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Video Overview

Step 1 Xbox One Teardown

Tech Specs:

• 8-core x86 processor

• HDMI pass-through

• 8 GB of RAM

• 500 GB storage capacity

• Blu-ray/DVD drive

Step 2

• 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 0 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 One enormous power brick.

Step 3

• 'Round the back of the console, itself, we find:

• Power Inlet

• HDMI Out (left) and HDMI In (right)

• Digital Optical Audio Out

• Two USB 3.0 Ports

• Kinect Port

• Infrared Output and Ethernet Port

• Possibly up to no good is a roguish third USB 3.0 port, manning the left side all by itself.

Step 4

• 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."

Step 5

• In hopes of finding some screws, or other magical entry point, we channel our inner dentist and use a metal spudger to remove the plaque rubber feet from the console.

• Just like sitting in the dentist's chair, we have no luck here. No screws. No easy way in. Novocaine, please!

Step 6

• 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 the Bottom Vent disassembly procedure in the Xbox 360.

Step 7

• 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 Moria dark chambers within.

• While our first peek doesn't reveal much, we are ready to venture through shadow and circuit…

Step 8

• 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 our backup 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 Avastar 88W8897 2x2 MIMO Wi-Fi Combination Radio Chip Supports 802.11ac, NFC, Bluetooth and Wireless Display

• Marvell Avastar 88W8782U WLAN SOC w/USB 2.0 Interface Support

Step 9

• This is interesting. And by interesting we mean unique. We've uncovered a speaker inside the Xbox One. Or it could be an early prototype of an arc reactor. Probably a speaker.

• We're happy that this speaker is held in place with a simple plastic bracket—no tools required.

Step 10

• 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 thin can be repairable too! We've seen it happen.

Step 11

• 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.

Step 12

• 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

Step 13

• Unfortunately, the Xbox One doesn't officiallyfeature 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 M8 ST500LM012 500 GB 5400 RPM with 8MB Cache SATA II 3.0Gb/s hard drive.

• Newegg seems to have favorable reviews of this drive.

Step 14

• Teardown update: We tossed the One's hard drive into one of the tech writers' secondary hard drive bays. We found five 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!

Step 15

The RF Module board detaches outward from the lower case.

• The back of the RF Module board features one lone IC from Info Storage Devices labeled 9160F1MS03 1327 2317B057. We believe this is an Audio User Interface chip from Nuvoton.

Step 16

• "X" marks the spot. The heat sink/fan assembly is secured to the motherboard with a few T9 Torx screws.

• After the infamous red ring of death, we're not surprised to see a beefy cooling system on this Xbox.

Step 17

• 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.

Step 18

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 Hynix H5TQ4G63AFR 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 Instruments TPS2590 3-V to 20-V High Current Load Switch

Step 19

The backside of the motherboard is a glorious, green field, void of any integrated circuits.

Step 20

• Microsoft Xbox One Repairability Score: 8 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair):

• 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.

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