My Silent Xbox Has A Problem...

[@MattKC]

Thanks everyone for your patience this past month. This was kind of a quick video to conclude the Xbox Saga, and also get something out since I was sick for most of July couldn't record much as a result. But I've got some huge stuff in the works that I can't wait to show you all. Stay tuned!

[@Cart1416]

You are early

[@qwerty_studios]

i heop yoy are beetrt tlnow

[@Pask___]

Hope you're feeling better now!

[@qwerty_studios]

@@Cart1416 lol you are early

[@Cart1416]

@@qwerty_studios I am probably like 5th

[@venialgaming4295]

I’d like to point out the passive heat sink likely wouldn’t have worked because the two chips are probably not level with each other

[@TrolleyMC]

True

[@aprofondir]

Could've used some K5 Pro to account for that

[@venialgaming4295]

@@aprofondir I'm not familiar with "k5 pro" but I assume it's some high quality thermal paste, it wouldn't matter because if there's any air between the chip and heat sink it will work very crappily and overheat, even if you put a dog shit pile-sized mound of compound on there it would negate the purpose because it would cool the chips so bad that it would be a waste of time, not to mention the paste would likely slowly settle, especially with heat, and stop making contact with the chip.

[@RamyWarda]

​@@venialgaming4295 ​ You could use thermal pads instead of paste to deal with the die/substrate height differences since they're made in all sorts of thicknesses. The CPU runs at just over 20w with the GPU likely sitting in the 40w ballpark. Had to find pentium 3 733mhz/geforce 3 & 4 numbers, nothing easy to find on the Xbox- though total system power draw of rev 1.0 runs between 67-68w, with rev 1.3 between 62-64w so I imagine it's pretty close, so it likely shouldn't be a problem to keep cool with pads so long as there isn't too much of a gap between the die & heatsink.

[@AstrumPuella]

@@venialgaming4295 K5 Pro is more viscous than thermal compound. It's more like highly thermally conductive silicone grease. Its purpose isn't just to fill the gaps between a chip and a cooler, it is a heat spreader itself. Covering the RAM chips on a GPU with K5 Pro is an example, as the K5 Pro acts as a cooler. But, it likely wouldn't be as good as a thermal pad in this case because K5 Pro isn't compliant with perfect contact when you have a gap of a few millimeters. Just use a thermal pad, and it would be okay.

[@ellafoxoo]

You could probably 3D print some fan ducts like what they have on servers, and use the existing heatsinks. Those would guide the air to flow directly over the heatsinks

[@AstrumPuella]

Ehh, unless he wanted to fiddle with higher temp filaments, then it might not be worth the effort. PLA wouldn't stand up to the heat and would soften quickly. PETG and ASA are kind of a bitch to print with if you don't know what you're doing. But if he were to go for it, it would definitely work well.

[@zactron1997]

It might work, but the auxiliary components (power regulators, etc.) could potentially get starved of that airflow and start overheating. Worse, there wouldn't be a temperature sensor on most of those parts to actually safely shit the system down.

[@ellafoxoo]

@@AstrumPuella PETG is pretty easy, ABS is decent if you have an enclosure, but those aren't all that common.

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

Too expensive of a solution. Just use thick paper or thin cardboard instead.

[@GoTeamScotch]

I removed the DVD drive in my Xbox and just stuck the bottom metal plate of the drive back inside. Airflow is back to being about the same as stock.

[@td1516]

I installed a hydro fluid bearing fan (aka Hydro dynamic bearing) and set it to 100% speed. I just can't remember if it was a 70mm or 80mm fan. Over 10 years now of use and the fan is still silent and keeps the Xbox cool. You should look into these types of fans instead of using the basic ball bearing fans if that's what you are using to set it at such low speed on the fan so you don't hear the noise. At 100% with these types of fans it is very silent and effective.

[@scikoolaid]

excellent suggestion. I don't think enough people consider using that type of fan to address noise levels

[@Kholaslittlespot1]

Not sure I've ever heard of them. Interesting.

[@chainswordcs]

I haven't heard of them either. (Given, I haven't ever done much research in the area)

[@td1516]

Yes, they made a BIG noise back when I heard about 'em circa 2010-2014. Haven't really heard too much about 'em since but they do exist. The brand I went with was GELID (Silent series). I'm not sure if they are still around but it is what I used back then for OG Xbox's and also for PCs. Super Silent and effective.

