Intel NUC5i7RYH Disassembly

Written By: Jasen Friedle

Comments: 24

Difficulty

Easy

Steps

Time Required

10 minutes

Introduction

This guide will provide information on how to disassemble an Intel NUC5i7RYH or similar.

Tools

Phillips #1 Screwdriver

Step 1

Place the NUC upside down and start by using a Phillips head screw driver to remove the lower screws on the lower case door.
These screws are held in with retainers, so they won't fall out when you flip the lid.

Step 2

Lift the door, and keep an eye on the cables that connect to the NUC's motherboard. These cables are the power and data cables for the 2.5" hard drive bay.
Carefully unplug the cables from the motherboard, and set the bracket aside.
In the last photo, the slot for a blade SSD is marked. This is where you would install the blade SSD, and use a screw to hold it in place.

Step 3

Remove the 4 silver screws that hold the hard drive in the bracket. The metal shield with thermal pad in the red box will come off: this comes in handy if you have a blade SSD installed, as it insulates it from the metal.
Carefully slide the 2.5" HDD or SSD out of its case.

Step 4

Removal of RAM on these units is just like on a standard laptop: slightly bend each arm on each side of the chip, and allow it to pop up before sliding it out of the socket.
If using two sticks of RAM, repeat this process for the lower stick underneath.

Step 5

The motherboard is held in with two black Phillips head screws, located on the left hand side.
Be sure to unplug the antenna cables from the wireless card before removing the motherboard.
Grasp the ethernet port, and lift the board out of the case.

I’m trying to disassemble an NUC 54250WYKH (released 2013), due to a now hopelessly broken fan. Removing the mother board has been proven to be very hard.I’m suspecting that it is just “stuck” to the top or that the headphone jack/IR receiver part is stuck.

After removing the two screws above: is it just a matter of applying a bit of force?

Linus - 24/04/18

Hi Linus,

The motherboard in my NUC lifts out without much force at all, so try and make sure none of the connectors are catching on the case.

Jasen Friedle - 01/05/18

I also have the NUC 54250WYKH and I am unable to remove the motherboard. It looks like the motherboard is held in place by something in addition to the 2 screws.

lamsan - 10/10/18

Does it budge at all? There’s a chance the I/O ports are catching on the case of the NUC when lifting the motherboard up.

Jasen Friedle - 10/10/18

Easy to destroy the antenna cable connector if you haven’t done it before. A warning may be in order.

wyldbill - 02/06/20

After trying to brute force the Motherboard out, i tried to remove the black plastic cover for the jackstick. You have to press the plastic from inside and out. There is a “holder" you need to press from its metalframe. After i got the cover out, I could see the jackstick that was behind the cover, was sticking further out the metal case, therefore holding the motherboard., As it got stuck on the metal frame.

Then getting it out from the opposite side (LAN and power side) was easy.

This was in the D54250wykh.

Sadly I cannot add pictures of it in this comment.

Muggi - 21/09/20

Step 6

The motherboard should lift right out of the case.
To remove the fan, unscrew the two Phillips head screws holding it in. It can then be unplugged from the motherboard.

Thank you for this tutorial - it was lifesaver for us.

Our NUC was overheating and after we disassembled motherboard and cleaned tons of dust in fan NUC is working propery again.

Thans a lot :)

BR, Alan

Alan Poldrugac - 30/04/19

Step 7

This unit is relatively easy to disassemble and reassemble. Good luck!

I work on notebooks for a living and getting that motherboard back in the NUC was the most frustrating, profanity laced efforts I’ve ever had. The case is just too tight a fit. Wish I had just blown it out with compressed air and run the other direction.

gridglory - 06/08/19

The case is a tight fit. It's easiest if you put the front side all the way down and in place and push down on the top of the ethernet port to reseat the motherboard.

Sierra Guru -

Conclusion

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

Author

Jasen Friedle

Member since: 25/08/14

3821 Reputation

15 comments

Clear description, I used it for NUC7i7RYH, where my cpu was often 100 degrees.

I followed your instruction and cleaned the ventilator and removed dust in the ventilation channels.

Problem fixed, temp is now between 50 and 70 degrees.

rob - 29/10/18

Congrats! Thanks for letting me know, and I’m glad to hear your machine is running cooler!

Jasen Friedle - 30/10/18

Hello, I need an audio jack (port) fro this nuc, can’t find it anywhere, any suggestions?

model 5i5ryh

dave - 11/11/18

hello. I need a replacement audio jack (port) for this nuc, model 5i5ryh, can’t find it anywhere, any suggestions?

dave - 11/11/18

You can try looking on eBay for replacement audio jacks. From what I’m seeing, you could potentially use a universal one and solder a few jumper wires to their corresponding pins and make something work.

Jasen Friedle - 14/11/18

Is there any way to change the CPU of NUC motherboard?

Oscar - 11/02/19

Generally, no. The CPUs in these are BGA soldered to the board. If you were very crafty with a reflow station and had a replacement CPU that you knew was compatible with the motherboard, you could attempt it. But generally, it’s recommended that you just get a new machine.

Jasen Friedle - 13/02/19

Oh ok thanks for kind answer! Then, can I place Radeon 550 on NUC, or any graphic card? If yes can you please tell me the steps? I’m planning to buy NUC8i5BEK and I want to make it as gaming PC. So I would like to place the Radeon Graphic car…

Sungyoung Park - 19/02/19

Addition, I found that there is way to connect VGA with 16x-1x connector, but is there any way to connect 1x in intel nuc?

Sungyoung Park - 20/02/19

Great description, I have used it on NUC5i5RYH.

I have cleaned fan and after dust is gone NUC is working perfectly again.

Thanks

Alan Poldrugac - 30/04/19

I would like to find a replace of the 4 screws that securing the lower lid @ step 1. Can someone kindly share some pointer please?

Kenny Lu - 08/07/19

I have a 5i7 that’s 4 years old now. Bought it in 2016 as a barebones from an Ebay buyer who didn’t like it because it ran too hot. He said he had it for 3 months- they were a fairly new model at the time. The 5i7’s do run warm when heavily tasked- the thing is that you CAN push these things. I’m not quite sure where he used this thing- I suspect it was in an area with lots of pets and lots of cigarette smoke. I went ahead and cleaned it out and it runs fine.

This is a pretty heavy duty processor stuffed into a small case with small heat sink cooling passages.. not really any worse than any i7 notebook out there. However it’s really easy to disassemble, so I make it a point to take it apart and clean the fan and the heat sink passages about every 4 months. I also changed the fan about a years ago as it was starting to get noisy.

Along with a Mac Mini, I still use it daily, running Windows 7 Ultimate, 2.5 Intel SSD and 16Gb of ram. Still a great little machine. I’ll be moving to Ubuntu on it soon.

G Michael Leonard - 07/05/20

Used this guide to disassemble and clean my 5 year old NUC6i5SYH. As a result the CPU temperature dropped by 30 degrees, excellent!

Jan Weitzenböck - 05/04/21

Glad to hear it helped you out!

Jasen Friedle - 03/05/21

Hey! Any recommendations on where to find a replacement for the thermal pad on the hard drive enclosure? I'm having a hard time finding the correct thickness.

Thanks!

Erga David -