Cooling fan questions

[Rolex]

Keep in mind that he is trying to cool an X-Box 360, something that many others have also done. I understand that they have a tendancy to run hot.
It's not as simple to work on or mod out as a comp.
If he swaps out the power supply, his warranty is void, and it will also be a costlier and more time consuming process.
If he wanted to pimp out his car with a little chrome, chromed tail pipe tips would really look cool. They would cost about $10 for the pair and take about 15 minutes to install.
He wouldn't NEED to install a turbo charged, dual cam, 12 cylinder, 24 valve Lambo engine with chrome reverse Finnegan pins to secure the exhaust bearings.
Sure, it would work, but it's not what he's looking for.

 

[hvymetalalchmst]

guess so, but it just seems a but tedious. of course, if warranty hasnt reached its end, by all means, ignore everything I've said. if it has, theres a lot you could do to make it look a lot cooler.

360 has a seperate power supply, doesn't it? if it does, theres nothing hard about getting a new power supply. cooling the xbox should be easy then, as all you need to do is cut a hole in the side, or for a more attractive finish, take apart the case (assuming warranty is void) and cut out a 120mm square, with some corners cut out or one of the halves. get some white flyscreen mesh or fine wire mesh and stick it on the side. you can then your fan and put neons inside, and it will glow from the inside. attractive and simple (i dont know if theres any space inside though, so better think it through before you do anything)

all this talk suddenly makes me want to buy one, and mod it just for the fun of it.

 

[scoobydoo2u]

Thank you for your response.

So, Scooby, what have you found out?
The Cooler Guys are great to deal with. VERY fast.

I think I'm still going with that fan will the plug I already need.
I'll explain why in a second

Keep in mind that he is trying to cool an X-Box 360, something that many others have also done. I understand that they have a tendancy to run hot.
It's not as simple to work on or mod out as a comp.
If he swaps out the power supply, his warranty is void, and it will also be a costlier and more time consuming process.
If he wanted to pimp out his car with a little chrome, chromed tail pipe tips would really look cool. They would cost about $10 for the pair and take about 15 minutes to install.
He wouldn't NEED to install a turbo charged, dual cam, 12 cylinder, 24 valve Lambo engine with chrome reverse Finnegan pins to secure the exhaust bearings.
Sure, it would work, but it's not what he's looking for.

Exactly my thoughts.
I don't have a lot of money to spend on this project, so I'm kepping it down to the bare minimum and still trying to have fun!

cooling the xbox should be easy then, as all you need to do is cut a hole in the side, or for a more attractive finish, take apart the case (assuming warranty is void) and cut out a 120mm square, with some corners cut out or one of the halves. get some white flyscreen mesh or fine wire mesh and stick it on the side. you can then your fan and put neons inside, and it will glow from the inside. attractive and simple (i dont know if theres any space inside though, so better think it through before you do anything)

all this talk suddenly makes me want to buy one, and mod it just for the fun of it.

Yep! that is exactly my thoughts before I posted this thread, but in trying to keep It simple I want a 2 switches in the side, one for CATHODES
and one for the fan.

The cathodes use THIS
to free up 5Volts in the Xbox for use with the inverter to power the cathodes.

 

[hvymetalalchmst]

...
Exactly my thoughts.
I don't have a lot of money to spend on this project, so I'm kepping it down to the bare minimum and still trying to have fun!

...
Yep! that is exactly my thoughts before I posted this thread, but in trying to keep It simple I want a 2 switches in the side, one for CATHODES
and one for the fan.

The cathodes use THIS
to free up 5Volts in the Xbox for use with the inverter to power the cathodes.

something you forgot to read next to the word cathodes, which is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT is the word 'lamp'. simple. its like calling a gas stove a gas, or an motor car a motor. if you had paid a little more time to read, and type, it would have stopped a hell of a lot less confusion down here.
i still stand by a cathode being an electrode. a cathode lamp uses the electrode to excite electrons to produce light.

although I'm no xbox geek by any measure, if my eyes serve me right, it looks soooooooo similar to one of those power supplies which act as a 'double adaptor' for hdd in computers. if it remotely looks like what it seems, there may be an ever slight, very, very slight chance it may suck up power (not 'free-up', leech) from the power supply already at hand, causing more strain on the power supply, thus causing more heat in the power supply and the xbox itself. if i recall correctly, thats not what you wanted. you decide to power fans from a mains socket, and cathode LAMPS from the xbox. if you did some research, youd find that fans use a lot less power than cathode LAMPS. if you were to power it right, cathode LAMPS would connect to the wall socket, and the fan, to the xbox.

what i dont understand is the fanatical uproar of cost. in making such a simple mod, you can't possibly spend as much money as you two are making it sound. i could almost put down any amount of money on the table to prove that i would be able to put 2-3 fans, with 2-3 cathode LAMPS under a very few ten dollars, in any currency. an optional new power supply, well, add about $50 to that and I'm sure i could get enough power to run two xboxes. a soldering kit, add another few ten dollars. thats EVERYTHING you will need. and in case anyones wondering about the complexity, well, I'm not calling anybody incompetent or stupid here, just that my 13year old brother would easily, and compentently be able to take apart an xbox, inspect the wiring, solder/desolder a few wires, and put back together the xbox. i dont think a thirteen year old kid could outsmart an adult, but then again... go ahead, suprise me.

by all means, a rc car would be completely impossible to start, run, or maintain if what I'm saying is in the slightest bit, complex.

if your going to cool your xbox and make it look nice, do it properly. wasting time on something your gona rip apart in a few days time is hardly good use on anyones time nor is it very cost effective.
if you wanted to put chrome tips on the exhaust tip, you dont just put it on the end, you weld it or you secure it by other means.

