The INSIDE of a 7" Laptop - What We Found Will Surprise You!
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- In this video we are replacing the SSD that came with the laptop with a brand new one, along with a quick peak at the interior of that AliExpress 7 inch Laptop.
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UPDATE!! - I've now created a forum for everyone to discuss issues, modifications, use cases, and more. Take a look at www.slagle-tec... for answers to questions you may have, or post your question there and see if other actual users can help out.
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** Links to items mentioned or used in video**:
2022 Portable 7 inch Mini Laptop - (AliExpress*) - s.click.aliexp...
Logitech Pebble Wireless Mouse - (Amazon*) - amzn.to/3i6StBw
KingSpec 2242 SATA M.2 SSD (512GB) - (Amazon*) - amzn.to/3Jvzigi
Precise Electric Screwdriver - (Amazon*) - amzn.to/3DumH8W
(* These links are affiliate links and I may receive a percentage if you make a purchase after clicking these links. These are a great way to assist in the growth of the channel at no additional cost. )
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Yeah... I would have considered dremelling out that USB-C port while I had the bottom off. Maybe drill it out and then 3d print an insert for it, even if I felt like getting fancy.
Yeah it was more of a not enough time to do it right thing. I do want to cut out access for that port. 3D printing an insert is a good idea. Thanks!
@@S-Technology I teach 3d printing, so I am very much a hammer that sees a world full of nothing but 3d printed nails. I get not having the time to do it right. I would love to see what you do with it if you decide to go that route, though!
@@jyoung-dj1zr I like that analogy. I enjoy messing with my Ender-3. Although my still basic ability at Fusion360 limits how creative I get. I can make cool things in Tinkercad though... hahaha
@@S-Technology Hey, for some stuff, Tinkercad is all you need. I think it's worth learning F360 or another CAD package, too, but if you get what you need out of Tinkercad, I say go for it. We have a ton of the Ender-3s where I work and they are good little machines. For the record, I like Tinkercad for how easy it is to go from a couple .svg files into custom cookie cutters.
With the fact that it doesn't have heat pipes and the fact that it's metal upon metal, I believe that the aluminum conducts the heat to the bottom panel to dissipate heat from the CPU... I would recomend getting some rubber feet for that laptop, sticking it to the bottom so that there is at least a 1/8th of a inch of clearance, that way it can get air flow going across the metal panel and cool the CPU better!!
It does have small black rubber feet on it, but with the footprint size of the bottom. But you are right that it does need more clearance than what they originally give it.
Stick some kb style hinged feet on it for desk use
@@S-Technology I would suggest flooding area between aluminum plates with thermal paste. It would make outer plate more useful.
I'm thinking of getting it, my only question is what in the world is that fan doing? There is clearly no heatpipe going to it
The only half-reasonable idea that comes to mind is it sucks air out, but if you think about it having an exaust at the bottom of the laptop isn't a very good idea.
Edit: i now see what they've done, the air is actually coming out the side, still going to be far better off with a heatpipe obviously
Yeah it blows air pretty well out the side of the unit. But it's just not being utilized nearly as efficiently as it could be, in my opinion.
replaceable SSD makes it already better than a macbook.
btw, you can smear thermal paste between 2 sheets of aluminum, otherwise heat is transferred to the first sheet from the processor, and the second sheet is simply pressed against the first, this should improve cooling
Hell, I'm rather impressed at how relatively easy that was to disassemble. Quite a tidy little unit. I'm also in the camp of dremeling out the USB C port, because on a device that small you pretty much need every port you can get. Also agree with SUCHMISH about the rubber feet, couldn't hurt. With the bottom plate being full metal it should act as a nice heatspreader.
It also looks like it'd be mighty easy to 3d print an alternative bottom plate for it, so you could make Joycon rails, or just attach it to a deeper bottom for extra internal space. Not that I really suggest that, but it'd be neat.
