Xbox Updates

After a few hours of contemplation, I have decided that I am going to take my Xbox mod to the next level. Since this mod has only been done a couple of times (to my knowledge), this seems like an appropriate endeavor. Not only will I be water cooling my Xbox, I am also going to build it into a Husky tool case, with a 20" LCD monitor, water cooling (of course), and maybe a keyboard. For this mod I will be implementing many of the same techniques as Ben Heck, who is in my book, a modding genius. If you are interested in other game system mods, and an amazing Xbox 360 laptop, check him out at http://benheck.com/.

Also my last post explains my reasons for doing this mod and some terminology that may be helpful to know.

So now lets start off with some of my goals for this project. My over all goal for this project is to have a working Xbox laptop/mobile case. The Xbox will be water cooled and integrated into a Husky metal tool case with speakers, a 20" monitor and maybe a keyboard if it will fit. So what are we waiting for?! Lets go!


>>Xbox Mobile V1.0: Part 1<<


After much indecisiveness on whether or not I was going to take my Xbox apart, I finally made the decision to modify my beloved Xbox 360. To start off I brought my Xbox down into my basement workshop and began to gather my main materials. For basic materials I used an Xbox 360, an XSPC Xbox water block, and a CoolIt Domino ALC Liquid Cooling system.


Next I proceeded by disassembling my Xbox (for this project I wont show the disassembly process. If you don't know how to take your Xbox apart here is a good guide http://llamma.com/xbox360/repair/Xbox-360-Disassembly.htm).

The Xbox after disassembly

After removing the two case halves, the motherboard was revealed.

Then I proceeded by removing the disk drive, fan duct, and fan from the metal case. All that was left was the main board.

Now that the Xbox had been stripped of its main components, I then began to remove the heatsinks from the GPU and CPU. Here is a picture of what the CPU and GPU looked like after removing the heat sinks.

I have alot of thermal paste to remove...

In order to remove the old thermal paste, I used rubbing alcohol, some Qtips and alot of patience. Because the thermal paste was old and had under gone many temperature changes, it was hard and gummy, so I dabbed the rubbing alcohol onto the old thermal paste and let it sit for a while.

In the mean time, I picked up a pack of Thermaltake Copper Memory Heatsinks, and applied them to the surrounding chips. These heatsinks will hopefully disperse even more heat.

Nice!

After applying heatsinks to all the large chips I moved back to the cleaning process at hand. I kept reapplying the alcohol when it had evaporated, until I felt a change in consistency of the paste. When I felt that I had soaked the thermal paste in the alcohol long enough, I then moved on to using Qtips and paper towel to smear off the paste.

Almost done!

Finnaly after 3o minutes of work, I had succeded in cleaing off most if not all of the old thermal paste.

Its so shiny!!!!!

Now that all the thermal paste had been removed, I grabbed my recently purchased tube of Arctic MX-3 Thermal Compound, and began to apply it to the freshly cleaned chips.

Oops! Applied a little too much thermal paste!

I then grabbed my XSPC water block and screws, and positioned them on the mother board (I found that it was easier to attach the water block when holding it sideways so as not to smudge the thermal paste).

After a long and uncomfortable 10 minutes, I had finnaly attached the water block to the mother board (yay!). Now time to take a break after a long day...

All done!

Next we will be focusing on the water cooling system so stay tuned!

>>End of part 1<<

Updates! ~NEW~

After nearly five months of inactivity, I have resumed blogging/updating this site. Since my last post there have been many new changes and projects that i have either begun or finished which I will be updating you on shortly, so sit back and let the barrage of updates begin.

My arsenal of fish has dramatically increased with the addition of two ID sharks to my 55 gallon tank and a whole slew of baby guppies in one of my 10 gallon tanks. My RC boat is still under construction due to the fact that I need one more A123 battery and a new gear (I drilled the last one off center). As for new projects, I have decided to undertake the task of water cooling my Xbox 360. Since I believe that I will actually complete my water cooling mod on my Xbox, most of the new updates will focus on that project.

For those of you that own Xbox 360s, we all fear the dreaded RROD (red ring of death for those of you who don't understand gaming lingo :P). It haunts us in our sleep and sends shivers down our backs whenever we think of turning our Xbox on. This creates a never ending cycle of fear which can cause unwanted stress on ones self. That is why I decided that I was going to fight back against the cruel and evil clutches of the RROD and instill peace and tranquility to my one and only Xbox. Viva La Revolution! No, I'm not talking about marches and starting riots, I'm talking about water cooling my Xbox!

The RROD is a hardware malfunction that is very common with the Xbox 360. It is caused by either a direct hardware failure or the most common condition, over heating. Yes, you might be asking yourself "Doesn't the Xbox have adequate cooling?" the answer is "no, not for long term use."

The Xbox 360 is cooled by two heatsinks, one for the CPU (central processing unit) and the GPU (graphics processing unit), and a dual 60mm exhaust fan. When the RROD occurs, it is usually due to over heating. This can be cause by a variety of factors, most of which precede long term use or improper ventilation. When the Xbox is in use, it can produce massive amounts of heat. The heatsinks are used to dissipate the heat along a set of copper or aluminum fins. If the Xbox gets too hot, the circuit board could bend or worse, components could fry. The usual case with the RROD is the heat sinks getting dislodged from the GPU and CPU. The heatsinks are held in place with two X clamps (one for each processing unit) and eight retention screws. The clamps attach to the bottom of the circuit board and screw into the heatsink, sandwiching the processing unit chips. When the circuit board over heats, it begins to flex and bend. This can cause the x clamps to bend and become loose, which in turn, stops dissipating the heat produced by the chips. This then causes the RROD error and renders the Xbox useless, unless you are willing to send it to Microsoft or have the proper knowledge to try and fix it yourself.

Even thought I have never gotten the RROD, I still fear its wrath, that's why I decided to water cool my Xbox and because I love to void warranties. Water cooling or liquid cooling is a cooling method in which a coolant flows over a component, gains heat, and is then pumped to a radiator where the heat is dissipated, and the liquid cooled. This method can be extremely efficient in cooling certain components and is mostly used in high end PCs and other high heat applications.

In the next few weeks I will be posting pictures and eventually a full project description for use as a guide. In the mean time feel free to browse my blog and dont forget to comment, or email me! Also, check out some of my other projects in the side bar to the right. >>>>>>>>>>>>>

Happy modding!