I cant believe I beat Nintendo to it...

Let's make a DIY Switch Pro - The first 100 people to use code ZACBUILDS at the link below will get 60% off of Incogni: incogni.com/zacbuilds
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Links to all of the tools from this video (All of the below are affiliate links)
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Noctua Thermal Paste - amzn.to/3rx7jWd
K5 Pro - amzn.to/3DdrATn
Aluminum Switch Backplate - shorturl.at/jqAU9
iFixit Kit (has 3 wing bits) - amzn.to/3OeOwYE
Hall Effect Replacement Sticks - amzn.to/43GNVDS
80mm 5V Noctua Fan - amzn.to/3pGxwkX
Black Stain - amzn.to/3Dds9fX
Automatic Wire Strippers - amzn.to/44rKXEk
Soldering Station - amzn.to/44oGyC6
Low Voltage Switch - amzn.to/46PD7FY
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Black CA Glue - amzn.to/3PTVsvG
X-Carve Pro (my CNC) - www.inventables.com/technolog...
Kapton Tape - amzn.to/3XQloKy
Guide I used to hack my Switch: switch.homebrew.guide/
All of the Music and SFX I use comes from: www.epidemicsound.com/referra...
Edited by Brycen Roy (IG: / brycenroy )
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Check out my website for all past projects:
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Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:29 Sponsorship: Incogni
03:00 Hacking Your Switch
05:08 Hardware modding the switch
07:27 Tearing down the dock
07:54 Modding the JoyCons
08:22 Building a new dock
10:38 Modding the PCB
12:31 Woodworking and Branding
13:57 Cleaning Up My Mess
14:41 PLA Vs PAHT
15:50 Final Assembly
17:16 Benchmarking
20:01 Bonus Features
20:42 Post Mortem

[@ZacBuilds]

The first 100 people to use code ZACBUILDS at the link below will get 60% off of Incogni: incogni.com/zacbuilds

[@RAM_845]

Becareful Zac, Nintendo will attack you like the way they did with UFD Tech

[@T.V.K.]

use silicon on the dock. no scratch, no slip

[@asteriosanagnostou3243]

Zac, anyway I could pay you to 3d print the dock for me? I don't think my printer is awesome enough, lol.

[@friedtomatoes4946]

You need to be really careful with K5 pro I've had it crush heat pipes before. You need to heat it up quite significantly before you apply anything to make it soft.

[@user-mv3qm4qh8l]

Bro can I pay you to do this for me?😂

[@legoboy-ox2kx]

The LED on the switch dock could be connected to a small mosfet to turn the fan on and off when the switch is on or off.

[@zRedPlays]

That would be a nice improvement

[@EviGL]

I was thinking about the switch itself pressing a button to start the fan, but your solution is more elegant.

[@JosueRodriguez08]

It does not even needs to be a MOSFET if the person doesn't want to think about electronics that much, a solid state relay module would have everything you need in a neat little packet

[@DxBlack]

@@JosueRodriguez08 Sounds like that would involve thinking about electronics...

[@kayzrx8]

just use a photo diode to see the light and switch the fan on.

[@LucaDarioButzberger]

Quick safety note: If you go into your Nintendo account settings on the website, you can turn off telemetry. This prevents nintendo from gathering some information about your switch that can be used to detect a hacked switch. It doesen't make a hacked switch completely undetectable, but it makes it harder for Nintendo. However, turning telemetry off might not be possible in all countries. I think in the USA, it is not.

[@ddnava96]

@@AngelTorres-vu2iz. Damn, and I wanted to play my Switch on my van :c

[@torchedegg]

@@AngelTorres-vu2iz using exosphere is a SHIT idea.

[@bryancartagena3286]

@@Mars32579- Pretty sure they meant “ban proof” not “van proof”.lol

[@Ommoo]

@@AngelTorres-vu2iz I would advise against exosphere - while it's not dangerous against the likes of Incognito (which also shouldn't be used), it's sole purpose isn't for blocking Nintendo to use custom firmware safely and is suggested to be used for Tencent (Chinese) Switches instead.

[@Kiritomens]

@@Ommoo What on you on about what is even dangerous about incognito. It just blanks out serials of your switch so you can't be hardware banned. You can still recover your serials if you want at a later date lol.

[@ThePepsyi]

Quick Tip: when changing the sticks of the controllers. Be sure to switch the antenna too. It highly improves the wireless connection to the switch :)

[@YogiTheBearMan]

Switch it with an aftermarket antenna?

[@RayRaytheGrape]

@@YogiTheBearManYeah

[@rosegray4061]

​@@RayRaytheGrapeany recommendations?

[@RayRaytheGrape]

@@rosegray4061 Haven’t done it yet so no. I find that the normal antennas work just fine.

[@Player_Redacted]

A little late, but to add to the disclaimer at 3:54, there is also a protection you can set up during the modding process (its in the guide in the description) called emuNAND. Basically the way it works is you copy the entire system (sysNAND) to the same SD card that runs your CFW, mod that one, and leave the stock one untouched. This leaves you with a vanilla switch when booted normally, which will be 100% safe for online play, then when you want to do CFW stuff, you boot into your emuNAND with your CFW via RCM mode with your jig. There are also certain DNS settings (also in the guide) that specifically block Nintendo communication with the console, so you cant even go online or launch the eShop, which I would highly recommend using in conjunction with emuNAND. Using this setup I've modded my Switch in 3 configurations. 1 is completely stock, no mods. 2 is Atmosphere launched via RCM jig and CFW injector. 3 is an Android OS that basically turns the Switch into an Android tablet, which is launched from an entirely separate SD card. To add to this, if there are things you wanted to do with CFW that affect your stock games (like setting up a Pokemon randomizer that you can play online) you can transfer save data between the sysNAND and emuNAND as long as you have a PC that can read/write to SD cards. The only risk (with Pokemon specifically, since that's the only game I mod online) is you need to make sure you don't generate any illegal Pokemon and take them online, otherwise that'll possibly flag Nintendo to ban you. I managed to do an entirely randomized online playthrough of Sword back when that was still new though and I'm still online today.

