Question Can I just purchase a Wii motherboard instead of a console?

[omsuhos]

Hey all, pretty much the title.

Interesting in this community and the projects that have been done. Right now looking at the Ashida documentation and going through others worklogs.

Anyways, first step in actually starting is getting my hands on a 4 layer Wii. Is it safe if I just get a 4 layer motherboard directly. I see replacement motherboards being sold on ebay and they seem less hassle and easier to get than the consoles themselves?

Thoughts?

 

[Mr Game & Cube]

Hey all, pretty much the title.

Interesting in this community and the projects that have been done. Right now looking at the Ashida documentation and going through others worklogs.

Anyways, first step in actually starting is getting my hands on a 4 layer Wii. Is it safe if I just get a 4 layer motherboard directly. I see replacement motherboards being sold on ebay and they seem less hassle and easier to get than the consoles themselves?

Thoughts?

It isn't hard to get a 4 Layer Wii. just get a black standard Wii or a Wii family edition and then get a motherboard from that.

 

[Stitches]

You just need to be sure that the motherboard in question comes with a BT module and a Wifi module. The board won't boot without them until RVLoader is properly installed. You'll also need to get yourself a 12v power supply to run the board and a heatsink + fan to cool it while you install HackMii and RVLoader

 

[omsuhos]

It isn't hard to get a 4 Layer Wii. just get a black standard Wii or a Wii family edition and then get a motherboard from that.

Where do people usually by em? I'm looking at FB Market Place and Kijiji, but coloured Wii's are slim pickings.

 

[omsuhos]

You just need to be sure that the motherboard in question comes with a BT module and a Wifi module. The board won't boot without them until RVLoader is properly installed. You'll also need to get yourself a 12v power supply to run the board and a heatsink + fan to cool it while you install HackMii and RVLoader

I see, thanks for the info.

I thought maybe I could get by without the heatsink+fan for the 4 layer one, but maybe I should just look for the proper thing then, thanks.

 

[Mr Game & Cube]

Where do people usually by em? I'm looking at FB Market Place and Kijiji, but coloured Wii's are slim pickings.

ebay. they are very common

 

[Stitches]

I see, thanks for the info.

I thought maybe I could get by without the heatsink+fan for the 4 layer one, but maybe I should just look for the proper thing then, thanks.

You can run the system for around 30 seconds with no heatsink without risking damage, but any longer than that and you're at exponentially greater risk of it burning out every passing second

 

[CrazyGadget]

The best thing you can do is browse eBay's Video Game Consoles category, then select For Parts / Not Working under the Condition filter. Sort by price low to high, then click on the "I don't give a shit that you think there might be irrelevant results, I'm looking for busted consoles" button. After you get through the random BS listings and start seeing consoles, you'll probably see a ton of white ones.

You can tell if a white Wii is a 4 layer by the serial number. Anything with a serial number that starts with LU7 or LU12+ is guaranteed to be a 4 layer. Any black / red / blue Wii is also guaranteed 4 layer.

I would look for one that is right around $20 shipped, I never spend more than that and never have any trouble finding one for that price. I'd recommend getting one that's listed as having a broken disc drive but otherwise not having any issues. Avoid anything no-power or black screen or other funky stuff that could either require a lot of troubleshooting or otherwise could be bricks.