Now that we’re far enough into the next generation of home video game consoles that we can’t really keep calling them that anymore, yard sales are sure to be full of lonely Xbox 360s and PS3s that have been put out to pasture. You’ll probably even find a Wii U or two out there that somebody accidentally purchased. This is great for hackers who like cramming new electronics into outdated consumer gear, and accordingly, we’re starting to see the fruits of that generational shift.
Case in point, this Xbox 360 which has been transformed into a “Steam Box” by [Pedro Mateus]. He figured the Xbox 360 was the proper size to fit a full PC plus PSU, while still looking contemporary enough that it won’t seem out of place in the entertainment center. Running SteamOS on Fedora 28, it even offers a traditional game console experience and user interface, despite the decidedly PC internals.
On the outside, the only thing that really gives away this particular Xbox’s new lease on life (when the purple LEDs are off, anyway) is the laser cut acrylic Steam logo on the top that serves as a grill for the internal CPU cooler. Ironically, [Pedro] did spray the Xbox white instead of just starting with a black one, but otherwise, there wasn’t much external modification necessary. Inside, of course, is a very different story.
It’s packing an AMD Ryzen 5 2400G processor with Radeon RX Vega 11GPU and 8GB of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200MHz RAM. Power is provided by a Seasonic SS-300TFX 300W, and a Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 keeps the system cool. Even with all that gear in there, the thing is probably still quieter than the stock Xbox 360.
[Pedro] helpfully provides quite a few benchmarks for those wondering how this hacked-up Xbox fares against a more traditional gaming setup, though peak performance was obviously not the goal here. If you’ve got 45 minutes or so to spare, you should check out the video he’s put together after the break, which goes over the machine’s construction.
We’ve seen it done with the original Xbox, and now the Xbox 360. Who will be the first to send in their build that guts a current-generation Xbox and turns it into a PC for Internet fame?
[Thanks to Mike for the tip.]
Am I the only one that hoped for a project actuallky powered by steam?
Nope, me too!
My first thought was Yay then I read And was hoping the PPC was forced to use a linux and steam was running on it, Just a case mod there’s 100 + of those to look at everywhere not that it’s bad was hoping for something different.,
Yeah, my first thought was steam power, but then I realized that was probably impossible (at least, it probably wouldn’t fit in the case). Then I wondered if it was like in the olden days when you could install Linux on your PS2, and someone had installed linux and then the linux version of steam. I suppose that might actually be possible, at least on an x86-based console. (though I have experimented with trying to run x86 steam on ARM under qemu, might try again some day with a chroot) Might be a fun project one day, if there’s ever a (modern as of now?) x86 console with a good steam port.
Ditto
Yeah, me too. I thought we’d at least see a funny hat with welding goggles on it. Come to think of it, that could be an idea for a new raspi hat, no?
No. You are certainly not alone.
A Xbox one draws about a hundred watts. It would be totally possible to power it with a flash steam boiler and a high-RPM single acting steam motor coupled to a permanent magnet alternator…
Did you say a harbor freight die grinder lashed to a cordless drill motor? ;-)
Hmmmmm. Excellent idea.
I also remember an article in a model hobby magazine about a model steam turbine; very professionally made, ceramic bearings and all.
Coupled to a brushless airplane motor it produced 200W electric. The flash steam boiler was approx. the size of a soda can and the turbine was also very small.
Yea, no coal, no water, no boiler, I feel ripped off.
Was waiting for the small steam generator build photos to show up. Was disappointed.
Same here.
At least it was the first idea. So it’s just a misleading headline. I don’t like this misuse of the phrase “powered by…” for other things than actual supply of power in the sense of energy. Occurring mostly in advertisements.
Everyone who games on steam gets the joke, sorry you’re left out.
The website is called http://WWW.STEAMPOWERED.COM
No, other people also know words well enough to know that “powered by” is different than “uses a product named.”
Words! Thanks for supporting the cause!
Not a hack!
