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Fully Internal Water-cooled Xbox 360 183

Posted by timothy from the aggressive-not-passive dept.
NiteStar writes "Dano2k0 created a fully internal water-cooled Xbox 360. Unlike previous water-cooled Xbox 360 mods, this one has everything inside the original Xbox 360 case, including the water reservoir and pump. Both CPU (Zern GPU block) and GPU (Koolance GPU-180-H06 block) are water-cooled, with internal Tank-o-Matic mini reservoir, 12v thermaltake pump and DD fill port on the plexi window. The case itself is also customized with a plexiglass grill and LEDs, and it's fully custom painted. The case mod will also be featured in the next edition of the Official Xbox Magazine UK."
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Fully Internal Water-cooled Xbox 360 More

Fully Internal Water-cooled Xbox 360

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  • One question: (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ajlitt ( 19055 ) on Tuesday June 20, 2006 @12:49PM (#15570290)
    Why?

    • Re:One question: (Score:5, Funny)

      by makeajazznoisehere ( 976878 ) on Tuesday June 20, 2006 @12:51PM (#15570300)
      Obviously, so it doesn't set the carpet on fire!
      • That's not a bug, it's a feature...

      • Re:One question: (Score:4, Insightful)

        by THESuperShawn ( 764971 ) on Tuesday June 20, 2006 @06:12PM (#15572688)
        I have one from the origional production set. It has never crashed, and it has never "locked up". It does not run that hot. Mine is in an A/V rack with a good deal of high-end equipment. I have never had a problem.

        Other than the "coolness" factor, I don't see where this mod is a necessity. I would not mind it (or a similar mod that replaced the noise of the stock fans)if it quieted down the 360, however. There are times when mine sounds like a harrier preparing for vertical flight take-off. While its not a big deal when I am playing games, it can be annoying when I am streaming video/movies/wm9HD from other machines. I have been wanting to tackle replacing the fans and openening the ducts a bit to see if I can quiet it myself. A smaller replacement for the huge power brick would be welcomed as well.

        I may have simply been lucky in that my 360 has never crashed or overheated, but I just don't see a reason for all the quality complaints. Especially from non-360 owners whose only basis is hearsay.
    • It's there, it's possible, and he wanted to show that he got the bigger balls.
    • The same reason Linux fanatics install it on the original Xbox or attempt to install it on an automatic toliet flusher...

      Because you can.
    • Exactly!
    • Because. ;)
    • He should have left out some LEDs and bought a camera tripod instead. Either that or refilled his Parkinson's medication.
    • Because some people get impressed with the stupidest things.

    • Re:One question: (Score:4, Informative)

      by aplusjimages ( 939458 ) on Tuesday June 20, 2006 @02:03PM (#15570881) Journal
      Because the 360 has heat problems. The heat problem is so bad that 3rd parties make these fan units to attach to the 360 fans [shopping.com]
      • Correction: Third parties make attachable fan units because people THINK the 360 has heat problems.

        Disclaimer, maybe there are some people who are having trouble, but I don't think it's as bad as it looks to the internet surfer. I had some heat trouble with my original XBOX, no such trouble with the upgrade.

    • Fairly obvious why... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Benanov ( 583592 ) <brian...kemp@@@member...fsf...org> on Tuesday June 20, 2006 @02:08PM (#15570919) Journal
      Because now it also functions as a humidifier! ;)

    • Re:One question: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Traiklin ( 901982 )
      To do what microsoft promised and then backed out of.

      originally the 360 was going to be water cooled, granted this was Peter Moore (Microsoft's Ken Kutaragi) who said this...
      • The Cooling system Microsoft talked about was a Heat Pipe NOT traditional water-cooling in the case moder sense. The 360 DOES actually contain a heatpipe... well... excluding the one from TFA.

  • performance? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gEvil (beta) ( 945888 ) on Tuesday June 20, 2006 @12:51PM (#15570303)
    Aside from running a bit cooler, does it actually affect performance in any way? And I'm assuming the power brick still gets nice and toasty, too. I can't check for myself cos of wonderful wonderful Websense.