[@BryanEnsign]

This is by far the best way to mod the switch but a lot harder to understand for those who have never done it. This was amazing when I found out that it could be done years ago. Thank you for telling others since I didn't see him go over that.

[@pixelatedzephyr6325]

Honestly the memory speed is the most impactful for most games with preformance issues

[@safarirat]

YES!

[@safarirat]

even 2100 mh is SO MUCH BETTER in zelda.-. and brutal doom works faster:^)

[@MRWhiskers6969]

@@safarirat A hacked OLED switch can run tears of a kingdom at 60fps due to the ram speeds reaching 2666 mhz.

[@JudeTheYoutubePoopersubscribe]

​@@MRWhiskers6969damn Nintendo crippled the switch hardware so badly.

[@safarirat]

​@@MRWhiskers6969yea, but i really lazy and don't want to try 4ifir or os-suite.

[@roland2864]

I highly recommend you all download this video before Nintendos ninjas take it down

[@starcountry01]

lmao

[@JoshuaG]

Yeah , Nintendo can be an ass like that 😅👍

[@aprils1332]

there are like 200 videos about how to mod your switch

[@Protoaster]

​@@aprils1332"200"

[@itzdcx7991]

Why would Nintendo taken down someone video that’s

[@KingsOfThaMentals]

your channel has been a wonderful find. keep compiling these projects, they are a joy to watch. thank you.

[@amadii8768]

quick tip about the thermals part, if u performed the mod on a v2 switch (which is significantly harder due to the need of soldering and modification of the back heatsink), u can can get by with lower power consumption and heat generated, as the v2 models have a much lower lithography (16 nm compared to the og 22), they also have better memory bandwidth which was shown to have a performance impact in totk (in v1 models like the one used here)

[@aprils1332]

If you want Tears of the Kingdom to actually have it's framerate 100% fixed you need to install the custom software that lets you overclock the Switch RAM beyond 1600, as Digital Foundry did a video on.

[@Serpream]

Pretty much. This entire video is pure placebo without that CFW to unlock ram. Anyone with a hacked switch can get these performance gains without any physical modding.

[@asteriosanagnostou3243]

Hey Aprils, could you link me that video? I'm having some trouble finding it.

[@bigsadge]

@@asteriosanagnostou3243 kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5rOXnR3qpWaotE

[@Bunta1987qwerty]

Or just play it on pc

[@arowace498]

​@@Bunta1987qwertynot everyone has a good pc though 😅

[@viviserket4704]

if you re-print that front half and add a couple mm of space you could add in some felt on both sides to prevent the switch from getting scratched up. even the stock switch dock will scratch the screen if you're not really careful with it. That's partly why there are so many replacement housings that don't have the front cover.

[@vespermoirai975]

I got a completely different dock for this reason. I have a screen protector on my wifes and mine but wasn't taking that chance. Unfortunately neither of them are moddable tho. :(

[@viviserket4704]

@@vespermoirai975 I ended up getting a housing mod for my dock, original dock hardware transferred into a smaller shell and that's been great. sadly my switch is also not moddable

[@n00blike]

For soldering I would recommend using a "No Clean Flux Pen" and " 3:1 Ratio Adhesive Lined Heat Shrink". Great project!

[@dbzocchi]

For TOTK you need to set the memory to 1862Mhz using a different version of sys-clk, once you do that the gameplay is completely smooth even without a gpu/cpu oc, i'm also fairly certain 1600Mhz is the switches standard docked memory clock speed

[@Critter145]

Is there a way to do that without being a Ninja?

[@RvEllorquez]

​@@Critter145 no

[@VollkinSea]

Your switch may be able to be pushed much further than you think. I use a modification of atmosphere called 4ifir, which among other internal changes, unlocks much more aggressive overclocks for the switch. I was able to go to the highest clocks while plugged to the wall and played totk at a locked 60 fps. It was honestly insane just to experience a switch do that at all!

[@Thunderhawk51]

Just imagine if Nintendo actually did that from the very start. If regular people can do something like that, certainly they could create something great. My fear is that the next switch won't even be as powerful as these overclocked and improved launch switches 😂 Which honestly makes me incredibly sad...

[@smokegames1179]

Using 4ifir too running 1900mhz on rdr 1 gets 40-60fps in 1080p crazy

[@RvEllorquez]

​@smokegames1179 legit?

[@Dr18Registered]

im just saying you should absolutely do this again with a modchipped switch OLED, since v2 (Mariko) switches literally have a more efficient and powerful SOC, you can overclock them even further than these v1 (erista) systems, to the point of running tears of the kingdom at literally 60 fps at a decent resolution. really cool video and project btw

[@pathfinderproject9381]

you can replace the nand with a larger one and repartition

[@asteriosanagnostou3243]

You can increase the fps cap? How? Still learning here lol.

[@Hyprst]

​@@asteriosanagnostou3243mods

[@jangrewe]

mariko doesn't necessarily mean OLED, just sayin'...

