Turn an Xbox into an all-in-one entertainment system.

Simply put, something to stick under the TV that can play DVDs, mp3s, surf the net, be a games console and many more things

 

To achieve this it needs to have support for keyboard and mouse and the Xbox game pads

 

Xbox standard specs:

Xbox Version:  1.3Hdd: 10GbATA cable: ATA33DVD drive: 4X DVD

Dashboard: Xbox standard

 

 

Mods done so far –Modded Xbox specs:

 

Xbox Version:  1.3
Mod Chip:  Executer 2.3 Lite (solderless)
Hdd:  Maxtor Dimondmax 120Gb
Dashboard:  Evolution X v3935
Media Player: Xbox Media Centre
ATA Cable changed from 33 to 100 for faster load times

Changed power L.E.D from green to blue

The case that the Xbox is going in

 

 

 

 

On with the business

The  modding started around 10:30am and we expected it to take around two days to do after a short discussion.

We laid all the parts out and did a quick check of sizes and to work out what and were needed cutting

 

 

The first thing that needed doing was the removal of the built in motherboard stands which, which was done using a hammer and screw driver, a simple tap of the screw driver forced them out of the bottom leaving just four small holes

Then the holes were drilled for the new mounting stands which stuck out of the cases bottom, using a black & Decker hobby tool (just like a dremel) the extra thread that stuck out was removed  and all metal spurs were filed off.At the same time we cut the hole for the Ethernet port at the back of the case

 

The mounting stand had the thread coated in aradilte and screwed in the base of the case and left to dry, while we stopped for a tea break

At this point (after we'd finished the coffee and some cigarettes) we fitted the mains board and psu into the case and turned our attention to the back of the case, like all pc cases it had a large rectangular hole for the I/O ports on a standard motherboard something which the Xbox doesn't have.

 

 

Also the hole for the mini-itx power supply needed covering as the Xbox psu  is not enclosed like computer power supplies. It has no fans or grill to vent hot air, all it needs is one small hole for the power cord connector.

 

At this point we decided to call it a day, all that was left was the internal parts sorting out, we needed same parts for this. We also needed to tidy up.

 

After the tidy up we sat a discussed what we needed to do the following day and any parts we need to have to finish the job

DAY 2

The Xbox motherboard connector was short so we couldn't connect the cord to the motherboard with the psu were it was, the local maplins and computer shop didn't have any ATX power extensions in stock so Little Chill picked up the parts needed to make it his self until one arrived. I started work on the on/off and eject switch, the plan was to use the pc case on/off and reset switch for this, I had planed to just unsolder the buttons on the Xbox control pcb replacing them with wires to the cases switches. Unfortunerly I was flying blind at this time due to my cable modem dying sometime during the night

     

After some testing I had to change my plan, I traced the what yellow wires did what and then cut the Xbox control pcb off. I then joined the cases on/of switch wires to the corresponding yellow wires and the same with the eject to the reset switch. By this time Little Chill had turned up with the ATX extension cable he had made the night before and he set about wiring up the USB ports on the front of the case which would take the place of two of the original Xbox controller ports

   

Once this was done we set about putting the Xbox controller ports in, due to the ports having small short wires we decided not to mess around with a soldering iron and burn our fingers. Instead it was decided that we would use the part of the controller cable that disconnects

 

Using the biggest drill bit I had we drilled a hole in the floppy drive bay cover making sure we didn't make the hole to big or out of shape so that it would be a snug fit.

   

This was later change by cutting the controller wire and the Xbox controller port off and connecting the wire together. (This picture were taken with a phone camera)

The cable was then connected to the controller port and placed inside out of the way. The next thing we needed to do was to stealth the DVD drive and cut some of the plastic mounting holes off of the drive it self so it would fit into the case.

   

At this point we turned our attention to the cooling, Little Chill had brought the day before a pci blower fan, hoping that this would be enough to keep things cool we used the one pci opening in the case at the back. With the fan drawing the air through the vents next to the cpu/gpu heats sinks in the case. This wasn't good enough though, when my Little Chill got it home the cpu/gpu temps were higher than when the Xbox was in its original case. Little Chill has since added a 60mm fan to the cpu heat sink and has plans to add a 80 or 70mm fan to the rear of the case next to the cpu heat sink to get rid of the heat. He also added ram sink to the ram.

 

We put it all together for the big test, this is were we hit our biggest problem and not it not what you think, the Xbox started first time but keep resetting, shutting down and showing error pages on the TV. So we stripped it down and removed any parts that had been added or changed only for it to do the same.  Little Chill on closer inspection found that the mod chip wasn't sitting right and even though the blue LED on the mod chip was on showing that it was working, it wasn't. We then had to make a adapter to push down on the mod chip so it would sit flat and not at a angle, which was causing one of the mod chips pins not to make contact. Once this was sorted out we then put it all back together and hoped nothing else would go wrong as it was late in the day and we didn't want to spend another day trying to get the mod chip sorted.

We used one of my rounded ATA133 cables I had laying around 1) because it looked better than a ribbon ATA cable 2) it would help air flow in the case  3) Little Chill forgot to bring his ribbon ATA cable over with him.  It's been found out since that using an ATA133 cable instead of the ATA33 cable causes some DVD discs not to be recognized

 

With the Xbox all back together and in the case we then went about testing.

   

Little Chill later got the case LED to work with the help of the internet, I got a new cable modem later on the second day about half hour after Little Chill left. I'd also like to point out that any metal cutting inside cases should be wiped down after Little Chill got home the Xbox psu went bang due to a stray piece of metal fragment. He had to buy a replacement psu from the internet.  I'm sorry about the delay in the article and anything I may have missed but due to FrontPage losing half the article I've had to sit a rewrite it a week later.

Any questions or suggestion pleas email Me Me or Little Chill