May or may not remember, my 360 has been water cooled for some time but never got around to condensing the whole package. It started as a transmision cooler with res setup, to a full on gold fish pond cooling res, to a simple 2 gal res.

Now I started what I always wanted to do, install the whole thing in a PC tower. Not any PC tower, an old circa 1999 IBM Aptiva tower, which honestly I think is the sexiest tower ever designed.

So it's not finished, more like a fully functioning prototype, but needs cleaning up. The MB, HD, power supply, DVD drive, reservoir, pump, and two fans(on top of the the two stock fans) all fit inside.

first the new version and then I'll post some old pics of the other setups

Some construction pics and the finished setup

 

alright well it's obviously not too exciting, but it's working great and is a lot less space consuming than all the previous versions
so in chronological order here's the various iterations.

This one had an actual transmission cooler waterfall and small pond at the bottom

This version had a goldfish pond, was very high maintenance, with 4 fish. The cats did like it though



The last version, and obviously more boring than the others.


and a reuploaded shot of the new setup, didn't realize how ridiculously large the firsts pics were

 

pretty cool. but how much colder is it?

 

lol thats pretty insane, if my 360 ever overheats and craps out I think I will just buy another one haha

 

well, it runs cool, the exhaust air from the new case, even with the power supply in there feels ambient air. But I'm going to hook up some temp probes to make sure it's all good. Played a good 6 hours in this new setup though.

During my testing about a year ago, I found from the water cooling the exhaust air from the 360's original vent fans decreased over 30 degrees. something like 145 to 110. I do notice it runs faster than it ever did on stock cooling.

Something I'm not sure if has anything to do with the mods but neat either way, is more often than not in MP I'm the host way more than I statistically should.

The main reason for all this though, is just to save money in the long run, I can't afford to keep buying 360's nor do I have the patience to deal with the outsourced technical help.

 

bump because I fixed my pictures. Now to make the wiring all internal.

 

Wow!

 

Looks like a fun project! I was going to do this a while back, but never did for warranty reasons (thankfully, cuz i've gone thru 3)

Have you seen the Lian Li cases?
http://www.google.com/products?q=lia...ed=0CBgQrQQwAA

 

What's all the water cooling stuff cost minus the pc case? Please list out the parts you used.

 

just letting you know I'm not ignoring you, it will take me some time to do a write up, been a busy weekend. A lot of stuff was made by myself though.

 

Nice. I just recently removed the x-clamps from my 360 and got it working again. If it goes out again I may consider a case transplant.

Looks great!

 

thanks! Since I'm writing up a build for doopstr, I'll start with that.

Let me also say, no I do have a life, this series of mods took a good year to complete, because I just don't care THAT much about the project. I take no responsibility from your actions and can ensure to some level that this will not get your 360 kicked off live, these are minor mods and aren't detectable
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X-clamp mod
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http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/repair...-clamp_fix.htm
absolutely a must for anyone that opens up their 360. will fix RROD and will also prevent it from ever happening in the first place.
cost me $22 from a combo of home depot and radioshack
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CUSTOM HEAT SINKS, EXTENAL DVD DRIVE AND WATER COOLING
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From here on out, it's real diy custom stuff, I wouldn't bother unless you own some good epoxy, CA glue, electrical knowledge and most importantly a Dremel Tool.

next, I added the CPU heatsink to the GPU, thus having two CPU heatsinks.

here's the stock setup.


and mine, I obviously modded the air duct as well. To maximize ventilation.
cliffs- lots of cutting, milling, gluing and spray painting.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/46597113@N08/4273014077/" title="P1130394 by myxomatosis1, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4032/4273014077_aa0e16c4a8.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="P1130394" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/46597113@N08/4273014467/" title="P1130396 by myxomatosis1, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2785/4273014467_e3e1fbf868.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="P1130396" /></a>
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DVD DRIVE
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Next we need to relocate that pesky DVD drive(take the disk out first!). Which is a pain and requires some cables/cable mods. It wont fit with that huge heat sink(which is why it normally has that inadequate little heat sink).

The SATA cable($20) can be bought at radioshack, the other black cable, I couldn't find a longer one, so I had to lengthen mine, by individually soldering each wire(not easy).
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/46597113@N08/4273758596/" title="P1130395 by myxomatosis1, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4065/4273758596_740e60f5ef.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="P1130395" /></a>

Here we have to think about case mods, since we've gone this far you'll need to at the very least drill some holes for the wires to your now external DVD drive.

What I did when the 360 still had a case was to drill 2x 1/2" holes above the respected ports on the MB. Once tested very carefully epoxy these cable to the MB so they can't pull off. You can however at this point think about keeping your 360 out of the case or cutting a large top vent hole above the heat sinks(this is necessary for water cooling.)

