Thoughts on this limited edition xbox on eBay

[MasterChief]

Hello all, new to the forums and am looking to buy an Xbox from eBay.

Currently looking at one that looks in really good condition, but i don't

know enough about Xbox modding, and wanted to ask a few questions.

Here is a link to the Console

 

1, Asked the seller if it has a mod chip and he said its TSOP flashed,

so should i be looking for one with a mod chip, does it make a difference.

 

2, Also noticed it didn't have an HDMI, and wondered is it better to get one 

with HDMI installed, because the price seems to go up a lot with HDMI on

the console.

so is it worth it ?

 

3, Is there anything else i should be looking out for before buying a modded

console, like is the the hard drive size important or I saw one with extra ram,

is that important ?

 

Your thoughts would be appreciated ogxboxers.

 

[brooselee]

1. TSOP flash is almost as good as a chip IMO. ALMOST because if you mess something up on a TSOP, its harder to recover than a chip. With it already TSOP'd, you are likely only going to run into an issue if you have a bad flash. Also means the xbox is rev 1.0-1.4. In my opinion, that is good. Better compatibility with games, less video issues. I wouldnt have an issue buying a TSOP box, but I have TSOP'd my own and am very comfortable with the process.

2. Internal HDMI is nice. Price goes up because it is not a cheap mod regarding parts and labor. HDMI isn't necessary for most. Component cables are still great if you get good ones and your TV supports it. I also have a XBOX2HDMI and a Nimbus. Both work just fine, and are external adapters, but cant say I see a huge improvement over my monster component cables, but they are nice to have for my newer TVs.

3. Id say clock cap removed/replaced, possibly recapped in general. The RAM is nice if you plan on running emulators. Hard drive size... go big. At least 2tb. I just bought four, 4tb WD blue drives to put in some consoles I have lying around. If you are going more than 2tb, I would look into flashing CERBIOS. Anddddd... that brings us back to your first question. If you are going to flash an newer bios, definitely get comfortable with the process first. It really isn't hard since the "hard mod" has been done for you by bridging the TSOP points already. 

[MasterChief]

Thanks for all the info brooselee,

Now wondering how do I know what to flash, I mean if the console is

already flashed does it need re flashing / upgrading for newer hard drives

and new features ?

Also are XBOX2HDMI and Nimbus as good as an internal modded adapter ?

Finally that Xbox I was looking at has a load of emulators, so now I am thinking

maybe extra ram might be needed and a 4TB drive for more stuff.

There seems to be so many things to take into account it's a little daunting.

 

[brooselee]

Its fun @MasterChief. I'd take one thing on at a time. 4tb and more RAM sound like good upgrades. I see more benefit in the 4tb HDD over the RAM. If I had to pick one over the other, I would go the 4tb drive first. XBOX2HDMI, Chimeric, Nimbus, Pound are all just component to HDMI adapters. The internal mod is going to give you the best picture and best response times since it isnt converting anything.

[coldasijs]

@MasterChief if you want to build the ultimo Xbox you would want to also go for a 1.4 ghz model

joking a side, you can consider going for the SSD route. You can fit the entire xbox library on a 2 TB drive. If you remove the crappy games you can easily get away wit a 1 TB drive. I think I have like 150 games on my SSD and still have space left for 100-150 games. If you pair this with a startech ide2sata adapter and UDMA5 bios then you get a nice boost in load times. Added benefit is that you reduce the noise. You csn replace the standard fan with a 80mm noctua fan to get a very quiet XBOX. There is also a fan available on smazon that drops in without modifications, but that becomes a bit expensive if I have to ship it to Europe. So no experience with that fan here.

The internal HDMI does offer the best picture quality, but I don’t think you can spot the difference over a Chimeric cable. I would skip the pound (or similar) cables as they add unstable inputlag of 1-2 frames. Not noticeable in all games, but it makes the system feel less snappy. It’s not bad, especially for the price, but other options are just better. 

