Search the Community

I'm planning to order some boards from Lukas and performing this mod on my main box and a couple other ones, but I have some questions that I need answers to and I don't want to annoy him with this stuff. If you guys would be willing to offer some advice, I would really, really appreciate it. -What is the best way to "ball" the underside of the interposer? Do I just have to organize the solder balls by hand, without a stencil or anything? That will be tedious as fuck. -When preparing to solder the CPU to the interposer, Lukas' github instructions say to "flux" every pad individually, but I think he means "tin" them? Otherwise the CPU pins will have nothing to bond to! Can anybody clarify this? Also, (and I wasn't able to find anything helpful with a google search about this) am I going to have a problem soldering the CPU to the interposer without ruining the bond I've established between the interposer and the board? Or the components (caps, etc.,) I've soldered to the interposer? I don't want to reheat everything I've already soldered if I can avoid it... -What is the best way to align the interposer to the board? Do I have to just eyeball it and see that the interposer balls are lining up with the pads on the mobo? If so, then god DAMN.... -How do I hook up a #STPCLK switch to the VCC/GND leads? -Lukas has already recommended a good rework station that I will pick up in 3-4 weeks or so, but does anybody have recommendations for a soldering iron/station? Maybe some sort of kit that comes with everything I will need for this project? In fact, what WILL I need for this project? I only have a few tools in mind that I'm sure of so far. I have basic soldering skills. Modchip installs are cake. But this is a huge step up from soldering a friggin' pin header and some random wires. -Could I theoretically use XBoverclock to push this CPU even higher? Maybe to 1.6Ghz? I am seriously overwhelmed here. I will have no problem being able to do this once I know where to start and gain some momentum. I learn things pretty fast and am pretty coordinated. I thought about maybe starting on some RROD 360s or something and then moving on to this after that. Once I set my mind to something, I do it, whether I succeed or fail. So I will not be swayed by anybody saying, "Dude, I think you probably shouldn't bother. You're in over your head." Yes, I'm afraid of fucking up, but I know for a fact that I want to do this. It will give me immense satisfaction knowing I was able to pull this off. I need help though! Once I get 3 done, I will order more interposers and start upgrading boxes regularly, along with extra ram and the MakeMHZ Xbox HDMI. Hopefully I can start selling them to people for a non-rip-off price, because I know people want this done and it would make me really happy to be able to make it a reality for people without them having to spend 1,500 bucks on ebay. I love the OG Xbox and I want to be a useful contributor to the scene! Can you guys please give me some advice? I suppose this is a step in the right direction? http://www.easybga.com/en/supply-bga-reballing-kit_l101_p9.html

My name is Sam. I am from the UK. .... Okay, perhaps I shouldn't be so straight-to-the-point. I am someone who tinkers with old electronics. Over the last few years I've been teaching myself to solder by getting hold of cheap playstations and chipping them, from the oldest to the newest. Reason being, the solder points get tinier and more difficult to do as technology progresses. Around 2011 I got into Xbox modifications, and have seen good websites come and go with a wealth of information come and go (sad face). I am glad to see this website emerge from the dust to continue the trend. Now, onto my collection: I have a number of Xboxes. Most of them are broken, some of them work. Mainly because I have attempted RAM upgrades and failed. I also own a Trusty 1.4GHZ box (and had to go to quite a lot of trouble to get the thing to cool sufficiently to get any stable activity out of it!) I purchased this three years ago via Trusty on XBMC4XBOX's forum. More recently I have acquired an N64Freak 1.0GHZ box via this forum. I've got to say, the quality of the work is vastly different on both, though both now get fairly equal usage due to the fact some games are more stable on the 1.0GHZ than the 1.4GHZ (even with patching). I have as of late come across several downloads I'd like to get hold of on this forum, but cannot get them because I need to have at least 3 forum posts. Hmm, I wonder why that is. It does make me a little peeved that some sites force you to make an account just to download files, and then wonder why they have lots of inactive accounts with no posts, then delete them en masse, possibly because they look so similar to spammy accounts. But this... is a whole new level. I have no intention of spamming, so I guess this policy is having a (probably desirable) effect of forcing me to actually make good quality posts in order to be allowed the privilege of downloading. Possibly to ensure people actually contribute to the community in order to benefit from it. Okay, I can see that being a good reason. So here we are, my introduction. I will follow up this post with some photographs I have taken from the inside of my two souped up Xboxes.