[@railpao]

Interesting, I didn't knew about it. Thank you !

[@martyjackson4166]

“Ultimately it wasn’t a length issue, it was a girth issue” Yeah, I have that problem too

[@dashtesla]

That was my last grindr date..

[@Wheagg]

The most questionable thing MattKC has ever said

[@originalpadoru]

@@Wheagg hey how’s the reception up there

[@Wheagg]

@@originalpadoru not great

[@BHNative]

I knew someone would think about their p on that one

[@Joshimuz]

MattKC: "The double sided tape for the SSD didn't work due to heat, I probably should've seen that coming" Also MattKC: "I used double sided tape for the Xbox logo, it doesn't go through anything so it should be fine" I don't actually know if that part of the case gets any airflow/hot, but I just thought it was funny :P Good work though, hopefully someday I'll do the same to a PS2!

[@tspawn35]

The only mod a PS2 really needs is a fan replacement. The original is loud as heck. The original PS2 already has an external access drive bay just needs a network adapter to lock and interface the drive with the system. The other thing is you can get an rgb cable and an rgb to hdmi convertor. Lets you connect the PS2 to a modern TV. It also looks really nice without having to do any kind of perm mod to the PS2.

[@mattsparks3546]

I think it's possible, that the DVD drive might also have a little to do with the airflow, like with the HDD caddy, perhaps, you could try putting just the bottom of the drive back in and seeing if that improves Temps? That would only make it a little bit heavier, but might help (especially with the gpu heatsink)

[@BudgetBuildsOfficial]

The SSD in my Frankly Horrific OG Xbox is held in with Gorilla Fabric Tape. Absolutely no clue how it’s held up so well with the heat.

[@bluesillybeard]

Gorilla tape is for The Toughest Jobs on Planet Earth after all.

[@thebassstream]

That's gaff tape I use that in automotive for bundling and protecting wire harnesses. Great stuff. Look at tesa's line of tape.

[@tylern6420]

Flex tape would immortalize it

[@georgewashington6171]

Budget bill

[@lw2266]

I'm a little confused, since you didn't like how the DVD drive cover no longer "floats" why didn't you leave the DVD drive in with its caddy and just have it disconnected? This would solve the soft whirring you were annoyed by. This would also allow the air flow to go back to what previously was the case and if you ever did want the DVD drive you could plug it back in (relatively) quickly.

[@icedteaaddict4842]

I think another reason was to reduce the weight. Though I would suggest to open up the drive and taking out anything unneeded, but keep anything needed to make the DVD slot float.

[@None17555]

I'm not sick of these videos. I love them. All 3 of my xboxs have failing drives, so I have them lined up, ready to do these sorts of mods on all three at once. I'm glad I waited this long!

[@grantm902]

I would advise against relocating electrolytic capacitors willy-nilly, as they are often used for local decoupling and may well contribute to rare, obscure failures. Datasheets for most ICs will specify as short a length between decoupling caps and the Vdd/Vcc pin as possible. You can probably be more lenient with how long your connection between the negative terminal and ground is.

[@thewhitefalcon8539]

They probably also specify ceramic decoupling caps. Currently people are using ceramic caps as close as possible, and electrolytics every here and there, due to their higher ESL and ESR but also higher capacitance.

[@nikkiofthevalley]

​@@thewhitefalcon8539With modern ceramics, you rarely need electrolytics unless you're dealing with high current transients, and even then you only need a few.

[@HotClown]

I highly recommend getting a bag of 20x20x10 mm heatsinks off ebay and some thermal epoxy (or at least an adhesive thermal pad) and putting one of them on the MCPX chip next time you're in your Xbox. It's right next to your modchip and it gets pretty damn hot. Due to easily hitting peaks of over 60 C in some situations and just generally going through some rough thermal cycles in its life, it's responsible for a lot of Xboxes dying. I am not sick of this Xbox- thanks to these videos I ended up buying myself a new one to replace my recently-FRAGged childhood 1.1. I hit pawn shop gold and ended up with a seemingly barely used 1.1, manufactured 4 days before my old one, with a stealth modchip already installed. I went for the exact opposite approach to this Xbox. 500GB IDE Caviar black, modified Wii2HDMI, heatsink on the MCPX, and for the ultimate in jank Xbox mods, I cut a hole in the plastic on the left side of it and zip-tied a fan to the metal chassis, pointed straight at the MCPX. It's loud as all fuck. I don't care, I have headphones. I watched my 20 year old Xbox die last year, and I don't intend to allow the same fate befall this one. Thank you for the inspiration Matt

[@handlesrtwitterdontbelivethem]

did i ask

[@AstrumPuella]

@@handlesrtwitterdontbelivethem why did you assume that the comment for MattKC's video was directed towards you, at all.

