A Closer Look - Inside

Before we go unto the process of installing a hard drive like a normal end user, we have gone ahead and taken the device apart to show you what makes it tick. The small fan in the frame is detachable from the main PCB and draws 0.8A at 12V and features only two cables, which means it does not carry an RPM signal.


The SD Card slot lies on a separate PCB and there is a small button on the underside of it, which is not accessible from the exterior of the device. I wonder what it does, but my best guess is, that it may just be used to hard reset the device.


The operating system of the device is stored on a Hynix Flash module, while two Nanya NT5TU64M16GG-AC DDR2 ICs provide the memory to the main processor.


A Realtek RTD1185 is used as a heart in the device. It runs at 500 MHz and provides all major functions like media decoding, card reader functionality and the HDMI output. The Gigabit network is implemented by a RTL8211D IC, while GL3310 provides the SATA to USB 3.0 interface within the EM7280 hdMEDIA RT³ media player.