First off i just want to say, yes i know its not an original idea. Unfortunately ghostavel has stated he will not be making kits and i really loved his xbox mini, so i decided to try to make one.

Mine will not be identical (it will only have 1 controller port on the front, i am using a v1.1 xbox, i will be using a proximity/reed switch for the power switch) and the dimensions will be slightly different as i had to guess most of it.

Done so far:
Cut base, top, side and back pieces of 3mm plexi to size:



made 2mm motherboard mounts:



Fit the first iceberq (im waiting for the other to arrive) and fitted a second fan header:



Made a wooden "mould" to bend the side piece of plexi around:



Started working on the pico psu (PW200-M) and sickmods atx to xbox adaptor:



Made a HDD mount for a 250gb laptop hard drive (no pic)

I will be using this wifi bridge (the pcb inside is exactly the same as the one ghostavel used in his mini):



And finally a test layout:




Overall outer dimensions are slightly smaller than ghostavels:
Mine: 23.5cmx20.5cmx5cm
His: 24.5cmx21.5cmx5cm

Ive also made a custom bios with "xbmc" instead of "xbox" on the splashscreen and flashed it to the TSOP.
I'll update when ive got more done (i have to cut the vents on the side pieces by hand (all my cuts are by hand, no lasercutting here lol) so dont expect my progress to be rapid.

Nice work so far man. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

I was actually just starting a mini inspired box, myself. Could you tell me how you cut the plexi? This is almost exactly what I was planning on doing, except I cut out the bottom of the xbox right along the edge of the logic board and psu (for the time being, since I'm a poor college student, I am gonna stick with the stock psu) and I was just going to make the top and sides out of plexi. Nice job on the cuts, they look nice and clean.

Impressive so far. But I'm worried about how the ventilation would be..

I just measured and marked out with a steel ruler, then cut close to the line with a dremel and cut off disk. Lastly i sanded, then wet sanded until smooth. As long as your measurements are right and you take your time, it should come out ok.

@ sumdude:

It worked for ghostavel and he hasnt posted any heat issues but i will of course monitor the temps on completion. I will be cutting ventilation holes on the side pieces and on the back for the 40mm fan. There will also be vents on the top piece directly above the iceberq's. Hopefully that will be enough.

So no problems with the dremel on the plexi? I would think it would melt it, or since its going so fast it might crack it, thats why i didn't want to use it.

Thanks man, I'll give it a try

I made sure that i used it on a slow/medium speed and cut a small amount at a time to prevent the cut off disk from getting too hot and melting the plexi.
A word of caution, use eye protectors, those tiny bits of plexi that get thrown up really hurt when they get in your eye!

Sup,
Looks great can't wait to see finished result!

Heres the hdd mount. I used 6 2cm diameter tap washers with a screw through the middle to raise it above the motherboard:



I know the edges need cleaning up and yes, its still within the height limitations. Im still waiting for the other iceberq 4 so i'll work on the power switch for now.

Finally got the other iceberq and fitted it. The reed switch is connected up and ive wired up the internal dvd dongle. Ive also started making the fan supports:

Alright, but I still worry about heating.. possible to get some low power peltier units or slim heatpipe system? Also thinking just for heck of it add the extra ram to it?go have a laptop fan/heatsink from a p3 laptop that could work for the cpu if you like. Same cpu that's in the xbox as well oddly enough.

nice job on the xbox,can't wait to see it .as for air flow i dont have problems but the holes directly on top of the fans helps alot and i mean alot.other than that very nice.

I'll look into laptop heatsinks/fans but i would need to find one that could use the existing mounting holes and still fit into the space i have available (which is very little).
For now i will go ahead as planned and if heat is an issue, i will address it.

Ive thought about a ram upgrade, anyone in the UK still do this? If so how much? It would be great as the Horizons skin i like to use really slows down the menu animation in xbmc.

On to what i've got done today. Ive put together the power led (im only using 1 blue/red 3mm led), the hdd activity led and the wifi activity led and i've configured the wifi adapter. I've also been considering how to cut the vents (sides, back and top) without it turning out like a kid has gone mad with a dremel.
I want it to be neat, either a grid of small squares or rectangles and im not sure i can afford laser cutting so thats not currently an option. Any ideas?



