Nintendo 64 Teardown

ID: 74923

Description: In honor of the 20th anniversary of its...

Steps:

1. The Nintendo 64 was Nintendo's third home console. Released in 1996 for the US and Japan, the N64 boasted 64-bit graphics for the most realistic gaming experience ever made to date. The N64 was co-developed by Nintendo and Silicon Graphics.
2. NEC VR4300 64-bit CPU, running at 93.75 Mhz
3. Silicon Graphics Reality Coprocessor (RCP) GPU
4. 576i (720×576) Composite output
5. Support for up to 4 players

6. Let's take a look at the I/O, shall we?
7. 4 N64 controller ports
8. Nintendo 64 Game Pak slot
9. Composite video cable port
10. N64 power supply port (12V/3.3V DC switching)

11. Let's begin by removing the top cover.
12. Remove the 6 Gamebit 4.5mm screws found at the 4 corners and near the top-middle and bottom-middle.
13. Using a metal spudger, take out the Jumper Pak from its slot and set it aside.

14. Flip the console upright, and the top cover just comes right off.
15. Remove the 10 crossbar screws using a Philips #2 screwdriver.
16. Take out the 2 screws holding in one piece of the expansion slot shield, also with a Philips #2
17. The 2 black screws and the one at the bottom left of the expansion slot shield are easily removed with a Philips #2.
18. Finally, remove the 2 long screws from the 2 ends of the slot with a Philips #0.

19. Remove the 3 pieces of the expansion slot shield.
20. Make sure to remove these pieces BEFORE removing the heatsink crossbar.

21. The heatsink crossbar comes right off, which gives us access to the motherboard shield.
22. The 5 screws on the two sides of the shield are swiftly removed with a Philips #2
23. The 2 screws on each side of the Game Pak slot are quite long, and are removed with a Philips #2.
24. With that, the shield slips right off, letting us gaze at the Nintendo 64's source of power.

25. On the motherboard are 3 very pronounced steel blocks, which indicates that the important stuff is under there. But before removing these, it's best to take the motherboard out of the bottom case.
26. In order to remove the motherboard, unscrew the 4 Philips #2 screws from the two back I/O ports, allowing extraction of the motherboard.

27. Using a Jimmy, pry off each chip's heatsink, revealing the console's processing units.
28. Nintendo CPU-NUS-A
29. Nintendo RCP-NUS
30. Nintendo RDRAM18-NUS-B (2x2MB modules)

31. And thus concludes a successful teardown of one of the greatest consoles of all time.