Media Server Without Playing Games. Options

[clelliot]

So I just softmodded my original Xbox, and I wanted to pick up another one from Gamestop, at the great price of $50. I want to upgrade the harddrive of the new one, via softmod, but I don't really need it to play games, since I plan on keeping my old xbox for that purpose. So what I was wondering is: Is it possible to softmod the xbox into thinking it's a computer so that I could use it as an XBMC-based entertainment hub. I don't really care if it can play games after that, I just want to be able to softmod the new Xbox, and plug in a new 750gb hd, and go from there. I have a laptop, so hotswapping won't really work. Any ideas?

[steveo1978]

if you cant build the hdd on a pc then you are stuck but you can either flash the tsop on the xbox or get a chip installed and just run xbmc as the dash and that will give you what you want

[Bomb Bloke]

It's possible make the console act a lot like a more traditional PC (though it'll only be good for running Linux based software). Frankly, I don't see the point - It's a lot more complex to get it to that stage then it is to just leave it as is, and you're really only adding limits to the system by removing it's ability to act like a console.

I personally softmod then flash the system TSOP with something like the X2 5035 BIOS. Once this is done it's a heck of a lot easier to, for eg, install a new HDD. Whether you can do this and what BIOS types are available to you depends on your console version.

[Vash3k]

It's a good idea to sit down and write out just what it is you want to do with this mod. After that, do some forum reading, visit respective sites, and research how possible it will be for you to achieve your goals. Of a lot of the things I wanted to do, some had to be cut, and others evolved over time. Expect your system to change. I started with Evox (was a newb and it was the only thing I had heard of) and went to UnleashX and finally to UIX (can be tough to set up). If you're planning to run your box as a simple media center, XBMC is probably the best choice. If your box isn't softmodded already and you have the knowhow, I'd recommend formatting a 100mb+ USB stick in the Xbox and then putting together an xbmc softmod package yourself. But in the end, it's probably safest to softmod normally, then install XBMC over that. Knowing what version your Xbox is is also important as you may be able to TSOP flash it. Another alternative is buying a modchip. There are plenty of ways of carring out the project, you just need to figure out what is best for you.