A look Inside

Taking apart the Ace Magician AD03 N95 may be difficult at first, but it's fairly easy. To start with, remove the two screws on the back I/O plate. Then position the unit, so the rear I/O is facing away from you and push the cover in that direction; it fits very snugly, but it will come off. I found using a plastic spudger made the process a bit easier by working the sides a bit, so there was less friction.


With the top cover removed, you now have access to the 2.5-inch HDD tray, which can be removed by taking out 3 screws. This gives enough access to replace the memory module or M.2 SATA SSD should you need to. Speaking of that, the SSD used is a Kimtigo KT-B900 M.2 512 GB SATA drive. It also makes capacity upgrades a bit more troublesome since you will need to make sure the M.2 SSD you use is a SATA drive. As for the system memory, Ace Magician has paired the AD03 N95 with a single 16 GB stick of Lexar 3200 MHz memory. While many may have expected two SODIMM slots, the fact is the N95 processor only supports single-channel memory, so from a design standpoint, the single memory slot makes perfect sense. Sadly the Intel N95 CPU only supports a maximum of 16 GB of memory, so there is no real upgrade option here, although it is nice that the memory can be replaced if needed.


Continuing with the disassembly process requires the removal of the metal plate, which is accomplished by removing four screws in each corner, at which point it can be lifted out. Be mindful that one of the WiFi antenna wires is connected to this frame, so do not yank it off and pull on it too hard. The other antenna is connected to the chassis itself, meaning even if you remove the Cdtech RTL8821CE-based WiFi card, it will still result in all the components being interconnected, at least at this stage. Once you remove the four silver screws holding the mainboard to the chassis, you can then lift it out.


With the motherboard removed, you can then flip it over to clean the heatsink and fan should it be needed. Speaking of the heatsink, I was quite surprised by the size of it and the fan. However, that is a good thing as it means the system should run quietly and should avoid thermal throttling, especially when considering the CPU's 15-watt TDP. Overall the Ace Magician AD03 N95 system is solidly built and relatively easy to work on.