Dangil has created an excellent YouTube step-by-step guide for all retro console and computing enthusiasts who do not yet own a MiSTer! If you are looking to embark on the exciting journey into the rewarding world of the MiSTer FPGA, but are unsure where to start this comprehensive build guide is for you.

Learn how to easily build a MiSTer FPGA, one of the best retro gaming devices around. Utilising the potent DE10-Nano dev board in tandem with a 128MB SDRAM module, USB hub, Digital I/O expansion board and acrylic case. Join Dangil as he dives deep into the process of assembling this MiSTer setup. Let’s get started!

Build Your Own Ultimate Retro Gaming Machine!

A question regularly asked is “What does dual SDRAM actually mean?” There exists some misunderstanding stemming from the fact that the MiSTer’s 128MB SDRAM memory module is populated with two memory chips. This leads some users to mistakenly believe this configuration translates to a MiSTer system with dual RAM. However, this assumption is inaccurate. In reality, a dual SDRAM arrangement involves the utilisation of two dedicated SDRAM modules, with each memory stick being connected to one of the dedicated 2×20 GPIO pin headers on the DE10-Nano mainboard.

Minimal configuration of the DE10-Nano is required to support dual SDRAM on the MiSTer, the first step is to locate the bank of toggle switches on the DE10-Nano mainboard, the toggle switch marked SW3 should be flipped into the ‘On’ position as shown in the image below.

What is currently required for a dual SDRAM setup are two SDRAM memory modules to enhance the MiSTer’s overall memory bandwidth. If you possess two memory modules of the same capacity, such as a pair of 128MB SDRAM sticks, you can install either of them onto the respective 40-pin GPIO headers, as demonstrated below. Nevertheless, if your memory modules have varying sizes, place the one with the greater capacity onto the GPIO 0 header, and the smaller capacity module onto the GPIO 1 header. Make certain that the memory module chip(s) are oriented inwards, facing each other, as illustrated below.

The main GPIO pin header designated for memory module installation is GPIO 0, clearly indicated in green on the image provided. When you possess a single memory module of any capacity, this is the designated location for installation. The secondary GPIO pin header GPIO 1, highlighted in red on the image, is the appropriate spot for adding a second memory stick.

Dual SDRAM Frequently Asked Questions

After installation, why doesn’t the second SDRAM memory module show an icon on the MiSTer menu?

Presently, the MiSTer main menu does not provide an extra visual indicator to signal the presence of a second SDRAM module. Cores will disregard the second SDRAM stick unless they are specifically programmed to utilise it.

Can I use the Analog IO board with a dual SDRAM setup?

Regrettably, the Analog IO board takes up one of the essential GPIO headers necessary to accommodate the additional memory module in a dual RAM configuration. It’s worth noting that only the digital IO board provides support for a dual SDRAM setup.

Can you mix memory modules sizes?

Yes you can, for an economical dual SDRAM setup, all you require is an extra 32MB memory module. The primary purpose of dual SDRAM setup is to enhance memory bandwidth rather than overall capacity, making 32MB adequate to achieve this goal.

What size memory module can I use?

Every current official MiSTer project memory module is compatible with a dual SDRAM setup. Among the frequently available options the 128MB and 32MB versions are popular.

The DE10-Nano board does not include an on board hardware clock, The MiSTer software can with internet access via a WiFi or Ethernet connection set the time using NTP (Network Time Protocol) servers. However using a hardware real time clock (RTC) addon module allows the MiSTer to maintain real world time without internet access and even when the main power to your MiSTer is switched off.

Plugging in the Real Time Clock board is easy, it is always best to turn the MiSTer off before plugging anything into the DE10-Nano board. Now plug the RTC board into your DE10-Nano’s LTC connector, the LTC connector is highlighted in the image below. The RTC addon should be installed facing inwards towards the DE10-Nano.

The Real Time Clock board should easily plug into the LTC connector with a very small amount of insertion pressure, you certainly should not have to cut away or modify the plastic socket surrounding the LTC connector on the DE10 Nano board to allow for the installation of an RTC module.

Setting up the RTC to get real time saved is automatic and is just a matter of connecting the MiSTer to the internet and then leave it once booted up on the main menu core screen for around 15 minutes. This will automatically set and save the real time to the addon RTC module.

The real time can also be manually updated and stored using the Linux terminal / command line interface on MiSTer, the MiSTer will still require an internet connection to update the time manually. Access the terminal / command line by pressing F9 on the keyboard, the default MiSTer login uses root as the username and 1 as the password.

Then enter the following command and then press enter on the keyboard:

hwclock -wu

This should now store the systems current date time to RTC board. Next enter the below command and press enter on the keyboard, this will read back the date time stored on the RTC board to the command prompt.

hwclock -u

The date and time should now be set and always displayed in the main menu core, even when the MiSTer has no internet connection.

