my portable XBOX

JDP · Post by **JDP** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 12:23 pm

my project is going to be portabilizing an XBOX .. just the normal one.

This isn't going to be a quick project this will be over a few months, it'll take a while.

so i thought i'd start a worklog thread- it's going to start with the watercooling component. radiator design will come next, then building, then tearing apart system, and so on and so on.

here's my design for the waterblock- http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t79/ ... 1224094950

UPDATE: The project is started!

Today i voided my warranty and opened my XBOX up for the first time.. this is gonna be a fun project

JDP · Post by **JDP** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 7:33 pm

(runs hands through hair)

wow this is going to be harder than i expected..

I opened it up and it's going to be hard to make this into a laptop. I mean, it's feasible, but I'm not really sure how especially with the gargantuan DVD drive.

so i'm imploring all of your help to make this happen and i will greatly appreciate it.

Thanks a ton. I appreciate it.

I might have to put this project on hold, depending on my financial situation.

Depends. If I can't do this, i'll do a PS1 i spose, or some other easier thing to do

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 8:09 pm

Well, to cut down on size, you can replace the DVD drive with a slim one. I don't know exactly how to do this, but it's been done before and I don't think it's very hard. I hate disks and their drives, which is why I'm working on the Gamecube hard drive project. The same is possible on an XBox, and it's even easier. Last I checked, it is also possible to eliminate the DVD drive from an XBox entirely, and run games solely off the hard drive. Replace the 3.5" hard drive with a large (in GB, that is) 2.5" one and eliminate the DVD drive entirely, and all of a sudden you have a LOT more room.

Another cool idea would be if you built a "dock" for the laptop that would include the DVD drive, if you really still needed it. If you built a dock, there are other things you could eliminate from the laptop to help with size a bit. The dock could have the connections for the 4 controllers, A/V out (analog and digital audio, component, S, and composite video, VGA...) and maybe A/V in, although you may want to keep that on the main unit...

You get the idea. Don't give up! There are ALWAYS things you can do to slim things down!

Edit: Oh, and don't forget about the PSU... that thing is HUGE and you could design one much smaller.

JDP · Post by **JDP** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 8:16 pm

yea WTF is with that PSU.. it's huge and gonna totally kill the size.

i'll have to look into those, if i can't find anything it might be back to you guys

k well haven't gotten to the motherboard yet, still trying to unplug HD and DVD drive.

but here's a picture of the PSU- http://www.xboxrepairguide.com/images/l ... psu_sm.gif and i can bend the caps all over, and then all that appears to be left are those pieces of metal.. they appear to just be a form of heatsink??
if so i might be able to remove them.

can anyone tell if that's what they are? I'll get a closer look once i hop inside the case

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 11:38 pm

The XBox isn't like most other consoles, as most everything except the motherboard can be replaced with much smaller components, mostly off the shelf. The PSU can be replaced by a vastly smaller PicoPSU with a small amount of re-wiring to make the XBox compatible with the ATX standard. There's information in a few threads on here with the wiring diagram. To replace the DVD drive and harddrive, all you need are a series of softmods (see the Xbox-Scene forums) or a mod chip (easier, but costs money and more soldering). Even slimming down the processor heatsink is easy, since you can replace it with a 1U Socket 370 heatsink.

JDP · Post by **JDP** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 10:12 am

ok did some more research- here's what i got.

PicoPSU- http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/it.A/id.41 ... ategory=13

ATX to XBOX converter- http://shop.sickmods.net/shop/PSU_Converter/

then i'll need an extender/ converter.

DVD and HDD stuff coming up

cowsgoquack101 · Post by **cowsgoquack101** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 3:19 pm

Damn, that Pico is ridiculous!

SonyPortableizer · Post by **SonyPortableizer** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 6:05 pm

NOOOOOO, Ive had those links for so long, waiting to pop them out
They will work though

hailrazer · Post by **hailrazer** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 7:36 pm

Hey that's the same Pico Psu I used in my DreamTrooper

KIWIDOGGIE · Post by **KIWIDOGGIE** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 6:35 pm

JDP do you have a MSN or AIM? I am working on a similar project, maybe we could swap research

JDP · Post by **JDP** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 7:31 pm

PM sent with AIM

Joes2Silly · Post by **Joes2Silly** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 8:37 pm

If you have a big enough hard drive you can just run backups off the hard drive