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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.

Edited by samspin
my grammer when fast-typing is atrocious. correcting as it's annoying me.
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Here comes my second post, with a photo of the inside of my N64freak 1.0GHZ Xbox. I have to say I was very pleased at the condition this arrived in- very expertly clean. It turned out that the upgraded CPU uses exactly the same amount of space as the original 733MHZ CPU. So... when I got this I had an idea I've been wanting to try that might remind some people of the old Xbox-Scene days. Fitting fans to the CPU and GPU. I was inspired by this old archived thread: http://web.archive.org/web/20080403113352/http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=600530 (note: most of the images might take a few clicks to see since they are saved on Photobucket!)

Anyhow, since it is almost impossible to find IceberQ Pro 4 kits anymore, I had to dig around for a solution. Eventually I came across these: Evercool UFO Universal VGA Cooler https://www.ebay.com/itm/EverCool-VC-RI-R-Mini-UFO-Universal-VGA-Cooler-Red/252457072614?hash=item3ac79d37e6:g:du8AAMXQwMdRFNrj These fans happen to have the fitting holes exactly where they need to be to mount them on the Xbox motherboard. These fans also come with a Molex power passthrough connector to save you buying one separately. Just like with the IceberQ kit, you need to remove the original black plastic retaining clips from the board, in my case I used an old disposable soldering tip to melt the clips off (I was too wimpy to risk damaging the traces using a knife). You can use the original Xbox screws for mounting the fan on the GPU. For the CPU however, you will need to use plastic spring fittings to fit the fan on. I used hot glue on the bottom of the board to help keep the thing fastened down, just like in the original tutorial. The result is below (sorry I only took one photo of this board).

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Edited by samspin
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Here comes my third post: what I had to resort to in order to get my Trusty 1.4GHZ Xbox cooled sufficiently. I found that the supplied thin aluminium heatsink that he supplies with a small fan atop does not do enough, even with the black exhaust fan being set to full. (see this thread on XBMC4XBOX forums for example photos: https://www.xbmc4xbox.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17) Hardly desirable for long term use. (Note: I am not here to diss Trusty. I do not deny that it is incredible that he has found the technical knowledge to upgrade an XBOX CPU as far as it will possibly go.) Anyway, I purchased a thick copper heatsink and had to drill holes into it in order to attach it to the board. This involved buying a titanium drill bit, and drilling partway through in small doses. Reason being, the copper and the titanium got so hot from the friction that it would freeze up the drill. I therefore resorted to putting the drill bit and heatsink in my freezer every so often, then getting them out again to keep going. Eventually I did it, and was able to reuse the original bolts Trusty had left behind. I honestly cannot find where I bought the copper heatsink from as it has been four years since I did this, but if I do, I will update this thread. For good measure, I mounted one of my spare Evercool fans exactly where the bolts fit. I would have just used one of those directly on the CPU but of course, it is not enough large enough to fit the surface area of the larger 1.4GHZ CPU. Anyhow, it does provide sufficient enough cooling (and quietly) this way, although the hard disk tray does still need to be cut in order to have enough airflow space. Note: Since taking this photo I swapped the GPU plastic retaining clips for the actual Xbox screws after putting this board back in it's case, after ensuring proper application of thermal paste. At least you can see that it fits quite nicely. Anyone is welcome to ask for additional photos if interested. My next step is rewiring an old LG GDR-8163B drive and flashing it to make it compatible with all optical media (both originals and burned) and then fitting that.

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Edited by samspin
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  • 2 years later...
  • 2 weeks later...
On 8/12/2021 at 1:15 AM, joerazzzz said:

I have a N64 freak and a trusty as well. What did you purchase for the trusty cooling? Very interested in something better than the current setup.

I no longer have the Trusty board as the graphics side failed eventually (though I suspect it is the MCPX southbridge chip that developed a fault, as the only BIOS that would boot at all was a Cromwell-based BIOS). I sent it to N64 freak to recycle a couple of years ago, although I still have the copper block somewhere. I can't remember where I got the copper block but I can tell you where I got the fans (in case the link expires, they are called "Evercool Mini UFO VGA Cooler"): https://www.ebay.com/itm/22255328678 . Depending on where you are located I may be willing to send you my old copper block. Drop me a PM.

Edited by samspin
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