Hello, this is my first post. Been reading the forums for awhile, and finally decided to join. But on to my question. So i've been looking into modding my xbxo360's cooling system, cause i dont want to deal with anymore heat issues with my system. I've been doing some research and found this website - http://www.extreme-mods.com/Xbox-360-Cooling-Mods-s/38.htm - that had some different cooling solutions on them and i just wanted to get some opinions on the ones on that site, and also get some other suggestions....discuss....


thanks in advance for any and all helpful replies

I recently added a 70mm fan from a xbox 1 to the side of my xbox. I would recommend this mod as it makes the air coming out of the xbox noticibly cooler. I got the idea from this thread http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=549063 where they added a fan header plug to the motherboard, but I just wired up my fan straight to the board to 12v and 5v, making a 7v fan so its not maxing out making lots of noise (cool right? RDC explained it in the thread I believe).

I do want to get the talismoon fan, but the core cooler and a temp gauge is overkill if you can just get a better fan and add a side air duct, you should also get some foam weather stripping to stuff the airflow under the fan hood from getting wasted, and some under the left side of the DVD drive as well.

The only other thing I can think of is you can add ram heatsinks made by zalman, I just used some ramsinks from an old video card, I had to cut them to size but whatever. I had issues attaching them , I ended up getting a couple of them to stick with the existing tape but some of them I put arcitc silver on and hot glued some corners to make sure they would fall off (in my backpack).

Any other suggestions and/or thoughts on the cooling systems I posted the link to ?

They seem radically overpriced, with exception of the aftermarket rear fans. LEDs are flashy but aren't actually cooling mods just from looking cool . The core cooler can be built with fans you can get cheaper from newegg. 70mm fits in the gap between CPU and the wall that holds RF board... I put a fan right there thats attached to a hole in the side of the case, the fans from a xbox 1.

The core cooler claims to directly cool down the cpu and gpu but that is a lie. It takes hot air from the case and blows it at the cpu side of the cpu perpendicular to the air flow so this makes it nearly useless, as if it takes the air flow from the side and throws it straight out the fan, you're better off letting that air from there going around to the front of the case and circling around. and the one thats flat blows it down way to the side of the gpu... the dvd obstructs this airflow, however that depends on if you have the gen 2 gpu heatsink with the arm on it or not (i dont).

If you wish to cool you need to bring cool air into the xbox, or increase the flow of the existing fans and the noise, but an additional fan to the side would be a good idea.

Currently I have stock microsoft fans running at 9v each, and a 70mm xbox 1 fan pulling air in at 12v, the air is noticeably cooler coming out of the case, and it is not as loud as a single 12v rear fan mod.

The one with a thermometer is alright... I'd feel more accomplished if I built a thermometer for my xbox and added a potentiometer for the fan... just my 2 cents.

If you do not care about the stock appearance of your box so much, you could mount the DVD drive on the top of the case and put a nice fan ontop of the GPU like it needs... and a big intake fan right in the middle. I saw a guy screw his dvd drive directly on the outside.

You could always water cool it, ends all heat problems. Down side is it's a little costly depending on how you do it.

I bought the talismoon fan a while back and Im pretty pleased with it. As for the rest, they are way overpriced. If you soldering skills are halfway decent, just buy some fans on ebay and solder them in your self. Why pay 35 dollars when you can pay 10. Plus it wont take all the power from one place, which is def. good.

Hi all.. i have been surfing this forum for a while now, but havent seen anybody making those two rear fans from two separate fans. is there a reason for this. I think that it would be cheaper, than buying talismoon? aint those fans 6cmx6cm

Ya they are 60mm fans, the casing itself might be a different size I think you measure the span of the blades across the center. I dont think youd have much of a problem putting 60mm fans there, except maybe youd have to trim the plastic off of the corners.

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=486439 this thread says it might be 70mm but Im not sure... seems like he things a fan thats between 65 and 70mm could fit.. and they are somewhere between 25mm and 30mm in depth... your best bet would be to measure your existing fans. Someone said 70mm fits but with some rounding... I'd say as long as the fans have over 30CFM each then you should be good. Quiet might be a drawback against performance so watch out.

