Tearing Apart the New Apple TV 4K w/ Ethernet, and A Few HomePod Repairs

[@NicsFix]

I'm giving away a custom first generation homepod! kzbin.info/www/bejne/iZuth6ucn7Sqr8k

[@chefhawk]

Great video. The internals of the new ATV are very different to the layout of the previous version.

[@schoolstaff9931]

i played arcade games on ATV 2022 and it getting hot, im thinking to add heatsink on top of ATV

[@RobCarter04]

Thanks for the teardown vid! Interesting to see that they flipped the internals from the previous version to have the SoC on top with that passive heatsink bonded to the top of the case. Does a good job pulling the heat off the chips, but unfortunately that plastic top just can’t handle the full output of the A15 for more than a few minutes with a variety of Apple Arcade titles. I’ve seen a number of people note that while the A15 certainly outperforms the A12 in the last gen initially, the active cooler in that previous model keeps that performance consistent throughout gameplay. The 3rd gen on the other hand pretty quickly hits thermal throttling in a few minutes which very noticeably affects game performance delivery a frustratingly choppy experience. I’ve just picked up an 80*80*25mm finned aluminum heatsink that’s sitting on top of the box with some 0.5mm thermal pads to see if that’s enough to keep the A15 out of throttle temp. It has definitely made a noticeable difference already. Hello Kitty Island Adventure would previously start throttling after just a couple minutes of gameplay, with my thermal probe registering 50+C on the top surface of the box. With the heatsink just sitting on top with some 0.5mm thermal pad connecting the two I’m already seeing an immediately noticeable difference in performance. Flipping the box on its side with the fins oriented vertically seems to have helped the passive dissipation as well by increasing the convection flow over the fins.

[@NicsFix]

Interesting, I'll have to make a nice stand to hold mine like that!

[@zee1734]

How would one remove that heatsink from the plastic casing?

[@borisdg]

I'm bit sad that the A15 in the Apple TV is binned chip aka defective/didn't passed the QC test (so they dont have to throw the silicon) of Apple and it has only 5 from it's 6 cores enabled. 1 e-core (Blizzard) is disabled.

[@NicsFix]

If it’s still got adequate performance then I think it’s a wonderful idea to use these binned chips instead of throwing them out! An Apple TV doesn’t need or do as much as an iphone or iPad :)

[@RobCarter04]

This is ubiquitous across the industry, and an excellent way to keep production costs down. Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, etc all do exactly the same thing.

[@scaramonga]

Get a microscope boy :)

[@tronghungdao251]

❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