Dremeling the port is definitely something I am going to do. Possibly finding some longer adhesive pads for the bottom, and replacing the thermal paste should also help with the heat.
3d printing a bottom plate is an interesting idea. You would need to use something that takes heat better than PLA though.
@@S-Technology PLA would be overall bad both for heat and for creep, the case would start coming apart on it's own in a while at the clips. Definitely something for ABS (heat AND creep at it's best plus it's cheap) but sure is harder to use. At that short height tho it might be quite viable if you've got the bed size.
It looks like they were going to try to put a fan on the cpu. Not enough cooling. Then use an aluminum plate with that square indention as a heat sync with a fan. Still not enough cooling. Then doubled the plates to increase the mass of the aluminum and then use a fan elsewhere to move air over it. Still must have been cheaper and use less space than a heat pipe. I still give this unit good marks for this design. Thanks for showing such great detail!
I installed 2 fans outside, powered by USB, it became 11 degrees colder. The fans are 1W each, installed on the back left of the laptop.
Did you need to install any specific drivers to get the mouse to work after swapping the SSD and reinstalling Windows? I installed Windows 10 and the left click stopped working despite it working on the version that's on the SSD that came with the computer. The button itself also works on Windows 10 because on the boot up menu that says "hit any key" I can hit it and it brings me to my desktop. Bluetooth mouse works fine but I'd like to get the button on the laptop itself working if possible.
Bought one of these recently and it stopped working after less than a month. Fan runs but computer doesn't boot. Not very happy with purchase.
So does it only accepts SATA based drives and not NVME?
With the ssd change, is the system better or stills as equal with the problems that You have in the other videos?
I think it’s better. I’ve noticed it’s not pushing the cpu as high at idle, and Minecraft loads faster.
It’s still a little cpu, but I think it’s better.
So, this is cool. What I'm getting from your videos is that we might look around for suppliers who say it's got a USB-C port, so we don't need to excavate our own holes, and don't be afraid to order bottom of the line specs, because if they're making something better, they'll probably send it to you rather than take one apart and downgrade it.
You said, I think, it's less glitchy with windows reinstalled. Did I get that right?
And I really wish other manufacturers made laptops that were this easy to take apart! My 14 inch Lenovo was much more of a PITA than this one.
@Spencer Dawkins That’s possible. I just keep saying that the quality control doesn’t seem consistent. I wouldn’t want someone to purchase a lower tier model and expect a better version.
I do feel like the CPU peaks less frequently after reinstalling windows.
And yeah it opened much easier than I expected. I have a 14 inch HP laptop that I ended up tearing a part of the rubber foot and cracking a plastic guitar pick opener just to upgrade the RAM.
This series of videos has been really interesting and informative...thanks
Glad you like them!
😀awesome! can't wait to see if we can upgrade this cpu to a duo core in the next episode. if this can be done, then this little tiny machine is totally worth it by all means. also surprised to see the cooling fan does not have a heat pipe directly over the cpu and gpu. improve the sandwich aluminum cookie baking pans, this tiny little system can be a smoking beast!!! thanks!
Not sure about me swapping out that CPU. I am going to make an access for that USBC, add some (probably overkill) better thermal paste and one more idea to help with the cooling. I think those little mods will make this way more useful for a daily use take everywhere option.
That's not possible unfortunately
...that processor is a quad core tho...
The best thing available on that same footprint (FCBGA1090) would be a Pentium Silver J5040 which isn't too much better in comparison, given the fact you'll have to de-solder a BGA processor and solder back in another one, then hope the BIOS recognizes it and it all goes well, I doubt it would be worth trying.
Funny that Intel claims it's up to 8GB on RAM support (both the Pentium and the Celeron on this specific machine) tho they sell it with 12GB...
@@Kalvinjj 👍Pentium Silver J5040, its Intel UHD Graphics 605 graphics solutions is on the slower side, wondering if anyone tried to play GTA V on this little machine yet? Can we load a stress test on it?
