Pc-xb01 360 Htpc Mod Complete!, Lian Li xbox case, Scythe Ninja cooler,........ Options

[mariods]

O.k. So I have finished my mod that I mentioned about a couple weeks ago, using:

-Lian Li PC-XB01 case
-Scythe Ninja Mini Heatsink
-added 80mm Vantec Stealth fan in front of CPU heatsink
-x-clamp replacement using RBJTECH method
-heatsinks (Aluminum not Copper) on Ram chips, ANA chip, and South Bridge
-Blue Cold Cathode light
-NZXT fan/Thermal monitor
-AS5 on GPU and CPU chips

OBJECTIVE

To "properly" cool the entire unit as a whole, the way it should have been from the beginning. The xbox 360 is a massive and powerful PC, that has the mediocre cooling of a Nintendo Wii. I have had the xbox 360 premium in my pocession for 2 years which I paid $225.00 cdn for at the time, babying the thing and not letting it overheat just until the warranty expired, and now is the time to do something about it. My unit has worked flawlessly since I got it, with no freezing or rrod.

SYNOPSIS

Well this isn't a tutorial, mainly just sharing my project with fellow modders, and hopefully getting some feedback, positive or negative, I don't care. There is lots of pics, so go through them all. Thanks.

So From the Beginning,

With all necessary parts on hand and tools out the whazoo at my disposal, I began the diassembly of my Xbox 360, which I'm not gonna go through because everyone here knows how to do it.
Next, I began measuring all the necessary parts to make sure my idea is gonna work. And, the first think I noticed is that the heatsinks are placed right next to each other, and the mounting holes for both are exactly the same, 60 mm squared centre on centre.

The Scythe Ninja Mini is 105mm in height and 110 mm squared width. This heatsink assembly is the perfect candidate, because of its design and performance and size. Also, If you look at the bottom of the heatsink it has a passive heatsink inside, so there is no wasted space. (like the 'big typhoon' cooler)



So the first thing I had to do is make a bracket to fit the heatsink which will be a little bigger then the mounting, 70mm squared. I found this nice piece of aluminum plate that is the backing cover of and old car amplifier, and its 1.5mm in thickness and is made of strong aluminum.

I used one of the retention brackets that came with the cooler as my layout and traced it on the piece I cut out.




Once that was done i assembled it on the cooler and test fit it on the motherboard. The corners of the internal passive heatink had to be notched,to make more room for the nuts, and also the bottom six fins had to be chopped. Sacrifice, Sacrifice!




hmmmmmm.....some bending of the stock cpu cooler is needed to get it out of the way so the ninja can fit center on the gpu chip.



I moved on to mounting the thermal monitor to the front of the case. After measuring for center and the right height, I took my trusty dremel and cut the area out.



It seems M$ did me the favour of epoxying the corners and the sides of the gpu and cpu chips. One less thing for me to do.


Before mounting the motherboard into the case, I decided to install the thermal monitor first.

Unscrewing the bottom cover of the case exposes the motherboard platform, which is not removable, but is made of aluminum, which will benefit the bottom thermal pads to sit on, and disipate heat to. I drilled out the eight mounting holes to the proper diameter of the bolts I was using (8-32).



The thermal monitor, and the cold cathode light, need a molex connection for power.



........continued on next post

[killer skittle]

AWWWWW..........I want more! awesome job! love the case (jealous) and that heat sink should keep it cool for like...longer than 5 min! lol

[mariods]

......continuation


Damn, pain in the ass lining up the 8 bolts through the motherboard. If you notice, six bolts are shorter than the other 2, for obvious reasons, needing clearance for the new heatsink.


Before mounting the heatsinks on, the thermal sensors had to be adhered first. I crazy glued, the sensors as close to the chip as possible, for the most accurate reading. Also positioning the sensor so it lies flat and not on top of a transistor is also tricky.


After struggling, and struggling trying to thread the nuts on the bolts, (1 hour,...Yeah, I'm not kidding), I finally managed with a pair of long nose 45 degree angle pliers, and contorted and modified 11/32 wrench. Also, installed the dvd drive, no probs.
The problem I had is the clearance between the bottom fins, and the bolts, and not to mention the capacitors, that were in the way, made the situation ever so troublesome.


Now, that was taken care of, I moved on to mounting heatsinks on the ram chips, the ana chip and the southbridge chip.
Some of you modders might recognize the fan/heatsink assembly on the SB chipset. Yup! its the gpu cooler from the original Xbox. Hows that for Irony! The other heatsinks used were from old cpu coolers I had laying around, which I decide to cut and fit, instead of spending more money.




Also, if you haven't noticed already, I purposely positioned all the heatsinks so their fins all line up in the same direction, for the air to properly travel through nicely.

Next up, was to install the gpu fan, and the cpu fan. Both fans had to be notched, and cut to sit properly, and to clear some of the capacitors that were in the way. Both fans are extremely quite. Something like, 21 db each at 12volts.
I then modified the aluminum shroud that came with the case, and made my own shroud over the cpu, and installed the Hdd, the cold cathode light, and wire loomed up the exposed wiring.




I closed her up, and took her for a test drive!


She ran very quite, with the amount of fans that we're in there, and at the back of the case you can definately tell
the amount of air that was being moved.

Test results.