Thanks ghostavel, i appreciate you posting here, after all it must feel like im ripping off your idea. I honestly just love your mini and wanted to make one too. Thanks for affirming that you have no heat issues, thats a relief!

Just a quick question, how much roughly was it to get your plexi laser cut? If i can afford it, i will just get the vents done.

Another update (now that this site appears to be back to normal).
Ive been working on the backplate:



Here you can see the horizontal grooves on the inside of the backplate which the top and bottom panels will sit in (and will be epoxied, for extra strength):



I'm still trying to work out the best way to cut the vents which i have to do before heatbending the main front/side piece.

Are you going to have the top piece like slide in? I couldn't figure out how ghostavel got his flush. Did you use the dremel to get that router like groove??


Looking good man, can't wait to see the finished piece

The top piece will slide in as the side pieces also have the grooves on them. The back piece will be the part that goes on last and will hold the top and bottom pieces in place. I saw that ghostavel did something similar for the base piece on his mini.
To get those grooves on there was a little tricky. I had to clamp my dremel (with a 3mm grinding disk) to my workbench and using more clamps and wooden blocks as guides, i fed the plexi along the grinding disk.
If i'd had a proper router i would have probably made a neater job of it but it all fits so far

About the RAM. I've found notice with some graphics cards and some do use same ram. Then again i saw that an old ATI rage 3D IIC that had same pinout and same size as the xbox ram.. but the speed was slower.. the xbox i believe uses 200mhz while the card i found uses half, odd eh? but could probably could rip them out with a soldering torch out of a busted xbox. Oh and another idea of the project, maybe get one of those CF or SD card to IDE adapter for even more compact. put the movies somewhere else.. oooor if you're gonna use it for games as well then stay the course.

There's no problem aquiring the ram as i have a dead xbox motherboard here. The problem is my soldering/desoldering isnt up to that level yet. Im pretty sure i wouldnt be able to successfully install the ram without causing some damage to the motherboard, or at least bridging the legs. If theres anyone who installs extra ram here in the UK please pm me with details.

As for the CF/SD to IDE idea, i will have a few games on there (thats why there is one controller port, otherwise i would omit it for a cleaner look) and a few emulators too, so i dont think that would work. Thanks for the idea though.

Hmm.. could just add a wireless built in if you're going for cleaner look. Maybe some usb ports hooked up to relays that way when you plug in something to the usb port it'll automatically switch to it. OH! Also seen some ide adapters for CF cards to add two cards to one ide.. kinda like raid. If you had that and two 32gig cards..

Well i am already adding internal wifi (with an internal ariel) and possibly 1 usb port at the rear. For now i'll stick to the laptop hdd as theres enough room for it anyway. Thanks though.

How do you intend to form the case using heat?
Im asking this as Im a mech fitter/fabricator.A method to obtain sharp bends would be:
Obtain a fluorescent light fitting to the width of your intended case,bosh the glass to reveal the filiment,that is now your heat source.
Clamp the light fitting to a work mate/bench and use a piece of steel to cover half of the fitting,looking from the top the steel and filiment should be in line,for a bigger radius move the steel to expose more filiment.
Warning this gets hot + live.
Do not scribe the material as it will split and do not allow the steel to warm up.
Have a practice with a few offcuts.

Ive put together a wooden frame that has the exact dimensions of the side pieces. I used 2cm quadrant for the corners as i wanted a curve rather than a sharp angle at each corner. I will be using a heat gun to bend the plexiglass around the frame corners.

Ive been wiring up the pico psu and have started testing/troubleshooting (it seems i have a bad connection as the PS_ON led shuts off after a second):


You can see the hdd activity led wires to the left (orange and white wires) and the power/eject led to the right (blue/green wires). Also that is the reed switch at the front (yellow wires).


This shows the laptop style AC adapter. Right, time to get the multimeter out...

Quick update:







I'm getting there...slowly

Last pics for today...now i need to figure out how im going to do the vents, cut the holes in the front for led's, controller port and ir eye.

Back plate (still needs a fan grill cutting out):

Sup,
THAT LOOKS BAD ASS!

Keep it up man, like how ya did the "window" but might wanna clean that wiring up just a tad though.

