Xbox One Teardown
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Xbox One Teardown
- Comments:179
- Favorites:297
- Views:876.4k
Teardown
Introduction
After eight years, Microsoft has finally released a proper successor to the Xbox 360—the Xbox One. Will this be the One Xbox to rule them all? Follow us as we journey into the tower of Microsoft's new console—coming to you straight fromMordor New Zealand!
We regularly put pics of "the daily grind" onInstagram, announce teardowns onTwitter, and keep up with friends onFacebook!
What you need
Video Overview
This teardown isnot a repair guide. To repair your Xbox One, use ourservice manual.
This is the One. The One we've all been waiting for this whole time. The Xbox One.
Think we're pulling your leg with all this New Zealand funnybusiness? Check out the folks in the background ofthis Xbox New Zealand release photo—that would be our very ownSamantha Lionheart (in red) andOptimus Goldberg (in orange).
Tech Specs:
8-core x86 processor
HDMI pass-through
8 GB of RAM
500 GB storage capacity
Blu-ray/DVD drive
Before any teardown, we take a few test photographs.
We don't like to brag, but this is quite possibly the best picture of a roll of toilet paper we've ever seen. Or it just might be super-early in the morning.
This message is to all the toilet paper manufacturing companies out there: this is how it's done.
Full resolution in case you want to make it your wallpaper.
If anyone ever says that iFixit is not fond of toilet humor, feel free to point them to this teardown.
The Day One Edition includes a commemorative controller, with appropriate inscription smack dab in the middle: "Day One 2013."
The design of the Xbox One controller builds on that of the Xbox 360 controller, with a few updates.
The development cost for the Xbox One controller exceeded $100 million, according toa Microsoft representative. Some of the prototypes featured built-in displays and cameras, a cartridge for emitting smells, and even a built-in projector.
Also tumbling out of the, er, box: the Kinect 2.0 unit and a
miniature Xbox Oneenormous power brick.
Making our way to the bottom, we check the tags to find…power ratings in Spanish?
El Xbox One consume 180 Wh de energia y en modo de espera consume 20 Wh.
The Xbox One is identified as model 1540 and was designed by the Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, WA.
Our Xbox One was manufactured on October 14, 2013 in China.
And, in friendly words across the back, Microsoft says "Hello From Seattle."
Don't panic; we're prepared.
Despite the lack of screws, we find a way in with a plastic opening tool—prying the grille up.
This is similar to theBottom Vent disassembly procedure in the Xbox 360.
Speak, friend, and enter. Giving the right password and freeing some clips, we gain access to the innards of the Xbox One.
We flip open the top case, granting us a peek at the
mines of Moriadark chambers within.While our first peek doesn't reveal much, we are ready to venture through shadow and circuit…
Our Pro Tech Screwdriver Set is almost as anxious to get into this console as we are.
The Pro Tech set was much easier to get through customs than ourbackup opening tools.
While we're not sure how they stand up against orcs, our screwdrivers are awesome for removing the small screws holding the Wi-Fi board in place.
A quick wave of our spudger, and the Wi-Fi board is out and ready for inspection.
Marvell Avastar88W8897 2x2 MIMO Wi-Fi Combination Radio Chip Supports 802.11ac, NFC, Bluetooth and Wireless Display
Marvell Avastar88W8782U WLAN SOC w/USB 2.0 Interface Support
There are eight 64 mm T9 Torx screws securing the upper metal shield to the chassis.
That is just over two-and-a-half inches of threaded fun!
Game consoles are one place where we haven't seen the smaller, lighter, thinner trend taken to extremes—and we're okay with that. We like a device with a little meat on its bones, if it means finding standard fasteners like these screws—a win for repairability.
Small, light, and thincan berepairable too! We'veseen it happen.
This is our first real glimpse inside the Xbox One.
Well, that was easy. The entire Xbox One assembly simply lifts off from the lower case.
We appreciate a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, hidden inside ahobbit hole as much as the next person, but for repair purposes, it's nice when things are a little more straightforward.