[@Dr18Registered]

@@jangrewe im well aware, just used that as an example since it is still the best mariko model there is, still comes with with more internal storage

[@tetro9999]

I think i found the perfect community for builds! Dude your work is impressive!

[@jazz-2-moonbase2]

dude spread that paste between the back plate and the inside like cream cheese on a bagel lol

[@WulffDen]

Some really creative solutions here for mitigating the heat. Excellent video 👍

[@ZacBuilds]

Thanks man, love you channel!

[@jasonleveck8546]

I think it's interesting how very conservative Nintendo is with their hardware. The mods our main man here completed, really made a nice dent in the perceived performance issues of the Switch.

[@vhalrougelarfouxe]

You are the DIY person that I really like to watch for DIY next to DIY Perks. I love the passion you show in your builds, waiting for more!

[@ZacBuilds]

Thank you!

[@LeHaroun]

Same here DIY Perks and Zak Builds are just amazing. the dedication they have and passion for their projects is unmatchable.

[@TruthYT00]

I thought he was going to turn this into a metal switch 4K console with extra usb ports lol put it in a metal game cube shell

[@christianteen2008]

I learned years ago in a 3D printing class about temporary support material. The printer applied it on its own to negative space it had to build on. It was a much more brittle plastic that that basically crumbled away when removed.

[@spiraldj]

Hey! I noticed you have a multi material 3d printer so next time, in order to make the supports problem way easier you should use a material called pva, just for the supports. Pva is water soluble so you can print the supports out of pva and the rest of your print with whatever material you want, and then just dissolve them when the print is done. Hope this helps!

[@TheAleksanderB]

I would have put the switch for the fan where the spring mechanism is. This way when I put the console in the dock, the fan will start running without the need for me to turn it on. Another thing I would do is to replace the heat spreader with something bigger or design something on my own. I see there is quite some spare room between the SoC and the back panel, if you are willing to cut a hole in the EM shield.

[@JoachimVampire]

but that way if you "store" the switch on the dock then the fan would be active allways. i would have used two switches, one for manual shutdown (so you can store it in the dock) and one automatic in the base. this way if i want to just store it, i can power it down, but if i want to switch into handheld and later on in docked mode i don't have to worry either.

[@TheAleksanderB]

@@JoachimVampire Hm... Good catch, I haven't thought about that. In that case I would tap into the USB for charging and monitor the voltage level using an operational amplifier or something similar. This way when the console is idle or not charging, the fan will be off. Otherwise it will turn it on.

[@highpiejr7544]

@@TheAleksanderB You could also just connect the two switches (automatic with the spring and manual button) in series, so both need to be on for the fan to spin

[@TheAleksanderB]

@@highpiejr7544 That's true, but I am a lazy person 😂😂😂

[@Bymo0]

​@@highpiejr7544 Couldn't you monitor the HDMI pins, one of it should be sending "active/voltage level" when sending Video Signal to the TV. And link that to the fan

[@waltonks8172]

Theoretically since the V2 and the OLED are equipped with more efficient 16nm version of the same SoC Nintendo should really consider overclock these systems in dock mode.

[@PSYCHOV3N0M]

Nintendo: "No. I don't think I will."

[@paracuja]

They will just release the Switch 2 with the same specs as the Switch 1 but they will let it run at normal clock speed 😂

[@l3rvn0]

Yeah, Oled and V2 also have better framerate on ToTK, probably because v1 get hot and reduce performance because of this And you can hack these using a cheap modchip, so you get a much better switch pro and with a oled screen

[@YounesLayachi]

It took Nintendo years to finally decide to give ephemeral overclocks to the switch in docked mode. Not sure they're willing to have a peak performance difference between the switches even if the 16 nm ones support it. They probably could have upgraded the memory on the oled model too

[@georg6876]

The part of the heat pipe near the vent has foam on it to insulate it from the metal shield. I took this foam off and replaced it with a thin piece of aluminium with thermal paste on either side. Back gets warmer but the thermals are far improved!

[@brianmoody9996]

I would personally love to see a update to this project. Extra battery and maybe the improved intake for the dock fan would be nice to see. Good video by the way!

[@poxx1525]

I kept getting more and more surprised by how much money this dude has lol. The switches, the 3D printers, the nice camera, the woodworking shop??? It just kept getting more and more bougie as it kept going lmao. Goals dude.

[@humanbean3]

lol yeah at the end i thought he was going to pop up in some semiconductor fabrication warehouse with "zack's builds" on all the machines

[@p5rsona]

@@humanbean3 dude prolly has a whole sweatshop in his closet too, dave chapelle cribs style

[@lummx]

I'm more surprised about all the skills that he has because others can have the money to buy the tools, but the skills required a certain level of intelligence and discipline

[@humanbean3]

@@lummx so true. so many people have the money and just waste it all partying or doing dumb stuff.

[@blad...]

Charging 8 dollar for blueprints, yeah.

[@monkehgamingofficial]

I think a good addition to the dock (after you mentioned the nylon was rough to the touch) would have been to make the gap for the switch a little bigger to fit some felt or something soft on the inside walls of the dock so it can't scratch the screen or back.

[@Nevir202]

Had the exact same thought.

[@slendydie1267]

nylon cant scratch the screen nor back. At least hardness of materials says so. Nylon is too soft to scratch glass or aluminium

[@Nevir202]

@@slendydie1267 Been a few days since I watched this, but IIRC he mentioned this is carbon fiber reinforced nylon, and I'm pretty confident the fibers could scratch at least the finish on the aluminum.

