Hardware Wii U teardown by PC Perspective

[DeadlyFoez]

Yes, there is already pictures of the Wii U being torn down. You can find them HERE.

The only downside is that he was not able to do a teardown of the tablet yet.

I will keep this thread updated and add in the pictures and videos if I get the permission from PC Perspective.

iFixit has their teardown up.

Some pics of the Optical Drive

Pics of the merged mobo

 

[Deltaechoe]

Tablet isn't going to matter too much, there is an NFC chip, LCD driver, some buttons, an accelerometer, ect but nothing too interesting. The only people who should be interested in a teardown of the pad are people who are going to be repairing them. The interesting teardown is the one that you have posted, this is where the guts of the system are.

 

[Foxi4]

I am certainly not impressed by that petite radiator... Does it heat up a lot when used?

 

[ThePowerOutage]

It it shouldn't. There's been a lot of work put into the chip desing and cooling system. Besides, it's 2012, not 2006 anymore.

 

[Rydian]

Well, 2GB of RAM confirmed for the retail units, from the markings.
Hello in-game menus, fucking finally.

CPU, GPU, and RAM all on-die? Kinda' interesting.

 

[Foxi4]

It it shouldn't. There's been a lot of work put into the chip desing and cooling system. Besides, it's 2012, not 2006 anymore.

Regardless, one would expect a brand-new CPU to be cooled with something more than just that. We'll see as reports of early adopters surface.

 

[Fear Zoa]

No mention of hdd sadly, guess that means no swapping it out for a bigger one.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

No mention of hdd sadly, guess that means no swapping it out for a bigger one.

:facepalm: The Wii U does not have an internal hard disk drive.

LOL. The manager at a gamestop argued with me that the Wii U had a HDD, and when I told him it was flash memory he insisted that the flash memory was a HDD :headdesk:

 

[AlanWeird]

No mention of hdd sadly, guess that means no swapping it out for a bigger one.

Please be joking. You honestly thought there was a hdd in there? *facepalm*

 

[AlanWeird]

:facepalm: The Wii U does not have an internal hard disk drive.

LOL. The manager at a gamestop argued with me that the Wii U had a HDD, and when I told him it was flash memory he insisted that the flash memory was a HDD :headdesk:

Oh buddy... our poor palmed faces. They will heal eventually.

 

[Fear Zoa]

Well damn guys you didn't have to facepalm your foreheads into submission, I hadn't heard anything about what the memory was so I made a comment based on speculation.

Anyways it's still interesting my apparently idiotic comment aside.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

Well damn guys you didn't have to facepalm your foreheads into submission, I hadn't heard anything about what the memory was so I made a comment based on speculation.

Anyways it's still interesting my apparently idiotic comment aside.

When was the last time that you heard of an 8gb or 32gb HDD?

And theres no need to speculate when google has all the answers for that stuff already.

 

[Fear Zoa]

When was the last time that you heard of an 8gb or 32gb HDD?

And theres no need to speculate when google has all the answers for that stuff already.

You're right I should have thought that through more.
I apologize for my ignorance on the subject.

 

[Foxi4]

LOL. The manager at a gamestop argued with me that the Wii U had a HDD, and when I told him it was flash memory he insisted that the flash memory was a HDD :headdesk:

You could've finished at "Gamestop" and we would all get the message anyways.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

You could've finished at "Gamestop" and we would all get the message anyways.

It was wicked funny because he was getting all pissed off at me and even said "fuck you" to me under his breath. All the customers were looking at him like he's an idiot when I started explaining the difference between a HDD and flash memory.

 

[Foxi4]

It was wicked funny because he was getting all pissed off at me and even said "fuck you" to me under his breath. All the customers were looking at him like he's an idiot when I started explaining the difference between a HDD and flash memory.

It doesn't take much explaining either - it's in the name, "Hard Disk Drive". No disk - no "HDD".

I had a feeling this won't be SSD - the price would be far higher if it was. Perhaps that's for the better - it uses less space within the case that way.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

Updated first post, now that iFixit has better pics.

 

[Snailface]

Tablet isn't going to matter too much, there is an NFC chip, LCD driver, some buttons, an accelerometer, ect but nothing too interesting. The only people who should be interested in a teardown of the pad are people who are going to be repairing them. The interesting teardown is the one that you have posted, this is where the guts of the system are.

The tablet will have its own CPU, it has to have one to decode info from the WiiU. It also has its own firmware.

Some people may find these things interesting and ,who knows, maybe even useful.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

Just figured I would point out the NAND chip for the Wii Mode.

Spoiler

That is the image taken by iFixit. Notice the Samsung chip in the lower right corner, near the USB slots and above the battery holder. (Not the highlighted modules, those are the wireless modules)

Spoiler

That is the image taken by PC perspective. In this case it is a Hynix NAND Chip.

Spoiler

In those images you can see the Samsung flash memory chip which it they main storage for the Wii U FS. It comes in the 8GB and 32GB packages.

I have not yet found the datasheet for the 8GB or 32GB Samsung chips yet. If someone has a link can you let me know. Thanx.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

Figured I'd do this so people can see the placement of the Wii Mode NAND compared to the Wii U eMMC NAND.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z1qcte00njhxxuz/WiiUTop100.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/thgodcavkn7ynki/WiiUTop75.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z5qrr9xe6scqqz7/WiiU5050.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/eqy46gnysxyl3zv/WiiUBottom75.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wui2p5j8u5h7p81/WiiUBottom100.jpg