My XboX

I recently sold my original Playstation, and since then have really had a jones for a sweet gaming rig.

Enter Xbox. =) I must tell you, prior to doing this, I knew absolutely NOTHING about an Xbox, other than the fact that they have the best graphics of any home gaming console, bar none. I'd even go so far as to say that it will make a Playstation 2 look like a freakin' Nintendo.

What can a "modified" Xbox do? Just about ANYTHING you want it to. My primary goal with this was to replace my DVD/CD Player and also bring a gaming rig into my dojo. I successfully modded my Xbox with an Xecutor 2.3b Lite chip, and am absolutely blown away with the results. This is gaming and media HEAVEN.

I could not have done any of this without the help of www.xbox-scene.com and some ultra cool people through eMail... some of 'em I found through eBay, hehe. There are a LOT of dicks in the "X" scene, and this is really a shame. If you need to have an ego about your X box skills, you can go get fucked. I will help anyone with anything about this, ego free. Life is too short to be a dick.

So, here we goooo... I took pics of my project. Be warned, some of the pictures absolutely SUCK, I'm sorry about that. I was not about to stop my work and check my digital photos after each shot, so what you see is what you get. Again, thanks to the people and tutorials over at X-S and IRC and all that shit. The Xbox is THE bomb for home consoles. When "tweaked" it will do just about anything you ask of it. After all, it's a computer. This is my Xbox, how I "tweaked" it, and what it does for me now. The entire process went so smoothly, and I am absolutely LOVING this thing. Was able to dump my CD and DVD player and now this is my main home theater and audio / video / gaming / hacking / whatever box. Beautiful shit. Thanks, Bill!

Click on any photo to see a full size shot. Some of these pics are atrocious, and you will have to pardon me. I did not want to stop my soldering process to check the photos. My camera sucks the balls sack, and I'm no Herb Ritts. These should give you a general idea of what you are in for though.

Here is the X2.3b Lite from www.system-mods.com after it came from FedEx.. The chip was $38 and I paid $8 for faster shipping. Ordered on Friday, got in on Monday. Hella Fast. =)

Ready to open this bastard up. Use the tutorials on X-S to accomplish this. 5 screws await you. Don't fuck this up.

This is what ya get after ya open her up. Thankfully, I have the Samsung SDG-605 drive! Woop. The Seagate 10GB will not stay in long. =) Note... This Sammy 605 will read ALL CD-R and ALL DVD-R but not DVD+R ... Keep this in mind. I will look into a hacked firmware for this drive, but for the meantime, DVD-R

Here are the guts with the HDD and DVD-ROM drive removed. Next, the mobo and PSU come out.

Ahh yes... The Xbox motherboard in all her glory. Don't fuck up.

Remeber those shitty pictures I mentioned? Here is one of em. This is with the pinheader test fit into the LPC before soldering. This shit is TINY TINY TINY. It looks big in these pics, maybe, but this is pubic hair here, folks.

My Solder Station that I use when doing any soldering work of this microtude. =) YEARS of guitar work has paid off on this project. It's a real bitch to do this right. If you have any doubts about your skills, DON'T DO THIS, because you WILL FUCK IT UP, all William Holden style.

This is really funny but, through the mag lens, it's MUCH easier to see, but due to the miracle of science, when taking a photo through a magnifying glass, it doesn't do jack squat, lol. I noticed this after looking at my digi cam pics, it looks almost the same as without magnifying. For ME though, it was as big as Oprahs ass. Don't fuck this up.

I show you this photo, only because I can. This is my LPC pinheader soldered, as well as the dreaded D0 point. You cannot see anything at all, it looks like a blob, oh well. I elec. taped the d0 and the LPC twice to prevent ground contact on the bottom of the X chassis. Don't fuck this up.

OK. So I read, read, read and read tutorials, then I read some more. According to them, if I installed correctly, I would see 2 blue LED on the chip, and a green LED on the switch, and my tray would open automatically. YUP. =)

Then, my screen was supposed to show the Cromwell BIOS and say "Please Insert CD - Flashing Mode". Again, YUP. =)

So I already had my BIOS prepared using the proper technique, popped her in there (it was a CD-RW by the way) and sure enough, success!

Ok... So this section starts a few days later after I fucked around for a bit and had some fun. This is my FAN MOD that I did. The hard drive generates a LOT OF HEAT, not good. I knew I was not going to be happy with the completely stock non modded Xbox, so I got to work on some ideas. This was one of them. Not only did I do that dual fan mod, I also replaced the stock shit MS fan with an 80mm blue LED running at full 100% via my BIOS. I also upgraded the CPU and GPU compound with Arctic Silver 3. These fans were from CompUsa, I think they were $10.

I then took it a step further and did an external hard drive mod. This, in my opinion, is a MANDATORY upgrade. There is no reason at all to be running the hard drive inside of the Xbox. Too much heat, pain in the ass if you want to do swaps, etc etc. There are so many positive reasons to go external.

And, as a bonus, not only did this bay have a matching green LED, but it shows HDD activity! Kick ass. I got this at CompUsa for $20 bux, also picked up a rounded ATA133 cable set as well for $10 I think. You need to cut the metal chassis casing, and dremel the side as well. Don't fuck this up.

Here is another bad pic. I wasn't happy with the way the swtich was "supposed" to mount, so I dremeled out the sides in a V shape, and got her to stick right in the center underneath the on/off and eject buttons. Killer.

Here's a shot of my current Evox dashboard, though I am sure it will change soon. The hardware side of this is one thing, the software is another. Both require a great amount of skill and brains. If you have neither, forget about an Xbox and keep playing your sisters Nintendo.

And here is my setup in my entertainment center with the Logitech Wireless controllers and what not. I use the Optical Digital Ouput and S-Video output. The sound and picture quality are nothing short of breath taking. The SOUND is just beautiful. Granted, I have a really nice high end home theater system, but this is the tits, my friends... the TITS.

OK. That's about it. Hope you enjoyed my little Xbox sheananigans. All the work and effort was WELL worth it. I use this to copy my OWN ORIGINAL games and media to the hard drive. I can't tell you how nice it is to have all of my shit right on the drive for immediate retrieval. There is nothing sweeter than having Tony Hawk's Underground load in less than 2 seconds. =)

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