[@monkehgamingofficial]

@@slendydie1267 idk man, if paper towels can scratch glass, I don't doubt for a second that nylon can too

[@freelanceriders]

Really cool video mate!. I think instead of using a latching switch (on/off), maybe you could utilise the dock springs actuate a "momentary switch" to activate the fan when the Switch is docked, then deactivate the fans when the Switch is removed. Saves having to manually press the fan switch on by hand.

[@timothy2830]

While watching the build, I was wondering if you included tolerances for felt pads on the dock. I'm glad you addressed the scratching at the end. This is something I consider when building custome items. There's plenty of soft materials that are durable for many in/out applications.

[@CrumpetsNBiscuits]

Dude, you're so awesome. Keep doing these stuff. It's amazing to watch. I wish i knew half this stuff.

[@jbisthedj]

This video was amazing! Very impressive build dude

[@MachoMandem]

Super cool! Love the in-depth explanations! Earned a sub!

[@CallMeVidd]

“Given that my launch switch is nearly seven years old” hit me like a truck

[@RyuujinZero]

Nintendo has been using the tri-wing screws since *at least* the Gameboy Pocket era. I know the original Gameboys shipped with Phillips screws, so the change happened at some point between DMG-01 Gameboy and the Pocket.

[@nathanglynn7443]

Vast majority of dmgs have tri wing screws on the outter shells, more so than the phillips screws. Interior screws on the pcbs are phillips though

[@davidguerrero8391]

@@nathanglynn7443I only have them cause Mac uses them as well lol

[@lemonapocalypse414]

Videos like this REALLY rustles Nintendo's jimmies...and I am here for it.

[@NorthSanctuary]

I wish I could do DIY stuff like this! It's incredible!

[@Officer94]

Removing the copper shim on the EMI shield makes more sense since the heatsink has direct contact to the die of the SoC. Also the Ram has no physical contact to the EMI shield either so thermal paste on that spot won't get you a physical connection there.

[@oussama7132]

for the ban part, you can use an emunand that is completely isolated from nintendo servers while still being able to play with other modded switches. you can still go back to stock sysnand and play your games online normally. you ca,n also use modchips in every model

[@Hartie95]

It's mostly safe to use atmosphere on sysnand while going online, as long as you don't pirate or cheat/romhack online. It's actually how the atmosphere devs designed it to be used, and how a lot of people, including me and a few of my friends use it. This is also the reason the default settings are what they are, so that people can just boot it and use it, while going online. No need for emunand as long as you don't pirate/install any nsp/xcis(which includes homebrew and self dumped nsps and xcis) or do some other very specific stuff, it just makes the setup more complex and adds more points for user error.

[@FZone96Official]

To prevent scratches you could add fabric to the inside of your docking station, or anything soft. That's what I did with mine, but I also need to stick a new clear film on my Switch's Display.

[@glttched]

that’s a really great idea my man, could you elaborate on what material and adhesive (if any at all) you used for it?

[@NightW3VL]

That's such a cool custom Nintendo Switch. I really love how this turned out!

[@danmazaev]

Man, I'm really fascinated with all of this... I was kinda afraid you would finish with water cooling applied to the dock and switch itself 😅

[@theninjamaster67]

There's really no need. The thing about these arm processors is with phones n stuff they never put sufficient cooling so they underclock them a bunch so they don't produce too much heat but if you put better cooling like literally just a fan and some materials like the ones he used to just disperse the heat a bit better air cooling will be more than enough. It's not like a PC where each component can get to 90 degrees just running at all not even doing anything strenuous without a cooler.

[@grn1]

@@theninjamaster67 Even on a PC you don't need liquid cooling. It's been proven time and again that a good air cooler (Noctua, other brands exist but Noctua is king) and maybe a mod for the GPU (honestly most cards come with more than enough air cooling) gets the same or better performance as a liquid cooled setup while being much cheaper and easier to build and maintain. Obviously the case also needs good air flow (arguably more important, a lot of system get bogged down due to poor internal air flow). Liquid cooling of a consumer system is more for looks and maybe making things quieter (there are cheaper solutions for that) than actual performance even with the crazy hot chips we have now. From my understanding there was a time where air coolers couldn't keep up with liquid coolers but that was mostly because there weren't any good air coolers at the time. Some super computers and server farms use liquid cooling solutions but that's a whole other class and mostly done because the combined heat of 100's or 1000's of CPUs and/or GPUs in a confined space requires a special solution to pump all of that heat out of the room. I think Microsoft (and I'm sure others as well) also has some server farms that are submerged in a special liquid solution that boils at a certain temperature so they can passively cool their servers but the upfront cost and the difficulty in upgrading or performing maintenance makes that solution far more niche (if memory serves MSes solution is to have the storage drives, which are the most likely units to fail in their operation, on a separate system that's air cooled and use some special high speed networking to connect the systems together).

[@theninjamaster67]

@@grn1 To be clear I'm not saying every PC needs water cooling or something just the higher end are starting to run realllllyyyyyyy hot which you could still use a good air cooler for it would just have to be bigger.

[@maloXP]

Cool video! For a v2 it would be cool to have Ethernet integrated into the dock.

[@ZacBuilds]

Thanks, I believe you can get USB > Ethernet adapters for the Switch. But thinking about it now, had I used my Switch OLEDs dock, I could've used the ethernet port on that! Next time.

[@itsquiwi8780]

There is one...