The wiring will be tidied up but not yet as im constantly taking it all apart whilst test fitting, measuring, cutting etc. The electrical tape is temporary, dont worry .
Also the "window" will be hidden by a 3mm thick plexi faceplate with a grill/vent cut into it right above the hole (there will be a face plate both sides). Im getting some clear plexi for the face plates as i have an idea to use the xbmc logo on each side (i'm not engraving it though...you'll see) as this xbox's primary purpose will be for movies/music.

Todays small update:

Controller port done (needs a bit of filler around it due to me drilling to quickly and a tiny piece of plexi chipping off):



This pic shows the led holes and the hole for the ir eye which i will be making a small circle of smoked plexi to cover:

Hey,

I love what you're doing...
How did you make the angles of the box ? It's an already-made plexi ?

I can't imagine how cool will be the result, at least YOU are going to finish your project, not like many... Mmmm ? ^^

To make the angles i used a wooden mold and a paint stripping gun (heatgun) to warm and bend the plexiglass around the mold. Of course i will finish it, no point doing it otherwise, right?

This some high quality work right here, definately.
I see it as artwork and not just a "Xbox Mini" project
that were all used to seeing. When you said that you
"used the heatbending method", that's when it OFFICIALlY
became art. Stuff like that makes me feel good to come back
on XS and see what the upcoming mod-generation is about.
From what I see, looks like I can honestly say, creativity is
the best part of modding, nothing else matters. It what you
can make out of something that's "the standard", and give it
life. Overall, it looks good man.


-Infamous Ob, XS Legend

yeah this forum has slowed down alot these days, its a shame because the original xbox is so easily moddable and still has a lot of potential in it.
Thanks for the encouragement but you know im trying to replicate (to some degree) ghostavels work right? Its not exactly an original idea although most of the work done so far is based on my own guesses of how he did it. I only have the pictures he posted and the overall measurements to go on, but it is still an imitation of an original project , and no where as neat as his (as he had his panels laser cut and im cutting mine by hand).

excellent job. looks great so far. i'm actually almost done with a similar "xbox mini" inspired box. i still have to finish the case and do the psu work. my biggest difference is that i've actually hardwired all the outputs so I won't need to use any MS pack. (right now i have composite, s-video, component, and both optical and coaxial digital audio jacks wired to the board and working)


i was wondering, if i'm seeing it right, you removed the male psu connector off the pw-200m board and just connected the sickmods adapter to the pins with wire, right? that was what i was going to do to try and save room, but was wondering if you had any problems with it, or if there was anything i should know before i started it. and did you just desolder the leads to remove it?

Yes i removed the atx connector from the pico psu to save space. It took a while to desolder the connections and i managed to ruin 1 psu by damaging a couple of the copper "o" rings on the pcb. My first attempt was with a 15 watt iron which obviously didnt get hot enough, so when i tried for the second time i used a 30 watt iron and it was much easier.
If you attempt this, use a desoldering pump first to get the majority of the solder off, then use desoldering braid/wick to get the rest and use flux around the points before desoldering, it helps.
Good luck with your "mini" project, i have a component cable for the xbox so i dont need to add the ports on the back as it uses the av port anyway. You should start a thread and post pics, i would be interested to follow your progress

Sup,
Relica or not give yourself some credit that thing is sick! You are kicking ass!

Thanks for the kind words.

Well yesterday i managed to drop the "u" shaped side piece (with the led holes and controller port in it) and break it so ive spent today remaking it Its hard work trying to get it all to fit together neatly with the new piece but im working on it.
Im also still trying to come up with a good way of cutting the air/fan vents...i may have to it with my dremel and a steady hand

yeah, know what you mean. was painting mine and something fell on it breaking the top piece and the front panel. i'll throw up some pics in a thread to show how mine is going, i'm not as good at making this stuff, so it probably won't look as good as yours.

also, for your controller ports, did you just take the breakaway cable and splice it into the wires that connect to the board? i was trying to do that but couldn't get the controller to work. just wondering, i would rather have the two small holes for the controller ports, rather than a big rectangle

Well i've remade the faceplate and cut the holes again for the controller port, ir eye and led's. Yes, i used the breakaway cable part for the port as it kept the size down. I got the idea from "guy inthe back"s wip where he did the same thing (look for his Decepti-slim thread). I was going to originally use usb ports but this looks so much better.
I used a small piece of 2mm plexi and a 3mm piece to make a support as shown here:



The glue is still drying, sorry it doesnt show it better. The side of the case is 3mm so that plus the support i glued on means the hole for the port to sit in is 8mm which fits perfectly flush with the front.