 

[Rolex]

if you wanted to put chrome tips on the exhaust tip, you dont just put it on the end, you weld it or you secure it by other means.

They come with 2 pointed screws at 90 degree angles to each other.
Again, welding would be overkill.

They also need to be waxed from time to time since it is the only thing on the exterior of the car that would be subject to rusting.....oops, I mean Oxidization.

Do you have a plating process to protect these $10 tips from Oxidizing that he could do at home for under $1200 in parts and materials?

 

[hvymetalalchmst]

if you read my post carefully, i was emphasizing you can't do everything half-assed (securing it by other means). you dont need to spend a fortune, you only need to spend a little bit of money to make a job better.

and ill be extremely happy for any idiot on this forum to be requesting i chrome electroplate their exhaust tips for $1189. Hell, ill even throw in free shipment.

any requests?

 

[beason]

ok i didnt check out all your links to see what hardware your looking at, but i have modded a few first gen xboxes in the past. The first gens use the same power plug (molex) for the hard drive as a computer uses. so if you picked up a fan with a regular plug on it you could easily plug it in there and not have to worry with the "few $10" worth of soldering equipment, or hiring hvym's 13 year old genius brother to wire it up for you. if the 360 doesn't use the same plug then its a simple 2 wire job. just find a hot and a ground that show 12v on a voltage gauge and solder to that. The fan should not pull that much extra juice and the cooling effects of active over passive (assuming the 360 has no fan) would far surpass the added heat of the power to the fan. if it does have a fan, switching it to one with a higher CFM would help alot to. plus it would all be internal with nothing else to lug around. and you can get some very nice clear fans with colored LED's in them and you may not need the cold cathodes (this is what they are called in the PC modding world)

if you do decide to put the cold cathodes in the case, take it apart first and look to see if you can fit them. The 1st gen's had very little extra room for anything in there. i had a heck of a time fitting 1 4" tube and the inverter to power it. a quick google image search shows that there seems to be quite a bit of free space in the case of the 360.

the xbox i did was boot rom modded with a 120g hard drive, and the slayers evo-x bios. i changed the stock fan for a UV led one, changed the case for a clear UV reactive case and put a 4" UV cold cathode tube in there along with a new case badge made up to look like the atari logo. it lit up nicely with no power problems.

i currently run (in my gaming pc) 7 case fans, a cpu cooler, vga cooler, north bridge cooler, 2 rom's, 3 hard drives, 2 12" cold cathodes, and 2 4" cold cathodes plus the mainboard and all the USB stuff. off a 590w power supply with no problems.

 

[hvymetalalchmst]

wow... 590W I'm jealous. mines only about 400W... lol but mines not a gaming pc. its only an 'everyday pc'

 

[Monkey Wrench]

I took a flux capacitor and joined it to a thermo coupler that runs on "Christmas Spirit." I then added several dozen wings from the fairies that visit me after a night pounding Molson Canadians and attached a Briggs and Stratton 5hp mower engine I stole from my neighbor after he fell of his roof and ended up in a coma.

I then went across the street and shagged the 38 year-old former stripper wife of the local police chief then came home, sent a nasty-ass e-mail to the Canadian Prime Minister for being so damn nice, hooked everything up to my Commodore 64 and that sucker is colder than a witch's tit in a brass bra now!

So to you, my Aussie friend, I suggest you come out of the cellar of your "Road Warrior" domicile and focus more on scoring some nice, teenage tail and less on modifying some game console before life passes you by and you end up grubing for quarters at the local bus stop mumbling to yourself about the power consumption of a X-box power supply and cathodes! You're heading towards a lifelong obsession of masturbation, my friend. You're a section 8 waiting to happen!

 

[Rolex]

LMFAO, Monkey Wrench!

 

[djdoug99]

If you are trying to add another fan to your 360 then you should learn how to solder and use the mobo as your connection. There are so many points on the motherboard that receive enough power to power your fan (I used to be way into xbox modding). If you are looking for a temperature decrease, I would reapply the thermal paste, and buy talismoon fans that replace the existing fans in your xbox. I have successfully installed LED's into my 360 using a 5V spot on the motherboard. When you learn how to solder you can do so much I swear you will get addicted to doing this.

of course you will void your warranty when you do this.

 

[Karl M]

Damn Monkey. LMAO!!!

 

[Lessen]

All this bullshit just to add a fan to a video game system?

I got a better idea. Let's stop supporting the billion dollar companies that release these overpriced, half ass R&D'ed products that require the intelligence and modification of a high schooler with a college education in order to work properly.

Just the need to have this conversation pisses me off. Millions of people work too damn hard for that 4 or 5 hundred dollars. If I spend that much money on something, it better fuckin work.