[@thegametinkerer]

@@ZacBuilds You could 3d print a dock housing allowing to install the dock MB into along with the usb ethernet adapter

[@leetisdale8456]

some Amtech Flux would help a lot with the solder joints. Also helps get quick bonds and allow for not a lot of heat to be transferred to other components.

[@christianteen2008]

I like the touch with walnut. I rebuilt my Switch dock with a kit I bought online. It has minimal contact with the back, zero contact with the screen, and it's bottom heavy so it doesn't tip over like the stock model. But since it's the stock PCB, it can't be made portable. It has to be used with a TV. Nintendo does have a portable charge stand, which would be great for playing with overclocked settings on the go.

[@kaosapprentice]

Honestly memory oc mod is really what you need to try, the soc is memory bandwidth Starved, Gen1 switch can safely run the memory at 1866 with that and a 460mhz clock on the gpu basically no more framerate issues, you shouldn't run gen1 switches higher than 460mhz in handheld mode because it could damage the battery, Gen 2 and OLED switches can go higher because the Mariko chip is more efficient.

[@evilmonkeywithissues]

As an Electronics Engineer who happens to have a little bit of experience in woodworking (I worked in a furniture shop to get through school), I love watching these builds to get ideas. Not a lot of other electronics enthusiasts incorporate wood into their builds, and I love how it looks!

[@justinvzu01]

I only did one year of EE in college, so I'm not an expert. But wouldn't the fan when stopping push current back into the circuit?

[@evilmonkeywithissues]

@@justinvzu01 No, it wouldn't. Any kind of smaller fan is just a simple brushless DC motor. It's essentially just a small permanent magnet in the shape of a rotor with a device called a stator housed within it that looks something like a few squares arranged in a circle that have thin copper wire wrapped around each square. Each square can be thought of (and are usually labeled as in textbooks as) coil A, B, C, and so on (though to make things simple we're going to assume this is a small motor with only three coils (which would appear as six squares, because each coil is wrapped around the square opposing it, as well). When power is applied to the motor, coil A is energized and effectively becomes an electromagnet. The opposing pole in the magnet (remember that it's a rotor) is attracted to coil A and begins to spin towards it. As the rotor approaches coil A, coil B is energized, followed by coil C as the rotor approaches coil B, and then as the rotor reaches coil C, coil A is once again energized with the opposite polarity (remember since it's a magnet, the opposing squares would also be opposing magnetic poles), and the process continues like that as long as power is maintained. Given that current is creating the electromagnetic force causing the rotor to spin, as soon as the fan is de-energized, the electromagnet ceases to be magnetic. Since the rotor depends on the electromagnetism of the stator to spin at all, it would stop spinning almost immediately since the rotor itself is not directly connected to the circuit, the spinning of the fan would not create current to be able to feed anything back into the circuitry. Even if the rotor did somehow connect directly to the circuitry of the device so that the spinning could potentially create energy to back-feed into the device, the engineers would be aware of that possibility and add an appropriately rated diode to protect the rest of the circuit. This would effectively only allow current to flow one way, unless the diode were to fail.

[@justinvzu01]

@@evilmonkeywithissues Thanks, I'm embarrassed that I didn't even think of brushless dc motors.

[@evilmonkeywithissues]

@@justinvzu01 Don't be embarrassed! There's nothing wrong with learning something new, even if it's something you have experience in! I repair electronics and work with PLCs for a living, and I still learn something new on a constant basis, even when it's something I thought that I knew very well. Even experts have room to learn something about their trade, it's impossible to know everything about a given subject. Personally, I'm glad that I could help. You know what they say about losing it if you don't use it. Plus I just love what I do for a living, so it's honestly nice to see someone interested. I don't think any less of someone for being curious.

[@SirBucelotte]

@@evilmonkeywithissues Pushing into the comment to say thank you for the free class!

[@canosisplays5152]

I love how you are expressing the learning that is happening in your explorations!

[@mkrichey1]

Amazing build and effort, love the video!

[@grueani]

To get perfect performance in TOTK you would also need a custom version of sys-clk which allows the memory to overclock to 1875mhz. this would eliminate the last small frame-drops

[@smokegames1179]

Memory clock is the biggest bottleneck of the switch the cpu and gpu makes small difference in games

[@ndnixlon9548]

That's too much effort for the majority of popular Tech KZbinrs covering overclocking the Switch to process and install Switch-OC-Suite unfortunately. Hell, even his claim that the OLED is the "worst" Switch model in terms of hackability when the topic is about creating a "Switch Pro" is plain stupid, the V2, Lite and OLED can be hacked via the install of a Picofly modchip, and their SoC (Tegra X1+) are significantly more versatile in terms of CPU/GPU/RAM overclocking than the original V1 Switch that is used in this video.

[@ndnixlon9548]

​​@@smokegames1179 Which is why most Switch RAM overclocking beyond 1600mhz involves changing the RAM timings via loader.kip to make the overall performance less miserable. The Tegra X1 should've supported DDR5 in the first place but ba.

[@inari3217]

@@ndnixlon9548 tech youtuber do more than 10 minutes of research challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)

[@arnezbridges93]

​@@ndnixlon9548ddr5 wasn't wide spread 7 years ago, let alone when Tegra launched

[@dustinschings7042]

Really cool build. I think you could make a power switch that turns the fan on by putting some metal contacts on the "springy guy" so whenever a Switch is in the dock and the springy guy is depressed down, it makes contact with the bottom where you could install the other half of the circuit. Switch goes in, spring platform goes down, contact is made, fan goes on. Maybe you could give it a try? :)

[@raik1766]

@@xergiok2322 Simple, make use of the led on the circuit board (and add a mosfet to control the fan) since its only on when the switch is on

[@AspenNguyen]

To prevent scratches, you could attach some felt or microfiber inside the dock where the Switch goes. Also, a potential V2 would be awesome if it had an extended battery. You could modify the dock to fit it as well.

