Best X-Box mod chip

The_Scary_Man

I'm going to chip my x-box for christmas and want to get some info from people with chipped boxes on things like reliability, ease of installation, functionality etc.

Cheers.

elmer

best option for reliability(as long as you can solder) would be a solder chip. depending on the version of xbox you may be limited.

if it's a newer one(manufacturing date of march or later 03) then you'll have to choose one with it's own lpc code(due to mobo design changes) so you'd be limited to a chameleon,xecutor 2.2, akira, xbit or aladdin advance.

price wise chameleon is the nicest but alot of people like xecutor 2s

they're all pretty much 1m chips - latest xecutor bios is 512k where as the latest evolution bios is 256k and is the only one that supports the really new xboxs(august onwards)

if it's older then you can also go with cheapmod ones - 256k - there are various different flavours of them - i built some myself they're not too hard to do as long as you can find the sst chips needed and have a steady hand soldering

I can give you a hand if you're in the dublin area

Nige

The_Scary_Man

Thanks for the offer elmer unfortunately I'm down in Cork. It'll be a bit of a challenge but I'm looking forward to see how I get on with it. I think I'll go for the xecutor 2.2 with the evolution bios.
No doubt I'll be posting again when I fry my box

elmer

best of luck - i do a little bit of board repairing too - but lets hope it doesn't get near that stage

qBot

Is there any place to order xecutor chips within ireland. All I have found is American sites.

elmer

not that i've found at a reasonable price - the exchange rates to the us are favourable anyhow compared to the sterling rates

j0e9o

Originally posted by elmer
not that i've found at a reasonable price - the exchange rates to the us are favourable anyhow compared to the sterling rates

defo order from america m8 big saving also get them to mark on package childs gift this way u miss out having to pay import tax etc..

Gmodified

now you can get solderless xecutor

like seen here
http://www.modconsole.co.uk/product.asp?productid=135

adnans

i've managed to get the xecutor 2.2 lite (above link) and a new 120gig hard drive. later on in the day i'll try and chip the xbox and replace the hard drive. ill tell you how it goes.



adnans

chernobyl

How do you save when you have to pay huge postage prices?

Gmodified

What they charged you for delivery adnans?

qBot

Ya that's another question, how much does postage cost, i sent an email to one of the companies at the beginning of the week, ain't got a reply yet

amp

Merged.

adnans

Originally posted by Gmodified
What they charged you for delivery adnans?

i actually got it from http://www.divineo.co.uk/ and they charged GBP 4.11 for delivery. it was delivered 2 days after the order. total cost GBP 49.06 which is around 70 eurobucks.

adnans

Gmodified

That's sound ok as I have seen US site and delivery was 27USD . Modchip was cheaper but all came to 75 Euro.

qBot

Yup €27 is abit too steep. No wonder that crown haven't resonded that the question yet

qBot

Does anyone know of an American site where the postage is resonable. England is looking the most reasonable at the moment but if i could find cheap postage, the US would be my choice.

elmer

if you want to opt for a chameleon you'll pay no postage fee on europe.easybuy2000.com - i never bought x2s myself so i don't know where to get them cheap

qBot

Is there much of a difference between the chameleon and the x2. I've heard the x2 is supposed to be the best. Is there something the x2 can do that the chameleon can't. Still though at half the price, i don't know if i would care much

elmer

it's all bios dependant - and the bioses work on either - i prefer chameleons as you might have gathered just found the x2s to be over priced and xecutor were always slating xodus(the chameleon guys) for having **** ideas and hardware but it was a load of crap they were talking

thelad

i get my chips from www.mrmodchips.com and he has always been reliable,
executor lite works out at 26 euro for version 1-3 and for new version boxes they are 41 euro, these come with swithes included

adnans

ok. for one second i though this xbox was unmoddable. things i found out about xecuter 2.2 lite:

• since they are solderless, it's a pain in the ass to align them properly to the board using one screw. patience needed for this one.
• the bios of the xecuter 2.2 lite comes with a cromwell bios which is really useless. this needed to be flashed.
• the phillips dvd-drive that came with the xbox is pants. it can only read DVD discs and certain cdrw ones.

after much sweat and work, the bios was upgraded to xecuter2. you should have seen tears in my eyes. cdrw problems left me with even more grief, such as not being able to install EvoX and other software. its taking longer than i thought and i wont get to paint the white unicorn flying with the stars untill next week.



adnans

elmer

i've never really had any hastle with the philips drives reading cdr(vivastar ones form argos) but it can be choppy - they don't particularly like my datawrite 1x dvd-rw disks though. I would have thought if you installed the latest xecutor bios on it that you would have done the hold a and ftp in thing - never tried it myself

nice pic btw

thelad

Sometimes I don't understand why lads go on the cheap and try and install chips themselves instead of getting it properly sone by a reputable installer who offers a guarantee (-; It sounds like you went with the easy option of the lite plus pack... guarantee you m8 you will have problems with this!!! A hot xbox and things expand and contract and then the dreaded frag!! AS for the cromwell bios..you will find that the law has changed in UK(where most chips come from nowadays) and to keep it legal the bios is Cromwell as it is Linux based which is open sourced so Microsoft can't do anything about!!! (Ps2 chip supply is now illegal in UK )-: )
And if you look around in the right places there are boot cds available (originally came from Australia) which will put the executor bios on your new chip (btw 4970 is the most stable bios at moment) and takes a matter of minutes to do...as stated already in earlier posts i stay away from solderless chips as I can't offer guarantee with them - like putting wide rims on car without putting the screws back on!! (-:
Anyway hope things work out with you xbox as it is a fabulous machine........

adnans

yeh, it works the charm with the chip inside the box. i've put in the latest bios which seems to be XECUTER2 BIOS Build 4978.03. after reading the nfo file for the first time (i must do this more often) i've noticed that the ftp is built in into the bios which will save me a lot of hassle when burning cdrws

i wanted to go with the self install option since im a nerd and i like to poke the screwdriver into electrical circuits. thats all really. nice selection of smileys thelad!

adnans

qBot

So what is the deal then, sorry if i sound foolish or new to this game, but i thought the main difference between the x2 pro and lite version was that one could be flashed and the other couldn't but came preflashed. Can anyone tell me the differences between the chips.

What's the story with bioses then, can they be downloaded from the site of the x2.

btw, thanks to thelad and elmer for their previous posts.

elmer

the pro has a few more features than the lite - it also has a parallel port attchment - which is a pain in the ass if you move your console around alot

take a look at :
http://www.xbox-scene.com/modchips3b_table.htm

CodeMonkey

Originally posted by cuan
So what is the deal then, sorry if i sound foolish or new to this game, but i thought the main difference between the x2 pro and lite version was that one could be flashed and the other couldn't but came preflashed. Can anyone tell me the differences between the chips.

What's the story with bioses then, can they be downloaded from the site of the x2.

btw, thanks to thelad and elmer for their previous posts.

They can both be flashed but the pro can have hold multiple bioses and it comes with a 4-dip switch connector (also act as a parrallel port connector for flashing using the pc) to switch between them. Handy if you want a debug bios on it for development work etc but all most people need is the lite version. You can only flash the bios on the lite version with one bios at a time and this can be done using software.

thelad

the executor lite has four banks which most people fill with the same bios but you can boot chip with two different bioses by using the "bank 1/2 switch" which comes supplied and can be reflashed with cdrw if necessary....most people only use this for stupid things like booting up with different colour logos etc..

adnans

im the mod king WOO WOO!!1

adnans

thelad

nice one! (-;

The_Scary_Man

Nice one on getting that installed adnans, I must have a go at it myself next month.
One question though, does the x2lite allow HD upgrade as well?

elmer

it's bios dependant - follow the link i posted earlier in the thread - gives a great rundown

qBot

Cheers lads, that's cleared things up nicely.