How much do we care about the Hobbit Hole breakfast at Denny's? Oh, you know…
In another win for repairability, the Blu-ray/DVD drive is connected to the motherboard via a SATA data connector.
While we are tempted to re-watch the entire LOTR trilogy on Blu-ray, our own quest to destroy the One Xbox in the fires of the teardown table is more dire.
We take a look at the underside of the optical drive, finding a few ICs and a large ribbon cable:
Microsoft MS0DDDSPB1 1326-BTSL ATNGS501
Texas Instruments 37T AVY7
Unfortunately, the Xbox One doesn'tofficially feature a replaceable hard drive—but then, we're not much for playing by the rules. Out it comes.
Bad news: replacing the hard drive requires voiding the warranty. Good news: it's a standard 2.5 inch SATA II drive. Sad news, the Xbox One doesn't support unformatted hard drives.
Inside our Xbox One, we find a Samsung Spinpoint M8ST500LM012 500 GB 5400 RPM with 8MB Cache SATA II 3.0Gb/s hard drive.
Newegg seems to have favorable reviews of this drive.
Teardown update: We tossed the One's hard drive into one of the tech writers'secondary hard drive bays. We foundfive NTFS partitions:
Temp Content: 44 GB capacity, 27.1GB available (in an Xbox that we never turned on).
User Content: 391.9 GB capacity, none used.
System Support: 42.9 GB capacity, 34.1 GB available.
System Update: 12.8 GB capacity, 11.8 GB available.
System Update 2: 7.52 GB capacity, 7.47 GB available.
Sadly, we were not able to go the other way -- we didn't have a spare hard drive (in New Zealand) to put into the Xbox One. So that will have to wait for another day!
"X" marks the spot. The heat sink/fan assembly is secured to the motherboard with a few T9 Torx screws.
After the infamousred ring of death, we're not surprised to see a beefy cooling system on this Xbox.
We're happy to report that, should your new Xbox One have cooling issues, replacing the fan or heat sink is easy-breezy.
All it takes is a simple flick of the spudger to separate the 112 mm diameter fan from the heat sink.
That's one small step to replace, one giant leap for repairability.
What do our elf eyes see? An army of integrated circuits. The heavy hitters include:
X887732-001 DG3001FEG84HR (includes AMD "Jaguar" 8-core CPU + AMD Radeon Graphics GPU)
16x SK HynixH5TQ4G63AFR 4 Gb (512 MB) DDR3 SDRAM (total of 16 x 512 MB = 8 GB)
X861949-005 T6WD5XBG-0003
SK Hynix H26M42003GMR 8 GB eMMC NAND Flash
ON Semiconductor NCP4204 GAC1328G Integrated Power Control IC
Realtek RTL 8151GNM Ethernet Controller
Texas InstrumentsTPS2590 3-V to 20-V High Current Load Switch
The backside of the motherboard is a glorious, green field, void of any integrated circuits.
As always, a big thanks to the folks atChipworks for helping us determine names of the doodads we found inside the Xbox One!
If you haven't, already, check out their in-depthanalysis of the PS4!
- Only a few tools are required to take the whole console apart. The opening procedure is similar to, but much easier than, any Xbox 360.
- Once inside, a clean, no-nonsense modular design allows the drives, fan, heat sink, wireless board, and front daughterboard to be easily replaced.
- Clips instead of screws make opening the case more difficult than necessary, but the absence of adhesive and proprietary screws helps soften the transgression.
- The hard drive is relatively difficult to access; you'll have to void the warranty if you'd like to upgrade/replace it.
Final Thoughts
Repairability Score
(10 is easiest to repair)
96 Guide Comments
Can you replace the HDD with another to see what happens?
Yeah, no brainer
I'm curious if the replacement drive needs special formatting, or if the system has a built-in recovery 'partition' that will format the drive and install the OS automatically on a stock hard-drive?
Id imagine it wouldn't have a recovery system since the user is not meant to replace the hdd wether upgrading or replacing through fault. every previous Ms console has had proprietary locked hard drives in some form
I downloaded the full OS and day one patch from Microsoft website yesterday. if you replace the harddrive. u will need those files
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