[@TakunHiwatari]

Extremely cool! I still have my day 1 Switch that's hacked, and my OLED. I've already replaced the battery, fan, and thermal paste in my old Switch, but I didn't think to disperse the heat with an aluminum backplate. Will definitely look into that, cus I've been scared to overclock it.

[@RestoreTechnique]

Great idea and build 👍

[@DDryTaste]

You should add a digistump microcontroller to control the fan via pwm. We can write a sys module on the switch to tell the microcontroller the temperature and scale the fan accordingly. That would be pretty cool. Or if writing a sys module is too much work you can use the dock led and a transistor to turn the fan on and off automatically when the switch turns on.

[@aaronjones4529]

I really like that you end your videos with a critical analysis... Your engineering skills are great.

[@reyjedi3586]

Zac u da Barbie! Very thorough and detailed. Love the post mortems for the v2's. 2nd fav DIYer next to DIY british dude

[@chasefournier]

Two directions i thought of that you could've gone to make your switch even better! you could have installed a mod chip in your OLED Switch, or installed a Trinket m0 in your first gen, that way you dont have to use the jig to turn on your console every time. Over all, fantastic video! Great idea!

[@OctagonalSquare]

I’m curious if just adding the cooling and not changing the clock speeds also helps. In theory, temps could cause throttling in higher load areas, so does the extra cooling overhead keep it from slowing as much?

[@richardventura192]

You are waaaaaaaayyyyy into gaming. Love your creativity.

[@FerociousLamb5726]

Your projects are always so cool, and you do a really great job designing them. I hope to be as creative and smart as you one day, and you're probably younger than I am... Thanks for including the tool lists. That's another area I'm extremely lacking in.

[@asmongoldsmouth9839]

I run my Switch at 720p and I use the mClassic upscaler. It looks so much better than any Switch game at 1080p without the upscaler. Soft edges and no jaggedness. Antialiasing for the win. 👍

[@dkdevil3490]

You could leave the back open for the fan and use a chromax black version of it. Noctua's classic tan and brown wouldn't be there to clash with the overall aesthetic. Maybe throw a black mesh on top.

[@jeanschyso]

how DARE you?!!? Noctua brown is the PINNACLE of beauty and class! /s that's a pretty good idea actually

[@supreme313]

That's really awesome! just a thought, but would it be possible to replace the push button power switch with a micro switch that sits at the inside bottom of the dock? Imagine it sitting just inside the spring loaded usb-c portion of the old assembly. That may make it so that the fan only activates with the weight from the console being inserted into the dock.

[@Ryanborambo]

9:00 I think it overclocks slightly to be able to output 1080p video, since it doesn't have to worry as much about saving battery power (and the thermal headroom of the base switch handles it)

[@emertonom]

Very cool! If you still have a stock dock (doesn't the OLED switch also come with one?) it would have been nice to see how the thermals looked if you tried it there, as it seems like the aluminum backplate, redone thermal compound, and thermal paste may have made the majority of the difference.

[@HaydenHero]

The oled has a slightly different dock with a thinner profile.

[@geniusyadav8725]

you should definitely collaborate with diy perks on some project. That would be fun to watch

[@ZacBuilds]

I'd love to, but I'm pretty sure he doesnt even know I exist 😢

[@magnumra3911]

Just a general cooling reference point, it looked like you had the fan blowing cool air onto the back of the switch. I'd recommend in a future iteration (if you ever do another) that you have the fan pulling the heat off the back of the switch and exhausting out of the back of the Pro dock. Appropriate air flow pressure would pull room temp air over the back of the Switch and vent the warm air away from it. With such a small space between the switch and the fan without proper ventilation, I would think that the extra fan isn't going to do much cooling (it basically just pulls room temp air into the dock to be warmed up by the Switch with nowhere to go).

[@d-RLY]

I think that the comparison of the stats would've benefited from a third column. That can show what the temps/FPS/frequencies were with the same overclock but before the physical mods and the thermal compounds in the final build. It would help show how much difference the cooling efforts make between full stock and the OC. Might not be as huge as final build compared to stock, but adding OC does tend to jump thermals into throttling and can cause its own stuttering. All that being said, I loved to see what you did with the hardware itself. Could still be worth doing just that part even on newer Switches as you stated that the compounds can get a bit dry over lots of usage/time. That metal back plate seems like it would be good for both the "feel" and better protection. The added wood elements were dope!

[@Grapefruit5000]

I think it's crazy that there is simply a menu to just pick the clockrates. This looks very appealing and I also have the original model.

[@Razumen]

It's not crazy, it's a hacked OS.

[@humanbean3]

@@Razumen it's crazy, crazy i tell you

[@xavalintm]

You could make it run a lot faster with 4IFIR instead of the regular sys-clk.

[@Hartie95]

True, but depending on the silicon and memory lottery he could also run into problem. At that point power usage and the internal circuits providing the power also get relevant.

[@YTP2go]

4IFIR and removing the copper shim on a modded OLED is the best solution. Being more efficient allows the console to not tax the power rails on the console as much and what allows 4IFIR push the silicon to it’s limit and not have as much risk of killing the console. That would have been closer to a proper pro model.

