Well, as my xbox sat dvd drive-less, I got a little bored. And well, temps of my xbox popped in my mind, and I decided to replace the thermal paste on the cpu/gpu of the xbox. And not only that, but write a lil' tut as well . So, I give you the tutorial on how to remove your gpu/cpu heatsinks and replace the thermal paste on them. And beleive me, the results show (read rest of post for results at the end). BTW, I havent seen a tut like this before, so thats pretty much why I went ahead and did it. sorry for crappy pics.

Lets start out with what you need:
-an xbox (I used a 1.0 version, but the 1.2 and up are almos identical, only with differnet gpu heatsinks)
-some thermal paste. I used some AS3, but AS5 would be better.
-some rubbing alchohol
-a rag/paper towel
-flathead screwdriver
-about 1-2 square feet of suran-wrap
-about 15-20 minutes of your time

optionals:
-dremel with wire brush attatchment (replaces paper towel, and beleive me, it saves a hell of a lot of rubbing)

Ok, now to start off, most everyone knows what a 1.0 xbox looks like, so I dont think I need to post what it looks like. We'll start out with removing the cpu heatsink. Take a look at the end of the clip nearest the controller ports. Notice how they little level is clamped down? just stick the flat-head screwdriver in there and twist. It shold pop up nice and easy.


Now, just lift it up all the way and kinda wiggle the bracket off the socket. After that, just pull off the heatsink.


Now to remove the gpu heatsink. Its pretty much the same way as removin the cpu, except you wedge the screw driver in between the plastic and the metal clamp thing nearest the controller ports.


With the screwdriver wedged in, push down on the metal and twist the screw driver. The clamp should be off on one side. Now just pull of the other side. After that just twist the heatsink itelf back and forth untill you can pull it off. the gpu should look like this, only with a lot more goey crap on it:



Now, take either your rubbing alchohol and rag and apply some rubbing alchohol to the rag and start scrubbing those heatsinks. OR, if you have a dremel, use the wire-brush bit and you'll have that thermal paste off in under a minute. Repeat for both heatsinks.

will =

and


So, now onto the cpu/gpu. The cpu I left alone, but the gpu definately needs some cleaning. For this part ONLY ONLY ONLY use that rubbing alchohol and rag or a very sharp razor blade to get rid of the thermal paste. I couldnt get all of mine off, so its ok of you dont get everything off completely. You so want to get as much off as possible though. After this, take your new thermal compound and apply a TINY drop in the middle of the gpu. Take the suran wrap, place your finger in the suran wrap, and spread the paste evenly over the gpu. Try not to get it over any components near the gpu. Yours should look something like this:


Now, do the exact same for the gpu/cpu heatsinks, except only spread the paste over the small square where the gpu or cpu will be. Yours should look pretty much like this:


Now, pop those suckers back on and watch your temps drop! And I mean DROP. After doing this, I was a 10C drop in temps from roughly 55C on both gpu and cpu to 40-45C on gpu/cpu. And no I didnt add any fans or anything, just the thermal paste. I cant imagine what temps will be like when I put the top of my case on Anyways, this is pretty much another method to drop your temps without adding another noisy fan to your xbox.

coments and even more results are GLADY accepted
Hopefully this helps those w/ slimmods keep those temps down

Thanx for reading my tut everyone!

good tut man well done....im about to modd a v 1.0 so this helps me

awesome awesome awesome tut!

keep up the good work!

thanx guys Expect to see your temps drop a good amount there freaksho, and dont foget to use the good stuff like AS5 instead of AS3 like I did. Hopefully everythin works out for ya.

It's good to see these little worklogs as they help more people than we know.

Nice one

Not to diss your technique or tutorial, but...

Your heatsink lapping technique isn't very effective. You can scrape it off with a razor blade and sand it with a fine grit sand paper (~1000-~1500 grit). you want it to be as flat as possible (almost a mirror finish!), the thermal paste is meant to transfer the heat and fill in the micro grooves. It's not as effective as the aluminum or copper heatsink, though. If spread too thick, it becomes very ineffective. You want just a small layer on there.

Hope this helps, it should give a better temperature. In the PC world, we use a piece of glass and 1500-2000 grit sandpaper to get it as flat as the glass and a mirror finish.

