Purchased a one XD earlier this year and I have been super pleased with the product and support. Not really in the mode of immediately upgrading hardware, but I find myself needing more cores than the Intel Xeon-D 4 Core currently is providing me. How can I safely pull the board and replace it? I don't want to crack the lid on the unit because I can't seem to find any photos from anyone who did it so I have no idea what I would be getting myself into.
Also...since I am asking for the how to, it would also be great to know if Antsle provides the service inhouse as well...just in case I get lazy.
Thanks.
Hi @alkalinecandy,
The CPU is connected to the case with a thermal paste and changing it out by yourself isn't something we'd recommend you doing since it can be tricky. I don't think the lid would crack but the components inside could be damaged if you try to do it DIY.
If you'd like us to upgrade the CPU/Motherboard for you just write to [email protected] with the specs of the upgrade you need and we can get back to you on what that would cost.
Thanks,
Daniel
@ddmscott,
Great info and appreciate the insight. Cracking the lid was referring to going inside the box not actually having the lid crack. Would it possible at some point for you guys to give us some insight into the manufacturing process? I am sure there is some proprietary thing you are doing which you can completely hide of course, but it would be great for us to see at least part of the build process because we are investing in the hardware and unlike a Mac, we actually want it to do something outside of look pretty. LOL.
Are the motherboards different between the one XD and the other models?
Thanks for the insight again.
John
@alkalinecandy,
The motherboards are different in each model as they correspond with the CPUs. I would like to do a short video about the manufacture and build process but not sure when we'll be able to get into it. I do have some "exploded' images that show the components inside and can share that here if you'd like.
@ddmscott,
@alkalinecandy hasn't responded but as someone who's also interested in upgrading some of the hardware (RAM in my case), I would love to see the images, or even a just list of the components if at all possible. For example, it would be nice to know what capabilities my antsle's MB has before I purchase new RAM, like how many slots, what speeds are supported, etc. Taking the antsle apart just to get the parts list is not ideal since it increases my downtime.
Here's something that may help.
There are 4 RAM slots and 4 Storage bays.
@ddmscott In general, how hard is it take the box apart to if a person wanted to DIY adding storage or RAM (totally get why upgrading CPU would be tricky!)
@mshappe, good to see you in the forums :).
Storage is relatively simple to add to as it is accessible from the bottom of the device, but the memory is attached to dedicated internal heatsinks with a direct thermal connection to the case, I would recommend having Antsle do it.
@mshappe when it comes down to it, if you have experience working with PC components and you're willing to accept the blame if you screw something up then you should be okay. It's not as overly complex as they'd like to make you think. ;)
The only thing to watch out for is the CPU cooling. The exploded image above is a little misleading. The silver block shown is the heat pipe connecting the top of your CPU directly to the top of the case, meaning the CPU is effectively thermal pasted to your case. Because of this setup, the motherboard is actually mounted to the top of the case, and after unscrewing, pulling out the motherboard will break the thermal paste connection. Just make sure to clean it with isopropyl alcohol and a sturdy lintless rag and reapply thermal paste before starting it up again!
EDIT: In case you're curious, the RAM might be SODIMM (laptop size, more expensive per GB), depending on which antsle you bought. If you bought one recently, I'm guessing they're using the Supermicro boards that have full DIMM slots now for the Xeon-D and Denverton processors, but the old ones like mine only ran SODIMM, which made replacing the RAM much more expensive.
You may be interested in checking out nestybox's sysbox.
I use it to squeeze more machines out of fewer cores. It's essentially a container runtime to allow more secure systemd containers.
https://github.com/nestybox/sysbox-ee
