Cooling System Challenge Options

[Puppy_Kick3R]

Im sick of this shit!!!! I love 360 games I love Xbox live. But i hate the damn console. Its like M$ forgot to hire testers for this console. You would think that they too would have overheating problems while testing games for long periods of time. Ok so here it is. How bout we put up worklogs/ideas on cooling systems for our consoles. Ill start with a brief idea. How bout taking out everything in our case and putting it into a small PC case? So that we can pretty much do anything as far as cooling with our crash boxes. I just need to know certain limitations this console has when we do move it to another case.

[yellowblanket]

lot of people have this pc case idea, you have no idea how hard it is to strip the board down and relocate the slots/inputs
I admited, mine was overheated, but it wasn't the design of the console. When i opened up the heatsink to apply AS5, i found down that the thermal packaging is still on there
If u want proper cooling, u can't go wrong with replacing the thermal to a high grade one, and as for fans, just replace the stock fans with 12 V fans, make sure to have higher RPM and airflow (mine is 5000 RPM-34.2CFM)
those 2 things alone will keep your machine running under 60-65F. There's no need for bulky pc case, if you want good cooling, you should start from those 2 things

[kickbox33]

ive had no trouble with my system since i bought it 5dec, played burnout for 4 hrs before then downloaded battlefield demo and played that for a hr and system is blowing warm air out back, longest ive had it switched on playing was for about 8-10 hrs, checked fan voltages when i opened case other day and on idle 5.4v going to each fan, and after playing burnout for 3 hrs still 5.4v going to each fan and top of heat sink on cpu just warmish

[NeoJew]

That foil thing was supposed to be there. It's not as good as Thermal Paste, but it wasn't a mistake.

This post has been edited by NeoJew: Mar 30 2006, 03:42 AM

[yellowblanket]

i beg to differ, that wraping foil covering the thermal, it got squished down and there are some thermal pasting oozing out. I'm no expert but that is not how thermal suppose to be use

[Mick Garvey]

Its supposed to be there, it aides in the removal and reapplieing of the heatsink for manufacturing and refurbishhing ease. I would say removing it wouldnt help at all, although if you replace it with a better thermal compound that would help. Also is this thread supposed to be a joke? The 360 is completely fine as cooling goes, maybe a faulty console here and there or user error but nothing near widespread.

[NeoJew]

Differ all you want, but here are the facts:
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=496779
The original topic is here:
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=496524

[yellowblanket]

most of the replies were against MS story about the foil,
I'm sorry but true or not, it's just common sense that when you applying thermal, u'd cut the wraping foil, not placing the whole pack on there and squish it down with the chipset on top.

[Mick Garvey]

and it goes on, someone even had a link to the factory specs of the thermal tape used and it said it has a thin foil layer.

[twistedsymphony]

most of the replies were against MS story about the foil,
I'm sorry but true or not, it's just common sense that when you applying thermal, u'd cut the wrapping foil, not placing the whole pack on there and squish it down with the chipset on top.

Just because more people think one way doesn't mean they're right or properly informed.

and it goes on, someone even had a link to the factory specs of the thermal tape used and it said it has a thin foil layer.

That's correct, The foil is meant to be there, it' can't hold a candle to good thermal past (in fact it's quite crappy by comparison) but if you leave the "paste" that's behind the foil on, and just remove the foil it will actually be WORSE then if you left the foil there because that paste is meant to work with the foil.

I'd agree that the factory cooling system is adequate, I have a launch console and play 3-4 hours every night and often do marathon sessions on weekends, I've never experienced problems with over heating. If you're having problems I'd recommend contacting MS and getting your console replaced.

If I did decide to do anything cooling wise replacing the thermal compound is probably the only thing I'd do, I'd maybe consider adding heatsyncs to a few other chips like the ram, video encoder, and north bridge, etc. Pretty much what I did with my Xbox1. IMO replacing the fans is a bit of a waste because you flat out can't find fans that would cool better with equal or lower noise levels.