Aw, c’mon the side of the box was hacked to put in the “steam” grille
I suspect he cut the hole rather carefully :)
Seriously, as Dave commented above, this is just a case mod of which there are many hundreds easily reachable via your favorite search engine. (I too was expecting something more…)
Hack means modify, so YES a hack!
I was really excited that I could repurpose an xbox as a steambox, you know, just with software…
may be he use hack saw?
Where’s the boiler and pistons?
The Wii U was the best condon console of that generation. The gamepad was an amazing controller!
No, no it wasn’t. First off the Wii U is technically apart of the Ps4 Xbox One generation. Nintendo launched the Wii U as next Gen at the time.
The game pad controller was terrible for the Wii U. The Wii U wasn’t even powerful enough to compete with the prior Gen consoles (360 and ps3)
Also the Wii U had no games!
If you truly believe that that the Wii U was the best console of any generation, then that is your personal opinion. You alone on this earth have that opinion. Keep it to yourself
That sounds to me like using cat years to measure what generation a human is from. :)
I found an xbox, I think 360, some tears back, and got all excited about running Linux on it.
The processor was better than I had, and there seemed to be Linux for the box. But it had 512K of ram, which was a step down. And no easy way to add more, so it sits in the basement. I’ve yet to turn it on.
It’s not the only game console I found on the sidewalk, I should get rid of that junk, I don’t play games.
Michael
Just drop it off at a hackerspace.
Contact them first, so you don’t waste anyone’s time
You can run Linux on the 360: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free60
>2400G processor with Radeon RX Vega 11GPU
so no gaming after all, or rather retro gaming machine
Obviously you’ve never touched that setup. The 2400G’s CPU beats a sixth gen i5[1], and the GPU can hold its own against a GTX 650 Ti[2]. That is more than enough for nearly all Linux-compatible Steam games. I know because I built a system with the same specs as the article. I guess you’ve grown tired of trolling RPi articles so now you’re trolling x86_64, once again revealing you’re a bloody moron with no clue about the technology you rattle on about.
Frankly, I’m just surprised that he’s got Linux running stable on that setup; I thought the G series APUs were still having stability issues even with the latest kernel from git.
[1] https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/AMD-Ryzen-5-2400G-vs-Intel-i5-6500/3183vs2599
[2] https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare/Radeon-RX-Vega-11-vs-GeForce-GTX-650-Ti/3893vs2177
>GPU can hold its own against a GTX 650 Ti
>Linux-compatible Steam games
“so no gaming after all, or rather retro gaming machine”, thank you for reinforcing my statement
1050 is the minimum for current gan casual gaming, slower gpus will leave you with 5 year old games, 720, everything to low, or <30fps.
2400G is a great platform for a media center, but bad for gaming.
Sigh,
> Running SteamOS on Fedora 28,
It isn’t, its running the steam client on Fedora.
How is this different from any other casemod out there?
It’s running SteamOS session, with its own compositor. It’s just using Fedora instead of Debian as the base distro.
Would have been nice if the CD-Slot was actually still working. Drop a Laptop-BluRay-Drive in there and you can pretty much use it as a full HTPC.
Yeah, not a hack.
That’s what I said. It’s not a hack it’s a case mod. and this kind of case mod has been being done for at least 10 years.
>GPU can hold its own against a GTX 650 Ti
>Linux-compatible Steam games
You mean the random card games the OS come with ? I have not been in the gaming scene for a while now, but last I checked the number of games for Nix distros was around the same as the number of games for Mac.. admittedly that was a long time ago, I dont have any free time for games anymore, not sure if that is a good thing or not XD
you have been out of the loop for a while, lots of new titles are getting linux versions
I miss my 360. before the red ring took her away from me. if I knew this was an option I would if paid someone to fix it and do this to it so I can continue playing the classics. good read, keep it up
Quite disappointed… almost clickbait imho…. i was hoping for a true hack not fitting a pc compatible on a Xbox carcasse.
I’m so sad I’m not going to post at all..
so is it possible to do what we thought this title was leading us to expect? i was hoping i could install linux on my xbox 360 that dont see discs anymore into a kind of steambox to play some old total war games that my old laptop can’t handle :k?