(phase 2 of this project has begun. click here to read more about it!)
a lot of you who know me personally may already well know how i get when i put my mind into something. one minute i’ll have an idea, the next minute i’m ordering parts from newegg to build my watercooled home-theatre pc or spending hundreds of dollars to renovate my room into something more liveable. a few of you may also know how i like to take things apart, both mechanically and maliciously. a few examples:
installing leopard osx on my mini note
installing leopard osx on my mini note part 2
installing leopard osx on my mini note part 3
well it happened again. i had an idea. i was helping out a friend of mine by trying to resolve the overheating issues he’s been having with his xbox 360. everyone who’s an avid 360 gamer knows that the majority of the overheating issues on the 360, including the 2 red rings and 3 red rings, are caused by a loosened heatsink either on the cpu or gpu. if the cpu, the audio and motherboard could also have issues since their respective chips are also cooled by the same heatsink. everyone knows that a simple $14 x-clamp kit from ebay will work 99% of the time.
so taking that into consideration and with the background experience and knowledge i have after building my 2nd watercooled computer, i figure that since the xbox 360 is essentially a computer (motherboard, dvd drive, harddrive, video card, cpu, fans and embedded memory), why can’t i remove the original fans and heatsinks and watercool the thing?
logic would suggest that i can. anyone with enough computer know-how, enough experience and enough balls would agree. so i checked the funds. i had the money. i had the brains. i had the urge to hack something apart and put it together again. so why not?
so i went online, shopped around for the parts i thought would work best for this application and this is what i came up with:
xbox 360, $180
found it on craigslist for $180. included graw2, marvel ultimate alliance and fifa 2006. one headset + 1 wired controller + 20gb harddrive. not bad. i was actually hoping for a damaged 3-red rings xbox though.
xcm halo-green case, $40
you can find these on ebay for about $40 or directly from xcm themselves for just a little more money. save yourself the time and shipping though if you want to pick up their rapid-fire controller mod or other xbox mods available on their site.
the waterblock, $60
probably the most important component of them all. the price wasn’t too bad compared to x-matic’s innovatek waterblock (which i must admit is way sexier than this one). that one was $90 though and for something that is going to be buried underneath that dvd drive, this one was sexy enough for me. what’s nice about these blocks is they were made especially for the 360, so no retrofitting required. they cover up all chips, cpu and gpu. i forgot the site, but they are out there and easy to find. google is your friend.
waterpump, $40
again, another very crucial component. this is what keeps your coolant flowing and going. if possible, spend the money on a smaller $70 swiftech unit. this thermaltake p500 i ordered is nice, but definitely not fitting in my case from the looks of things.
heat exchanger/radiator/intercooler, $40
you have as much freedom as you want when choosing this part. from what i’ve learned, cooling a cpu down from 150 degrees farenheit down to the 70-80 degree range doesn’t take much. any decent core from newegg or ebay should be just fine. you’re not cooling down a forced-induction car, only water. they have intercoolers for 80mm and 120mm fans. i got the 120mm, but i’ve seen some setups running an 80mm fan. i guess it all really comes down to your tubing size and noise preference.
reservoir & optional bracket, $30
i decided at the very start of the project to not worry about fitting everything inside my case. although possible, i didn’t really care. i want the thing to look a bit grungey and industrial anyway, so i plan to have tubes and reservoirs mounted outside of the thing. again, freedom to choose whatever you want. something with a fill port would be nice.
fittings, about $8/pair
you have to be careful with this. make sure you know what size tubing you are running before you choose your reservoirs, intercooler and pump. i’m running G 1/4 3/8″ ID tubing myself. i have a few pairs of these for the intercooler, reservoir and i forgot what else.
i’ve also purchased flow-through fittings (seen below). these go on a flat surface (drilled hole) and allow you to connect external tubing to an internal tube, if that makes any sense.
coolant, $15
self-explanatory. get something that is non-reactive. if you spill it, it won’t conduct electricity and you won’t mess up your hardware or electronics. also, get something uv-reactive just because.
misc parts
i’m missing a few parts from this checklist only because i have them leftover from previous projects. these parts include tubing, 3/8″ Inner-diameter and a fan. i’m using my thermaltake 120mm fan. yes, it’ll be quite loud.
loud, obnoxious and cool to the touch. i love it!
my parts will arrive friday jan. 30 so another update will come then. still waiting on my waterblock though and i have no tracking number for that part.
note: i know i already have a fully-functional xbox 360, but like i said, i love the challenge and love showing people that i know what i am talking about and that watercooling an xbox is not as daunting of a task as most people think. plus it’d be nice to have an extra xbox 360 laying around for when friends come over to play call of duty: world at war and left 4 dead.
by the way, if you’d like to add me on live, my gamertag is “its boogie“.
til’ next time!
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I Hope to see the installing of the radiator and the pump. Good luck with the project