About keepng the xbox cool from over heating

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southbound
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About keepng the xbox cool from over heating

Post by southbound »

Hope everyones good.

Anyhow.One of my boxes keeps overheating after 2-3 hours of it being on and running a disc.So I consider the 12v fan mod but before I do this I decide to go with the xbox intercooler in hope of My box not sounding like a jet.No luck.So I do the 12v fan mod just for the sake of it. Yeah It stops the box from overheating but I'm not feeling the sound that it now makes.

I was thinking about doing something like this http://www.ixtreme.net/submit-your-own/ ... -t781.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; .Trouble is this would feel pointless to me if and once I switch back to normal 5v stock fan speed and the box still sounds like a jet,seeing as I dont no if the added fan/cooler is loud.

As for the whisper fan can someone catch me up to speed about this.Is It quiter and would it do the job? does it switch between volt speed automatically when needed? when It's say on 12v mode does it sound loud?

Thanks,

southbound
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HaGGardSmurf
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Re: About keepng the xbox cool from over heating

Post by HaGGardSmurf »

As far as I know the whisper fan's are still quite loud. I'm pretty sure they run at 12v all the time.

A dedicated GPU cooling fan is one of the better way's to go. The 12v fan mod is kind of a pain. It doesnt help a whole lot, and its loud as hell. You can also look into extending the copper pipe into the CPU heatsink, I know there are people that do it, I'm not 100% sure on the effectiveness. All I know is it will even out the temp's and seeing as the CPU heatsink works quite well that should help to lower the gpu temp.

You can also try replacing the thermal paste, the heat may not be transferring efficiently enough.

The best fix is giving your console lots of airflow, especially in the summer. Your 360 can only be as cool as the ambient temp, so if its a hot summer day expect your console to heat up fast unless it is getting good airflow.

Lots of times I will point a house fan at my 360 if its a hot day.

Anyways, at the end of the day, the older generations of 360's throw off alot of heat, you might want to invest in a new arcade, theyre only like 150 now? Ive seen lots of places with them on sale for 120-ish. You might want to keep an eye out for sales. Also know the slim's fan is so quiet you cant tell when the console is running, also it throws off MUCH less heat than any of the original 360's.
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Re: About keepng the xbox cool from over heating

Post by southbound »

This xbox is quite new,liteon stock.My room Is hot hot hot in the summer.I do like the slim though and if I was to go out and get one it would be the slim,I no you have one, shame I didn' post up that link before you went and f u c k e d up old school daaaam. I like old school :D.As for getting that disc/similar discs scratch free again you can get them done at a game shop, A friend rates that method highly,saved his C.O.D.Haven't looked into requieing your own tools and doing them your self but If they do work there propley handly to have.As for the slim and The disc scarting it does put me off a bit but the truth be told If I want quite quite it will have go with the new slim.I'm going to wait and see if they hold up first (which they properly will).Whats the % rate on the slim breaking,do you no HaGGard?

Anyway back on subject I'm not going to bother with a whisper then I would rather eat one :D

Do you really think the thermal paste could have something to do with it? because if so changing it could help but I'm not really one for taking apart somthing that works.

For the mean time I'm going to go with that GPU fan and switch back to stock 5v fan speed and see how far that gets me.

If you know any thing more about this
HaGGardSmurf wrote: You can also look into extending the copper pipe into the CPU heatsink
can you elaborate please sounds interesting.

Thanks smurf,

southbound
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HaGGardSmurf
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Re: About keepng the xbox cool from over heating

Post by HaGGardSmurf »

I dont have a slim but ive played with a couple.

Take a look here for the heat pipe mod, you need to have some knowledge of heatsink creation and modding...
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/lofiversio ... 44511.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Seems to me, this guy just pulled the cpu heatpipe out, replaced it with a longer coper tube same diameter, and then drilled a hole in the gpu so he could insert the pipe.

You can also try this, your airflow should get better. http://forums.xbox-experts.com/viewtopi ... 92&start=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You can also try this http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/ ... 060342.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (install your gpu heatsink facing the wrong way, then remove the bracket holding the smaller heatsink, then bend the heat pipe carefully.)

The slim does not scratch disks. I'm guessing you saw that video of that kid trying to play alan wake and scratching it. Thats because while the game was being loaded (disk spinning) he tilted the console. Same thing happens with any optical drive in the world. The original 360, xbox1, ps1, ps2, ps3 they all do it. DVD players, optical drives in computers. Any of them, if while the disk is spinning the drive is tilted, the disk will shift, and get ruined.

As for fixing scratched disks, you can go to lots of places, and they will fix them. You can also buy a cheap scratch remover, which will basically just polish the disk with an abrasive pad, and will basically 'sand' out the scratch.

