The Asus ROG Ally has quite a bit in widespread with the Steam Deck. It ought to — it’s a direct competitor, in spite of everything. And a well-liked mod for the Steam Deck is to re-apply the APU thermal paste for greater efficiency. Can you do the identical factor with the Ally, and its beefier dual-fan cooling setup? Adam Patrick Murray finds out within the newest PCWorld video.

First, Adam grabbed some benchmark information for an unmodified ROG Ally, testing for frames per second and inside warmth measurements. He then cracked the sucker open, which is surprisingly simple with just a few customary electronics instruments, disconnected the battery, and eliminated the all-in-one cooler equipment with its six screws and energy connector. The super-thin design contains a typical copper warmth spreader with twin warmth pipes going out to 2 followers.

Then he cleaned up the present paste of the Z1 Extreme APU and utilized a little bit of Thermalright TF paste, unfold it evenly, and plugged the followers again in (a difficult step). It’s additionally fairly delicate work getting the followers and call plate realigned earlier than screwing them again down. With the battery plugged in once more and a static defend reapplied, the again is snapped again into place with its authentic screws, and the Ally is able to go (with a terrifying minute or so when it wouldn’t boot and wanted a lift from a charger).

And the outcomes? Cyberpunk was just a few frames per second quicker, and ran a bit of hotter on the full wattage. In Horizon Zero Dawn, the temperatures and frames per second have been nearly precisely the identical. The conclusion is that the brand new paste may enable for the CPU to run a bit of hotter, however you’re not going to see the sort of efficiency enhance that some customers have seen within the Steam Deck. Not actually well worth the effort, in different phrases. For extra nerdy deep dives into the newest {hardware}, subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube.