On Thursday, we printed two images taken from an FCC filing for a Chromecast unit with its casing removed, we didn’t have much to go on at the time in terms of specific components other than the Marvell DE3005 chip, and the Azurewave chip which handles Wi-Fi connectivity at 2GHz but now that customer’s have finally started receiving the units they pre-ordered, curiosity has got the better of one company who has now disassembled the unit in order to have a detailed poke around the device’s hardware.

Straight out of the box we are informed that the device features a 1080p HDMI output, 2.4 GHz WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, USB-powered, 4GB internal storage, and compatibility with a variety of devices, including both iOS and Android devices. A more detailed look at the device reveals exactly how the hardware, packed inside makes these specifications possible.

There are only two main parts to the Chromecast; a PCB motherboard with components soldered into place and a gigantic (relatively speaking, in comparison to this 2-inch unit) aluminium heat sink to stop the device from getting too hot and melting its plastic casing.

The main elements included on the motherboard can be found together with two color-coded images below:

• An AzureWave AW-NH387 802.11 b/g/n WLAN, Bluetooth, FM combo module (depicted with a red outline)
• Marvell DE3005-A1 System-on-a-chip (with an orange perimeter)
• 4GB of Micron MT29F16G08MAA 16Gb NAND Flash memory (outlined in yellow)
• 512MB of low-voltage Mircon D9PXV DDR3LSDRAM (with a green boarder)

IFixit considers the Chromecast to be a “luxury device” with limited use that you simply throw away if it goes bad and replace it with a new one, as there is just nothing to replace, upgrade or repair in this tiny dongle.

Click the source link below to view a guide of the disassembly process for Chromecast and a detailed insight of its components.

• SourceiFixit