@@Kalvinjj Celeron J4125 being known widely used in the fanless mini pcs. It was a big surprise to see the unit was designed and equipped with a jet engine cooling fan in mind, am only guessing this system bios would recognize J5040 without any problem by looking its layout.
Noooooooo put some thermal paste between those plates there is so much air between them
Aliexpress states it comes with either Intel J4105 or J4125: "J4105/J4125 Random"
Which CPU did yours come with?
The one I have has a J4125.
I did see that there were different versions by different vendors. They seemed to want to use fluff terms like "2022 version" or "upgraded model" but if you looked at the listings the CPU varied. The listing for mine did say J4125, but I also did order the 128gb model and received a 256gb SSD. So not sure about the actual quality control there.
Cool
@ omxga Thanks!
It might run a bit better if you put new thermal paste ;)
I think it will. Pretty sure they have a cheap kind on there as it is.
You have completely unused space in the corner between battery and cooler. Youcan put there some small PpwerDelivery PCB module with Type-C port, set it for the same voltage as standard charger and Soler directly to the charger pins on the motherboard. And "cooling system" needs and modification/upgrade. There is not much room for serious modification, but you can't try to check for the air goes though this laptop inside, and maybe change the radiator to something like it was in the last generations of Intel Mac Air.
Did you not put new thermal paste on the cpu? Once you break that seal it's always a good idea to put new paste on.
@ModerusPrime I did off camera. But all I had at the time was a older tube of it. It seemed okay and is probably better than the factory’s.
But this does “give me a reason” to buy some better quality thermal paste and do a video comparing the before and after with everyone’s ideas so far.
I bought one this week, I'm waiting for it to arrive. Are you going to make more videos about him?
I have a few more videos in mind with this little laptop. If you have any suggestions let me know. I’m very sure I’ve missed things.
Another device for your consideration: there's a "Pocket PC" that is 5 inches. Has the J4125 as well but no keyboard or mouse. Just a touchscreen. I'd be interested in your breakdown of it
I saw that also and made the choice of this laptop over that one ... Now I want to review both. haha.
@@S-Technology Hahaha! Go for it!
I'm really enjoying this series and I'm looking forward to seeing your modifications
Thank You.
Question: are there unused Ribbon cable slots? At around the 2:52 mark in the bottom right corner. I'm not very well informed but it reminds me of the bits that ribbon cables go into. If so: what are they doing there? What can they be used for?
There are quite a few unused ribbon cable slots all over. Some are probably for testing, but my guess is that this board is used in other larger laptops with other features. The stylizing, options and layout is really close to a larger laptop reviewed by LTT. I wouldn't be surprised if its not the same board in various "cheap laptops" on AliExpress.
@@S-Technology that's interesting! I was wondering if that gave more options for modifications....
a way to make the cpu cooler, maybe much cooler is to put some new thermal paste on that cpu and not just a little dot like on a desktop cpu, there is no such thing as too much and its a bare cpu die. also put thermal paste between the two sandwiched together sheets of aluminium as air is a really bad heat conductor.
I thought of replacing the thermal paste. Putting some between the aluminum seems like an interesting idea.
I also though of getting some of those thermal pads (I know they aren't as good as paste) to gap the space between the top aluminum and the bottom of the unit. There is a large air gap between those two. The pad currently there seems it's more for structural support than cooling.
@@S-Technology There are fat thermal pads available.
You can cut a hole in form of that USB-C if you want to use it, the body is made from metal, a Dremel tool and elbow grease will do the job.
This answered my question if the device has Bluetooth. Thank you!
Why dis they hide the USB C port?? Such a weid thing,
No idea. I agree with you.
the lower tier model don't get a USB-C, but its too expensive to design a different MB. Just like BMW and their rear seat heaters - you don't get the button for the heater, but the heating element is in all the seats
I think this one is a between generations model. Like they still had the old casings but started using new boards.
