Okay...

[MasterPrime]

I'm having a hell of a time finding any kind of schematics of an xbox.
I gotta original xbox (not handy) that I'm going to gut and turn into an HTPC running windows with a frontend for emulators and movies for her kids. This way they'll get access to their movies and games and when they get older they can use it to start learning how to operate a computer and browse the internet.

For now, I just need to put together a parts list so she knows what to buy and I'm not sure what the case is like on the inside. I don't actually have the xbox here and since she lives in another state it'll be awhile. She's going to order the parts I tell her to get and next time she's out here I'll set it up for her.

Anybody got pics and dimensions or already have a parts list put together? That would be wonderful.

Thanks.

[DK]

If you want to use an old Xbox for emulators and movies, why put a PC in it?? Movies can be played beautifully off XBMC and the xbox can run emulators up to N64.

[MasterPrime]

well to start with the ODD on the xbox is broken. The tray doesn't come out anymore.
In addition to emulators and movies, they have some educational games that need to be installed to a windows environment to play.

I'd also like to give them something that is upgradable and that they will use for quite awhile. While they are only 4 and 7 years old, eventually they'll need access to the internet and they'll need to learn how to operate a computer.

Since they live out of state, I'd like to get it done now, rather then have to make a second upgrade to it later on and have to spend more money on extraneous parts.

[stuntpenguin007]

Do you want to run windows on a hacked xbox or put a pc inside of an xbox shell? The xbox has a 733mhz p3 processor, which is kinda slow, and the only way I've seen windows running on an xbox is while it is using some sort of virtual machine on linux, and it was windows 98.

edit: read your first post more carefully, you said you were going to gut it and swap the insides. In which case you'll probably end up using a microATX.

[MasterPrime]

That's the plan, but I'd like to see the insides so I know if I need to get an internal or external power supply and how many HDD's I can put in there while leaving room for cooling and PCI cards.

[stuntpenguin007]

I guess I don't have any pictures handy (check xbox-scene.com) but, the power supply is about 3 inches wide, and with an adapter can work to power a computer motherboard. There's a hard drive tray above that (which is about 6 inches wide). Assuming you decide not to put in a disc drive, you could probably use all the pci slots on your motherboard, but if you do have a disc drive you want to put in, don't expect to fit much else in there.

[MasterPrime]

I guess I don't have any pictures handy (check xbox-scene.com) but, the power supply is about 3 inches wide, and with an adapter can work to power a computer motherboard. There's a hard drive tray above that (which is about 6 inches wide). Assuming you decide not to put in a disc drive, you could probably use all the pci slots on your motherboard, but if you do have a disc drive you want to put in, don't expect to fit much else in there.

Thanks for the info. As it turns out, I'm just gonna replace the ODD and softmod it.