Xbox 360 SLIM Aluminium Unibody Laptop

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ssmith43654
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Xbox 360 SLIM Aluminium Unibody Laptop

Post by ssmith43654 » Thu Jan 03, 2013 12:39 pm

Now before you leave, thinking this is just another "how do i get started doing an xbox laptop" its not:

I have already made an xbox laptop, annoyingly just before the slim consoles came out. Its large, heavy and fragile and isnt the best to take anywhere on a trip.

So I thought I may make another 360 Slim Laptop thats a bit different from the rest and benhecks.

I plan on using:

360 Slim - Modded
LED Laptop Display
Large internal HDD
Solid Aluminium Cut Case
Hmm - battery

Now for my thoughts on the components...

I know xbox flashing and modding is not allowed on the forum, but this is for a good reason and not for piracy. I want to get a 360 slim motherboard, and either RGH it or use a x360key. This way I wont need the huge dvd drive which dictates the size and thickness of the xbox laptop. I plan on using a 2.5 SATA SSD for shock protection, and speed. Then the laptop can be used in a car/on a train where there are vibrations, as everything is solid state. All games will run form the SSD.

I will use an off the shelf already manufactured laptop LED display with hinges to reduce time and costs. Will use a controller from njytouch for it. It will be power efficient as it is LED. It will most likely be a 13.3 inch display as I can make this thing nice and small without the DVD drive.

I now have access to a CNC machine that can mill aluminium. I was planning on getting slab/billet of aluminium for the top half of the case. it will be all machined out. This is the ingenious part - it will be used as the heatsink for the GPU/CPU. It will be passively cooled, the huge aluminium upper hal dissipating the heat.

The block will be machined upside down. The top wont be machined at-all and will be left flat. I will then fit all the components in to it upside-down from the bottom of the case. they will be screwed in. I will then only need a sheet piece of metal to put on the bottom as the cover.

Now with the slims that use a lot less power, I was considering a battery. I have done a few calculations:

Xbox 360 slim

Power draw= 60/70 watts

The biggest lithium battery I can get that would fit:

18.5v 5.1aH

so 18.5x5.1 = 94.35WH

so xbox will last about 94/65= 1.4 hours, which isnt too bad.

But I would then need to consider charging and DC-DC conversion.

Anyway, just planning the laptop out right now, however this will be a build blog when I get started with it.

Please tell me your thoughts/suggestions on my ideas....

Thanks
Never Give up; until you succeed...

Please take a look at my blog page, where I have built an xbox 360 Laptop - http://seb3.yolasite.com/sebs-blog.php

ttsgeb
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Re: Xbox 360 SLIM Aluminium Unibody Laptop

Post by ttsgeb » Thu Jan 03, 2013 4:54 pm

I would consider using a copper base and heat pipes that screw into the aluminum just to make sure the heat spreads out quick enough. Just being solid aluminum may not do enough to spread the heat from that one area. Also, It couldn't hurt to still have shallow fins on the topside of the case Any little bit you can add to the surface area counts. You could even do this in a decorative fashion, mimicking the design shown during the start-up sequence.
On top of all of this, I would try to keep the inside of the case as smooth as possible. The less surface area there, the less heat can dissipate back into the xbox. Be sure that the outside has significantly more surface area to it.


Passively cooled sounds like an awesome idea, though, and you could probably manage to build a rather thin 15 inch laptop if you can make it work for ya.

With the battery, don't try and get a pre-built solution. I'm pretty sure the 360s runs off of 12v. You can get closer to this with 4 3.7v cells, meaning you don't have to waste as much energy (or heat) stepping the voltage down to the 12v you need. You'll also need to pay attention to the discharge rating, "C" If that 18V pack won't discharge at 1C or so, it's no good.
Maybe have a look at 8-12 of these, 4 of these, or 4 of pretty much anything else on this page.

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ssmith43654
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Re: Xbox 360 SLIM Aluminium Unibody Laptop

Post by ssmith43654 » Thu Jan 03, 2013 7:32 pm

ttsgeb wrote:I would consider using a copper base and heat pipes that screw into the aluminum just to make sure the heat spreads out quick enough. Just being solid aluminum may not do enough to spread the heat from that one area. Also, It couldn't hurt to still have shallow fins on the topside of the case Any little bit you can add to the surface area counts. You could even do this in a decorative fashion, mimicking the design shown during the start-up sequence.
On top of all of this, I would try to keep the inside of the case as smooth as possible. The less surface area there, the less heat can dissipate back into the xbox. Be sure that the outside has significantly more surface area to it.


Passively cooled sounds like an awesome idea, though, and you could probably manage to build a rather thin 15 inch laptop if you can make it work for ya.

With the battery, don't try and get a pre-built solution. I'm pretty sure the 360s runs off of 12v. You can get closer to this with 4 3.7v cells, meaning you don't have to waste as much energy (or heat) stepping the voltage down to the 12v you need. You'll also need to pay attention to the discharge rating, "C" If that 18V pack won't discharge at 1C or so, it's no good.
Maybe have a look at 8-12 of these, 4 of these, or 4 of pretty much anything else on this page.
Hi,

yeah I could have fins, but they would have upside down as I want to machine the whole aluminium block upside down. I like the heatpipe and copper base idea - that might work really well.

I was looking at a model rc car/plane lithium battery and it had a continuous discharge rate of 10c which is a lot. I like the batteries you suggested - espacially the larger cells flat cells. If I hooked four together, I would only need to convert down voltage for the 5v line (which I believe is used only for standby)
Never Give up; until you succeed...

Please take a look at my blog page, where I have built an xbox 360 Laptop - http://seb3.yolasite.com/sebs-blog.php

ttsgeb
Posts:155
Joined:Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:19 pm
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Re: Xbox 360 SLIM Aluminium Unibody Laptop

Post by ttsgeb » Thu Jan 03, 2013 10:08 pm

So, you're wanting to have the mobo suspended from the top of the case?

Also, those links I gave you may not be the best for you, I grabbed them from an American based company, and if you're actually from Scotland, shipping them overseas will be... inconvenient...

As far as building the case goes, it seems that if you're having it milled from a solid block to hold the mobo, it seems it'd be nicer to have the top and sides on part, and then have the bottom screw in. What side it's milled from makes little difference, and you'd probably want to come in from both sides anyway to have an option for a cleaner design.

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