12V Fan Upgrade with 3 wire fan

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thedudeman69
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12V Fan Upgrade with 3 wire fan

Post by thedudeman69 »

Hello all, I am a noob at modding. This is my first xbox mod. I have a v1.6 NTSC system and I am starting with changing out the fan. This is the fan I have to put in: http://www.amazon.com/Superred-CHA8012C ... B00BCP6G96. I could get another fancier one, but I have this in stock so figured I'd start with it. As you can see, it has 3 wires: red, black, and yellow. My xbox has a 3 pin connector; however, the original fan only had red and black wires. My understanding is the xbox motherboard regulates fan speed by changing the voltage sent to the red wire/center pin. Does XBMC work the same way? Do I need to cut the yellow wire or otherwise alter the wiring or can I just plug this into the motherboard as is? After I load XBMC, I do want it to be able to vary the fan speed based on the temperature I set. Thanks for your time and assistance!
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Oldxboxusa
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Re: 12V Fan Upgrade with 3 wire fan

Post by Oldxboxusa »

Yes it's right. Simply use that fan. Yellow is mostly a pwm fan. But when the mobo doesn't have it it mades no sense. For 12v simply lead one wire (the black one) to ground. That's it.
fxmech
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Re: 12V Fan Upgrade with 3 wire fan

Post by fxmech »

It might be useful to know the standard fan pins on the motherboard only output 6V. This basically results in at most a 50% actual fan speed when your Xbox is set to 100% fan speed.

Hard-wiring/splicing the 12V power source is easy. You can get a "Y" cable that splits the HDD's power cable off for a 12V power source and allows the connection of a standard 3pin fan.

The best solution I could think of for myself and my needs: buy a fan that also has a temperature sensor, by which the fan speed is throttled. I have not tried a fan mod yet, so I'm not sure it is the greatest solution.

To regulate the fan speed a manual variable fan speed controller is a common solution. I may end up opting for this myself.


------ edit

I just realized this is completely not the question stated in the OP. I'll leave my muses here anyhow.
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asbo
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Re: 12V Fan Upgrade with 3 wire fan

Post by asbo »

thedudeman69 wrote: can I just plug this into the motherboard as is?
Yes just plug it in. Check its spinning and set the XBMC fan settings to auto, then forget about it :)
I highly recommend replacing the thermal paste too.
thedudeman69
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Re: 12V Fan Upgrade with 3 wire fan

Post by thedudeman69 »

Thank you all. I plugged the fan into the motherboard, and it appears to be working. I just plugged it in. I didn't cut any of the wires, but I saw another tutorial that said you could ground off the case to get 100% fan speed. However, that forces 100% all the time which is why I opted not to do that. Is there anyway to get full 12V of output and use XBMC to regulate the power as needed? Also, is there a good tutorial on changing the thermal paste? I've done for my ps3 in the past and also had to reflow the motherboard. I didn't know if the xbox mobo needed to be heated up as well or just new paste applied.
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Oldxboxusa
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Re: 12V Fan Upgrade with 3 wire fan

Post by Oldxboxusa »

No for new thermal paste simply remove the plastikholder from the head sink. Clean all, reapply TP and do all together. And no when you use ground xbmc can't handle the fan speed. But a potentiometer can it.
thedudeman69
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Re: 12V Fan Upgrade with 3 wire fan

Post by thedudeman69 »

Do you spread the TP over the whole thing or just dab in the middle? I've heard arguments both ways for the ps3, not sure it matters for xbox but wanted to check.
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Oldxboxusa
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12V Fan Upgrade with 3 wire fan

Post by Oldxboxusa »

I spread it with a key card or with plastic tubes. It is the best way with arctic silver 5 TP. a dab in the middle is not so good I mean. My 1.6 xbox runs since 2 years with this. Fan setting under xbmc 30% CPU 46 C gpu 36 C every day. It is the same way I use it by my MacBook and PC. Oh before I forgot, which chip are you using. Have you made the lframe cut?
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Oldxboxusa
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Re: 12V Fan Upgrade with 3 wire fan

Post by Oldxboxusa »

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1415148215.772619.jpg
look at this.
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asbo
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Re: 12V Fan Upgrade with 3 wire fan