[@HotClown]

@@AstrumPuella Hell the entire first paragraph is literally just general advice directed towards anyone with an Xbox lol plus I reckon most people who own an Xbox in 2022 probably love hearing about other peoples' Xboxes, I know I do so needlessly hostile

[@generallyunimportant]

crossbox moment

[@hydrochloricity]

The Noctua L9 cooler you reference at 8:11 actually blows the air DOWN, because it was designed to also cool the VRMs and associated components around a CPU. Depending on the clearance to the top shell of the Xbox it could still struggle to intake air, but it would exhaust quite happily around the board and get sucked out the back.

[@DrKoneko]

"Are you tired of this Xbox yet?" "No" "Too bad binch" "Oh"

[@Heavy_Bob]

With the amount of space you have, you probably could fit a 2U cooler in there that would be a step up from the cooling you have right now. Suggest checking out some of the dynatron products for 2U server kit.

[@brkbtjunkie]

Lol and 5x louder

[@Heavy_Bob]

@@brkbtjunkie WHAAAAAAT? CANT HEAR YOU! I AM GAMING! *FAN GOES BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR*

[@Heavy_Bob]

Follow up, you might be able to use one of the xbox 360 revision coolers for your original xbox.

[@Arminoderso]

@@brkbtjunkie just change the fan

[@misham6547]

@@brkbtjunkie actually some 3U coolers are very quite like the noctua onr

[@burretploof]

I'm honestly amazed by your patience. A while back I meant to replace the bulging caps in my Xbox v1.6 but getting them out was so much of a hassle (my soldering skills are dreadful and I don't have a proper solder pump) that I just kind of... gave up. Anyway, great video, love to see Xbox content!

[@chunye215]

I thought the 1.6 was the one that doesn't have bulging caps. Or was that just wrt the clock cap?

[@burretploof]

@@chunye215 The 1.6 usually doesn't have the bulging clock cap but it does have other caps that tend to bulge on that version. :( It's actually more of a hassle as it's more than one cap that needs replacing.

[@nickwallette6201]

The clock cap leaks. The regular PSU rail caps dry out and swell. Here's a tip when desoldering caps that may be attached to large power/ground planes: Clip the remainder of the leads off so you have as little as possible on the solder side of the board. Add fresh solder. Don't try to evacuate the solder, just apply heat and work the cap out a little bit at a time, one leg then the other, until it comes free. THEN use your desoldering pump to remove the old solder. Sometimes you can't get all the solder out. That's fine. If you can clear one hole, great. Cut the lead shorter on the side that the hole is still plugged, and push the remaining lead through the clear hole. With plenty of clean solder on the plugged hole, heat it up while you push the leg (gently) through the other side. Be careful not to bend the leg. It helps if it's short (like 1cm or so.) If both holes are stubbornly clogged, you may need to walk the new cap in a tiny fraction at a time.

[@cynic5581]

3D print ducting for controlled air flow so you can remotely mount the fan this way you can use a larger fan at a lower speed. You just need to minimize static in its design (minimal turns and narrowing). A fan doesn’t need to be mounted directly on or even near a heat sink they are just sold that way for cost and convenience. If all of its air flow is ducted over the item trying to be cooled you get the same effect. Much like how duct work in your home cools and heats the rooms without the furnace fan being in that room. I really wish I had an Xbox because looking at yours I’m visualizing a really interesting fan location that pulls air across the entire board but directs all of it over the CPU and GPU before it exhaust.

[@IchRockeInDerDisco]

You could also add a noctua 40mm on top of the cpu ? Airflow might still be good enough for the "OG" fan to work as an exhaust. And the noctua 40mm are dead silent at correct speeds

[@nathanmead140]

In front would be better

[@aidannotfunny]

What an intro lol, legit made me laugh. Thanks Matt for making entertaining videos and teaching us in the process!

[@JonnyBoyUltra161]

I would advise that you still use the DVD tray/caddy in the Xbox. Even though the DVD drive is gone, it still provides support inside the console. I would also suggest modifying the tray in some way to help guide air over the heatsinks.

