xbox360 too loud? read this

00sully

i know mine is annoyingly loud and i even shipped it back to MS citing the loudness as the problem. I think it came back with the quieter drive in it but it is still too loud

I may give this a shot and get my torx out again (havent since modding original xbox!)

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2066860,00.asp

if you dont want to read the article heres a glimpse at the results. interesting enough to warrant an attempt me thinks

Final Results—Worth the Effort?
In the end, we have to call the operation a moderate success. Before hacking up the Xbox 360 at all, we measured its noise output with a sound pressure level (SPL) meter held about 4 inches in front of the box. These were recorded in a quiet office with an ambient SPL of about 40 decibels. That's a fairly quiet office—and probably around the same level as most people's living rooms—but these numbers would probably differ a bit in a super-quiet anechoic chamber. Here are the results of the unmodified Xbox 360:

Idle (at dashboard) 48dB

Playing a DVD movie 50dB

Playing a game (DVD drive spinning full speed) 60dB


And after the modifications? We managed to trim quite a bit of noise out, but it's still not exactly what you would call a "whisper quiet" system:


Idle (at dashboard) 44dB

Playing a DVD movie 45dB

Playing a game (DVD drive spinning full speed) 56dB


That's a difference of 4dB to 5dB. Interestingly, the extra insulation seems to help reduce the system's noise at all times, even just idling at the dashboard with nothing in the DVD drive at all. In the logarithmic decibel scale, a difference of 3dB is literally half the sound pressure. That doesn't quite map to human perception, though, and a 3dB difference doesn't always sound "half as loud."

butts

Thanks 00sully, I'll have a look at that later. Is there one particular hard drive which is more noisy than others? Is there a serial number which indicates which one I might have? I ask because the noise from my Xbox 360 has put me off buying HD DVD drive.

Ciaran500

What noise does the power supply make? There should be no moving part in that.

god's toy

They have a fan running in the PSU.

Ciaran500

o_O

Heard that ages ago before launch but never thought it was true. Just checked and it seems you are definatley correct. Can't hear them till I put my ear against it. Anyone got pics of inside the PSU, can't see any on google.

god's toy

Ciaran500 wrote:

Anyone got pics of inside the PSU, can't see any on google.

Lol I was just looking for em on Google...

00sully

apparently the HD-DVD drive is very quiet - can anyone confirm this?

butts, there is a way to discern whether you have a Hitachi or Samsung Drive - http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/Xbox_360_DVD_Drive_Comparison.htm

po0k

Ciaran500 wrote:

What noise does the power supply make? There should be no moving part in that.

That doesn't mean it won't necessarily make any noise, even without the fan.