XBMC4Xbox

It was asked for in another thread so I sat down and spent 30 minutes doing this modification, it really should only take 30 minutes to an hour at most to do it. An hour if your reeeaaalllyy picky about how well you clean up the CPU and GPU. As most of us know MS used some kinda of pink or black rubber gummy crap for thermal paste and it sucks!!!! Time to get that junk out of there and get some good thermal paste to drop those temps now that Exobuzz and all the Emu guys are pushing our consoles to the limits. Here we go...........

Items needed:
1. Isopropyl Alcohol
2.Q-tips or soft rag
3. Small flat head screw driver
4. Thermal Paste- Arctic Silver 5 or similar would be best
5. A flexible paper card like a standard business card


Step 1. You'll need to get the heatsinks plenty warm as this will make the heatsink gum (what i call it) warm up and be more sticky than solid making it easier to remove the heatsinks. This is mainly to remove the GPU heatsink as it's always stuck on there good. So plug in your xbox, leave it on for a few minutes or just get to business and play a movie, song, game what ever puts it under a bit of a load to warm it up.

Step 2. Shut it down, unplug it and remove the HDD and DVD drive exposing the heatsinks. Start with the CPU heatsink first since it's the easiest. Pull back the black retainer clip and use the small flat head screw driver to gently pry off the clip from the black plastic boarder and remove the clip once that is done. Do the same with the GPU heatsink, make sure the heatsink isnt too hot to touch, if so give it a minute to cool off. To remove the GPU heatsink just wiggle it back and forth to loosen it up and gently lift it off of the board.

Step3. Now you are left with a bunch of junk on the heatsinks and the CPU/GPU. We need to clean all of that stuff off of there so we have a nice clean surface to apply our new thermal paste.

Apply a generous amount of Alcohol on the soft rag or Q-tip and lightly wipe away the old thermal paste. If it's piled on thick it will take some elbow grease to get it off of there. Be careful when rubbing on the CPU and GPU, dont press hard at all, just lightly rub off the old paste. You might notice in my pic i didnt get it all off of the sides of the chips but it should not matter, as long as the surface is nice and clean.

Step 4. Now that you have a nice clean surface to work with you need to apply the thermal paste. There's always alot of talk about the best way to do this, I've tried many different methods and this has always worked best for me and been the easiest on XBOX and PC's. For the CPU put a small pea sized dot of thermal past on the CPU, then rest the CPU heatsink on top of it and lightly apply pressure. Pull off the heatsink and you'll see that you have almost a perfect coverage of the CPU and matching coverage on the heatsink. All you need is a thin layer on both sides and your all good to go. Put the heatsink back on and re-install the clip to secure it.

The GPU is alittle different since there is much more surface area to work with. Use the same method as the CPU heatsink but use a little more paste this time, not much, just a little more. Rest the GPU heatsink on the GPU and apply light pressure to disperse the paste and then remove it. Use a business card (credit card wont fit) to even out the past on the GPU and make a nice even layer over the entire chip. Do the same on the GPU heatsink too so that it's a nice thin layer. Re-install the GPU heatsink and clip and your all done!!!


Before you try this mod play the xbox for a while and see what the temps are in XBMC and then see how it does after you've done this. Also since you've got the xbox apart dont forget to cut the grills on the side and back of the metal shielding to allow for better airflow. Report back with your findings and Happy Modding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


NEX

Thanks and also for the time you have taken for this.

Did not know that the CPU chip was so small. The CPU Heatsink is big though.

And what were your findings with the temprature before and after?

I have never done this to an Xbox. Actually, when I did try many moons ago, I actually broke the plastic clip and that was probably why I never tried it again. What is the proper method to remove that plastic clip without breaking it? I have used tubes of thermal paste on all types of electronic parts but this job has always alluded me. You know Nex, this tutorial and an explanation of "exactly' how you remove the clip may change all that. Thanks for a great, easy to follow tutorial.

Taking off the clips is pretty easy to do. For the CPU just pull back the black retainer clip and it will loosen the CPU heatsink. Look at the yellow clip and how it attaches to the small plastic border, the clip needs to be pressed DOWN and pryed outward with the screw driver to release itself from the border. When i get home later on i'll take some pics of what I mean.

For temps, honestly i've got so many xbox's with so many different configurations that I cant remember the numbers on it. If you do this mod and the cutting of the grill i bet you'll see maybe a 10 degree drop.

Could you make a picture with the screwdriver on it?

So as I understand
1. Pull the black lever up and to the back
2. and then the screwdriver at the other end from the yellow clip

You got it RoyalX, here are some pics of the screw driver and the placement on the clip. You just have to use something to pry the yellow clip from the black plastic boarder, it doesnt have to be a screw driver this is just the easiest way for me.

Black Clip


Screwdriver (small one)


Placement of the screwdriver, pry down and out (pay no attention to the white powdered sugar on my fingertip )

um, any way to easily get the gpu sink off without turning it on?

Also, Not to hijack your thread, but by using a very very light amount of lighter fluid (Ronsonol Brand)
I was able to achive this in a matter of minutes, using quick applications of a q tip then quickly wiping it off, isopropyl had no effect for me

Can I use WD40 for the cleaning too?

WD40= NOOOOOOO, maybe on the bottom of the heatsinks but not the CPU and GPU it'self. That would probably be bad.

Go for glory RoyalX

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkWePqTfD14

wuhahahahahaha....
No man that is not right.

I don't have any cleaning alcohol at home.
Oh well, maybe the nail remover should do the trick.

But the last time (for the dvd drive) it wasn't that helpfull. WD40 worked fine for me, for the stucky DVD tray.

RoyalX wrote: Oh well, maybe the nail remover should do the trick.

Yeah, Acetone is probably the strongest you want to go, and be VERY VERY quick and light with your applications

Agreed, be very quick with it. Also, the alcohol is super cheap, like 3$ for a big bottle. Buy some and clean off all your xbox boards as they come in, dust first and then swab with alcohol, you wont be sorry you spent the 3$

Ok, I am going to search and buy it.
Hope I won't come home with some wodka or whiskey.

RoyalX wrote: Hope I won't come home with some wodka or whiskey.

teehee

DOOO come home with some Wodka and Whiskey, makes the modding experience that much more interesting.



Looks soooo goooodddd!!! Can we get some different Smilies?

Don't be put off by literally washing a board. It is exacty what was done to the board straight after production. It was common for us to pull out Daytona car machine boards and do this form of washing after coke was spilled on them in arcade car cabs. These boards were 4 layers high and were worth a couple of thousand dollars each. We would simply wash them as shown in the UTube clip, shake off all the excess water and then place the board on a car dash with the car windows up on a warm day. Gets to about 60c there which is ideal. I have done this also to T.V. remotes, cell phones in fact any electronics. It will do no harm it at all providing there is no power on it such as backup batteries etc and it is completely dry prior to powering it back up. What is also important is to not "flex" the board if you do shake it dry. You may also like to use a hairdryer around the surface mount chips and parts like transformers but not to hot or you will blister the board lacquer, the green paint on the board.

I freguently put my keyboards in the dishwasher to clean them, pop off all the keys, and put them in the utensil rack

Also, dont worry about heat damaging your chips when you take the sink off, i touched the gpu 5 seconds after i turned it off, and it was stone cold
the heatsink for it...well lest say my fingers hurt.

This has proven to be very helpful, Thank you! I had some trouble trying to remove the GPU heatsink though, do I just make sure its hot from use first and do I pull it or wiggle? I ask because I could see the mother board flexing and the thing would not budge!