[@Menjari]

I looked into doing a combined Heatsink for both GPU/CPU in the past but each die has a different Z Height, so you would need a shim to adjust the height between both dies to get proper thermal contact.

[@thqp]

It looks like there would be enough space to ad an intake fan, it certainly could help with temps. and as others have mentioned, fan ducts would be another way, to increase airflow over the heatsinks more effectively.

[@TrolleyMC]

Cool video! Have you considered a 128MB ram upgrade? I don't remember if that specific Xbox is a 1.6 or not but do know that it is possible to RAM upgrade a 1.6 now. Anyways, I think it would be cool

[@Knightowl95]

Macho nacho did a video on upgrading the ram in a 1.6 xbox.

[@TrolleyMC]

@@Knightowl95 ok and?

[@chandlerbing7570]

@Birdinium - DW bro, His mom probably just yelled at him for being a discord mod and now he's taking it out on people

[@MuchWhittering]

@@Knightowl95 So therefore nobody else should be allowed to do a video on the same topic?

[@MuchWhittering]

@@chandlerbing7570 Wow, what a totally mature response to a perfectly valid comment.

[@sirnigelthornberry2922]

Good to see sponsors that's related to the content! Make's them completely bearable. :D Also about the cooling, too bad you couldn't use a fan that's a lot like those found in a PS2 Slim... 🤔

[@ChristianStout]

One thing you could consider doing is using liquid metal thermal compound on the CPU. You can't mix liquid metal and aluminum though, so you'd have to nickel-plate the aluminum heatsink.

[@milescarter7803]

For future reference a wood chop saw will cut aluminum. I recommend squishing the blades into some soft wood, or filling the gaps with some wood, and just chop it slowly. Then you would get the benefit of a taller heatsink.

[@HaroldHeidendom]

I once had a low profile HP PC, and a tunnel was put on top of the top facing fan, solving the side outlet issue. :) You can print such tunnel easily with a 3D printer :)

[@granite_planet]

I love the whirring sound of the PS2 and Xbox, combined with the startup logo sounds it's such a nostalgia trip :)

[@UNSCPILOT]

Honestly considering finding ways to mod my desktop PC to sound more like 80's and 90's PCs, the silence kinda gets boring! Already started with a PC error code speaker so it has a chearful "BEEP" every time the bios boots and starts loading Garuda Linux, now I just need fans that get meaningfully loud while still doing a decent job and not nessisary sounding "bad" which will be more involved. Oh and making something that emulates old harddrive noises based on the activity light on the case, which will probably be custom. Oh, and a floppy disk drive, because I found a old Sony Mavica FD75 floppy disk camera and can't resist the urge to play with such weird old hardware

[@granite_planet]

@@UNSCPILOT Old hard drive sounds 😍

[@VICTORYOVERNEPTUNE]

1:19 all five pegs are missing their center pin.

[@PantherDave]

Matt, if you haven't tried it I think you might enjoy using 3M VHB tape in some of your projects. It's strong enough that it's used for attaching dash cams to windshields, yet removes cleanly.

[@Mr.Stanley88]

I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love when ingenuity is involved in your videos. I don't think anybody's tired of the Xbox I think we are all interested in seeing how we can make it better. So thank you

[@Mulakulu]

to cool your components, what you can do is use the noctua cooler you showed off and 2 noctua 4020 fans on the side of that cooler, blowing the air through the width of the cooler like you wanted it. it would cost some money because noctua, but it would preform like noctua.

[@Mulakulu]

also maybe covering the area where the 92mm fan is with tape or something so the air blown from the 40mm fans go the whole way through

[@melanystone3895]

Tbh I’d be all for watching some videos of you trying to watercool your Xbox. Tho as a retro game collector, seeing you remove the disc drive hurt 😭

[@spatial_rind]

These guys out here removing their disc drives and then my wii has a dead disc drive, my Xbox 360s disc drive is jammed in. Oh, by the way, as a fellow collector, do you play on your consoles and games?

[@salamiwallnut]

@@spatial_rind I also jammed a 360 drive once, but I shoved a screwdriver in the crack between the disk drive plastic and the shell, and somehow I fixed it

[@PostalAngular]

Honestly, when I get old disc games I rip them as soon as possible so I don't have to risk degrading them or the drive. Though I do see how it kinda defeats the point of purchasing the game lol

[@YOEL_44]

Careful with passive coolers, they assume you have convection based cooling, which wouldn't work for you either.