My 360 is loud I'm thinking of putting it in a pc case.. not sure yet.

Yes, those fans by bladetips are 65mm(~62-63mm) and 15mm wide. overall size is 23mm wide and 67mm high. So i have to consider which way its better. It is probably hard to make better than those talismoons, but diy is always diy.. Thanks!

I was also going crazy over a hot xbox, but a cool xbox was a loud xbox.

So I cut up the case quite a bit and now I have two 80mm fans on the back, I achieved this by cutting plastic on all sides of the vent, basically so far right that the border for the PSU plug had to go, and so far right that the AV cable JUST fits. I also had to cut the curved plastic on the top and bottom of the case allthe way to the flat part, which lines up with the edge of the metal, that I snipped off with sheet metal snips. Then when everything lined up, I customized the fan hood to fit to the back of the case with masking tape, making sure to tape around the CPU heatsink and cover the GPU heatsink with light cardboard to direct airflow and not waste any. I hot glued the fans to the top part of the shell and masking taped on the bottom incase I have to open.

12v 80mm dual fans is as quiet or less then 7v modded stock fans. I think it was a worthwhile mod, it definitely doesn't get as hot or as loud as my dual 9v stock fan mod. Pics later.

you got any pics of it.. with some bondo you could get it nice looking indeed.. dont know if i got the guts to do the same:D

I was thinking of doing just the same. A cool xbox in a 'not so loud' box is the best solution, keeping the basic original look!

What fans did you use? Is it quieter?
Show us those pics, please!

So I've been doing a shit ton of research on all the aftermarket fans and other types of cooling mods and i figured out my solution and it is as follow;

A.) I'm going to get the Talismoon Whisper Max. Everyone I have talked to, and reviews I've read, says it works great, it cools 50% better then the stock fan, and is 7% quiter (unless you use the nitro switch to put it on 12v, and in that case it about the same noise and it cools 60% better). and it doesn't draw power from the DVD drive which is plus.

B.) I'm replacing the stock air duct with either a Talismoon or XCM aftermarket one, from what I've researched, they both are equally good.

C.) I'm getting a clear case for the it, which from what i have heard and read it they dont trap a much air in as the stock one does.

D.) (undecided) but I might take who ever it was that said to put a fan between the CPU and the the Wall. Which on that, if i had another fan, what would I use to power it ? the only thing i can think of is the DVD drive, and I would prefer not to do that, for one i dont want the DVD drive to possibly run funky, and two, i heard that MS can detect your Xbox360's power usage when your online, and if its above whats it supposed to be then they will ban your account...can anyone verify or disprove that ?

I always find it so baffling that people are fixated on cooling the 360 during active use and yet do absolutely nothing about temperature spike after shutdown.

You want to be kind to the 360? Build an aftercooler.

Ya I'm considering putting a switch to make some fans run on the standby voltages, but an ok way to cool it down a little is charging the controller after shutdown.

i wanted to make a thread for this but this seems like an approbate place for it.




i made this up when working on the heatsinks for deathbox, i put it in a friends jasper and with just the cpu fan 7v'ed you could play it for hrs without the procs getting over 100F, ive done some testing in other consoles and it will keep a xenon under 130F (again with just one fan 7v'ed).

i offer this cooling package for $45, for all my cooling packages that prevent 3rlod check my site's shop section (link in sig).

Pretty sick, Grim. I would pay for it. If I had money.





mod edit: don't quote images

I would rather have that heat piped small GPU cooler at the cool side of the CPU cooler than on the hot airflow side. Maybe you could build a small air duck on the front side of the CPU cooler.

BTW how does the after market air ducts differ from the original other than colour?
I have modded many original air ducts. Made the wall to separate the fans so one sucks from GPU cooler only. I also use windows seals to seal the sides of the air duct. There are gaps between the motherboard and the air duct. I also place seals between the motherboard and the metal case so the fans don't suck air from underside the MB. I have placed RAM cooling bits on the underside RAM chips so no air flow is not a problem.

No way. I would strongly recommend not doing that.

Using the play and charge kit and shutting down only switches the AV output off. Other than that, the system is 100% up and running and generating heat. Infact it can be worse than just running the console idle in the dashboard because the fans spin at the minimum rate when the controller is charging.