Anyway you can go nuts with modding your XBOX, but there is nothing wrong with picking one up together with a free crt an play some games 

[MasterChief]

Thanks for the info coldasijs,

   There's some interesting stuff there, never knew about a 1.4ghz model, and what you

where saying about the hard drive sizes is interesting.

So if i brought one with a 500GB hard drive to start with, and needed a bigger drive later I

could just copy it and swap it out with ease ?

Also the quiet fan replacement sounds interesting as well, will wait and see how loud the

console is first though.

There is so much to take in, I am thinking to start with, just get a modded console and go

from there, for instance after doing some reading last night, i am not sure i need the 128MB 

ram, but i would however like HDMI, also after reading your post i need to research hard drive

speeds, for mechanical drives VS SSD's and that UDMA5 you mentioned while they are

running in an  Xbox, maybe someone has a speed test chart ?

 

[coldasijs]

there isn't a nice overview because it is also game dependent. Especially games that load a lot of small files will benefit from SSD. Then the UDMA factor are also mixed reports. Some commented that on HDD they didn't notice a difference, but this can be because the HDD was the limiting factor.

I noticed at least in mafia that the load time dropped from 8 secs to 4 secs with UDMA5.

This is also a nice test with Half life 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/originalxbox/comments/u6hjfv/half_life_2_xbox_load_time_comparison_ssd_hdd_oc/

 

BTW this 1.4 GHz upgrade requires professional hardware to pull off, you need at least a BGA rework station to pull it off. You also need to get your hands on the right processor and then still you need to mod a lot of games just to get them running. It is definitely one of the cooler mods, just simply because it is possible to do this on the XBOX. I was lucky that I could get my hands on one, but that project is sort of waiting also on Stellar HD install (new HDMI mod plus modchip)

 

 

[MasterChief]

Thanks for the info.

Although all games may not benefit, I suppose you do get a quieter Xbox, will look more into this.

 

I have been noticing a bit of pattern with the mods, such as you can get a 1.4ghz CPU but not

everything will benefit, or you can upgrade your RAM but not everything will benefit, or you

can flash a new bios but not everything will benefit , also you can add a SSD but not everything

will benefit, I am thinking the best setup might be to have multiple different setups.

 

Have a random question, I think to use an HDMI mod I would need to change from pal to an NTSC

menu,  because the pal system doesn't output progressive (480p & 720p), is that right ? and if so

what is the effect of say a hard drive full of pal games running in NTSC, does this cause problems

or not optimal video output? I mean pal games should be 30 or 60hz and NTSC is different.

[coldasijs]

It all depends on the bottleneck whether faster storage leads to faster load times. Not all games are limited by the storage

With respect to ram the story is pretty simple, all standard xbox games are designed to use only 64 mb RAM. They will not use more RAM if you add more RAM. That’s why the added benefit is only limited too homebrew and emulators.

Now for the cpu the story is a bit more complicated. Some games have tied the game speed to the cpu clock speed, as this is always the same for every console. So when you double the cpu speed you basically run the games at twice the speed. So we unlike pc gaming faster HW doesn’t make games run better. Most games you only need to patch the XBE, others you have to downclock the processor to get them to work.

It’s advised to switch your xbox to NTSC. 480p and especially 720p games look stunning compared to the PAL output. XBOX I think supports PAL60 out of the box, it’s definitely available in the other dashes. Whether PAL games run on NTSC depends on the game. To my knowledge they do not run faster like on the 8 and 16 bit era consoles. Games either work on on the correct speed or they just don’t. I think most games you can fix in the xbe. I just downloaded usa games only, when I need to run PAL games I just switch the console to PAL.

[MasterChief]

@coldasijs

Thank you for all the useful info, it's appreciated.

To start going to try and grab the console I linked to,  because it comes with the IDE

adapter you mentioned  for use with UDMA, that will allow me to fit a SSD, then flash 

a new bios that supports UDMA. (will have to be very careful doing the flash),

and from there look to get the HDMI mod., and that should be a nice little setup to start.

 

 

[Bowlsnapper]

I wanna chip this thing so bad, add all kinds of LEDs and what not. Love mint consoles.