At this point you should decide whether or not to water cool. The way you just set this up will most likely be more than enough to keep your console alive. Water cooling is like adding a Kevlar armor to your 360. Many people either water or air, but I do both, mainly because once your modding wth and it's relatively cheap... oh and cool as f%ck!

So if you stick with air, chop that big vent in the top for air, mount the DVD drive on top...oh and cut that stupid metal mesh out from behind your exhaust fans(sheet metal snips work great)
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WATER COOLING
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Now for mine I got some really really cheap water cooling blocks from radioshack for $8(down from $40) the footprint fit the tops of those heatsinks so well, that I just applied thermal paste and strapped them on using copper wire.

The plumbing is tricky, but I'll give you the basics, one line in- one line out, so you have to run the heat sinks in series. 1/2 OD 3/8 ID vinyl tubing. I recently upgraded my lines do to the small space in that pc case and used brass elbows for the critical bends, saves a lot of space and no crimped hoses. $20 for clamps and elbows.

Mine then run to a reservoir(which can be made out of anything). In my res. I've got a 7-gph fountain pump that I found at Lowes for $30. Works great and I had tried a few before deciding I needed this much power.
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That's kind of it, If you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to help.

and now for my favorite part. I cleaned up the inside, as mentioned upgraded my cooling lines(brass elbows), added a thermometer that reads the case temp and water res temp and added a crap load of suite blue LED's.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/46597113@N08/4273759322/" title="P1130400 by myxomatosis1, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4023/4273759322_0093b95a7b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="P1130400" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/46597113@N08/4273014649/" title="P1130397 by myxomatosis1, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2762/4273014649_422a597874.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="P1130397" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/46597113@N08/4273760424/" title="P1130406 by myxomatosis1, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4053/4273760424_18e7c885b4.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="P1130406" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/46597113@N08/4273760184/" title="P1130404 by myxomatosis1, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4008/4273760184_39227676fa.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="P1130404" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/46597113@N08/4273759728/" title="P1130402 by myxomatosis1, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2804/4273759728_c523398e36.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="P1130402" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/46597113@N08/4273759550/" title="P1130401 by myxomatosis1, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2729/4273759550_ccc4cbd58a.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="P1130401" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/46597113@N08/4273015645/" title="P1130403 by myxomatosis1, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4009/4273015645_7186a44e7f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="P1130403" /></a>

That's all I can put up tonite, most of my earlier pics are on photobucket and the site is down, had to use flicker for these. There was at least ten places I wanted a pic and just cant at the moment so if you thinks something's missing it probably is.

oh btw that bottom temp reading is the water temp after playing MW2 for a solid 4 hours....not bad.... in fact I'm down right shocked at how well this setup works now.

 

side question. In this day and age do people still use 56k?

 

good question, I can't imagine, maybe need to change it to no DSL? Admittedly there are a lot of pictures, but then everything has a lot of pictures.

I hereby vote to abolish the law of 1999 to state whether or not 56k users can view a thread.

 

I use it for my PS3 & MW2 everyday!!!








Maybe that's why you can never join my party!

 

Well as an update, it just officially bricked on me. The DVD drive now thinks its only a DVD drive and not one for this xbox. So effectively the whole console is now worthless, even the HDD, since the new ones have a different design.

Needless to say, I'm rather pissed.

Come on tax return season!

 

really cool builds..

your obviously very good with building your own setups..

but i've literally played several of my Xbox's through the night into the next morning after big releases (sometimes up to 10 hours with a few food and shower breaks).. never had any overheating problems...

just kind of seems like overkill. but the PC tower setup is cool

 

^ Youre lucky.

Mine finally died, and I dont play often and not long when I do use it.

I have noticed the temps dropping if I transfer the game to the HDD though.

 

may have been overkill but as I said it did die. So my fear was somewhat real. It didn't overheat but more of wore out. I mean really I dont know how a 360 owner cant be somewhat paranoid about it happening.

And yeah, obviously I went overboard, but who wants some wussy adequate cooling system(the stock one obviously isn't), when you can go completely bat shit insane.

Honestly though, with a small child now, I really would love having the new 360, he tries to get into everything.

I'm still sad...

 

Yeah the HDD def puts out less heat than the DVD drive.

The biggest thing to remember is that there were what 5? generations of 360's each putting out less heat than the rest Unfortunately for many like me and maybe you. You probably sent in a broken 1st or 2nd gen and got back a refurb of the same gen. Some people got lucky and got ones that technically should never have broken again, but some of us got 2, 3, 4, or more refurbs that broke.

I could talk about this all night but in the end at least I managed 5 years and only "bought" one 360 and $75 or so in the mods. I do use the thing for music, dvd movies, flash drive movies, streaming netflicks, networked media, and games, mostly COD.... I dont know what the people are going to do without me to help kill nazi zombies. I guess my point is really, it's a hell of a machine for all its problems. My computers give me a lot more problems, what with maintenance, and being obsolete all the time.