[Worklog] Xbox 360 Elite

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You may not use these photos for any reason without my permission

Beginning of an epic project.

It was much more difficult and time consuming than i had thought. Anyone considering this should ask themselves if they're really dedicated enough. It took me a few months reading and research, two weeks buying parts and another few weeks of building and endlessly trying different combinations and adjusting course.

After all the cutting, drilling, sleeving, wiring, hacking, sanding, filing and assembly was finished i must say that i'm pretty damn happy with the result. The system still works, successfully watercooled. While it is far from perfect, this has been my first ever water cooling project.

Its been a red ring roller coaster with five or six overheating semi-circles of death and two full red rings of death there were at least a few times i had thought the xbox had been bricked. I am pretty impressed with the systems ability to take the abuse i dished out in the process. The construction wasn't as fragile as i thought it would be.

Challenges

Cutting the window. I marked the area to be cut with a sharp yellow crayon (black case) and tried a few different approaches including a mini-hacksaw but found the best way was to drill holes in each of the corners and then use a small jig-saw to cut about 5 mil from the line, then i filed it down. I wish i had spent more time on the window though, I should have used black mounting tap, and put more effort into getting the edges smooth.

DVD Screw There is supposed to be a DVD mounting screw where the window goes that i had to come up with a solution for. This is why many of the xbox window mods are either a small window or have a piece jutting out in the middle. I decided to cut a block mounting screw and tighten two nuts together for a hard end underneath the window, and then was able to fasten with another nut on the underside.

Mounting the blocks. On the back there are little x brackets that clip over the prongs that come through the back of the motherboard. They use tension and if they're bent in the wrong way they're too loose to snap back on. The blocks don't mount firmly while the motherboard is out, the x bracket is more of a placeholder/guide because once the motherboard is back in the frame the mounting pins screw into the metal case and then can be tightened properly.

Soldering 12v . There are quite a few places to leech power from: You can modify the fan connector from 5v into 12v, you can tap into the DVD & HDD drive connector but the word is that stealing from drives connectors puts your system at risk if you draw too much away from the device. If you want to do it i would only hook up one or two very low draw devices.

Apparently the best place to take power from is the pins located under the systems power socket which is what i did. I have very little soldering experience so it was hard and i ended up redoing it five or so times.

One time i soldered the negative wire to the wrong pin, there are four pins in a line but its only the outside two are correct. Make sure you double check the diagrams. This was what gave me the red rings of death and to be honest i am very lucky that it doesn't seem to have fried anything.

Fill Port. This was a big headache. Both attempts to mount a nice fill port failed. Which mostly comes down to bad planning on my part and thus my system doesn't really have a fill port. I ran and topped it up a many times then eventually unscrewed the fill port and put a plug in. An ideal mod would have it refillable without taking the case apart. It got to the point where i had gone too far to go back and redesign. In hindsight it would be best to run a swiftech 1/4 split near the pump and run a loop of tube under the DVD drive and back out to mount into the plexi.

Top Edge Clearance. In a few of the photos you can see that the case bows out around the pump and fans. Because of this the case doesn't really clamp down properly around the back and it doesn't look nice. Its still possible to get it flush but you would have to be very mindful of the tight fit from the start. Perhaps if the pump was flipped upside down the inlet/outlet could rest between some resistors. I would recommend getting mount tape and plexi that is as thin as possible as the components rest against it and you could save some millimeters of space.

Noise. I tried three different sets of 40mm fans, the problem being noise versus airflow. The sanace have awesome specs but the noise is just way too high (rated 57db @ 12v). The scythe are quiet but push a pathetic 2cfm or something. The Deltas are a pretty good balance, they under volt reliably but with some mechanical sounds. 12v is too loud, 5v is quiet but possibly not enough airflow. I think its very important to build in the ability to change the fan speeds otherwise you're going to be disappointed in the end with it being too noisy or too hot.

Main Components

Danger Den Compression Fitting 1/4" ID 3/8" OD
Feser One F1 Cooling Fluid - UV Orange - 1 Liter
Magicool Extreme Slim Profile 2X40mm Radiator - Black
Swiftech MCP350™ 12 VDC Pump
Alphacool TEMP Thermosensor G1/4" fitting
Delta 40 X 28mm 3-Pin Case Fan - Ultra Speed - Sleeved
Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Compound
Acrylic Window Kit - Square - Clear
Danger Den G1/4 High Flow Fitting - Male to Male Thread
Tygon 3603 1/4" ID (3/8" OD) Clear Tubing (TYGON-3603-1/4)
Koolance Nozzle Body, Brass [no nozzles]
Delrin/Acetal "T" Fitting
XSPC LCD Display Temperature Sensor - Red
LED - Pre-wired with Connectors - 5mm - Purple
Lamptron ClearPuk - 7 LED Spread Lighting Module - Sleeved - Red
Lamptron ClearPuk - 7 LED Spread Lighting Module - Sleeved - UV
PCB-PWM10P, PMP-400 Pump Controller
GPU-180-L06 (Vid/MB) [6mm, 1/4"]
GPU-180-H06 (Vid) [6mm, 1/4"]

Resources:
http://forums.llamma.com/viewtopic.php?t=7074
http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/repair...isassembly.htm
http://www.anandtech.com/systems/sho...spx?i=2610&p=2
http://www.xbox-scene.com/tutorials-...-hdd-drive.php
http://content.techrepublic.com.com/...1-5652-31.html
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=430626
http://secure.llamma.com/catalog/pro...roducts_id=740
http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/...lllHlcrxQY.php
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/lofiver...p/t467270.html
http://www.extreme-mods.com/Xbox-360-s/1.htm
http://www.xcm.cc/360.htm
http://www.divineo.cn/cgi-bin/div-cn/cat_360.html
http://www.talismoon.com/cgi-bin/mul...at&cat=XBOX360
http://www.xcmlive.com/cgi-bin/xcmli...at&cat=XBOX360
http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/mods/360-12V-fan-Mod.htm
http://kotaku.com/gaming/xbox-360/pi...tem-153682.php

One thing i just remembered to add... be careful when using the 3pin plug that by default powers the fans, its 5v and it uses a non-standard wiring pattern, if i remember correctly the negative wire is in the middle rather than the outside.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by [cTx] Nooc

Beginning of an epic project.