[@magman6756]

Great stuff dude! Keep it up!

[@jackgamer6307]

Also you could have connected a relay to the light of the dock, that would automatically control the fan whenever the light would be on, so only when the switch is turned on in the dock

[@fluffycritter]

The thing I'd worry about with the carbon fiber filament is that it's incredibly abrasive and is likely to scratch your Switch a bunch.

[@Klinkertinlegs]

He did mention that at the end (in case you missed that little section)

[@wackzach1220]

Overclocking the switch fixes a crap ton of performance problems in newer 1st party nintendo games (first notable one in my mind being Pokemon Violet). It's wild how much performance is being left on the table for the average person...

[@ZacBuilds]

Ya I was really surprised to see just how far Nintendo downclocked the CPU and GPU. The CPU especially is over 50% faster.

[@foldionepapyrus3441]

And really stupid that knowing the performance they have capped the system to even the Big N can't manage to make titles perform properly - just make the game better optimised to suit the one processor it is supposed to run on! I had initially assumed my rather poor experience with Tears of the Kingdom was just my switch being about as old as they can get and perhaps needing a bit more TLC. But then you look around and find even the newest models have the same problems...

[@CodyBMcGuire]

Man, this is next level engineering modding.

[@DanielKaspo]

Inspiring dude, nice work!

[@ZacBuilds]

Thanks Daniel! Much appreciated dude.

[@Tweaker420666]

extra hint. you can use glue gun glue instead of liquid electrical tape, or shrinkwrap

[@TheWrongButton]

in some cases yes it's handy, but hot glue gun glue has a very low melting temp, so in many scenarios it can start to soften or even melt after a little while

[@MrCjrules]

Would you ever do a series where you redo projects and reference the post analysis like your ultimate console series

[@ZacBuilds]

Ya definitely. I've actually done it before in the past but without the reference back to old videos. Once I feel like I have a good enough concept I'll happily revisit old projects and try again!

[@lunartigersora4690]

I love this plus the gulikit hall effects are awesome, I wonder if I could get someone to do these mods to an old oled and send it modded.. it seems so powerful and useful for certain games

[@fiftytwo50]

Very cool build. I think you could reduce the need for supports within the recess for your walnut faceplate by filleting the overhangs. Then use a round-over router bit along the backside of the wooden piece to match. Might save others a bit of trouble dialing in their support interfaces.

[@payayaa]

this is great. nintendo really just released TOTK on a 6 yr old console and still doesnt understand why people hack or emulate their games. a pro version is much needed and you delivered just perfectly!😄👍

[@YounesLayachi]

With 8 years old hardware built on 10 years old node using 12 years old memory

[@OMA2k]

Let's get real: Most people hacking the console or emulating don't do it for better performance or framerates, but just for plain old piracy, i.e. playing games without paying.

[@OMA2k]

@@khightofjustice2828 Don't generalize PC gamers, please. Not all are pirates.

[@yaboy2777]

one problem with a metal switch is that it probably will get really hot if playing outdoors in direct sunlight

[@guillermomarturetfendt9037]

yeah but you aint really playing under those conditions lmao and it still would get hot with the original plate

[@teamdoubleR]

Awesome video. Thanks for the handheld clock settings. Ive been messing around for about 4 years with custom firmware and have 2 switches now one running android and the other atmosphere. It truely unlocks all potential for the system Nd games like pokemom scarlet/violet and totk/botw actually run great 😊

[@Telmarine55]

This video went way over my head. I’m pretty satisfied with how my Switch runs. But man, you really know your stuff. You’re amazing!

[@krono996]

This man is singlehandedly responsible for half of Noctua's fan sales I'm pretty sure

[@bluepikminflare]

Nah Noctua was already big before this video, really high quality heating solution

[@seraphim1275]

don't forget linus tech tips

[@ilichio]

No

[@Hughesburner]

I can safely say that you don't build PC's. They are have been around for awhile and are top tier.

[@krono996]

@@Hughesburner I can safely say you have no sense of humour. It's obviously a joke

[@abdullahismail9425]

What if you wired the fan to the little LED on the dock? The green LED only lights up when the switch is turned on so if you somehow wired the fan to only turn on when the light is on, it would be fully automatic You could also use one of those fabric "condoms" for the dock to prevent the nylon part from scratching the screen

[@ZacBuilds]

Interesting idea, maybe I'll play around with that in the future. However I worry that since the fan draws significantly more amps (and also not sure what voltage that LED operates at) it may damage the PCB. Definitely worth exploring though!

[@schwuzi]

​@@ZacBuilds just use a smol relay or transistor

[@dinnerbug3105]

You could have used a utility called Status-Monitor-Overlay to check temperatures with and without the overclock. You would have seen that temperatures at all times are perfectly fine with the only "problem" being that the integrated fan ramps up. Status-Monitor-Overlay also lets you see fps and battery usage if you are interested.

[@louiec.9782]

This skit was cleverly a giant commercial nice job bro! Buy this buy that and don't forget to buy this and also buy that and this oh and you definitely need to buy this!

[@dhoome1234ify]

Pro tip: For those that don't have a 3d printer for the jig, AliExpress and Amazon sells them for less than 10$

[@ZacBuilds]

Good call.

[@dhoome1234ify]

@@ZacBuilds also I'm surprised that you didn't purchase a switch hub that supports Ethernet...

