Which version of Xbox is most suitable for XBMC

[alanbarn]

Hi,

Firstly, apologies if this is in the wrong forum.

I have Five Xbox.

I set up and Xbox which boots directly into Coinops, but the ungrateful bastards want to play Skylanders and Minecraft!! Seems like Asteroids, Space Invaders and Donkey Kong just dont cut it anymore. So they've now got a 360. Bloody Kids.

I wish to make one onto a dedicated media server (running XBMC), which will be connected to the TV using a component cable (Ialready have one), and networked so that I can transfer media files to it to watch.

My question is which version of the Xbox is the best for running XBMC?

Since the machine will be near the TV I want it to be quiet, and have a 500GB hard drive or larger.

Mine are:

# _Version _ TSOP _HD(GB) _Curent use _Comment

1 _1.0 _Yes _40 _Spare _Bad DVD
2 _1.3 _Yes _40 _Spare _Xecutor (2 I think) Chipped
3 _1.6 _No _? _Spare _Standard (Completely unmolested)
4 _? _Yes _? _XBMC _Bad DVD (Old version of XBMC required updating)
5 _1.0 _Yes _80 _Coinops 5 _Bad DVD

As you can see, I have done some work already and have various disks and tools, I have been flashing by swapping a good DVD drive into machins with bad drives.

I have looked on the interweb to try to establish which Xbox is most suitable, but I haven't found a consensus, or definitive answer.

Is one of mine suitable, or do I need to get a Trusty?

Thanks in advance.

[asbo]

Personally I like to run mine without a DVD drive, that way you don't get DVD drive noises when you first switch it on. To do that you need a custom BIOS and I prefer to do a TSOP flash as it saves getting a modchip, but since you already have a modchip you could put that on the 1.6 and then they'd all be pretty much equal.
Just pick the one you like the most

[bigkidoz]

Version wont make any difference except i would say V1.0 with the fan on GPU may be noisier any version that is or can be tsop flashed is better.

[ted209]

I compared power consumption between my v1.1 and v1.6 recently and found that the v1.1 uses around 60w under load, while the v1.6 uses 50w. The v1.6 should therefore heat up less and require lower fan speeds.

Having said that, doing am 80mm quiet fan mod (removing part of the metal shielding) makes a huge difference to noise levels.

[alanbarn]

Thanks for the Input guys.

I'll have a go with the chipped 1.3.

I'll disable the dvd drive, and replace the fan with a quiet one.

That will be a good starting point I reckon.

Cheers

[spicemuseum]

I compared power consumption between my v1.1 and v1.6 recently and found that the v1.1 uses around 60w under load, while the v1.6 uses 50w.

Very interesting. I can't imagine that there are 10W of differences attributable to changes on the MoBo. I wonder whether it's down to more efficient PSU design on the v1.6...?

[xman]

I would be thinking another 100watts on top of those 50-60 watt figures myself. The 220-240 volt units here all have 1.2amps on there compliance plates and that works out at around 270watts but that would be the absolute max for the plate to be legal. I remember working on the 12vDC power supply project, most people were using 150-200watt ATX power supplies unless they ripped out all the on board smoothing caps in with case the smallest that still enabled the machine to boot was 120watt power supplies but that was like I said, virtually no caps left and with no DVDrive.

[ted209]

Well I measured it with a power consumption device. I think the results are reliable, the results of testing with my desktop were as I expected from online reviews.

Incidentally, my PS2 slim SCPH79000 (relatively new model) uses just 14w under load, half of the first slim model. It makes a big difference in temperature and how much the fan spins up!

[xman]

Hmm, you may be right but I would put more faith in a multimeter over a power consumption device. As for you PSII, I'd put that down to the advances made in switch mode power supply technology over the last could of years. The efficiency of some of these devices is truly amazing and that wasn't available when the Xbox was built but the trade off is dependability. I doubt that any will stand the test of time like the older design Xbox power supplies have already proven.