[@yiannispapagiannopoulos9549]

The best way to learn cad for 3d printing (I use fusion360) is to jump into a major project and break it down into smaller pieces. Watch a video or two on the basic features like UI navigation, and basic sketches, and joint components to create one big assembly of all the smaller parts you designed.

[@joshuasplural]

Hey dude, I just wanted to say that I checked out your music after it showed up on an end card and I gotta say that you've got a damn good voice. I didn't know what to expect but your really good at singing

[@nickwillard4471]

I actually really enjoy the Xbox videos. I'm pretty big into Xbox modding myself. I especially enjoyed the HDMI mod you did.

[@gobliino]

I was rewatching all of your videos. perfect timing!

[@Sky77E4]

I refuse to believe the saga is over until you add the 4 extra RAM chips.

[@coreystephen9878]

I love MattKC, I've been fiending for a new video. Always so much fun to watch. Also, it's been shown that you can double RAM now on ANY OG Xbox, if you're interested in trying it :D

[@BrianMartin2007]

The hard drive caddy is part of the cooling system.. it directs airflow over the cpu heatsink. Without it, the fan can’t pull air over the heatsink

[@Ziggurat1]

Hnng, please, this is your best series so far, watching you struggle with that green boy makes for great content! Please look in to server cpu coolers like Dynatron T318, and please just move those caps. Or replace them with smaller caps, and solder them in so then have long feet to move them far away. They do sell heatpipes on Mouser and other places, you can bend them, and they can move the location of the cooler

[@jonaykon]

I was searching for "silent xbox" and KZbin recommended "silent xbox controller" WHAT

[@Lollllllz]

i wonder if server heatsinks could make a good fit in that space.

[@UltraCenterHQ]

"I knew The thicker ones should fit, but just incase they didn't, I got a 1 level thinner too" * checks the comments *

[@jaredbredenhof9185]

What if you used an impeller? That would be low profile and would easily fit in the case. You often find impellers in laptops and such where you have a really tight form factor

[@edsilver]

yk matt, thank you for making content. there's something so soothing and relaxing about your videos, they just make me feel like all is well, hope you have a great day

[@kmemz]

The Noctua cooler would have worked if it fit, mounted, and made good contact. You can remove the fan from the top, and keep the regular system fan, and that will still give you a similar airflow pathing, just with a lot more surface area. The GPU likely wouldn't be able to contact it, so it would still need its own heatsink. The heatsink it has would probably still fit under the Noctua finstack, if not you could try to mesh its fins together with the Noctua finstack and see if that will transfer enough heat into the bigger heatsink to matter.

[@frankgile1996]

Hey Matt. Love your videos etc. In my car, there's a few plastic pegs/screws that hold various plastics in place (I think I'd bought some for my car a long time ago from AutoBarn, but they can probably be found elsewhere?), maybe those could work in place of those pegs here? It's a long shot, but maybe that might help...

[@GrumpyIan]

Hey guys I think MattKC might have voided the Xbox's warranty by opening it up.

[@matthewwilliams5258]

there is a 3d print floating around for the fan and the dvd tray front panel, also if you haven't seen it yet there is a 128MB ram upgrade for 1.6 Xboxes. and evoX titan will support hdd's up to 16TB! and using a startech ide adapter you can use the UDMA 5 option for titan making boot times even faster! but titan only works on 2TB+

[@matthewwilliams5258]

also if you arent using dashloader by rochy5 with evox you should it patches in xiso support on bot

[@StrangelyIronic]

I've done a low profile cooler, but I also cut ventilation into the top of the case, since the one I had picked up for modding had already been damaged anyway. That xbox ended up just being a case that I converted into a mini-itx pc case, and I transplanted the actual xbox bits to a new case of one that was water damaged beyond being worth repairing.

[@Reqeun]

That was the most full on To bad bitch :D that i ever heard

[@cackoocacho1629]

Removing the DVD drive and opening up all that space, likely reduced the air movement in the unit as well. Probably offset the difference by properly sealing the fan, otherwise, you may have had even hotter temperatures, without increasing the fan speed further. The drive is fitted to help with wind tunneling for airflow.

[@emily_embers]

Why not just keep the dvd drive in but unplugged? Perfect logo alignment with the only downside being a little weight

[@AWAYTAE]

you dont really want to waste alot of room for a little thing

[@emily_embers]

@@AWAYTAE why not? Not like he's using it for anything.