I did a test with a thermometer on my gpu and charged a controller for 3 hours straight while shutdown. The temperature never moved.

It's the uneven heat expansion that kills the machines. The slower the warming up or cooling down is the better for the machine. If the machine warms/cools rapidly then the MB PCB is not keeping up with the prosessors, rams, hana or southbridges heat expansion and it will stress the solder joints. Keeping constant temperature for long time does no harm.

A software update that makes the warming up/cooling down slower would be a smart move from M$.

I am in complete agreement with you..
My response was to merely point out the myth about using the play and charge kit to cool down the console. It doesn't cool down at all and can infact raise the temp a fraction relative to just sitting idle in the dashboard.

When the console turns off completely, you want the temperature at time of shutdown to be as low as possible in order to minimise the spike that occurs when air is removed from the heatsinks. The higher the shutdown temperature, the higher the spike and the longer the internal temperature takes to return to ambient.

I have a custom built fan controller that runs the fans after shutdown. It is completely independent of the 360's motherboard so I can run it with the console unplugged if I choose to. It means that when I shutdown the console, the temperature starts dropping immediately. And because I can control the fan speed, I can ensure that the ramp down of temperature is gentle.

Does it require a separate power source?

Yes, I built it to run on a 12V DC power pack that has a standard 4 pin molex connector.

I really should get around to putting the project up on a thread here some time.

Post a tut of that.

I'd love to have an independent fan running after shut down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KAC9-YVkdo

There is also a follow-up video showing it finished and working. I've used it on my Xenon that you see there for the last 7 months and so far so good.

Far easier to fit all that extra crap and port in on a Xenon. I'd think an HDMI model would be a bit more work fitting everything in.

Its certainly not the most suitable solution for everyone, but I've found it to be one of the most flexible. I have independent control of speeds of both fans and I can even run the console with the fan controller exclusively if I choose (but I prefer less noise when gaming).
At LANs, I can pack my power brick away and still have the fans running to cool off.

Is there any instructions/parts list for that? I would be really interested. Thanks.

as would I. You should definitely make a in-depth tutorial on how you did that, cause i think that's one of the smartest mods I've seen.....it's hella lol

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=694922

Grim, did you use a heatgun and just pull out the heatpipe to switch the sides? I know mine can melt solder and I would assume thats the same connection there.

Ironically, yesterday was the day my GPU started acting funny. I checked the error codes and also the fact that it just froze in the middle of anything rendering intensive. I realized my Dash was corrupt due to freezing during Dash operations (Including an update). I had to clear the cache, run maintenance on the HDD to clear all the corrupt stuff and then re-update. That left me with an over heat issue. Seems my GPU was hot enough to fry an egg on. My box is WAY outta warranty, so I cracked it and removed the top RF shielding and then cut a hole in the plastic and inserted a 120mm fan from an air hockey table (Came with it's own power cord for convenience) and that was that. The heatsinks on both units and the overflow barely get warm, let alone burning hot now. So for all those with overheat issues and no warranty, crack the case, remove the top RF shielding and mount a nice sized exhaust fan blowing out from the middle top (or side) of the case (Above the heatsink array and DVD drive). It works like a charm.
And of course you can get fancy and mod that box while you're at it.

You should have it blowing in. If you have it blowing out you're going against the rear fans and probably creating a no air flow situation!



Wow, that is a neat idea!! Will save me from having to cut a hole on the side or top of the case to cool the heat pipe! Good job.

Believe it or not I tried both ways and found it cooler blowing out. Odd right? I thought so too then realized that not only did I mount the fan on the outside plastic but the blower plastic internally guides air from the chips away in a different direction. It allows for the top fan to pull air from the sides allowing MORE airflow out the back (Noticeable by feel alone) and also drags heat from the tips of the fins themselves. If I had placed it differently, like inside if I could fit it, it would have definitely have played with the rear fans. But as I placed it outside it guides the airflow correctley. BTW, I did NO calculations to figure this out, just eyed it and consider myself lucky it worked out so smooth for a quickie.

Hmm, that is extremely odd but if it works, it doesn't matter