. They opened the laptop and found that it only used a thin graphene layer for cooling. They then placed a 2.5 mm thick thermal pad directly on top of the CPU.
After this mod, 3DMark Solar Bay Extreme results showed a roughly 200-point increase, a 14% performance gain, along with a 3-degree drop in internal temperature.
Going to extremes with liquid cooling
Not satisfied with the moderate improvement, both YouTubers decided to build a custom liquid-cooling system for the ultra-thin laptop, clearly an obvious and practical solution for millions of users.
Using a Carvera desktop CNC mill, they designed and machined a custom copper water block with micro-fins, complete with a threaded acrylic top plate and a rubber O-ring to prevent leaks.
The installation required cutting a physical square out of the MacBook Neo's aluminum chassis to allow the water block to make direct contact with the chip.
The external cooling loop, which basically made the laptop a Frankenstein no less, featured heavy-duty tubing, thick fittings, and a repurposed smart-home pump to cycle the water.
Water-cooled MacBook Neo shatters benchmark record
The Frankenstein-esque modification proved wildly successful. With the liquid cooling loop engaged, the MacBook Neo drew a consistent 8 watts of power without throttling.
In Cinebench 2026, the liquid-cooled MacBook Neo scored 1,938 in the multi-core test, a 21.2% jump over the stock model, even beating the M1 MacBook Air’s 1,836 score. According to Notebookcheck’s data, even without any mods, the MacBook Neo was already faster than the M1 MacBook Air in single-core tests, scoring 147 points compared to the M1 Air’s 110, and is now also ahead in multi-core performance.
To wrap up the project, the team ran a final 3DMark Solar Bay Extreme test, scoring around 1,540 and setting a new record for the device.
Cutting a hole in your laptop and attaching a heavy, noisy external water pump is not a practical solution for most users. However, the experiment highlights what Apple silicon is capable of, and it raises questions about Apple’s continued reliance on passive cooling in the MacBook Air lineup and now the MacBook Neo, especially when better cooling could unlock more performance.
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