  • More importantly (Score:5, Insightful)

    by steveo777 ( 183629 ) on Tuesday June 20, 2006 @12:51PM (#15570310) Homepage Journal
    Shouldn't someone be cooling the power supply? That's the real problem.
    • But that wouldn't be flashy enough! Hide the power supply in some dark corner where it can't get any ventilation, and make the console itself look nicer. That's what I always say!
    • No, because unless you wrap it in blankets and set fire to the blankets the PSU doesn't get even "warm" let alone "hot".

      Whereas the air out of the back of a 360 could cook a steak.
      • Well, wait a minute then. Physics would demand that if the cooling system is contained in the box as well, then all this heat WILL make it's way out of the box (or worse, be contained in the box). And since were adding imperfect moving parts, it only serves to create more heat spitting out of the box. Pretty redundant, all in all...

        You just get a more juicey steak (provided there's a leak in the water line)!

  • Official mag? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Rob T Firefly ( 844560 ) on Tuesday June 20, 2006 @12:56PM (#15570351) Homepage Journal
    [blockquote]The case mod will also be featured in the next edition of the Official Xbox Magazine UK."[/blockquote]So the "official" mag is going to advise its readers on a fancy way to scuttle their warranties?
    • So the "official" mag is going to advise its readers on a fancy way to scuttle their warranties?

      I would expect that people who do these types of major mods understand that it involves breaking the warranty, goes without saying, doesn't it? Would anyone at all actually assume that after they tore apart their xBox (or anything, for that matter), they could ship it back to the manufacturer and say "it's broke, please fix it for free"? Nope. I don't think so.

      Next...

      • The average person who knows what he's doing, sure. If that gets in the official mag, I bet there'll be at least a few "I want to try that too" types who completely screw up.
        • Having seen this sort of thing in official mags before, they usually put massive warnings over the articles telling you about it voiding your warranty. Besides, are we supposed to feel sorry for people who don't have any common sense these days?

        • The average person who knows what he's doing, sure. If that gets in the official mag, I bet there'll be at least a few "I want to try that too" types who completely screw up.

          So they'll screw it up, ask Microsoft to fix it, get laughed at, and have to buy a new XBox. How does Microsoft lose by this? Remember, this is the official magazine...

    • If people "scuttle" their warranty modding it, it saves MS the trouble of having to cover it any longer. Makes perfect sense to me.

  • Unacceptable (Score:3, Insightful)

    by prichardson ( 603676 ) on Tuesday June 20, 2006 @01:00PM (#15570375) Journal
    A lot of people are asking why or pointing out that the power supply is what really needs cooling. I feel I should point something out.

    The whole point of consoles is that you shouldn't need to do bullshit like this. Clearly someone at Microsoft severely fucked up if people are finding it necessary to modify their XBox 360's just so they don't overheat. Once you start having to do all of that all you have is a cheap computer (not ever that cheap) that can't do all the other computer type things.

    Failures to understand things like this will ensure that Microsoft never turns a profit in their gaming hardware division and why Nintendo will keep going. Nintendo provides me with an appliance that just works for what it was designed for.

    This is of course not to say that doing stuff to consoles isn't fun or worthwhile. I thought the XBox to PC mods were a real hoot, but before this generation, no one has felt the need to mod just to make their hardware work properly (ancient consoles excluded).

    • Failures to understand things like this will ensure that Microsoft never turns a profit in their gaming hardware division and why Nintendo will keep going. Nintendo provides me with an appliance that just works for what it was designed for.

      Sounds an awful lot like another argument I've been hearing:
      ...this will ensure that [...] Apple will keep going. Apple provides me with an appliance that just works for what it was designed for.

      Yet, Microsoft/WinTel still hold the lion's share of the market. I don't

      • My PC works. And trust me, my buddies don't think it's "cool".

        Dunno why you Mac guys have so many problems running Windows, but I bet it's user error.

        Oh yeah, Apple uses intel now too.. So in the future, just bash "Win", leave the "tel" part out of it - MacTel has the same "flaws" now.

