Physical Teardown

So, you rip this thing open to add in more storage. If you go by the Newegg listing, this thing only has a 4 GB stick of memory included, so obviously some immediate upgrades are called for. Might as well toss in some SSD storage too, right? So, let's get to taking the drive tray out. First, unplug its wires...


Oh look, here's a little PCB hanging off the other end of the drive tray. Must be important (hint: it is). It has a wire coming out of it, and you can't just disconnect that wire because the CPU fan and other bits are in the way. So much for this being quick.


Speaking of oddly placed wires, to disconnect that gray wire going to that important-looking thing that turns out to be a Wi-Fi antenna, you've got to remove the bundled M.2 SSD. But there's also a wire going over the SSD, and there is not a lot of room here to get the screw that holds that SSD in place out either.


We can't forget about that memory either, can we? I found a single 8 GB stick in my demo unit, but as I said earlier, listings at Newegg only show a pre-installed 4 GB stick. There are plenty of affordable DDR3L SO-DIMM kits on the market today, so I think I'll have to do something about that!