At idle, the gpu temps were astonishing! 31 degrees celsius, for 20 mins on the dashboard.
What a difference a proper (and overkill!) a cooler makes. Which leads me to the cpu cooler.
61 degrees celsius at idle on the dashboard. Hmmmmmm, not exactly something to write home about
but we're still talking about a small, single heatpiped cooler, for a tri-core "Monster" cpu.

I was just not content with the results of the cpu temps. Especially after all that work so I decided to put the
rear 120mm case fan at 12 volts constant. This dropped the temp to 51 degrees! Wow! huge jump in temps.
This is more acceptable. Now to try it out on the open road!

I put on NHL09, at 1080i hd video out,(The latest that I have right now) for 2 hours of playtime and the most the gpu temps rose to were 35 degrees.
Still, rock stable with no glitching or freezing of any sort. The cpu temps went as high as 57 degrees celsius during playing time, and when exited to the dashboard went down to 51 again.
Needless to say, when I read the manual for the nzxt monitor, it said in the specs that the accuracy is +-5%.
That to me is kind of a large window, but I think the temps are very close to correct as they can be.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, I am very pleased with the outcome and the performance gain this case has given me. It is truly the ultimate cooling solution, and modding solution for the xbox 360. It leaves you open to so many ideas and different outcomes. I know, not all of you like the look of it, or the fact that the hard drive is not removable any more. But for a guy like me, who's 33 married with 2 kids, who doesn't do lan parties, or spend 50 hours a week mastering halo 3 online, its perfect!
If I were to do it all again, then I think I would definately consider changing the stock heatsink aswell. Something with maybe 4 heatpipes or 3 instead, would make a difference in temps.
The case overall looks big and bulky. In fact, my wife walked into the living room after I set it up in the entertainment unit and said "Uhmmmm, what the f@%k is that black box?"

All in all, I have achieved what I set out to do, and hopefully I never get the 3ROD, and if I do after all that
I did here than,
MS SUCKS SH%T AND EVERYONE SHOULD JUMP THE BAND WAGON AND BUY A PS3 INSTEAD!!

thanks for reading.

Feel free to reply with your comments.

[mariods]

Thanks to whoever, joined the 2 posts together. Makes it a lot easier to read.

[icustom]

Very nice, bought an older 06 360 here. (Got a Jasper At Home)

In the summer after school, and regents will be over (Ahh what a relief), I am going to do this mod .

How much was the other heatsink, where did you get it?

[mariods]

Hey,

I got the case and Scythe Ninja heatsink on Newegg.ca. I paid $43.34 cdn for the heatsink, and $147.99 for the case, plus shipping and handling.

thanks.

[brandogg]

You, sir, have entirely too much time and money on your hands. Looks pretty nice though, and the GPU temp is pretty incredible.

[mariods]

hahahaha, you might think that, but its the exact opposite. I spent the weekend I had off doing this because I have no other time to do so. The wife and kids were gone at the grand mothers house so I took advantage of it while I can. And for the money, well I decided to invest a couple hundred bucks on something I enjoy doing, and at the same time protect my investment.

[SuDDeN]

Great Job! Thanks for the pics!

I'm gearing up to do one as well..... I am going to cut away a portion of the Top for BI GTX240.....

I cant believe that heat sink squeezed in there.... Looks to be HUGE!

Again - thanks for the time to document! Kudos!

**** Quick quetion: how is your wireless range with the case? (Controllers -&- Mic)
I keep hearing negative reports about the front metal interfering with it.

Just curious!

Thanks!

[Grim187]

Thanks to whoever, joined the 2 posts together. Makes it a lot easier to read.

your welcome.

all im gonna say is your a fool for putting a ninja on the gpu. (ment in a good way)

[mariods]

The Scythe ninja I used is the 'mini' version. The other scythe ninja is 150 mm in height. Now that is big!

If you read my conclusion, and your serious about doing this, then I would reccomend in changing the cpu heatsink aswell.

The range of the wireless controllers, ......well I haven't used it more than 15 feet, but now that you mentioned it maybe I will check to see how the range is and post back.

[mariods]

I tested out the range of the wireless controllers and they seem to be o.k. distance wise. I mean, I was at a point where I was around a corner and couldn't see the t.v. But like I said, I only need to play around 6 feet away because I'm on a 37" widescreen, not a 65".

[SuDDeN]

Great - that's good news. I have bought 3 of the cases and then heard people complaining about the Wireless Controller Range and drop outs.

Im glad all is good. Thanks for taking the time to post your findings with it!

Great Mod!

[SphtKr76]

I've been considering this case for quite a while and am glad to hear it is working well for you. Any recommendations for a GPU heatsink that doesn't require mods to fit, but is bigger/better than the stock one? Also what CPU heatsink would you use with it? Thanks.

This post has been edited by SphtKr76: Feb 27 2009, 07:05 PM

[mariods]

Well, a heatsink that doesn't require modifications is gonna be hard to find. First off, the mounting bracket you have no choice but to make, to fit. Secondly, all the heatsinks that are out there are GINORMOUS! I found a few that are of the smaller sizes like 'masscool' and 'zalman' or 'zerotherm', 'aerocool', which would also be good as the cpu heatsink aswell. I think any aftermarket heatsink is better than the crap that microsoft put in there. What a joke!