        • Even something as simple as the way that their laptops work. I've been developing since about '82. Use a lot of UNIX, have traditionally run Windows, recently moved my laptop over to one of the new MacBooks. Being able to open up the lid and have everything (and I mean everything) just up and running, with no wait, is wonderful. And that includes wireless networking. The number of small delays that were "slightly" frustrating under Windows that have just plain disappeared is amazing. And since you can
        • My PC works. And trust me, my buddies don't think it's "cool".

          Dunno why you Mac guys have so many problems running Windows, but I bet it's user error.

          There is my problem with running Windows- it's not cool. Why spend hundreds or thousands on what is basically (to me since I don't do any real work on my home computers) a toy only to get the non cool version? My Macbook looks great on the outside and the OS looks great on the screen.

          The button up world of Fortune 500 can have their boring Dells running X

    • ### Clearly someone at Microsoft severely fucked up if people are finding it necessary to modify their XBox 360's just so they don't overheat.

      Is this really for the heat or more for the sound? In the last generation mods that replace the default fan with a more silent one have happened as well.

    • Re:Unacceptable (Score:3, Insightful)

      by kamapuaa ( 555446 )
      The whole point of consoles is that you shouldn't need to do bullshit like this. Clearly someone at Microsoft severely fucked up if people are finding it necessary to modify their XBox 360's just so they don't overheat. Once you start having to do all of that all you have is a cheap computer (not ever that cheap) that can't do all the other computer type things.

      There's no *need* to do this, just as there wasn't a *need* to replace a console's orange LED with a blue LED. The Xbox 360 doesn't need this mod

    • Clearly someone at Microsoft severely fucked up if people are finding it necessary to modify their XBox 360's just so they don't overheat.

      Just because someone did the mod doesn't mean that it was necessary. Look at all the effort people put into things that are completely unnecessary. People have modified Nintendo consoles as well, does it mean they also screwed up?
      • People have modified Nintendo consoles as well, does it mean they also screwed up?
        People have modified Sega Dreamcast consoles as well, does that mean..... oh wait! :-(

    • Re:Unacceptable (Score:2, Informative)

      by MSFanBoi2 ( 930319 )
      Maybe if people BOTHERED TO READ THE DAMN SETUP MANUAL/DOCUMENT, they wouldn't be complaining about the XBox 360 overheating.

      Nah, its far simpler to just blame Microsoft instead of the dumb ass consumer who sticks a power supply on a shag carpet or next to a 250 watt stereo that pumps out more BTU/hr than a small server.

      • Maybe if people BOTHERED TO READ THE DAMN SETUP MANUAL/DOCUMENT, they wouldn't be complaining about the XBox 360 overheating. Nah, its far simpler to just blame Microsoft instead of the dumb ass consumer who sticks a power supply on a shag carpet or next to a 250 watt stereo that pumps out more BTU/hr than a small server.

        I won't say you're wrong, because you're not, but there's a *really* big 'but':

        This is an xbox360, not a piece of high end testing equipment. the audience for this is kids of all ages

    • I have an Xbox 360 and have no had any power supply issues. Its warm to the touch, but only when its on. I still wouldn't consider it a fire hazzard.

    • Re:Unacceptable (Score:3, Interesting)

      by bill_kress ( 99356 )
      When I started looking at consoles a couple years ago, I came to the exact same conclusion.

      I used a new scientific method I call the "store test", which is basically if a store can't keep it on line, I don't really want it.

      As I went through Target, Kmart, Bestbuy, Wal-mart and anywhere else with the "Three-console display" I took effort to note what was up and what was crashed.

      XBox--rarely up, maybe 1/3 of the time (A very optomistic estimate, I think). Almost always had some kind of internal error--probab
    • And unless you want it quieter, there's no point. The problem with the Xbox 360 is merely that if you put it in an enclosed space, it just makes too much heat. It's not that it can't exhaust the heat. Well, since this produces the same amount of heat (slightly more) in the same space, it'll have exactly the same problem.

      So unless you just want to make your 360 quieter, skip this. And the real noise in the 360 comes from the DVD drive anyway.
  • It's a little weird to me that the hardware mods that seem to get the most attention are basically plumbing.
    • I'm so tired of all the wannabes who case mod their PC with a hundred extra fans and a bling bling paint job and post about all their computer expertise and how much they could overclock it.