[@notalostnumber8660]

A custom copper heatsink for each die would be better, you could get the same size and shape but better heat flow. Also having an extra tiny hole in the side of the case can mean a little extra air intake which could reduce temps

[@xtobyplayz5946]

Would love to see building the ultimate Dreamcast next!

[@itsTyrion]

yeah, PCBway is good if you want FIVE PCBs. inputting *1* gives a poorly translated error message about the PCB having to be over 5 m² for that. I get that it's not worth it for them, but the one thing you recommended them for, getting a modchip board, is not really applicable

[@MatWilson2612]

Lego Island guy at it again with his Xbox. For real though, what dash do you use? I recently got XMBC4Gamers setup and love it.

[@Gotenham]

FYI, do not put metal bolts into mounting holes on a PCB! It may be ok for a bit but this has the potential to short-circuit the board, come loose and cause problems or just generally damage the thin layers of the pcb

[@nickwallette6201]

There is absolutely no problem with this at all. The only problem you'll have with this is when the fastener you're using is too large for the hole, and you're a case manufacturer trying to farm out fan bus design to the cheapest contractor with a copy of KiCAD and no understanding of keep-out clearances for internal planes. Use a washer to prevent surface damage, if the hole is not plated, and a star washer or some Loctite to keep the fastener from loosening and causing problems with loose metallic parts in the case. Other than that, you're totally fine.

[@TheQuackleDKZ]

I love this channel. I rarely have any idea what the hell is going on, but it's kinda like ASMR for me. Just his voice and passion is enough!

[@snil3464]

I was not expecting that intro asdfghj

[@R4dm1n]

I expected the whole video to be about the SATA to IDE adapter alone, but I didn't expect the focus to be MORE than just that! Good mention about removing the optical drive, though I still wanna keep mine due to...unforeseen circumstances. Though I wanna see more. Try upgrading to 128MB ram and a Tualatin Pentium 3. I ain't tired of seeing the Xbox until you have done absolutely everything there is to do.

[@Twintania]

I just got done playing castlevania the curse of darkness on the original Xbox and I have to be honest, noise or video quality or just the standard setup really doesn't bother me at all I use component cables and it looks fantastic but I see how the hdmi mod would be better for newer TVs that lack component

[@Turbo_orca25]

My internet is as bad is the video quality of the xbox

[@macgynan]

Saying the saga is over is just jinxing yourself.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Now that the DVD drive is out, there is lots of room to mount a big cooler there. Something that is offset. Something nice with heatpipes to get all those Watts over there.

[@Sugurain]

I used a 80mm Noctua in mine. You need to break the bottom tabs and cut a bit of the HDD holder plastic to make it fit, but being a much bigger fan it has no trouble with airflow, and being a Noctua it's dead silent. I once replaced all the original heatsinks for 50mm old style round copper GPU coolers with fans, had to remove the black plastic piece that hold the original heatsinks too. They worked, they kept the xbox cool, but since I had to hold them in place with screws washers and nuts, that put pressure on the motherboard and it bent. (that's why the fat X360 uses the metal "X clamps" to hold it's coolers in place) Absolutely not worth pursuing that. Keep the original heatsinks, apply and GOOD thermal paste like MX-4 or Kryonaut, and upgrade the fan(s).

[@ashtonbrown4318]

Yes midnight club 3. Legendary.

[@Teste-gp7bm]

Best way to do thermals is cut the disk tray so an 80mm fan fits. Then, you should also reverse the fan so it pushes air through the heatsinks and it will lower temps by a lot. Can also try pressure optimized fans in this configuration. I did this on my very early Xbox and managed to run it without the GPU fan it had. Used a PC chipset cooler with bent fins to fit. You already have that on your model. I wouldn't recommended removing the DVD drive since it directs airflow. Just disconnecting is better.

[@teilanittv]

The low profile heatsinks do not blow the air upwards, they blow the air downwards to the motherboard. The problem you would have had is mounting any heatsink to the chips as the xbox has a very nonstandard, custom layout and cooling solution. If you could have solved the mounting problem somehow, it would be fun to make a custom modification to the top of the case that looked decent to draw the air in. Keep in mind, that the xbox doesn't really put out that much heat compared to modern hardware, its wattage (heat) that a given cooler has to remove from the chips is probably 25-30% that of a mid range modern CPU. In other words, its overkill. Your best best would be buy or make a 3d printed shroud or if you want to go a little cheaper, make one from cardboard and electrical tape, it is surprisingly effective. You can also perhaps modify the top case to introduce airflow from above the xbox blowing down on the current heatsinks by mounting a fan on the top directly above the heatsinks and cutting ventilation holes in the case. If planned out and done properly, it wont look bad.

