My Quest for a cooler xbox360

Psycrow · 17 Jan 2006 at 17:20

punky_munky said:
My flatemates friend brought his 360 round last night and they'd been playing it for a couple of hours when I got in and my god! The lounge was boiling. We live in a flat that is usually freezing (steamers in the toilet aren't uncommon). the 360 was more effective than my electric heater, I'm not kidding whatsoever. I dread to think how much electricity that thing uses.

As for the mod: psychotic.

Are you kidding, it uses about 200w so wouldn't heat the room up at all. Ask yourself this, does turning on your 100w light heat the room up? Most electric heaters are about 2Kw+. Underfull load my Pc uses about 400w and it doesn't heat up my freezing room. The extra heat was probably from your flatmate and his friends having some sweaty tension filled gaming.

As for the mod, its your console so do as you want with it, I hope you are going to tidy it up a bit. If it makes it quieter or keeps it a bit cooler then good for you

Those saying it wont be any quieter, its the friction of the moved air from the fans meeting the mesh surface that creates a fair bit of noise, cutting it away can often have a noticable effect on the noise level. Cutting the backs away from cheap Pc cases normally makes a fair difference.

JUMPURS · 17 Jan 2006 at 17:38

I say go for it mate.
There where a lot of people who slapped watercoolers on the likes of GTX's straight out the box (bet there are still some folk doing it) and they dont get abused for voiding there warrenty, and the BFG is a lifetime warrenty.
I say fair play, its like watercooling a
Leadtek GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-069-LT) at £211.44 + P&P
If it breaks sell it on the bay with a very, very carefull description lol
worst care scenario is you sell the modded case for what 50 quid and someone could take it and clip it on theres, that way its gonna be what 160 or sommit for you to replace?? I've put more in a blind mans box tbh

geiger · 17 Jan 2006 at 19:12

My pc under load is equalivant to a very small fan heater I swear

People are critising mainly because it looks rough at the moment, bling it up a bit like those neon modded resprayed beasts we saw before xmas and you will get much kudos

I dont have the guts to wreck warrantys and such but its cool that some of the guys on these forums are pretty hard core like that

jkrohn1 · 18 Jan 2006 at 18:23

When do you think your gonna put your window in so we can see the result?

Elrein · 18 Jan 2006 at 18:51

I would like to have it up and running by this weekend sometime, still waiting my hard drive and skin delivery so it could be longer

I want it to be 100% before posting the final result, you guys are pretty harsh when it comes to the truth so i want to cover all my bases before being fired apon

Bubo · 18 Jan 2006 at 21:33

Elrein said:
Dont really want to start spinning off too much metal, im scared enough as it is hoping i dont spark something and ruin the project.

Yeah, don't want to ruin your xbox, the last thing you want to do is take a dremel to your 360 and start hacking indiscriminant lumps out of it or sumin or nuthin.

Elrein · 18 Jan 2006 at 22:29

Bubo said:
Yeah, don't want to ruin your xbox, the last thing you want to do is take a dremel to your 360 and start hacking indiscriminant lumps out of it or sumin or nuthin.

Im glad you included the word "your"

Dark_Angel · 19 Jan 2006 at 00:59

Ol!ver said:
I can't believe you're comparing the two. AMD won't know you've had 1.8v through your opty. I think MS might notice two ruddy great holes though.

That actually made Me laugh out loud (and dirtydogs comment to).

I can just imagine the guy unpacking the console at MS

Him "hmmm.... well I guess we had better get to testing it."

Co-worker "No, wait... there is ya problem. Its been put in the hands of a dremel user"

Truthfully though, I don't think its a bad thing what you have done. If you just cut the case and said "looks pretty" then a bit silly, but you clearly have a project in mind. I say, go for it and have fun

pinkaardvark · 19 Jan 2006 at 08:39

Looks like a worthwhile mod. I'd be tempted to now remove the two 60mm(I assume) fans and replace with two 80's on the outside of the case or one of those barrel type fans you see in SFF PC's (can't recall the correct term).

Oakesy2001uk · 19 Jan 2006 at 09:12

I say good on him and If he dosent break it (which he probably wont) then I'm sure it will look great in the end. But it will be looks only because the noise comes from the drive mainly, fans second. Some people wont settle for having the same as everyone else and I like that!

EDIT: I like my warrenty at the moment so He has more ba*** than me

Elrein · 20 Jan 2006 at 17:12

Update

Ok ive nearly finished

I Still have some issues with the exhaust and the clear panel edges but everything is working as intended, you have no idea how pleased i was when it booted up with no errors

Here's the nearly finished pic with the new panel, more to come once ive sorted the gaping hole in the back and the mail man makes a delivery

jkrohn1 · 20 Jan 2006 at 19:27

Nice one hope you post some more pictures so I can see inside the window and the back if you have sorted it.

I’m impressed and I hope those who have doubted you eat there own words lol

TechnoCorruption · 21 Jan 2006 at 09:48

The window looks really cool, what did you use to colour in the letters, ink or paint?
Looking forward to seeing some more pics.

Elrein · 25 Jan 2006 at 21:19

Finished

Here are the final pictures, not perfect by any means but i got the result i wanted..........

Since the mod i have had no ill effects with continued 100% stability

Im posting a few pics for those who wanted to see the final product, i coloured in the letters with a plain old permanent marker to bring out the XBOX logo

da_mic_1530 · 25 Jan 2006 at 21:21

really impressed mate, nice little project you had going there

KadreMoD · 25 Jan 2006 at 22:45

Wow, very nice mate. Going to try painting the controllers next?

. Red white and blue leds in the controller would would be interesting to see .

Big respect to you , you got some guts

Oakesy2001uk · 25 Jan 2006 at 23:35

good on you mate, and a big finger to all those doubters a week or so ago! Now hope it dosent go wrong......

JaFFa · 26 Jan 2006 at 00:21

I bet you could sell it for more now!

To the guy who keeps asking if you can swap the DVD drive, you cant it has its own special connector.

Cuchulain · 26 Jan 2006 at 00:52

JUMPURS said:
I say fair play, its like watercooling a
Leadtek GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-069-LT) at £211.44 + P&P

You can unclip a heatsink with no obvious indication to the manufacturer that you've done so, and as the water block would sit underneath the card you're hardly likely to soak it either, now, can you spot the difference between that and hacking a big ugly hole out of the back of a console? Which do you think is more likely to be noticed?

lordrobs · 26 Jan 2006 at 09:55

Well done for following it through. Can't really see the appeal of having a window though as the view is mostly the top of the DVD drive and a lump of plastic from the cooling duct.