The Xbox Micro, the smallest one yet... Options

[Bandit5317]

This is yet another shrunken Xbox inspired by ghostavel's awesome mini.

Dimensions:
23.5 x 21.65 x 2.5 cm

Some Specs:
320 GB 2.5" HDD
PW-200-V PSU
TSOP flashed with iND-BIOS
v1.4 motherboard

My goal with this project was to make a Xbox which was 1" thick. After 6 months of on and off work, this is the result:



The case is made out of 1/8" thick (3mm) polycarbonate and consists of 4 panels. 3 of the panels were held together with epoxy and plastic welder to form the base. The top panel is supported by 4 posts which it screws into. All of the panels were made with the usual tools, so it doesn't quite have that laser-cut precision, but I think it came out alright.



Bondo was used to fill in any gaps between the base panels and the whole thing was sprayed with a few coats of primer and Krylon Fusion. Here are some pics of the motherboard and components:



Since the case itself accounted for 1/4" of thickness, the motherboard and the rest of the components had to be 3/4" thick or thinner. One of the problems that I ran into while trying to do this was the IDE cable. I just didn't have the room to fold the cable to make the 90* turn. It may have only added 1/16", but that was too much, so I rewired it with a 90* turn.









Here are some comparison pics of it next to a standard Xbox:







The standard Xbox case is about 3.5" tall.



Edited 18/8/09 by deadparrot - fixed your images!

This post has been edited by deadparrot: Aug 18 2009, 11:06 AM

[annell]

Nice work!

This post has been edited by annell: Aug 13 2009, 08:24 PM

[MasterGouken]

Ok in comparison mine looks actually very pathetic and poor. Thanks for that, lol.
Seriously though amazing work, well done. What are your temps like having it that slim? Did you have any problems getting the psu to work at all?
Congrats on the workmanship, very neat and very slim!

This post has been edited by MasterGouken: Aug 13 2009, 08:26 PM

[pattythefatty]

nice work.
Does it have built in wireless? Or DVD Dongle? can we see picks of the unit assembled but with the lid off, I would like to see how you fit the parts in there, like the power button and usb ports.
thanks,
PTF

[Bandit5317]

Ok in comparison mine looks actually very pathetic and poor. Thanks for that, lol.
Seriously though amazing work, well done. What are your temps like having it that slim? Did you have any problems getting the psu to work at all?
Congrats on the workmanship, very neat and very slim!

Thanks . Mine may be thinner, but yours really does look much more professional. I can't beat that perfect laser-cut look that it has. Predictably, it doesn't exactly run cool. The CPU idles at 100*F and the GPU at 120*F, even with the GPU heatsink fan running at 12v. In games the CPU runs around 130*F and the GPU hits 140*F. Pretty toasty, but I've heard of people getting away with considerably higher. The HDD is somewhat cooled by the GPU fan. Initially, I had problems getting the Xbox's PS_On signal to trip the transistor and get the PSU to turn on. Turns out that I was just using a resistor with a way too high Ohm rating. It was 100k Ohm, but it worked fine when I switched it to 10k Ohm. I'm using two regulators to bump down the standby voltage and PS_Ok to 3.3v.

nice work.
Does it have built in wireless? Or DVD Dongle? can we see picks of the unit assembled but with the lid off, I would like to see how you fit the parts in there, like the power button and usb ports.
thanks,
PTF

Wireless LAN or controller? I honestly don't think there is enough room in it for the wireless bridge, but I might put a wireless controller dongle in there. That's why I left two of the controller ports free. I don't have a DVD playback kit and if I did I would just use it on my other 'box. Gotta love how these things are dirt cheap . Here is a pic of it running open:

[Dee$]

Now that's what I call slim
Excellent mod. Wish I had your skills at bending and bonding polycarbonate.

This post has been edited by Dee$: Aug 13 2009, 09:22 PM

[Joes2Silly]

You just set the bar higher for those making a xbox slim, nice work!

[bc54]

that is the easily the best looking case mod i have ever seen. although, those temps arnt the best... i dont think it makes much of a difference, i think most of my xboxes when they are first modded run at similiar temps. but then i just crank the fan up to 40% and its all good.

really great job. i am seriously jealous.

[Nextelhalo]

I have to agree with everyone here, that shit is badass!!!!
A friend of mine tried to make the slimmest box possible
and this will blow him away and piss him off.......i cant wait.

I wonder what Nic CC will say?

This post has been edited by Nextelhalo: Aug 13 2009, 10:43 PM

[Bandit5317]

Thanks everyone .

that is the easily the best looking case mod i have ever seen. although, those temps arnt the best... i dont think it makes much of a difference, i think most of my xboxes when they are first modded run at similiar temps. but then i just crank the fan up to 40% and its all good.

really great job. i am seriously jealous.

Right now I have the CPU fan speed turned up in XBMC, but it goes back down to stock when playing games or emulators. It still doesn't even get close to overheating at stock speed, but if it ever becomes a problem then I'll either hard wire it at a higher voltage or reflash the TSOP with the fan speed set higher in the BIOS.

[NiC_CC]

I will have to say damn... I love how you arranged everything Without taking the time to measure my box I would have to say we either match or you have me beat. But, I dare say mine has better style considering I kept the stock look...

More or less though, this is what I get for taking over 3 years to complete a project. haha

kudos on the great work.

This post has been edited by NiC_CC: Aug 14 2009, 12:46 AM

[event horizon]

Wow at the retail box in comparison to the micro case, nice work!

[Bandit5317]

I will have to say damn... I love how you arranged everything Without taking the time to measure my box I would have to say we either match or you have me beat. But, I dare say mine has better style considering I kept the stock look...

More or less though, this is what I get for taking over 3 years to complete a project. haha

kudos on the great work.

I do like how you kept the whole Xbox feel with your case. I considered going that route, but after looking through your thread, I decided it would be much harder to use the original case than to just build a new one.

[GoTeamScotch]

That is incredible! I doubt it can get any smaller than that.

Its make me wonder again why microsoft didn't revive the xbox by making a slim version like Sony did with the ps2.

Astounding work there patty. I like how you just used USB ports in the front. Maybe you should throw in a hardwired dongle, it wouldn't be that difficult to do.

If you don't like the fan speed going back down in games, just change the config in ind-bios. I'm not sure about other versions but iND-Bios 5003 uses an editable configuration file stored @ C. Just up the fan speed.
I love it man. very stylish

[Zebedee Rocks]

That is Stupendous, an incredible job. I'm looking forward to something similar next summer, till then I shall just drool