Post by asbo »

thedudeman69 wrote:Is there anyway to get full 12V of output and use XBMC to regulate the power as needed?.
Maybe but I doubt anyone has done it as it just adds complication for no reason.
The xbox can be kept adequately cool by quite a slow spinning fan, just leave it on auto and XBMC will ramp it up and down as needed. As an experiment watch a film or something and then check the fan speed under system information, it will likely be under 40%.
There no need to have a fan roaring away at 100% :)
thedudeman69 wrote:I didn't know if the xbox mobo needed to be heated up as well or just new paste applied.
No but if you use the xbox a bit before trying to remove the heatsinks its easier as the thermal paste will be more malleable. The thermal paste M$ used in the xbox sets like glue when its cold.
Removing the retaining clip which holds the heat sinks down can be tricky, you'll probably need to wiggle a flat bladed screwdriver under one of the tabs and push it away from the black plastic surround. Be careful though as one slip and the screwdriver will easily ruin the motherboard.
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Oldxboxusa
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Re: 12V Fan Upgrade with 3 wire fan

Post by Oldxboxusa »

asbo wrote:
thedudeman69 wrote:Is there anyway to get full 12V of output and use XBMC to regulate the power as needed?.
Maybe but I doubt anyone has done it as it just adds complication for no reason.
The xbox can be kept adequately cool by quite a slow spinning fan, just leave it on auto and XBMC will ramp it up and down as needed. As an experiment watch a film or something and then check the fan speed under system information, it will likely be under 40%.
There no need to have a fan roaring away at 100% :)
thedudeman69 wrote:I didn't know if the xbox mobo needed to be heated up as well or just new paste applied.
No but if you use the xbox a bit before trying to remove the heatsinks its easier as the thermal paste will be more malleable. The thermal paste M$ used in the xbox sets like glue when its cold.
Removing the retaining clip which holds the heat sinks down can be tricky, you'll probably need to wiggle a flat bladed screwdriver under one of the tabs and push it away from the black plastic surround. Be careful though as one slip and the screwdriver will easily ruin the motherboard.
What are you saying? please give us a link or mor info about that. Since i know what xbmc can do, there was never a way to regulate a fan with a 12V mod (12V mod ever is Black wire from Fan to Ground) because xbmc (and the xbox) regulate this over Ground. When the ground is another one, it will not work (i have a 12 V mod for many years and there is NO way to regulate it over xbmc).

And dont't get a screwdriver for disassembly the headsink from the cpu and gpu, it can destroy your mobo. simply wiggle the headsink, it will loose without any problems.
There no problem to remove the headsinks, the xbox is the simpliest console that i had seen ever. You can use it like any pc.

And asbo before you talk anything like this, please inform you the right way before you post featureless things. It is very irritating for newbies and all other people without know how.
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asbo
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Re: 12V Fan Upgrade with 3 wire fan

Post by asbo »

Oldxboxusa wrote:What are you saying?
I'm saying where there's a will there's a way.
But no one(as far as I know) has put any effort into it because its pointless, there is no need to use 12v. Just plugging in a standard 80mm PC fan will provide ample cooling, as has been discussed many many times before.
If you really really wanted to have xbmc control a 12v fan then send professor johnny or xman some beer money and they'll probably be able to design a small circuit board to do such a thing, heck they might even do it for free being the decent blokes that they are.
Oldxboxusa wrote:And dont't get a screwdriver for disassembly the headsink from the cpu and gpu
If you actually read what I posted you'd see I was talking about removing the retaining clips which hold the heatsink down, these can be very tricky to get off.
Oldxboxusa wrote:And asbo before you talk anything like this, please inform you the right way before you post featureless things. It is very irritating for newbies and all other people without know how.
Yes because I have no experience at this sort of thing :roll:
I'm just giving thedudeman69 a little advice and explaining that there's no reason to go down the 12v route.
I do little xbox moding these days due to my health but I still visit these forums everyday because I like helping people and because everyone seems to appreciate it, so don't ruin that by calling my years of experience 'featureless'.
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Oldxboxusa
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Re: 12V Fan Upgrade with 3 wire fan

Post by Oldxboxusa »

Ok sorry for misunderstanding. I don't call you experience 'featureless'. But when you post something like this, it can be confusing someone that is not a pro in this. It's a difference between home tinkerer and a pro. That is what I would saying to you.
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Re: 12V Fan Upgrade with 3 wire fan

Post by fxmech »

Setting the fan to "Auto" in XBMC will take up a little RAM and CPU. Thought that's worth mentioning.
ellowmatetyler
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Re: 12V Fan Upgrade with 3 wire fan

Post by ellowmatetyler »

I just did the 12v fan mod on my 1.6 xbox. I used a molex splitter that came with my fan to power it. I had to cut out the edges of my fan and part of the hdd tray. Also made a new piece to keep air flowing through the cpu heatsink. Just need to put on some new thermal paste.
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