detailed differences between EARLY PU 8 and LATE PU 8 mainboards - x-station/xstation-releases GitHub Wiki

Why the mainboard called “LATE”, and is there an “EARLY”?

Literally, yes! The PU-8 came in two major flavors (EARLY and LATE). You can check which mainboard you have by looking for these marks:

1. Mainboard labels

  • EARLY mainboards are labeled PU-8-11/12
  • LATE mainboards are labeled PU-8-21/22/23 or 41

diff1_pu8

2. The GPU and especially the VRAM area on the top side of the mainboard is different, see picture below

diff2_pu8

3. The Mechacon controller chip has different sizes, see picture below

diff3_pu8

When you are sure that you have a EARLY PU-8 you can follow this guide.

https://github.com/x-station/xstation-releases/wiki/xStation-ODE-installation-guide-for-the-EARLY-PU-8-Playstation-1-motherboard

When you are sure that you have a LATE PU-8 you can follow this guide.

https://github.com/x-station/xstation-releases/wiki/xStation-ODE-installation-guide-for-the-LATE-PU-8-Playstation-1-motherboard