After whipping out half a dozen screws you have limited access to the MC101's internal components - essentially the hard drive rails and SATA III 6GBPS ports. Note that barebones versions of the MC101 will not have a HDD pre-installed, but HDD rails and screws are bundled.
From here you can carefully lever out the HDD's, install a second one into makeshift caddy and hook it up in-situ. Changing the HDDs is perhaps the only straightforward hardware upgrade the end-user can make, for reasons which will become clear.
Removing a further eight screws (including three spring-loaded screws around the APU) gains you access to the rest of the internal components. Note that if you do so Thermal Compound and TIM-Clean should be close to hand. Be sure also to disconnect the internal TV Tuner cable before lifting out the mainboard to prevent damage to components.
Image courtesy ARCTIC
The labelled components are as follows:
C) TV Tuner and WiFi Module (Green PCB). The TV Tuner board is connected via an internal USB 2.0 port, and hooked up the the aerial socket via a narrow coaxial cable.
D) mPCIe/mSATA Port. mSATA devices, including an mSATA SSD, can be connected here.
E) AMD Fusion Controller Hub (FCH), in this case the Hudson M3; essentially the heart of the A70M platform. This chip and associated power circuitry is cooled via thick thermal pads which transmits heat to the cooler, be sure not to lose them.
F) The AMD A10-4600M APU.
G) 2x DDR3 SODIMM RAM slots. Barebones systems are populated with either 2x4GB or 2x2GB modules, and so buying one will not necessitate this level of internal access to get up and running.
H) 2x SATA III 6Gbps.
I) MC101 cooling assembly. This is an ARCTIC Cooling design which combines a passive heatsink with active cooling fan, allowing near silent operation. As well as being exhausted as hot air, the design utilises the aluminium chassis to radiate some excess heat; be aware though, the MC101 will get hot to the touch during operation. Fan profiles, defining the fan RPM at particular temps, are available via BIOS.
