Another Xell/XBR Project

Myrddin

Ok guys, due to jealousy from the work in recent threads here, coupled with boredom...Ive decided to embark on my own xbox360 project. Ive managed to procure a unit from the bay of fleas, which is jtaggable (2.0.5766.0 & CB1903)

First things first, the console is on its own - no powerblock. I dont mind joypads/HDD's etc as I have another 360 here (Xenon Launch Model). I will need a power block this unit though (Falcon, HDMI)...so wittness, if you have one lying around there please advise if you want to sell it on, or advise where I might pick one up

Secondly, the unit is a repaired RROD, and has had X-Clamps & thermal paste fitted. My question is this, aside from the obvious (keep cool/ventilated), what can I do to prevent another RROD? As this unit will be heavily modified, Im thinking of running it without the top cover on...would this have any effect on cooling? Ive also heard of a fan mod, which puts the exhaust fans on full speed. At the expense of additional noise, is this method known to be of any advantage?

Are repaired RROD's generally known to fail again? Or if done correctly, can the unit more or less function indefinitly? Sorry for all the questions, my knowledge of 360 modding, for the moment is confined to drive flashing. Ill update as soon as the console arrives.

My XBR 360 is one i Repaired, hasnt failed since, i think having the top cover off like i did for awhile is actually worse as the fans arnt concentrated pulling air through.

I bought whispermax fans from ebay for about €14 which provide increased airflow and are a bit quieter, i also cut out the fan section on the metal chassis and the plastic case, so the fans are totally unobstructed.

Your old xenon power block will work for all models, the falcon will draw less power from the brick, but thats no bother.

There is a fanspeedflasher app you can run once you have XBR going which lets you set the default fan speed to what you want, 20%, 50% ,70% ect.
I keep meaning to do this myself.

TouchingVirus

Heh, it was jealousy of cisk that got me going initially too ..and now I appear to have made a friend jealous IRL and am currently seeking another JTAGable box, RROD or not

As cisk said, Xenon powerblocks can power any console, so if you can pick one up then happy days for your Falcon HDMI model.

I wouldn't run the console with the top off, it won't help. With no enclosed space the fan can draw air from the surrounding area which isn't half as warm because the heatsinks can radiate their heat everywhere. With the top on the fans are forced to draw all the hot air out and room temperature air over the heatsinks which will keep them coolish. If you want you can take the top off and run a fan directly onto them, blowing room temp air onto the heatsinks and the hot air away..same difference really.

I could suggest a piece of thin cardboard or maybe something more elegant over the GPU heatsink ..the fan shroud (white part) stops at the start of the CPU and GPU, but because of the design about 70% of the air the fan is drawing comes off the CPU leaving a measly 30% for the GPU. Even with that 30%, some of it is coming from elsewhere because of the long, flat design of the GPU heatsink compared with the taller design on the CPU. If you place a piece of cardboard over the top of the GPU heatsink so that it goes slightly under the shroud, you in effect length the shroud so it covers the entire GPU heatsink, meaning it is drawing air over the entire heatsink instead of just the bit at the back where it meets the regular shroud. This can only help make the best of a bad situation. It also helps if the GPU heatsink has the heatpipe and smaller heatsink that sits in front of the CPU heatsink (and thus in the pathway of the 70% draw).

I'm not long repairing RRODs, so I can't give any evidence as to how long they last. The Xbox Experts Hybrid Advanced fix seems very solid though, even involving sanding down two motherboard spacers in the chassis to prevent flexing which will eventually lead to failure..

Myrddin

Thanks for the advice guys. I kinda figured that leaving the top case off would alter air flow, but said Id ask you good folk none the less.

Ill check the gpu coverage also, thanks for that TV.

Ive no idea how good this one was repaired, so I may investigate doing it again from scratch, just to be safe. I cant see many jtaggable consoles are going to be left after another few months, so I want this one to be immortal

Is the HDMI output a proprietary connection on the xbox end? Or HDMI both ends...

TouchingVirus

EnterNow wrote: »

Is the HDMI output a proprietary connection on the xbox end? Or HDMI both ends...

It's not a proprietary connection at the back (http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/news/inside_the_xbox_360_elite.htm, halfway down, looks like a standard HDMI port, also the cable looks normal only with bulkier ends..)

About the lack of JTAGable consoles - this is a bit of a concern for me, which is why I want another one myself

Myrddin

Ok so...the mod log in photos.

First things first, strip the unit down to the mobo.



Remove R6T3, to prevent the blowing of e-fuses i nthe event of an accidental official update.



Part of the jtag mod, a diode in place (insulated after photo).



The jtag mod, wires tidied up after successful nand dump.



Nand dumped.



Nand dumps compared.



Network cable, I spliced off one end and soldering the parallell port connector to the relevant pins.



XeX Menu installed & ready for use.



