How to improve cooling in Xbox?

[MrMajst3r]

Hi
I want to make my Xbox (almost) silent. Firstly, I've changed fan to Arctic Cooling F8 and put new compound, Arctic Cooling MX4. Fan is quiet on 20-30%, but it's too low for console, it has over 60' after playing a game. When I set 50-60% temps are OK, but fan is not quiet.

I have an idea, to throw away plastic holder and put there bigger heatsink on CPU and GPU (or only GPU) with thermal glue. Has anyone tried something similiar?

I've also found cooling for graphic cards, which will fit into Xbox holes (80mm), but I'm afraid that it's too big...
http://aabcooling.com/en/products/item/ ... lent-vga-2

[Geeba]

80mm fan mod! I can hardly hear mine on 100%...

Theres a guide on the forum

[stevengw]

probably impossible to have it totally quiet, its the air flowing through fan that makes the noise. And the fact that the cpu is heat sink cooled only, so relies on rear fan for air, I've personally thought about mounting a fan on cpu heatsink and using power from rear fan to drive it. But I also found this nice tutorial for you. for mounting a silent pc fan.
http://www.llamma.com/xbox/Xbox%2080mm%20Fan%20Mod.htm

My Xbox is inside a TV cabinet with a thick glass front door.. I hardly hear it.

[MrMajst3r]

Yes, but I've already 80mm fan - Arctic Cooling F8.

Maybe I order this VGA cooling next month and I will try to fit it on CPU. On GPU I will put bigger heatsink if I find one.

[whufclee]

So can you hear your 80mm fan? I only ask because all the ones I've fitted are silent - you have to put your ear to the xbox to hear anything and even then it's still hard to hear it. Did you remove the metal mesh in the RF shielding behind the fan?

[Geeba]

Yep same for me whufclee, I can't really hear it unless I stick my head through the TV stand! What version of Xbox do you have? The early ones have VGA coolers that can get really loud whilst playing games or videos, best thing there is to fit a passive heatsink from a later model, or I have used 486 CPU heatsinks before

[Nextelhalo]

OP- you really should cut the RF sheild grill that is behind the fan and on the side of the xbox to improve air flow at lower (quieter) speeds.
Looks like your fan will do 33CFM at 2000 RPM which is pretty good but i guess you dont want it at 2000rpm due to noise. I've always found that the cheap blue LED 80mm fans will keep the xbox nice and cool and have almost zero noise like the other guys are reporting and i can verify this too.

[spicemuseum]

Yes, but I've already 80mm fan - Arctic Cooling F8.

The F8 on one of mine is almost inaudible until it gets over 60% (as reported by XBMC). I also use Xilence Redwings which I find are even better.

I agree with others that you ought not have to do anything more.

Others have mentioned cutting out the metal grille (RF shield) abutting the fan - my experience is that it does have some effect, practically appears to knock one or two degrees off, meaning the fan can spin a few % slower whilst maintaining any particular temp. No idea what it does for the effective RF screening though(!) but it's never caused me a problem.

Some people swear by cleaning the old paste between the GPU and CPU heatsinks and their respective chips and putting new paste on. I've never needed to do this but I can see how it would make a difference.

Lastly, something I also have not tried is drilling big holes through the HDD caddy directly at the end where the HDD connections are through to where the fan exhausts. Some say that helps remove heat (cooling the HDD and therefore less in the region of the CPU heatsink), but I can't vouch either way.

Have fun.

[MrMajst3r]

I have already cut the back of HDD's caddy
I think my console is just a bit strange and loves to be hot I've mounted few 80mm fans in friends' consoles and temperatures was better (lower).
I will change the motherboard ( I have plenty of them) and see.

[spicemuseum]

I have already cut the back of HDD's caddy
I think my console is just a bit strange and loves to be hot I've mounted few 80mm fans in friends' consoles and temperatures was better (lower).
I will change the motherboard ( I have plenty of them) and see.

Post some pics.

[MrMajst3r]

Here is photo:


I set fan to 50%, and temps are about 55-60' on CPU and 45-50' on MB (UnleashX). Noise is acceptable.

[spicemuseum]

Yes, I see you've made a large cut out of the tray all the way through to the hard disc. Interesting. Coincidentally I'm doing a tray for a fan mod this evening, I might copy your style and see how it works out.

[GhostlyGamer]

ive been debating a custom watercooling unit.

[Nextelhalo]

I've done multiple setups just like this MrMajst3r but with a different fan and my results roughly the same as yours (under load of an xbox game or emu). I would try out a different 80MM fan and see what happens if your not satisfied with that. Nice job on the HDD cuts, very clean

[stevengw]

my xbox howls! even with custom quiet cooling!

[spicemuseum]

1080i HD mod to board and HDMI output cable.

Sounds interesting, why don't you tell us about that.