      It's just boring, and it's not computer science. A 5% overclock is pretty much insignifigant. Wake me up when somebody comes up with some cool new algortithm that improves a process by at least an order of magnitude - thats where the real performance gains come in.

  • Glycol? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by numbski ( 515011 ) * <numbski&hksilver,net> on Tuesday June 20, 2006 @01:01PM (#15570392) Homepage Journal
    I'm wondering why noone has thought to use alcohol to cool instead of water, or even mineral oil.

    There are safer things than water to use.

    (Wait, alcohol is combustable. Oops. Oh well, he didn't want his house anyway...)

    • Re:Glycol? (Score:2, Informative)

      by athakur999 ( 44340 )
      Water has a much higher specific heat than either alcohol or mineral oil, so it makes a much better coolant. Plus, it's cheap and pleantiful. There's a reason most vehicle cooling systems are water based these days. Distilled water is not very electrically conductive either so it's still pretty safe if a minor leak occurs.

    • Wouldn't distilled water be best? It doesn't conduct electricity as well as "dirtier" water and it's not flammable.

      • Wouldn't distilled water be best?

        It only stays distilled for a little while, and water makes its own ions anyway, so no, it won't really help.

    • I ask myself that all the time. Why not use alcohol instead of water. Water sucks, yeah for alco...[passes out]
    • I am waiting for a liquid sodium cooling Xbox 360 mod. If it works for nuclear reactors it shoudl be able to work on a Xbox.

  • Why not freeze it? (Score:5, Funny)

    by reset_button ( 903303 ) on Tuesday June 20, 2006 @01:03PM (#15570408)
    Cool it to 4.5 Kelvins and crank out those cycles! :)

  • yawn... bling! (Score:5, Funny)

    by s800 ( 940543 ) on Tuesday June 20, 2006 @01:24PM (#15570568)
    What ever happened to real hardware hacking? A guy buys some prefab shiny bits for his XBox, big deal... I think I did the same thing with my trapper keeper in '88.

    • I agree.

      Water cooling was pretty neat when guys were repurposing aquarium pumps and heater cores from old plymouths, and grinding out their own blocks, and so on.

      Ordering a kit from newegg and installing it... Yawn..

      Guess what, I installed a zalman heatsink when the fan died on the old one. All bow down to my mad hacking skillzorz.

      Hardware hacking went the same route as software hacking where kids running a script they downloaded get all the attention.
      • There are still some real hardware hackers out there but it's getting harder to casually hack hardware nowadays. Radio Shack is a bleedin cell phone store now. Home Depot and Lowe's have picked up some of the slack but to go out and casually play with hardware is a lot harder than it used to be. I still remember my first hardware hack. I made my NES a top loader by taking a Game Genie (for the socket), a ton of wire, a soldering iron, and some screws and removing that stupid ZIF socket once and for all.

  • *Yawn* (Score:5, Funny)

    by electrosoccertux ( 874415 ) on Tuesday June 20, 2006 @01:39PM (#15570697)
    Everything inside the case? Boring! My 360 water cooling system is inside AND outside the case. And it keeps the fishies warm [imageshack.us]
  • "Unlike previous water-cooled Xbox 360 mods, this one has everything inside the original Xbox 360 case, including the water reservoir and pump...The case mod will also be featured in the next edition of the Official Xbox Magazine UK."

    If I were Microsoft I'd be plain embarrassed that my flagship design for the mouth-breathing console masses was so poorly engineered that cooling the fucker has become a cottage industry.

    I think the market is ready for an entrant that "just lets me play my fucking game". I

    • And before you ask, yes I use a DVD player that lets me skip past the warnings, preview nonsense, etc.

      What brand is it? Seriously, I've been looking for one, and I haven't been able to find any recommendations in Google. And I don't want to buy DVD players randomly until I luck out. So, could you share the brand and model, so I can run and order one from Amazon?
  • Its that DVD that drives me crazy. I somtimes stop playing oblivion becuase its wine is so incessant.
  • Hey, I can replace my water heater with this! Too bad the marketing folks at Microsoft didn't pick up on this one. They should have jumped on this.

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