Great video. Purchased the mini 7 inch from Aliexpress a few weeks ago. Installed a new version of windows 11 pro and purchased a key just to to be safe, since there are absolutely no labels as to who the manufacturer is, model number, etc.
My unit works perfectly except for one problem...the battery is defective. It discharges from full charge to 50% over night when off. Only will last about 1 hour on battery. Can anyone tell me the manufacturer and model number of the battery? I was hoping to see this info when you opened it, but everything except the current and voltage was in Chinese. I have asked KT Technologies if they can send me a replacement battery. In the meantime, I will replace it myself if I can find one...thanks! Jerry Aceto
I forgot to mention in my last comment that I purchased a 2nd mini 7 for a friend. The 2nd unit proves my suspicion. The battery was at 77% on arrival.when fully charged, will last about 4 to 5 hours.
Jerry Aceto
Hello . is it possible to install NVME ?
Hmm… I’m not sure. It came with a SATA drive so I just replaced it with that. I don’t currently have a spare 2242 NVME. Might have to get one to try.
@@S-Technology N930ES example. two keys. I agree you should try.
NVME doesnt seem to be supported. Tried NVME ssd but neither bios or windows installation found it. Tried changing bios settings but doesnt work.
Thanks for checking.
I just posted a comment on your first video about this mini laptop and didn't realize you had the J4125 CPU as I have in mine. I also went for 512 Gb to save any messing around later with upgrades. Interesting about that hidden USB-C port but not completely unheard of, I'm sure there's a reason for it. If I ever find out I'll post my findings. BTW what problems were you having that required a re-install ?
The pc comes set up in an admin account the vendors used. I know there’s the chance that it isn’t nefarious, but I want to use this for typing notes, web browsing and some other things that I need to log into accounts for.
So I just reinstalled everything as an over the top precaution.
@@S-Technology I did reply to your comment but it seems to have disappeared into thin air.......anyway just to say what I always do with a new machine or fresh install is run 'removeedge.bat' as Edge is a resource hog and continuingly downloads things you don't want. Also I run a usefull piece of software called 'DoNotSpy11' which lists all the data gathering things running in the background and allows you to switch them off. You can do the same thing with the Group Policy Editor but it takes a long time and is very detailed. If you do all these things you'll free up resources & give yourself more ram to play with, not to mention make your computer safer at the same time.
Hmm. That’s odd it disappeared. I don’t have anything in the “held for review” area.
I’m going to have to take a look at those. I might run it to actually see what is put on some of the other cheap Chinese PCs I’m looking at reviewing. Thank you.
@@S-Technology It was probably down to me that my comment went out the window, it was late and I was nodding off at the time😀 Yeah I'd be interested at seeing what other mini pc's have to offer.
i feel like it having 2 of those uh....cooling plates(?) was a design defect, as there really isn't a good reason for it to have 2, not without some kind of thermal material between them.
I honestly think it's stacked to try to have aluminum between the cpu and the bottom plate, but they would need atleast 2 more to have them make contact with each other. With just 2 there is still an air gap and I don't think that fan circulates the air near the cpu.
@@S-Technology sandwich plates appeared to create a gape from bottom and goal is to relaying aside cooling fan to dispersion the accumulative heat. agree, if passive cooling mod can be done to this little machine, it can be a master piece!
Will you give it away ?
Probably not.
4:54 What power supply did you use? I found one that outputs 5v OR 9v OR 12v to USB-C. Maby you picked one that only outputs 5v. The shipped charger outputs 12v. Maby USB-C needs 12v too?
I used a switching power supply that is supposed to output either 5v 3A, 9v 2A, or 12v 1.5A. (It's the same large black and red one I used in the review video... I think.) It's actually what I use with a USB-C to Barrel adapter right now to charge it.
cpu mod to have it swapabble
That would be interesting. 🤔