Comments on: Our favorite XBOX to HTPC hacks

By: google

google — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:50:12 +0000

what is it A Xbox with a few adjustments what a joke

By: gabe

gabe — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:09:10 +0000

Love hardware mods. I’ve only ever modded a vid card to unlock it and succeeded til reboot when it defaulted back to original throughput.
Those look pretty easy though I agree that a proper htpc or simply an external tb sata drive plugged into an asus oplay media player or a hisense hdtv player would be much simpler (~$250). I don’t play games either. But it would have been nice if they had come unlocked to begin with.

By: elmo

elmo — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:16:45 +0000

I’m with fartface, more hidden the better. As much as I liked the xbox, decided to just mount PC gubbins in a quaint looking wooden TV cabinet. Working on a universal IR remote >>> PS2 interface using a picaxe; old PS2 keyboard innards and some 5066 quadbilateral switches, this will get the important keys.. arrow keys and enter button. AHK scripts to respond to other keys to launch apps. Looking good so far though on a 42″ LCD.

By: vvenesect

vvenesect — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:01:32 +0000

strider_mt2k–

I’m looking to mod my original Xbox and am interested in the items you mentioned–where did you get the modded front control panel? And, is there a good site that collects all these mods and details how to do them?

By: strider_mt2k

strider_mt2k — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:07:23 +0000

I -JUST FINISHED- (like days ago) doing a hardmod on an old xbox that was destined for the trash.
(transferring emus to the thing as I type this!)

I bought the X3 CE chip and a complete front control panel that incorporates a ton of hardware hacks developed over the years including that LCD display.

It’s been interesting learning about how to transfer files to the machine and set up a dashboard. (I’m starting out with EvoX)

But ugly? Butt ugly? I don’t know about that.

Even with a snazzy front panel to liven up it’s stock looks it’s not as slick looking as THESE beautiful projects are, but hey, the A-10 Warthog is one ugly ass-kicking piece of hardware too! ;)

By: fartface

fartface — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:07:19 +0000

What is this fetish with seeing your AV gear? put it in a cabinet and close the door. get a real universal remote (not harmony, those are crap) with a RF repeater or a real control system and call it done.

I go one further, banish all that crap from the living room. It’s all in the basement in the AV rack, run the wires back to the set and my RF remote controls it all so easily that even grandma can figure it out.

7.1 surround, only the xbox360 is in in the living room and the TV plus speakers. wife loves it, and all the gear stays clean plus cool.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:04:41 +0000

I love the way my xbox crystal looks, and my old black one too

that is all

By: Haku

Haku — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:22:24 +0000

Always thought the original XBox looked ugly and I’m still suprised just how massive it is whenever I see one ‘in the flesh’.

Looking at the great re-housing hacks here and how lots of people like XBMC and how an XBox is now dirt cheap I may have to pick one up for a HTPC.

By: DigitalRambler

DigitalRambler — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:28:03 +0000

Love my xbmc xbox but that all seems like a lot of work when you could spend the time and money on a proper HTPC and put XBMC on it.

By: nubie

nubie — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:38:16 +0000

@ Frik,

I see what you are saying now, I bet he did it because there is no longer any 12v draw from the drives (laptop drives only use 5v).

If the Xbox is based on Pentium III tech there is a good chance it uses 5v for the CPU as well, no need for 12v caps if it isn’t using them.

By: nubie

nubie — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:35:57 +0000

@ Frik, he probably just layed the capacitors against the board, a standard practice when modifying to fit a tight enclosure.

By: CollinstheClown

CollinstheClown — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:42:02 +0000

“we’d be interested in finding out if both case fans are pumping air out of the case, in effect pulling a ton of cool air past the CPU.”

Unless I’m mistaken, don’t fans blow towards the label? Thus those would be intake fans.

Great mods all around!

By: Fink

Fink — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:20:54 +0000

“On the hardware side he did remove some capacitors for less current draw during boot.”

What? those capacitors are there to suppress transient currents on boot, removing them would only make things worse

By: Ho0d0o/Heatgap

Ho0d0o/Heatgap — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:34:57 +0000

I’m really into console modding. I modded my Xbox360 with a crystal dark blue case, replaced the fans with crystal green led talismoon fans. Replaced the heatsync with better modded all copper ThermalTake hs and fans on gpu and cpu.

Overall it looks cool and was simple and gets attention from guests. I guess that’s one of the reasons I did it.

These projects have gone above and beyond though. Congrats to all the features here.

By: osgeld

osgeld — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:20:36 +0000

xbox is ugly, but it hides well, ps3 now there is something that gets more and more dated looking every day

anyway mine is in its original case, but that mini sure is cute