[@add33r_53]

could always add an intake fan on the side panel, hide the breathing holes in the grooves of the outer chassis, that could create an air channel to drop it by 5 to 10 ish degrees

[@ADH-DIY]

@MattKC if you go to printables and search Xbox DVD elimination bracket, you could clean up that drive delete. It's not my model, full credit to the uploader, but i can confirm they print perfectly and the measurements are correct. Make sure you print in something with good heat resistance (like abs, asa, or even pla+) so it doesnt warp over time.

[@ADH-DIY]

There's also a pre-made adapteer so that rear fan will mount and seal with the factory mounting clips.

[@blacksource6378]

The simplest method to pimp a Xbox is to do the softmod standard routine and the TSOP mod to make the drive unnecessary if it fails after 20 years. To tackle heating problems, the best thing would be to change thermal paste and just mod the fan or keep it as-is while ensuring that nothing blocks the ventilation.

[@thecoolkittensarecool]

~2:00AM EST is when this video was uploaded

[@ultimatedude80]

I will never be tired of this xbox

[@nessiscool1236]

My old Xbox had a problem where the heat sink got disconnected and my Xbox overheated and it never turned on again

[@charlie_nolan]

Plastic pegs like that are used in car interiors sometimes, although often larger. But I have seen some that size. An automotive store might have them

[@highroyds]

Great video, I would say you can 3D print a fan holder for a noctua 60mm fan which is on thingiverse & you can also 3D print a bezel holder which can screw into the dvd holes 😉. Some have also 3D printed a shroud for the heatsink so that it pulls air closer to the gpu.

[@bb_bb_]

The noctua heatsink you showed that blows air "up" actually blows air down and to the sides. But it needs air from above so you'd need a vent there anyways.

[@railpao]

I enjoyed this saga very much. Next chapter : 3D printing. What ? Anything that could fit in there. An airflow guide ? Hardrive caddy that take the whole space and add that little thing that might help keep the Xbox logo in place ? An empty shell to replace the dvd drive ? The future of this Xbox is limitless.

[@katsanos80]

Hey Matt, maybe someone already mentioned this, but you could 3d print a bracket to mount your dvd face plate (or even 3d print a DVD faceplate with embedded bracket).

[@BehrouzKashkar]

I can help you with your problem , out of experience your problem might be because of the clamps aren't able to stick heatsinks on chips properly , they should not wiggle at all . originally they were held on there by some kind of silicon paste which solidifies when its dried, but since we don't want them to stick there forever (for future modding) those kind of paste aren't option for us , so the best thing to do is to put a thin layer of metal sheet (or folded paper) under those plastic clips which sit on heatsink so it can build up pressure enough to eliminate the gap(microgaps) between the heatsink and die ,and another thing is you shouldn't measure temperature in menu or custom dashboard since they are not optimised with the hardware and they are fan made privileges which work fine but puts pressure on hardware since its more advanced than stock dashboard ,you should test temperature under the load of games , another thing you didn't mention is if the eject button blinks after you removed the drive since if it does there is a remedy for that as well you should make some sort of voltage divider and put it in place of the socket which yellow wires stick ,so southbridge chip is tricked into that dvd drive is there and eject light wont blink , another thing for making your 1.6 motherboard ultimate with your standards is to add on more memory which has been made possible for this version of the motherboards with piggy backing memories and a few wirings , i said with your standards since if you were to make the ultimate xbox ever you would have chosen better board that are compatible with upgrading the cpu . cheers

[@hamsterwolf]

I snip out the metal grate that the fan pulls air through to help reduce fan noise an improve airflow.

[@craigbrogden4192]

What SATA adapter did you use. I got the one that is widely recommended but still takes a while to boot.

[@thedungeondelver]

Aw, man, I was hoping we'd get one more video and it'd be a RAM upgrade. Well this was still very cool, thank you.

