(If you just want to see pics, skip the life story and go to the bottom of the post)
It all started about 6 months ago when I bought an Xbox 360 that was 3 Red light'ing for $50 from a friend (he even threw in a wireless controller instead of the wired one!). I fixed the problem by doing my own custom X-clamp mod using some nuts and bolts I had lying around, plus some good ol' Arctic Silver 5.
Well, it seemed to work fine for a while, until it started to lock up after gaming while showing the screen with a checkerboard of red squares. At first it was pretty rare, but it soon got worse and worse. After moving up to Chicago for college, the lock-ups became more and more frequent to the point of it virtually being un-playable. I was fed-up enough with it one night, I stripped it down to the bare chassis and board, then directed a mini desk fan right at the GPU, which actually worked quite well. The problem was that this option would prove to be extremely impractical, as I was planning on taking the 'box over to friends dorms (I'm living right off campus in an apartment with my brother) for some multiplayer gaming action. This is where my luck kicks in:
My brother happens to have loads of spare cases lying around. Just the day before, he asked me if I wanted a micro ATX low-profile case, but I told him "No thanks" because I didn't have a use for it... yet. He also donated a very large CPU heatsink that he did not need anymore to assist in my cooling endeavors.
I quickly busted out my tool set and Ryobi Dremel-clone and got to work. I had to be as resourceful as possible, because I could only use the supplies I had available within the apartment, because I couldn't just leave the parts strewn about while I waited for a mail-order part to come, and I felt too lazy to go to the local Home Depot, although that was a last resort.
Much to my surprise, the case appeared to be a perfect choice from the get-go. The drive-bay cage rotated right out, the 5.25" drive bay was in the same general location as the Xbox 360, and there was a large vent on the top lid for my PC heatsink to grab air. The things that I DID to do to get the 'box to fit and work properly were:
widen the Xbox DVD drive bay area in "the cage"
remove the right side air vent area of "the cage" (originally to properly fit the case fan that came with the case, but I eventually relocated the cage, making this impossible)
chop out a bit of the first low-profile PCI card slot to fit the AV cable
cut and bash the stock mobo mounts to allow "the cage" to sit lower
mount "the cage" to the case frame in a way that is both solid and removable
dissect the stock case PSU and mount to "the cage" to accomplish above^
solidly mount the DVD drive (used scrap piece of plexi-glass)
extend the front USB ports to the front
wire up power / reset switch on case to power / disc eject buttons respectfully
wire solidly mount the new heatsink (mounted to the top lip, but still presses on the stock GPU heatsink and has some Arctic Silver 5 in between)
I think that's it!
Anyway, I didn't really intend this to be a true "how-to", but I took pictures periodically through-out the two-day adventure to show the project at different stages and show the different steps I had to do. (ex. you can see how I mounted the DVD drive, not just that it is mounted) I also would not consider this the final version of this project. I have more ideas that I could and plan on eventually adding, but I simply wanted to get the 'box in a complete, working state by today (day 2 of the project) so that I could clean up my mess in the apartment and post the project here!Here is a link to the index of all the pics (because they are still in full-res format, and I didn't want to stretch the board or make 56k'ers take a hike). http://www2.uic.edu/~gbuss2/matxbox360/
Also, to demonstrate the buttons (and the whole box for that matter) work, here is a youtube video of the µATXbox 360 in action. I'm sorry the video is so dark, but my room has NO natural lighting in it, so it's like a cave in here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2fWYTKPj9E
Unfortunately, shortly after recording that video (actually while recording, but I chopped it short), I lost all video. I believe it to be the cable, as the 'box still lights up properly when it boots, the DVD ejects and closes properly, and my controllers can hook up to it. I hope to find someone else with a different cable and maybe a different screen to test. I can also upload the un-edited version of the video (showing the video go out) if anyone is interested in helping trouble-shoot this problem.
Thank you VERY much for your time. Not many people would read through this much of my rambling, so I appreciate it, especially if you leave any comments, whether they be words of praise or constructive criticism!
Nicely done and dirt cheap. I wish I had friends who don't have a clue about electronics.
...Okay... well... that sounds even MORE awesome! 