Now, I didnt want to stop there. I decided to do the internal sata hard drive mod and use a 3.5" 1TB hard drive, mounted inside the case. Once XeX Menu is installed, the DVD drive is no longer a necessity, as files can be copied via usb or you can FTP into the xbox and upload/download from the pc end of things. The advantage to removing the DVD drive, is that now the GPU can be directly cooled, without relying on the heat pipe.

I pulled 12v and ground direct from the power block input.



Since I was now going to have to earth the jtag mod, the fans, and now the sata power lead...I decided to run 12v, 5v, and earth to a junction point in order to avoid having all this soldered to the mobo. This makes it easier to remove also. 12v is red, ground is black, and 5v is white.



The SATA cable soldered to the mobo



A very rough shakedown



A neater shakedown. Thats the 2.5" 20gb drive which was in the hard drive enclosure. I removed it for two reasons, 1) Komplett havnt delivered my new one yet, 2) the 360 wont boot if you use the external hdd with the sata mod connected. You get an E68 because it knows there is a drive connected, but is looking for it on the sata end. Youll also note I have pins 4 & 5 crossed in the DVD data cable. This prevents the open tray led flashing constantly.



The finished job, I shaved about 15/16 degress off the gpu as its running happy now at 41C. And the wash from the fans is helping with the CPU too as thats dropped from early 50's. The xbox is of course a little noisier now, but if it keeps it running then for me its a worthy tradeoff.



Big thanks to Wittnessmenow, TouchingVirus, Cisk & Docentore for all their advice & help.

witnessmenow

Fantastic work dude

Added to the first post on the advice thread

Sweet man, Real nice job.:D

docentore

nice job mate. One question:
when you have those two wires crossed in dvd plug, can you boot Xell (ous)?

witnessmenow

Is your 3.5" drive going to fit? if thats the 2.5" in the photo its going to be fairly tight!

I ordered a spare casing for a hard drive so I'll probably just put a 500gb 2.5" in that, but if i get a second one up and running I'd consider going down this route, never even thought of it before

Myrddin

docentore wrote: »

nice job mate. One question:
when you have those two wires crossed in dvd plug, can you boot Xell (ous)?

Not sure of that actually. I dont use Xell now as any flashing can be done via ftp now, but in a worst case scenario the jumper wire can be removed. Or even better adding a toggle switch onto it.

witnessmenow wrote: »

Is your 3.5" drive going to fit? if thats the 2.5" in the photo its going to be fairly tight!

I ordered a spare casing for a hard drive so I'll probably just put a 500gb 2.5" in that, but if i get a second one up and running I'd consider going down this route, never even thought of it before

It is going to be fairly tight definitely, but again if it doesn fit Ill remove that larger fan and replace it with two smaller ones to make room. I was going to put a grommet in the case and leave the hard drive outside the case...but I figured whats the point - Id rather cool the gpu than keep an un-needed dvd drive.

TouchingVirus

Great ingenuity, love the hard drive mod but I do quite like the DVD drive in my console. That said, I'm looking at a fully internal watercool for my XBR in the future to keep temps down and everything nice and easy

Fantastic job, you can be proud of that, I know I would be!

Myrddin

Just to finish this off...Ive got the 3.5" drive now. As I thought, its too big to sit beside the big fan on the gpu. So I had to remove the fan, and utilise the other two small ram coolers instead. While I now lose some cooling efficiency, I decided to split the fan shroud into two seperate tracks as seen in other tut's. I also sealed the join between the fan shroud & heatsinks for added cooling.

The 3.5" drive went in then no problems, and formatted away. Had to briefly reconnect the dvd drive to put Xex Menu on the new hdd, then I reassembled the whole unit. Im very happy with it I must say. I wanna do something different with my other jtag but not sure what yet

Anyway, for posterity:

TouchingVirus

Very nice, lotsa storage space

You might consider modding the case and throwing in an eSATA port and an external power connector for the 360 drive beside where you have the RJ45 port for the NAND reader, it'd make it SO much handier to connect up the DVD drive when you have to

Myrddin

TouchingVirus wrote: »

Very nice, lotsa storage space

You might consider modding the case and throwing in an eSATA port and an external power connector for the 360 drive beside where you have the RJ45 port for the NAND reader, it'd make it SO much handier to connect up the DVD drive when you have to

SWEET idea...damn you! Im gonna do that!

Edit - Feck that, Ive just noticed the mini sata power lead & dvd data cable can be ran outside the case there, and covered up when not in use by the empty hd shroud....interesting. I shall investigate this further now

TouchingVirus

EnterNow wrote: »

SWEET idea...damn you! Im gonna do that!

Edit - Feck that, Ive just noticed the mini sata power lead & dvd data cable can be ran outside the case there, and covered up when not in use by the empty hd shroud....interesting. I shall investigate this further now

You're welcome, I really hate opening up consoles if I don't have to :P

Dongasaurus

Very impressive mods!

Great work!