Being frequently asked questions such as, “Which online retailers have the DE10 Nano in stock available to buy?” or “Where can I currently buy a new DE10 Nano Development Kit?” I decided to post detailed information on helping you purchase one. The demand for the DE10 Nano FPGA board has currently exceeded supply, as such this has left many unable to purchase the required FPGA board used at the heart of all MiSTer builds. Availability of the DE10-Nano is not likely to improve until 2025, this is due to the global shortage in semiconductors.

Note: Only the DE10-Nano board shown below is suitable for use as the base for a MiSTer build. All other DE series FPGA boards are not supported and should be avoided. The DE10 Nano Self-Balancing Robot Kit is also unsuitable as one of the 40 pin GPIO headers and the 10 pin ADC header is mounted on the wrong side of the PCB. Always be sure to buy a Terasic DE10-Nano model as listed here for your MiSTer build.

DE10 Nano Stock Check Updated 30/03/2026

At the moment only Terasic the manufacturer has DE10-Nano stock available to purchase, please do not pay the over inflated prices seen recently on Ebay. You need the DE10-Nano Board Part No: P0496 @ $225 Unless you qualify for the academic discount, then it is $190. Just place your order directly with Terasic :

https://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&No=1046&PartNo=8

Digikey currently has the Terasic FPGA Cloud Connectivity Kit Part No: P0685 (includes a DE10-Nano board) available to buy for immediate shipment.

Where to buy DE10 Nano in the UK:

• Digi-Key Electronics DE10-Nano Kit (Part No: P0496)

Where to buy DE10 Nano in Europe:

• Digi-Key Electronics DE10-Nano Kit (Part No: P0496)
• Mouser Electronics DE10-Nano Kit (Part No: P0496)

Where to buy DE10 Nano in the USA:

• Digi-Key Electronics DE10-Nano Kit (Part No: P0496)
• Mouser Electronics DE10-Nano Kit (Part No: P0496)

Direct from the manufacturer ships Worldwide:

• Terasic Inc. DE10-Nano Kit (Part No: P0496)

Top Tip: Terasic may show as being out of stock, however it is worth contacting them directly as you may be pleasantly surprised, as in my past experience they do frequently still have stock available to send to individual customers. My personal assumption is when Terasic’s stocks are very low they increase priority to individual buyers getting the DE10-Nano into the hands of actual end users as opposed to sitting on a resellers shelf.

Buy FPGA Kits With DE10 Nano Included

If you are prepared to pay an additional price premium, the Terasic FPGA Cloud Connectivity Kit also includes the required DE10-Nano FPGA board, however the kit also includes a daughter board offing wireless communication and a range of sensors such as ambient light and temperature. However this addon board is not supported or needed when building a MiSTer.

Buying FPGA Cloud Connectivity Kit in the UK:

• Mouser Electronics FPGA Cloud Connectivity Kit (Part No: P0685)

Buying FPGA Cloud Connectivity Kit in Europe:

• Mouser Electronics FPGA Cloud Connectivity Kit (Part No: P0685)

Buying FPGA Cloud Connectivity Kit in the USA:

• Mouser Electronics FPGA Cloud Connectivity Kit (Part No: P0685)

Worldwide Shipping from Terasic:

• Terasic Inc. FPGA Cloud Connectivity Kit (Part No: P0685)

Buy FPGA Cloud Connectivity Kit 2.0

Buying FPGA Cloud Connectivity Kit 2.0 in the UK:

• Digikey Electronics FPGA Cloud Connectivity Kit 2.0 (Part No: P0737)

Buying FPGA Cloud Connectivity Kit in Europe:

• Digikey Electronics FPGA Cloud Connectivity Kit 2.0 (Part No: P0737)

Buying FPGA Cloud Connectivity Kit in the USA:

• Digikey Electronics FPGA Cloud Connectivity Kit 2.0 (Part No: P0737)

Worldwide Shipping from Terasic:

• Terasic Inc. FPGA Cloud Connectivity Kit 2.0 (Part No: P0737)

Top Tip: See Above. Terasic also have more than 60 distributors all over the world, you may wish to try checking for a distributor in your country for DE10 Nano stock availability, see here for the full Terasic Worldwide Distributor List

DE10 Nano Stock Status last updated on March 30th, 2026

All older versions of the MiSTer IO board require a hardware modification to the IO board to support SEGA controllers with the USB SNAC adapters. The required physical hardware modification is outside the focus of this quick setup guide.