[@Random-re5fc]

For 3d printing you can get dissolvable filament, I think it’s called pva filament so once you’ve finished printing you can put it in water and they just dissolve away.

[@nitroxidious]

Isn't that just microplastics then?

[@Random-re5fc]

@@nitroxidious probably, I’ve not persona looked into it because I don’t own a multi-filament extrusion system but it would be interesting to look into. I don’t think tho that it is micro plastics because it pva the same as pva glue but like I said I haven’t looked into it.

[@nelsonisaacson1465]

@@nitroxidious Yes, but it's not as bad as others (if that makes it better?). PVA is what the shrouds on dishwasher/laundry pods are made of, as well as the binder in glue sticks. It's been used as a dissolvable filament for a while, though it's pricy and a pain to store (in my experience). It absolutely can biodegrade but it requires some rather specific conditions and the effects of it environmentally are still underresearched, so who knows how much damage it actually does. It alone doesn't appear to cause significant issues, but there's some early evidence that it can act as a vector for heavy metal transfer in worst-case scenarios.

[@ZacBuilds]

I'd love to try that soon. I know the process is similar for resin based 3d printers (except its alcohol instead of water), and I've been debating picking one of those up for fun too.

[@OCDRex11]

@@ZacBuilds Resin is like buying a Ferrari when you have been driving a Corvette. Resin is just amazing. Rarely do I print with filament anymore. Ironically, as we speak, I am using my Prusa to print a doorbell mount for a Ring, lol.

[@adolchristin9837]

"And yeah, from what I'm seeing, it's way smoother" 😂 oh God, I can't imagine how it ran before on an unmoded Switch 😅

[@Wolfstanus]

"It can be an absolute slide show *shows smooth gameplay*

[@carlosmessala]

As Modern Vintage Gamer benchmarked, TotK can run at plain 30 FPS by just rising the RAM memory clock above 1.8 GHz. You can save some heat with the CPU and GPU overclocks when the issue is just TotK performance.

[@alvaromireles]

the ram use thermal pads, no termal paste, holy... man, just use thermal pads

[@CarlosRuizisthebest]

Lol

[@DecibelAlex]

stock switch don't have anything on the ram, it's not even necessary when running it overclocked. this is all overkill and will just be annoying to clean up later

[@ZacBuilds]

That's not true. Stock they come bare and are not connected to the IHS of the SOC in anyway. The IHS has a little bit of downward pressure on the ram though making a good candidate for thermal paste. There would be no room for a thermal pad.

[@alvaromireles]

@@ZacBuilds I don't mean to say that come in stock switch, only that are a better option, I use thermal pads for the ram, an thermal pads from the cover to the back metal plate, the thermals I have max whiteout any extra fan are 58-60 Whit max overclock, the back case metal plate are a great idea, the only downside is that the back of the switch heat up more to the heat dissipation, not sorry for the bad English, I have no respect for this language

[@squnxfisher9831]

those solder joints look ruff buddy 😅 especially those fan wires. those are pvc sleeved they melt away instantly no worry, it gets better with experience 😉 I enjoyed the wohle build process, as a carpenter I really like the wooden touch.

[@GaltJohn2008]

Cool project. I feel like if there's a Version 2.0, I'd stack specific thicknesses of copper sheets to fill the gap instead of that thermal paste stuff. I do feel like there is some kind of better way for the Noctua fan to come on, like a micro switch under the spring loaded guide; but then you run into the issue of the fan running even if you're not charging. There must be somewhere on the board that there is a lead which could act as a trigger for a relay, but thats gonna be tougher to work out. Cool video and nice 3D print work.

[@tutacat]

Make sure your fan is spinning forwards. If it's maglev it wouldn't turn on with reverse polarity, but a bearing one might. Also, the connector on the fan works with solid core wire without soldering.

[@OneMindNoLimit]

You should add an M-Classic into the dock to improve the anti-aliasing. A couple friends and I use them, and they really help clean up a lot of games that use a lower internal render resolution.

[@Pysnpai]

I daisy chain mine to a photofast 4k gamer pro that I got last Black Friday. Makes games look 15-20% clearer and sharper at the same time. Verticals lines are still noticeable though. I’m going to overclock my switch and change the backplate to see some results.

[@OneMindNoLimit]

@@Pysnpai interesting. I’d like to see someone do a case/shell mod that does away with the actual back plate and instead adds a larger heat sync as well as a larger fan overall. Essentially, I just want to see someone make a docked only switch pro that targets 1080p 60FPS. Also, would you clarify; you’re saying that you have an mclassic connected to the 4K gamer pro, correct?

[@nathanlamaire]

Another fun fact, Tegra X1 is never meant to run on portable devices. You'll never find this type of SoC on other devices than desktop form factors, aka., Shield TV, and Nintendo Switch. This chip is actually really powerful and is capable of demanding tasks. However, it runs really hot and uses a lot of power for portable devices rated at 15 W, exactly the same as Steam Deck at turbo mode. If Switch uses the same wattage it could run so many AAA games optimised for Switch, but its battery will get deeply crippled and probably won't last longer than an hour.

[@theunkownviolinist]

Atmosphere isn't an OS, it *is* the custom firmware. As far as bans go, your console is what gets banned if you have pirated games or homebrew stuff installed on your system. The stuff mentioned in the video is what gets your account banned, but as long as you're not doing those things and your console does get banned, your nintendo account is most likely safe and can be used on another switch. To lower the chances of a console bans most people would set up emuNAND, have the CFW to block communication with nintendo servers and blank out the system's product info for the emuNAND.