Zephyr Vs Xenon Options

[joh123]

Hi,
I recently got a RROD Xenon from a friend. Did X-clamp fix on it and modified the cooling system. Now I'm gonna get a Zephyr xbox and I've been reading about it. They say it is as probable to develop RROD as is Xenon. But from pictures ( http://beta.ivc.no/wiki/images/thumb/8/80/...hyr_cooling.jpg ) it seems that Zephyr has a more advanced GPU cooling system. Won't that help at all then, if they're both as prone to RROD?
Shouldn't it be at least a bit better than Xenon?
Thank you in advance,
joh123

This post has been edited by joh123: Feb 15 2012, 01:34 PM

[Ranger72]

It is a little better as it has an HDMI port but other than that as far as reliability they both pretty much suck as much as any console could suck. But hey if it is free or close to free you dont have much to loose anyway right?

[STICKY_BUD]

agreed - if you are spending money, get a better console. if it is super cheap, add the same cooling mods as the xenon and cross your fingers. fyi, my march 2006 xenon console was still going strong in march 2011 so i finally sold it and about 7 months later it got RROD.

[joh123]

Hehe, asked the seller, what motherboard it has.. gave him the picture with power plugs and he said it's Zephyr. Now I got the console and actually it is a Falcon! I'm superhappy Wireless remote, wired remote, flashed console, 60gb HDD, bout 10 self-written games, all the cables (except HDMI), documents, the box.. it's banned though but I don't care much about that..

Now, is there any point in doing cooling mods to the Falcon?

[djexentrix]

Now, is there any point in doing cooling mods to the Falcon?

Absolutely. The GPU is the same in Falcon as Zephyr but the CPU is what runs cooler in the Falcon. I would recommend at least a 7v Fan mod, 9v would be best and 12v is probably overkill.

[joh123]

I was planning to put a potentiometer to the cooler but I'm not sure what potentiometer do I need exactly.. Check out this thread forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=713101 .....

I also took apart one of my old computers and took it's CPU heatsink + cooler from it. I don't think I will be able to put the heatsink to the xbox's gpu, because it doesn't have the same kind fixing (4 bolts).. but I can use the cooler.. I also took a smaller heatsink from the motherboard of the PC which I was planning to put to the southbridge or this other chip that needed cooling (i don't remember how it is named).. and also ordered heatsinks for the RAM chips from ebay.. And going to mod the fan shroud ...

[djexentrix]

Interesting, however without homebrew software how will you monitor what speed to run it at for ample cooling? In my experience I didn't find that adding a fan on the gpu heatsink helped that much.

Another option for you instead of a potentiometer could be to read the nand and edit the config. This way you can set your own target temperature for GPU, CPU and RAM and your internal fan will increase as necessary. Much simpler and at least you know it's adjusting as necessary rather than just blindly setting a potentiometer.

[joh123]

Well, I'd set it so that it would be either 5V, 12V or anything in between.. probably would set it at 8v-9v.. I've never heard it increase on its own so it usually runs on 5V anyway, so I think it couldn't hurt..

And yea, it's not homebrew so I can't use software fan modification..

[djexentrix]

Sorry for the misunderstanding but what I meant is that you cannot monitor the temps without homebrew, however you can edit the target temps even with a stock unit. It's relatively easy and like I said before the 360 will do all the work, plus there's no hard modifications necessary aside from reading and writing the nand. The reason why you normally never hear the fans spin up very high is because by default the target temps are set to ridiculously high values imo. Check out the attached picture below for the default target temps.



This post has been edited by djexentrix: Feb 21 2012, 12:42 AM

[Khaine]

If it's banned anyway, I'd RGH it (provided you haven't updated to dash 14717).

At least then you get homebrew and have the option of playing on Xlink Kai if you want to.

[joh123]

Another option for you instead of a potentiometer could be to read the nand and edit the config. This way you can set your own target temperature for GPU, CPU and RAM and your internal fan will increase as necessary. Much simpler and at least you know it's adjusting as necessary rather than just blindly setting a potentiometer.

How do I do that?

And as for RGH-ing, maybe I should do it. I have dash 9199.. Gonna read abit now about RGH and how to do it and what do I need.. or see how much do I have to pay for someone else to do it for me..

--edit-- From what I read, it's a hard thing to do and people tend to mess up alot while doing it. And the local prices here are 85.50EUR for RGH and 79.50EUR for JTAG which is too much for this old might-die-soon xbox..

--edit2-- Mite have found someone who would RGH it for 45EUR (+ shippings).. still quite a bit but maybe it's worth it.. should think about it.

This post has been edited by joh123: Feb 21 2012, 11:51 AM

[djexentrix]

Where are you located?

[joh123]

Where are you located?

In Estonia (Northern Europe) ..

[joh123]

Just tried to burn my first "backup" DVD.. I dno, it failed. I mean the burning process itself already failed.. Think the ISO was corrupt or smt, I did everything correct and used the most expensive DVD (Verbatim DVD+R DL).. so I was starting to check the prices of other DVD DLs and read how people buy 10-packs and 25-packs paying up to almost 40EUR for 25 DVDs.. so it's kind of like the smartest thing to ever do to get my box RGHd for €45 + €6 shipping both ways..

BUT, I read that some kind of versions of Falcon cannot be RGHd because they have some double bootloader thingie or CB_B or whatever. I'm not sure if I understood correctly but maybe it's something that MS did to consoles that were sent back for repairs to block hacks.. but maybe it's something else.. what's CB anyway and how can I control what verion I have and if it's RGHble?

[djexentrix]

Just tried to burn my first "backup" DVD.. I dno, it failed. I mean the burning process itself already failed.. Think the ISO was corrupt or smt, I did everything correct and used the most expensive DVD (Verbatim DVD+R DL).. so I was starting to check the prices of other DVD DLs and read how people buy 10-packs and 25-packs paying up to almost 40EUR for 25 DVDs.. so it's kind of like the smartest thing to ever do to get my box RGHd for €45 + €6 shipping both ways..

BUT, I read that some kind of versions of Falcon cannot be RGHd because they have some double bootloader thingie or CB_B or whatever. I'm not sure if I understood correctly but maybe it's something that MS did to consoles that were sent back for repairs to block hacks.. but maybe it's something else.. what's CB anyway and how can I control what verion I have and if it's RGHble?

Do not update to the latest dashboard as it changes the CB version to make it un-glitchable. This also happens with consoles serviced by microsoft. You can tell if it has been serviced if it says "Service Date" on the back instead of "Manufacture Date". But yeah, RGH is so much better than making backups.

This post has been edited by djexentrix: Feb 21 2012, 09:57 PM