Cutting an Xbox down - a few questions

[bartre]

Hey all.
well, i've got a couple spare xboxes around, so what pops into my mind?
opening them up an tearing them apart!
so a couple facts to get started
1 - i'm going to be putting them in a custom case.
2 - i want to remove the dvd drive and swap out the power supply w/ something smaller.

so, to get what i want, i've gathered that i'll need to do a few things:
TSOP flash the board so that i can have no DVD drive hooked up.
use an adapter so that i can use a laptop hard drive.
swap the heatsinks with these - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835110107" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
build my own psu, or find a replacement

so on to the questions -
is the info i have right, or am i some kind of idiot?
where can i get a psu to use? i have versions 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 motherboards available.

[crazy_asylum]

The information you have is pretty much it, but i wouldn't recommend trying to make your own PSU. most people swap it out with a picoPSU, PW 200-M is probably best. and you'll also need an xbox to atx power supply converter, you can buy one or make one.

[stuntpenguin007]

Pico-psu is the way to go for sure. If you go that route, you'll need something like this: http://shop.sickmods.net/product/ATX_to ... nverter_2/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's been a long time since I've tsop flashed an xbox, but I remember bridging two points with a paperclip to enable writing to the tsop. Don't do that... just solder the points. It will save you a lot of frustration.

[Joes2Silly]

Sickmods hasn't had those adapters in stock for a while, so you may need to build an adapter yourself. I'll post up a link to the schematic, but other than that you should be good. If you want to go even slimmer you might think about using a laptop hard drive.

[eagle5953]

I started slimming down an XBox - hope you finish yours!

I don't know about trimming the PCB down. I think it's pretty component-dense and may be a multilayer board. If you try, though, do it first in case it kills the board. Better to do that early than after putting a bunch of work on it (TSOP flash, etc).

Using a laptop hard drive is easy, using the adapter as you said. Pico-PSU seems to be what everyone uses, so that's probably the way to go. You will need to do a TSOP flash to be rid of the disk drive (where I stopped). It should just involve a wire connecting two points. I didn't look at the heatsinks, but as long as they keep it cool enough, they should be fine.

[hackmodford]

Or you could just canibalize a dvd drive.... Just leave the bare circuit board and throw out the rest. The xbox won't know the difference

[eagle5953]

Or you could just canibalize a dvd drive.... Just leave the bare circuit board and throw out the rest. The xbox won't know the difference

I'm debating doing this, actually. I bought a broken XBox from Skyone - might use the disk drive from that. I want to keep the original disk drive in case I need to transfer any additional games to it.

[Joes2Silly]

If anyone needs a board from a broken xbox DVD drive I have one and a lot of other parts.

[bartre]

wow, thanks for all the help everyone!
i think i may have found a good power supply, but how would i need to hook it up?
the power supply is here:
http://www.mini-box.com/PW-200M-DC-DC-power-supply" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

also, which version of xbox is best for cutting down? 1.1/1.2 or 1.3-1.5?

[bartre]

Sickmods hasn't had those adapters in stock for a while, so you may need to build an adapter yourself. I'll post up a link to the schematic, but other than that you should be good. If you want to go even slimmer you might think about using a laptop hard drive.

If you could post that schematic, that would be awesome!

[Harlequin]

http://diy.sickmods.net/Our_Products/AT ... nstall_It/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://diy.sickmods.net/Our_Products/AT ... nstall_It/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I believe that these links actually post the legit pinouts of both connector heads. You can purchase an ATX 24 pin extender or 20 pin -> 24 pin adapter and just cut the connectors and solder them to the applicable lines for the xbox. I *believe* that's all that you really need to do.