Disks are composed like this:

Clear Plastic
Thin film (where info is burned onto)
Clear plastic

Most scratches are just in the plastic, and the data on the disk itself is fine, its just the scratch itself disturbs the light from the laser while trying to read the disk, thats why you'll get errors. Thats why scratch removers save disks, they buff out the scratch so your laser can read the disk again.
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Re: About keepng the xbox cool from over heating

Post by southbound »

I thought you did have one.pria to your post in the "Front Page News" section,thread "New Slimmer, Quieter Xbox 360 With Built-in Wi-Fi" but never mind.

So this is a picture of what I did very similiar to the over guys: http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/5258/photo0615.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Very quite,even though that GPU fan is running at 12v.(Using the power from the dvd drive) and It seams to be doing the job now I've switched the origanial stock fan back to 5v speed.Although I'm going to go the tad further.I've order a sheet of PLEXIGLASS of ebay,along with a 40mm fan,paid £4.50 (yes I'm in the UK).I'm going to build a similiar looking XCM cooler fan:FAN B , like this : http://yfrog.com/2cntf2j" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; . The reason I didn't go out and get theses ones Is because the youtube videos I've watch on them,they seam pretty loud an thats too loud for my liking.Yeah you can replace the fans but thats more money to spend.Then once more I'm going to come of the dvd power from the dvd drive.£4.50 rather then £25 pound and quiter yes please.

After this is all up and running I can generally say bravo,this box is finished and time will tell from then.

Thanks for all your wonderful value that you have offered to me In this thread It's all stored away for when I need it.I appreciate it.

Until next time,

southbound
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Re: About keepng the xbox cool from over heating

Post by HaGGardSmurf »

Hope it all works out!

A good thing to invest in is a digital IR thermometer, that way you can check the temp's on the heatsinks. Theyre really quite cheap, I bought one for doing reflows and it works awesome ;)
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Re: About keepng the xbox cool from over heating

Post by chris.redfield »

Southbound,

I too have been wondering of a better method of cooling. Working with computers for years, though not my profession has laid the foundation for understanding adequate cooling rigs. With that said, the design of the first generation 360 console ( the luxurious off white space heater) once laid horizontally does not do much for proper cooling. Being as the heat wants to go up and is blocked by the console design the rear fan only helps a little in moving the air out through the back. The same issue happens even when laid vertically, as the heat now wants to run up past the dvd drive and the fans once again act to merely direct the heat out the back. The problem is that the air around the system is warm due to other electrically devices and even the system itself thus the gradient of heat to cold is limited. This is why the use of an external fan helps keep the air around the system cool thus the hot air molecules want to move toward the cold air molecules, this concept is one from chemistry as systems are always trying to find a way to make more entropy. This can be seen as a heat generating source will move try and transfer heat to a cooler source and in the process the source of the heat will lose temperature or energy and become cooler (HEAT SINKS!) a good example is holding a metal wire and heating one end and the energy transferring to the opposite end.

I bring up a little test.

With the console laying horizontally the fans in the rear do not do much so I wonder if we turn them backwards, thus using them to bring in air and use a fan at the top of the additional heat sink as you have installed or a bigger fan with a cutout in the consoles top and possibly add one more fan sucking air out the side would help utilize the systems resources better. This of course is being thought of through concepts in chemistry. I will give this a test with one of my systems and see what happens. Believe me I do not claim that this works nor that it may cause heat to move more efficiently, rather this is a test concept that I have been thinking about to secure a few more years out of the out dated unit.

Redfield out..
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Re: About keepng the xbox cool from over heating

Post by HaGGardSmurf »

Good idea Redfield, there are lots of people who put a fan or two in the top of their case (while laying horizontal).

Basically what your suggesting is doing the same thing but turn the internal fan's around. Getting the air to flow across the heatsink, and upwards would be a much more efficient way of getting rid of the heat...
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Re: About keepng the xbox cool from over heating

Post by chris.redfield »

Well the only problem is getting the fan in reverse. Lol

Simple turning it around is not an option as the fan has a in-lay design but I believe with some modification it may work. None the less with the problem not being a quick fix this idea does not hold much potential for others trying something fast, but as with the norm of this great forum, if you have the will there will be way. I will post any pictures I have and relevant data on temperatures when I have time so until then the concept is sound in science but in practicality it is still lagging.

A possible work around would be to have a molex cable that can split the power through a y-cable.

Any way here's good luck to all who shoot for the stars.

Redfield out...
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Re: About keepng the xbox cool from over heating

Post by HaGGardSmurf »

Yep, the fan's have little peg's on the bottom that stick into the chassis. If you cut them off, then used a couple shim's to get the fan's positioned right, that should do the trick.

Ive googled it and people who have reversed the fan's have seen a big drop in temp. Some people are worried the heat is being blown to heat sensitive components near the front, but if you install the fan on the side/top that should fix that issue.
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