Hello fellow gamers. Im here again with a mod ideal for a custom xbox 360 case that I hope I can get some ideals,advice,etc. My main ojective is to give the motherboard more space to beath and try and keep at room temp or alittle below so the solder dose not ever loosing do to heat. I thought of watercooling but don't trust it do to leaking etc. This case is going to be air cooled. Do anyone here know of any site that shows how to make your own fam shroud? I've been wondering what material to use for making the shroud. The original xbox 360 I will have to discard because of the new heatsink that will be put on the GPU. Im using this one. http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=77099# I looked at other ones and this will be less heavy. I don't want to crack the gpu. I ratter had a pure copper base for better heat transfer but this heatsink has copper heatpipes with aluminum fins. Sofar the case will look like a HTPC/DVD player case.

Materials using are.
Translucent acrylic for faceplate. So wireless controler can work without parts being shown through front
Acrylic for case
jigsaw/plexi blade to cut plexi sheets for case
aluminum case feet
Rotary tool to cut shapes out
tubbing for wires
handles for sides of case
60mm fans for sides of case
laptop fan for cooling the bottom of motherboard. To keep the bottom solder from loosening up.
Artic silver is used on both CPUs
Both heatsinks will have heatpipes with fans mounted in front to blow heat towards the back and out the case.
Some things are not listed yet because Im still in the ideal stage.


LegendaryGamer

Will that heatsink even work? If it does, then that's pretty sweet, and I may have to check one out as well. You can make a fan shroud out of anything you want - cardboard, paper, bondo, plastic cups (ask Heet), just as long as it doesn't let air escape, then it's all good.

Yes this heatsink will work. Im good at building Pcs so Im trying to take some of that skill with the xbox 360 since it's close to a Pc. The only thing with this heatsink it the mounting. The clamp process will be hard so I will have to use thermal tape instead. My only other ideal is to make my own clamps some way or use springs to grip down the heatsink without cracking the gpu. Other than that this is a good heatsink because of the size and the heatpipes. If anyone have any other choices please post them. Thanks.


LegendaryGamer

You could try and get your hands on one of the improved GPU heatsinks. That combined with a fan plus a good air tunnel should be all you need for the GPU. The GPU heatsink isn't horribly designed, it's just not greatly designed, with some modifications you can maximize it's potential pretty easily. Plus that way you can use the stock clamps, or do the xclamp mod, for more protection, much easier.

For creating a fan shroud the initial step would be to create a model out of cardboard to get the general shape you want, then you can either create a copy out of plexiglass or you can try your hand at fiberglass, depends on your skill level. I would recommend using 80mm fans instead of 60mm and when you design your fan shroud I would create separate fan tunnels for the GPU and CPU.

If you decide to make it from plexiglass I'm sure there's tutorials on how to use it online, but be sure you create the positive mold, then an inner "negative" mold out of card board, or you could even do like foam and mold the shroud to a cool design, then you lay the plexiglass over this negative so you have another postive.

Let's see some progress or I'll have to close this.

That's what I meant by "will that heatsink even work?" - as in, are the clamps on it adjustable so you can pop it right on the motherboard without modification. I guess the real answer is no.

If you mean use thermal tape on the gpu>heatsink then it will overheat instantly. Thermal tape has no where near the amount of heat transfer compared to direct contact to aluminum or copper. That's why in computers its only used on things that don't get very hot, nor need active cooling, such as ram chips. I would drill my own holes in the heatsink or make a bracket for it. Good luck.

if the case is designed correctly i see no reason to worry about cracking the gpu - i have used very large/heavy heatsinks w/ computers w/ never a problem on cpus w/ no ihs like the old p3s and athlon xps - again the mount of the m/b and heatsink need to be correct.

like MickRaider states, use larger fans - since you have an open canvas there is no reason to use 60mm fans - 60mm fans, imho are used only when you have no choice - use 80, 92 or 120mm fans where you can so you can slow them way down and still get a lot of cfm - w/ no noise.

imho, an xclamp mod would be pretty easy for this setup and the screw heads themselves could be the m/b standoffs, or some other type of m/b standoff could be created so you could put some sinks on the bottom ram but as pointed out, don't use thermal tape.

hopefully this diagram will help you out:



good luck and lets see some pics and temps

so the default socket 478 brackets will not fit the holes in x360?

I was also thinking of getting a better cooler for x360 that I am just about to buy. The original GPU heatsink seems quite poor to me knowing how hot a GPU can get (I have R600 in my pc). Even the extended GPU heatsink that M$ is fititng in the returned x360s doesn't seem that great to me. Think some normal pc heatsink would do much better so that is why I am also considering putting the x360 into a pc case. It is a shame the GPU and CPU seems to be so close, so it seems you won't be able to fit any big heatsink, but this antec one you found seems to be much better than the original M$ shit. With some proper thermal paste like AS5 and maybe even lapping the surface of the heatsink it should be enough. The other good thing on this Antec cooler is that the mounting brackets are easily removable so fitting a customized brackets won't be that hard as with some other coolers. Still it would be great if some socket for pc would fit straight away, but being a M$ product I highly doubt any will. Good luck with your project, if u succeed please let us know and post some pictures. I am sure many x360 owners are thinking about the same. We just need to wait until someone skilled makes it to reality and provides a nice tutorial that would encourage others to do the same.

another option (suggesting the clamps on CPU heatsink and GPU heatsing are exactly the same) would be fitting another CPU heatsink on the GPU. But not sure how hard it would be to get hold of one. Guess from some broken x360 from a friend or maybe some after-warranty service centres would sell it.

if I would go for the PC case mod I would probably use some normal Mid-Tower case, they are cheap to get and if you choose wisely you can have some that will allow you to fit 120mm fans in the fron panel and at the back, so the cooling would be better than fitting some 60/80/92mm fans in some smaller case. I wouldn't want to carry my modified pc case x360 anywhere so I would go that way. More space, easier accessability and more potential for cooling performance.


P.S. couldn't edit my own post, hence the new reply (seems time limited cause I am just editing this reply I posted a minute ago)

Heres a bit of advice about fitting heatsinks to the 360: No heatsink mounting bracket or holes or whatever to date (weather it be socket 775, 478, etc..) is the same as the 360's. Youll have to either modify the heatsink or make a custom bracket. Even most graphics card coolers wont fit, unless the have adjustable mounting backets (eg, some of zalmans GPU heatinks have adjustable mounts).

Itll be hard to find a heatsink that will fit (beleive me i know lol).

thx for the clarification ausmods

btw what are those two chips/memory modules on the left from the GPU that are also covered by the GPU heatsink? Cause I beleive niether the Antec heatsink, nor the x360 CPU heatsink would cover them. They look same as the chips/memory modules that are below the GPU. Wonder why only the 2 on the left are cooled by the GPU heatsink and not the ones below. Is one of those graphic memory modules and the other two system memory modueles? (i.e. the system memory modules would probably be the ones not cooled)

can be seen here which I mean
http://rbjtech.bulldoghome.com/photos/BDRE...mkIII%20012.jpg

The memory modules to the left of the GPU actually arent cooled by the heatsink at all. If you have a look, youll see that theres actually a really small gap between the GPU heatsink and the memory chips.If you do want them cooled by the heatsink, you can attach some thin thermal tape to the memory chips.

I dont kow if that one will work, the 360 is close to a PC, but its also got a triple core CPU, if I were you, Id look for a 3rd party heatsink and fan for the dual / quad coare CPUs