Sure thing. Here’s my take:
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Alright, so picture this: just two weeks into the wild world of Nintendo’s Switch 2 dropping into our laps, and guess what? Chinese resellers have already managed to snag some of those elusive motherboards right from the production line. No joke. They’ve popped up on Goofish for a cool $120. I stumbled upon this, scrolling through HXL’s posts on that app formerly known as Twitter – you know the one.
So, there are these pics floating around, showing what looks like a panelized PCB setup. Basically, it’s a jungle of little PCBs chilling on one mega PCB before Foxconn (or whoever) carves ’em up into individual pieces. Yeah, like slicing bread but techier. Now, the real twist? These PCBs flaunt the same marker stamps – it’s all very official-like, minus a couple of metal shields missing here and there… kind of crucial, but hey, close enough.
Now, I was poking around Nintendo Japan’s site for fun (don’t ask why), and for an out-of-warranty repair, they slap you with a $175 bill to fix or swap the PCB. Compare that to these aftermarket treasures, and it’s almost a no-brainer if you’re okay with third-party repairs. I mean, maybe Nintendo’s got some secret component-level ID trick up their sleeve – linking parts to specific boards – which might throw a wrench in these indie repair gigs. But, who’s to say?
Now let’s dream for a sec: could someone Frankenstein a Switch 2 from these boards plus random third-party bits? It’d be a sweet DIY project if only parts weren’t a unicorn right now. The motherboard’s got Nvidia’s Tegra T239 SoC, with 8x Arm Cortex-A78C cores and some beefy Ampere GPU action. Tech jargon tells me it’s based on old Samsung 8nm/10nm tech – because why not reuse old tricks, am I right?
Some test went rogue recently, where this Switch 2 got its screen smashed 50 times with pliers. But amusingly, GameStop folks punctured the screens by stapling receipts onto console boxes. Wow. Anyway, iFixit has been in a mood, dropping the repair score of the OG Switch from 8/10 to 4/10; and for the newcomer? A 3/10. Not a great sign, but warranties have their quirks once they’re toast, or if Nintendo decides they don’t feel like fixing your stuff.
Oh, and before I forget – keep up with Tom’s Hardware on Google News. Hit that follow button, will ya?
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There you go. Let me know if you need anything else!
