Gadgets

Boxee Box Teardown

Teardown of the D-Link Boxee BoxThe Boxee Box is a cubist deviation from the traditionally rectangular set-top box. The oddly-shaped form factor forced D-Link to make the internals equally odd. But that also made it super fun to take apart!

It’s smaller than it looks in our photos. The Box is roughly thrice the size of an Apple TV, but it certainly won’t dominate your entertainment center. After looking at the overall package — both outside and in — we feel that the Box has build quality that rivals Apple’s, and is much more solid than the Logitech Revue (aka Google TV). The front panel is made of sturdy plastic and displays a neat Boxee logo once you power on the device, just in case you mistake it for a device that should instead have a glowing apple symbol.

We gave the Boxee Box a 7 out of 10 repairability score. The rubber base is a doozy to remove, and will most likely never be same once you’ve taken the plunge. Once you have it off, however, all you need is a Phillips screwdriver to take the Box apart the rest of the way. It has a logical assembly layout, as well as a separate power board that can be replaced independently from the motherboard, should it ever fail.

Teardown highlights:

  • The Boxee Box has an Intel CE4110 processor which is nearly identical to the Logitech Revue’s CE4150. In fact, both devices seem to be running at 1.2 GHz.
  • Other notable specifications of the Boxee are 1 GB of Nanya DDR3 SDRAM and 1 GB of Toshiba NAND flash memory. Realtek is contributing an RTL8201N Ethernet chip, and Broadcom provides the BCM4319XKUBG Wi-Fi chip.
  • The Boxee has a digital to analog audio converter, courtesy of Wolfson Audio! That means you can pump out 1080p video and still use your analog audio equipment. Very convenient for people who may hook up the Boxee Box directly to their computer speakers or retro stereo equipment.
  • In stark contrast with the Apple TV, this media player has a convenient SD card slot.
  • A soft white plate on the status panel disperses the light from a couple LEDs to illuminate the semi-transparent Boxee logo either orange (standby) or green (running).
  • Instead of using thermal paste, the Boxee Box uses a phase-change thermal pad much like the one found on the heat sink of the Logitech Revue.
Teardown of the Boxee Box by D-Link
Unsrewing a screw
D-Link Boxee Box teardown parts
Final Layout