This will be my first project so will be a big learning curve but hopefully I can still conjure up something which looks good – It will involve and Xbox 360 Slim & an old atx case which I had laying around.
Both the 360 & case have their own ‘issues’ so it will be quite a tricky build. Even putting a modern setup inside the case would’ve meant it needed some modding, but using a 360 just makes things a little harder but hopefully it’ll all work.
The final step will be to watercool this, and yes I know I can’t OC it, but it’ll be a good introduction to WC’ing so I can learn the basics etc.
Everything in this build is new to me, even Sketchup & photography but should be possible to get a general idea of how this looks currently and how it will look completed.
The pictures will be taken with a Fujifilm L55, so if anyone can give me any tips for producing better quality I’d be happy.
Top Bay: 3 switches & XPSC temp display
Middle Bay: Xbox Drive
Bottom Bay: XPSC Bay Res (might change this)
Floppy Bay: Xbox “RF Board” – 2 USB ports to the right
Underneath is the fan grill I’m hoping I can cut out with a dremel.
Both floppy & drive bays will be covered with perspex and then a sheet of white di-noc carbon fibre over the top.
Colour scheme will be mainly white with some added orange and then the white di-noc carbon fibre used in the appropriate areas.
-
Case all stripped down, with a very nice tint of yellow, mm..
So onto the build, the first things I wanted to solve were mounting the motherboard (drilling the holes & modifying the I/O panel) & also extending the DVD power cable.
I didn’t have a camera from the start and was sometimes too eager so apologies for any that are missing but shouldn’t affect the log too much.
The original cable which was only 9.5cm but needed to be 32cm
An old IDE floppy cable used to extend it
The final product, albeit not great, it’s works. Splitting wires in a cable and ensuring the connectors were all aligned the same was damn tricky. As I plan to use some sleeving on this build I will have to either re-do this, or buy an extended one.
The next step, motherboard mounting – this threw up a few issues, firstly because I didn’t have the tools to tap holes but mainly because of the indents in the tray, 3 holes I needed were above them, which meant I had to fill the area with something strong that I could drill into.
The savior!
This is actually pretty good stuff, and will be used a lot on the build where I need to cover holes.
The grey blu-tac lookalike is the putty, and was also used to fill the old mobo holes so it will look better when painted. You can just see the putty on the bottom for the bottom left hole.
The I/O panel cut so that all ports are accessible, and some electric tape just to be safe. Eventually all the brackets will be remove and filled in with perspex covered with white di-noc.
Next part involved fitting the DVD drive into the case, which as stock is a few CM too small, so I salvaged something which was orignally in the case, a really old DVD drive. In order for it to fit, the side screw mounts had to be filed and the “circle” removed with a dremel (only 2nd time using one) and surprisingly came out pretty good.
Before:
After:
Will be secured using some strong double-sided foam tape which will hopefully stop the vibrations.
DVD Front & Back
Still needs more filling off so it fits better as theres still a few vibrations when I tested.
Some USB ports taken from my existing PC will be used in the case, and had to find a convenient place to put them.. the location for a manufacturers logo, why not..?
Apologies for the quality, was eager to do this so the photo was taken at night time, which my camera dislikes..
I was hoping the drill holes wouldn’t go all the way through but never mind, the area will be covered with a small piece of white di-noc anyway.
Onto getting the Xbox running of an ATX PSU, which was key for the build. Firsly de-soldered from the Xbox PSU, crimped on ATX pins, and inserted into 24pin socket. Really wanted to solder to the motherboard, but wasn’t 100% with that so went with the safer way, which doesn’t look as good, but hopefully can be tidied up and eventually can do it as I had orginally had planned.
One thing I learnt here – the pins that come from Maplin(UK store) are crap, really.. bad. Out of 20 I don’t think any went perfect when I crimped them, and I tried both slots on the crimper, but the insulation ‘wings’ would either break off in small slot or just fold over each other in the larger slot.
Last 3 photos taken in the dark so not as good as normal
Cable management is a big issue here, will have to dremel out some wholes and buy some grommets.
Project Numero Uno (xbox 360/atx Case)
Feb 23 2012, 02:16 AM