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Way to :banana::banana::banana::banana: up the formatting :rofl:


Subscribed.

He should have been faster, lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by biftek.

Way to :banana::banana::banana::banana: up the formatting :rofl:

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honestly, when i saw that i loled. good luck with it Crankyhobo. i have an elite too, when u get it done and its not a hard mod i might follow suit.

BTW id like to see someone watercool a PS3:D

subscribed. I just rid my uncle's household of consoles, so now the world is a better place. I am curious to see if this works.

Where are you going to put your t line or res? It looks awesome :D

Subs :

nice mate subed

Hey Op very cool project, however i have some bad news for ya.

Its gonna take a bit more then that magicool 60x2 radiator to cool that 360 down.

Trust me, i watercooled mine, and unless my koolance unit had fans set up on near max, the unit would get hot when gaming.


Giving you a heads up. The koolance radiator is much bigger then that magicool, and does a better job even tho its made out of alu. :X


So watch out.

cool, I like to see how this one will go.

Looks nice so far, keep up the good work!

I am not impressed . . .I have had a 380 Halo Edition taken apart in my closet for almost a year waiting for me to mod it . . . ;) Don't be a lazy bum like me and show us the money baby! Mod that beotch!

While you're at it you might as well replace the X-clamps with something better.
http://rbjtech.bulldoghome.com/pages.../XClampIII.htm

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DarthBeavis

I am not impressed . . .I have had a 380 Halo Edition taken apart in my closet for almost a year waiting for me to mod it . . . ;) Don't be a lazy bum like me and show us the money baby! Mod that beotch!

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Damn XBOX 380?!?! I gotta get me one of those. :rofl:

I'm going to do same on mine (which isn't the elite one) because thoses fans are realy loud.
I think that 2 Nexxxos Xp would do it fine but I still don't know how to let the hose come inside the box without cutting anything.
Nice project :)

You're absolutely out of your mind.

That said, i respect you entirely XD awesome project. come around and do mine!

how are you gonna run the pump? the 360 doesn't have spare molex plugs >_>

genius. subscribed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jadeskye

You're absolutely out of your mind.

That said, i respect you entirely XD awesome project. come around and do mine!

how are you gonna run the pump? the 360 doesn't have spare molex plugs >_>

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In fact, you can "take" 12v at many places on the motherboard
And some french people already did it and it works fine :)
Like this one
http://www.clan1er.com/burning/SHOTV2/1.jpg

http://www.clan1er.com/burning/SHOTV2/3.jpg
Inside without case : http://www.clan1er.com/burning/SHOTV...ogress/1-5.jpg
Or this one
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/4...kgy220l3el.jpg

***** Just as a note from experience - that last pic from Vitriol Drinker.... shows an improper heat sink on the GPU..... The DVD ROM will not go back in place with it on there. You have to use the flush mounted one as seen in his linked pic here: http://www.clan1er.com/burning/SHOTV...ogress/1-5.jpg

OK - just wanted to throw that out there incase anyone is seeing this and wanting to cool theirs too. Of'coures you can use this sink but the DVD Drive would have to be relocated.

L8R

Pics aren't working.

work for me :/

Ya they are working noqw.

holy smokes you've done all these in the past couple days? but looking good though. Nice and clean.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aspire.comptech

Damn XBOX 380?!?! I gotta get me one of those. :rofl:

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I am old . . .gimme a break . . .respect your seniors ;)

I use the Innovatek Xbox 360 waterblock, and it works great and cools the ram as well. Its aluminum, but i use low conductivity fluid and electricallly isolate it.

Updated Original Posts (#1,3,4) - Lots of pictures, full write up.

Awesome work!

very nicely done!

in the end (if you dont mind me asking) how much did it cost you?

Amazing! This is the first time I've seen a liquid cooled XBox 360! :) That's a really awesome project!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by UZ7

very nicely done!

in the end (if you dont mind me asking) how much did it cost you?

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For the parts i actually used, it cost $350 USD + tax + shipping. I of course tried a few things which failed and bought more stuff than i needed including some tools, which i dont have a problem with since i will use it all on other projects :P You could do it for cheaper with cheap plastic fittings and lower quality tube, no fan/pump controller etc. Most expensive piece was the pump.

Some extra info...

Fan Specs:
Voltage: 12V
Operating Voltage: 4-13.8V
Current: 0.5A
Rated Input Power: 6W
Speed: 13000 rpm
Airflow: 24 CFM
Sound Level: 51.5 dB

12v Soldered Current
Pump - .69 amps
Fans - 1 amps (0.5 x2 Fans @ 12v)
LED Panels - 0.052a (.026 x2 7 )

Temperatures (100% load)
fans @ 5v 50° C
fans @ 7v 43° C
fans @ 12v is too loud... but its around 30° C

Hey man,

Awesome project! Just out of interest, how does that tiny radiator cope with the heat?! I know the temperature number look good, but how is it in practice?

Cheers,

Suman

Wow, BRAVO!

That is really awesome, great work man. :D :up: :toast:

awesome work!! mate

do you rekon a single 120rad such a mcr120 would be right for watercooling the xbox? with say a s-flex 1600rpm