Yes i wired it directly to the motherboard plug and it works fine. Check you dont have any wires touching each other, that could be the problem.

On another note, i'm worried that just gluing this case together will mean that it wont be very strong so i've ordered some 10mm diameter acrylic rod from ebay that i'm going to use as supports.
There will be 2 at the front (using 2 existing motherboard screwholes and attaching to the case bottom) and 2 at the back (one next to the 40mm fan and one next to the dvd connector socket)
These will hold both top and bottom pieces of the case together providing more strength.

Now im off to solder on the wires for the lan activity led whilst that glue dries

Finally made the supports:



and a pic of them in place:

looking great so far! sorry about the faceplate... I know the feeling and it sucks!

Thanks NIC, yes it does suck when things set you back. Luckily i ordered enough plexiglass to make up to 4 face pieces

Right now im working on a bracket for the wifi adapter and the ir pcb.

That looks damn sexy how much would you charge to make one as that would look great in my living room.

Well considering the amount of cash ive spent already and the hours put into this xbox, i dont think you would be wanting to spend that much (you could probably get a ps3 for that kind of money).

Lets see, what have i spent so far...
£25 on a second hand xbox
£15 on plexiglass (at least)
£7 on acrylic rod
£33 on iceberq 4's
£39 on the pico psu
£30 on the AC DC adapter
£2 on led's
£50 on the laptop hdd

so thats £201 before i add in the other stuff i needed to do this xbox (workbench, wood for the mold, heatgun, etc) and it doesnt include parts i already had lying around (dvd dongle, 40mm fan, etc)

Also im in the UK, so shipping anywhere else would be an added expense...you may as well make one by yourself

I must say, that's impressive. Only negative note is that it isn't your own design (with the time and thought you've probably put it it, you could have drawn your own design aswell) , but it doesn't really matter when it looks that good. The best wip I've seen here so far.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the kind words.
I know its not an original design although i am making some changes that will make it a little bit different than ghostavels. For example, i only have the 1 controller port compared to his 4, i have no usb ports (although i may add one if i find a need for it), im using a reed switch for the on/off button, the overall size is slightly smaller...etc.

Also i had only his pictures to work from when constructing the case. The way his fits together is different to how my case does.
Heres a quick size comparison pic next to a normal sized xbox:

Wow quite the difference compared to a retail case!

Yes it is quite a bit smaller. Im working on the vents for the sides and fans at the moment but its slow progress. I'll post pics when they're done

amazing looking case, keep up the good work!

Cheers mate!
I tried a method to make the fan grills/air vents but unfortunately it didnt work out. I bought some square tube "stripstyrene" pieces and glued them together horizontally to make a block, then i cut a slice (like a loaf of bread) to make a grid of plastic squares but it fell apart as i cut it. I think i'll have one more go at that with better glue/epoxy before deciding whether i should bite the bullet and pay for laser cutting.
The top panel alone will cost me £63 to get laser cut (due to the vents on top for the heatsinks) so i would rather not do this but, if i can find no other way to make the vents neatly, i will have to go that route. I'll be looking at roughly £150 for a complete laser cut case...ouch!

Can anyone help me out with putting my design into a 2d/3d cad drawing? I havent used autocad before so anyone proficient in it thats willing to help is most welcome. I will provide all measurements and can chat over msn, please pm if you can help. (also if anyone else wants to use the design after its put into cad drawings, i would like to give back to the scene by making it available to everyone).

Ok ive spent the afternoon putting my design into adobe illustrator (i've never used it before so what i have done is all on one layer but to scale (hopefully millimeter perfect). Ive made 5 illustrator files, one each for the top faceplate and bottom faceplate, one each for the internal base and top pieces and one for the front/side piece and the back plate. (just for clarification, the front and sides piece is eant to be heat bent to create a "U" shaped piece that goes around 3 sides.)
I have them rar'ed up if anyone wants them, please PM me and i will send them (illustrator format). Any questions regarding the files, please also PM me. Also if there is anyone capable of creating a CAD version of this design, please PM me and i will get back to you.