The two pin jumper on the USB SNAC board should be closed using the black jumper cap as shown in the first picture below. On either version of the analog v6.1 or digital v1.2 IO board locate the three jumper pins labelled IO6 and move the jumper cap to middle pin and the I/O pin as shown in the second picture.

Load the MiSTer Genesis core and under the Input menu change the Serial option to SNAC, now test the controller. If the controller still does not work, pull up the core menu again and under Input change the Swap Joysticks option to Yes. The SEGA controller should now be functioning correctly with the current running game.

SW3 Switched ON

The MiSTer project has released a new optional expansion, being the Digital I/O Board version 1.2. A key feature of the new Digital IO addon over the Classic IO board is the freeing up of the secondary 40 pin GPIO header, leaving it available for possible future expansion such as allowing for dual SDRAM modules.

Installing this add-on board is straight forward but it does require a simple switch position change on the DE10-Nano mainboard before the Digital IO Board will operate correctly.

First locate the switch marked SW3 on the DE10-Nano mainboard, as seen in the images above and below on this page, then just flip the SW3 switch into the ‘On’ position, that is all you need to do. Your DE10-Nano is now correctly configured to support the Digital IO Board.

The next step is to plug the Digital IO Board into the four Arduino headers on the DE10-Nano. Just line up the the Digital I/O Board with DE10-Nano and then carefully line up the pins with the Arduino headers and gently push into place, make sure the pins on both sides are correctly aligned and are actually being inserted into the Arduino headers. See the below images to assist with location and connection to the Arduino headers.

Double check that all the pins are correctly lined up and inserted into the Arduino headers, then just push the IO board firmly down into place. The Digital IO Board is now installed and ready for action!

The SDRAM memory board (XS v2.2, XS-D v2.4, XS-D v2.5, XS-DS v2.9, XS-DS v3.0) is plugged into the JP1 GPIO 0 header of the DE10-Nano mainboard this is marked above inside the red rectangle.

A basic entry level MiSTer FPGA setup starts with just a bare DE10-Nano board and heat sink. However with just one additional add-on board the SDRAM memory module, you will be able to use all of the available computer, console and arcade cores.

Possibly the most common question I am asked by new MiSTer FPGA users when they receive their memory board and are setting up for the first time, is which header socket do you install the SDRAM memory board into?

The image above shows the correct header socket to be used and is marked in red, the image below shows the correct orientation of the memory module, the SDRAM chip(s) should always face towards the heatsink / Cyclone V chip in the middle of the DE10-Nano mainboard.

When you plug in the SDRAM memory board remember to support GPIO 0 header of the DE10-Nano from underneath with your thumbs. Do not force in the SDRAM board without support as you can bend the DE10-Nano mainboard causing permanent damage.

Also be aware inserting the MiSTer SDRAM memory module with the wrong orientation and powering up will at best destroy the memory module, and at worst damage the DE10-Nano and the memory board.

After the introduction of the new larger 64MB and 128MB SDRAM memory modules, the startup boot menu core will now display an icon on the menu bar showing the size of memory module installed, the icons are as follows:

 No SDRAM Memory Module Installed
 32MB SDRAM Memory Module Installed
 64MB SDRAM Memory Module Installed
 128MB SDRAM Memory Module Installed

Currently only the Neo Geo core and Game Boy Advance core, actually require more than 32MB of memory. However this may change in the future as new cores are developed for the MiSTer FPGA project.

MiSTer has the ability to capture a raw screenshot of the currently running core. Taking raw screen captures on MiSTer is very simple, however you do need a keyboard attached to be able to grab a screenshot.

All you need to do:

Press and hold the Win Key and the Left Shift Key then press the PrtScrn key (⌘ + F13).

While holding the Win Key and the Left Shift Key every time you press the PrtScrn key it will take another screen grab. Screenshots are captured raw directly from the current running core’s video output before any scaling or filters are applied, basically your image will be in the core’s native video output.

However if you wish to take screenshots with scaling applied, press and hold the Win Key then press the PrtScrn key (⌘ + F13).

The created screenshot files are saved in a ‘screenshots’ folder on the SD cards FAT partition, this folder will then contain sub folders named after the corresponding core in which a screen capture was taken. Screen captures are saved in the .PNG format.

Last updated on December 21, 2021

If the switch settings are not as shown, you can use a wooden toothpick to change the 6 pin DIP switch SW10 on the Terasic DE10-Nano board.

If you are just setting up your MiSTer for the first time, or maybe you are experiencing issues you just can not fathom out. It is always best to check the six on board DIP switches are in the correct positions, remember to make sure you turn off the DE10 Nano before adjusting the switches.

The correct configuration is shown in the images below. Using a wooden cocktail stick for the SW10 DIP switches makes adjustment easy, once done you are ready to power up the DE10-Nano.