Xbox 360 heatsink options, cooling upgrades

William Quade on March 31, 2017

After making my fat PS3 nearly silent, I wanted to make my Xenon Xbox 360 as quiet as possible. Right now I’m in the process of attaching a computer heatsink to my console, but before I write about that, I should probably write about all of the Xbox 360 heatsink options.

Xbox 360 revisions, and their heatsinks

Microsoft’s first Xbox 360 revision was called Xenon. It featured a very short, but long and deep aluminum fin heatsink on top of the graphics chip. On the processor there was a beefier heatsink with a copper baseplate, heat pipes, and many aluminum fins. [Read More]

PS3 custom firmware installation (fat CECHA01, and slim CECH-2101A)

William Quade on March 29, 2017

Installing custom firmware onto my PS3 was one of my goals I mentioned in my project introduction post. This post describes my experiences during PS3 custom firmware installation on my fat CECHA01 console, and my brother’s slim CECH-2101A console.

Update: I have written another post going into more detail on custom firmware installation using a Teensy on a CECH-2001A PS3 slim.

What is custom firmware, and what it’s used for

Before I begin I’d like to provide some background information. Sony released firmware version 3.55 for the PS3 in late 2010. In this version Sony messed up the encryption system which allowed the PS3 hacking community to create custom firmware updates that could be installed, also called custom firmware or CFW. [Read More]

Adding an HDMI port to the original Xbox

William Quade on March 19, 2017

Microsoft shipped the original Xbox with a composite AV cable, which was fine for 2001, but composite doesn’t work very well with modern HDTVs. You could buy a component cable for your system, but official Microsoft cables are hard to find and expensive. Not all HDTVs even have support for component either. If only the original Xbox had an HDMI port. This post outlines the process of adding an HDMI port to the original Xbox.

Things you’ll need

Here’s a list of items that you’ll need for adding an HDMI port to the original Xbox. [Read More]

Revision 1.3 original Xbox project introduction

William Quade on March 5, 2017

Microsoft’s original Xbox was ahead of its time. With built in Internet connectivity, a computer based architecture, and a built in hard drive, the original Xbox is surprisingly similar to current consoles, like the Xbox One. Microsoft put some serious hardware into their first console, allowing it to have some of the best graphics of the generation. Some games could even output at 720p and 1080i. This is the start to a series of posts describing my revision 1.3 original Xbox project.

I recently bought an original Xbox for $40, less than 14% of the cost of a the brand new system in 2001. My system is a revision 1.3 original Xbox, which is one of the more common revisions out there. There’s a chance that it’s a 1.2 console, because it has a Western Digital hard drive that was found on revision 1.2 systems. Because it has Samsung DVD drive that was found on revision 1.3 systems, and the serial number matches revision 1.3, and because more revision 1.3 systems were manufactured, it’s more likely to be a revision 1.3 system. [Read More]

Powering a PS3 with a PC power supply

William Quade on February 28, 2017

Three of the biggest sources of heat within a PS3 are the RSX graphics processor, the Cell processor, and the power supply. Many of the original fat consoles came with power supplies with the model number of ZSSR5391A. Those power supplies are only 66.5% efficient, meaning that lots of unnecessary heat is generated by the power supply.

I’m lucky, my PS3 has the much more efficient APS-226 power supply, which is 83.13% efficient. That’s a lot better than the other model, but is still contributing to the amount of heat that the console has to exhaust. [Read More]