Here's a small guide: http://www.bigbruin.com/reviews/lappinggui...ndex.php?file=1

Otherwise, a great tutorial and a great way to drop your CPU and GPU temperatures!

good idea,
definately going to do this for my next mod.

I agree with him, I really dont recommend using a wire brush to 'clean'.

i also agree with PC509 and No1.G, the bottom of that heatsink looks really rough when what you really want is as smooth as you can get it. ditch the dremel and dig out the elbow grease for this job.

good tutorial otherwise though

One question, does the v1.0 or the newer gpu heatsinks work better (fan vs no fan) cause ive got a 1.1 and a broken 1.0, but i dont want to pull the heatsink off my graphics card to test. I used the 1.0s on my pc graphics card for now

I've wondered the same thing. I think the later revisions use a more efficient GPU (smaller process) to lower the heat generated. But, lower temperatures can be had by adding a fan. I'm not sure of the changes in the actual heatsink, though.

Personally, I think that the active cooling would be better, but not sure by how much.

I'm sure the GPU never changed, MS just discovered that they didn't really need that noisy bastard fan on there if they used a bigger heatsink.

exactly, they ditched the noisy fan for a much bigger heatsink.

http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/thermal-compound.php


Don't feel bad...your only a few years late.

i wouldnt bother with this xbox's dont over heat what is the point in doing this?

You can remove the stock thermal crap with Goof Off (and then use rubbing alcohol to remove the oily Goof-Off residue), using the dremel brush messes up the flatness of the heatsink and hurts cooling.

No offence but what r u on? Who wudnt want to extend the life of their system with a few extra dollars and a little bit of time.

There are a lot of mods that we do because we can. There are no performance benefits, but lower temps = longer lifespan.

We don't need lights, windows, paint jobs, extra fans, etc. on our XBoxes, but we do it! Why not?

Everyone has their reasons for doing things. Some say I don't need a 64-Bit CPU. I do!

You should never never ever use a citrus cleaner on sensitive material like a processor!!!!!!

It may seem fine and what not but any intelligent computer person will tell you not to do that. Use as highly concentrated isopropanoyl alcohol that you can find, I've got 96 % in my garage. That's the best stuff to clean them with. As to the lapping the dremel wire brush isn't the best thing to use at all, as stated using very high grits of sand paper is the way to go, you want it to be as flat and as smooth as possible. Also to the spreading of the thermal paste. Put a small rice sized dabble onto the processor, put a ziploc bag over one of your fingers and use that to spread it around on the processor, just do a good amount on the middle as that's where the actual core is, the rest is just a heat spreader. When you put the heatsink back on it'll mush it down to where it needs to go and you'll get an awesome temp drop


As to the cooling, I've seen some nasty ass xboxs, every one that comes my way for cleaning / modding / updating gets the thermal paste upgrades - all Arctic Silver 5 ( best on the market really) simply because it's a one time thing, you don't have to keep going back to it and it helps the temps quite a bit

Sorry to bump this, but I figure its better than creating more clutter. My CPU heatsink came off easy, the gum not so much. I was able to get most of it off but theres still a residue on the cpu core itself. Any way to get it off easily? I really do NOT want to rub at it for a while. I also cannot get my GPU heatsink off at all. Is it safe to twist it back and forth or should I just leave it alone?

Rubbbig it really is the best way to get the old paste off. I used goo-off and just took my time. As far as the gpu twisting it is just fine. Work it back and forth and the old thermal paste will loossen up.

I use acetone and alcohol on my PC when removing thermal grease. Would not use a dremel to lap the sink flat surface with some sand paper glued to it and mothers mag/Al polish to finish it off to a mirror shine.

Don't force stubborn heatsinks but keep working on them gently. You can also try to heat the sink with a hair dryer to loosen it up.

Just wanted to add my 2 cents now that I've finally done it. Let your XBox run for a little while if the GPU sink is stuck hard. The heat will loosen it up VERY nicely. Wait for it cool down before proceding, might ruin something. Goop off worked insanely well.

I used Goo Gone and isopropyl alcohol to clean my v1.0. I used Artic Silver 3 to thermal paste and the CPU runs 10~15f cooler and the GPU ~5f cooler.