[@ntnavy1]

what you can do is make something in a 3d printer that can go in the same place as the dvd drive so it could actually help improve temps (cuz' you said without it the temps were very diferent) so you would have kind of a dummy drive instead (you could look for help on how to desing it so it works as it should if you have any problem in that aspect). I saw a lot of free space in that side of the case so it might be posible to do something like that (maybe?)

[@jaykoerner]

Hdd caddy not dvd drive. Different things, the hdd caddy is right on top of the fan, the dvd drive is on the other side of the case

[@DracoGalboy]

I've really enjoyed this series, and honestly the liquid cooling (both despite and because of the effort involved) sounds like a really good extension of this journey. But, hey, it's not my Xbox.

[@MasterDrood]

hey nice video, how about puttin a mini noctua fan NF-A4x10 FLX to the side of the heatsinks to make it closer to a real cpu cooler

[@ChaseMC215]

Oh great, good start. "Are you sick of this Xbox yet? Too bad, b**ch!"

[@battysparton65]

I actually just got my original Xbox from my childhood back online again. Thankfully the hard drive still works, and the caps were not blown. I do like the things you have done with your Xbox I really do. Though I will admin I kind of like the loudness of the old machines as.. well rose tinted glasses are real. Though after watching and catching up on your rebuild of this.. makes me wish I had the skills to do this. Well I have everything but the soldering skills. HMDI would be neat but... my TV only has 3 HMDI ports and 2 are already occupid by other machines.

[@hehe42069-k]

take a few years to gradually build up soldering skills from increasingly difficult projects, and youll do it. I believe anyone can. Though starting off simple like replacing the hdd or fan would be a nice place to start. Me personally i totally love the stock xbox sound, ideally id love to replace the hdd with an identical model from the time just so i can keep that otherworldy sound lol

[@Annyumi_]

Can you upload videos now?

[@khatharrmalkavian3306]

I was hoping to see a journey into the magical wilderness of immersion cooling. A fish tank, some pebbles, a little castle, and a whole lot of mineral oil!

[@thomassvedin8701]

I did some mods on my Xbox 13-14 years ago. I took a case for a vhs player and removed all internals. Then added two 80mm noctua fans in the back. I created an air duct from the fans that pulled most of the air through the heat sinks. I removed the optical drive and put a wireless receiver inside. It resulted in a a cold and quiet Xbox that fits under the surround receiver.

[@handlesrtwitterdontbelivethem]

bruh 80mm seriously

[@thomassvedin8701]

@@handlesrtwitterdontbelivethem yeah. two of them. The VHS player is a little more than 80mm tall so the fans fits from the outside

[@DingoNuttDoug_J]

Holy hell, I am actually one of the first ones to watch this beautiful channel! I love watching your videos because it just shows the limit of what humans can do with already made machinery, and its just beautiful Thank you for having your channel exist!

[@handlesrtwitterdontbelivethem]

did i ask

[@goldpunk988]

Interesting choice of words... but I agree!

[@goldpunk988]

@@handlesrtwitterdontbelivethem you're not funny.

[@lazekarazas]

One of the first ones…. Out of 330,000 people

[@handlesrtwitterdontbelivethem]

@@goldpunk988 doxxed

[@watchingdanny]

I wonder if you got a tiny fan, the height of the heatsink and put it vertically to push air towards the rear fan, if that would make any difference. I have a 1.0 Xbox and it has a separate tiny fan right on the GPU, I've never checked my temps to see if one is cooler than the other. Wonder if a fan on your GPU, 1.0-style, would help also. Just brainstorming. Liking your channel. Just subscribed.

[@killerbite_]

could you start leaving the names of the mods you do in the discription please? searching "better xbox ide to sata adapter" isnt very specific lol also how the heck did you make it so you could remove your dvd drive and reflash the mod chip bios with out having to use a hexen installer to reinstall without a working dvd drive??? i cant find any videos explaining it nor dose the consolemodding site have any info on it only info on repairing the dvd drive

[@Evercade_Effect]

Glad you got the issues sorted.

[@zombie115m]

it's possible to 3d print a dummy HDD with space for the SSD same with the cd drive and have the front panel bit in the right spot and keep the airflow characteristics of the original Xbox

[@enjoiboy385]

I love the og xbox content btw. Would never get bored of those videos!

[@Meerlu]

Back in the day i modded mine with an 80mm fan. Have cut the caddy. But the best thing i did was add an intake to the DVD side. 70x15mm (IIRC). It really dropped the temps.