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Dusting Off My Blue XCm XBox, Complete Rebuild Advice.


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First, i would like to thank Rocky5 for giving me a reason to break this xbox out again! 

  I just finished setting up a 1TB drive and was going to drop it inside the xbox until i realized i need a 2TB drive before i do that. Before i do that i would like to take care  of a few things. Here are some of the things i will be needing help on. 

  1. Which drive is better, WD Blue or Black?
  2. Which Bios should i be using now?
  3. Which version mobo should i use?

   I haven't touched this xbox in 10 years. I'm a little rusty. I totally forgot how to flash this thing. I have 5 other regular xbox's here and want to rebuild the perfect unit in 1 shot while i have the chance. I'll pick the best version board that's recommended and swap all the parts over. Then i plan to flash all the bios banks that i can with the recommended ones. Once all that is done i want to drop in that 2TB WD black or blue drive. 

   Can i get any advice? I've been out of circulation for awhile but i've got the old bug back! Thanks guys

Xbox.jpg

Edited by excaliburlives
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1) You won’t notice a difference. Put a Purple in there for all it matters (yes purples are a thing) but blacks are the mainstream drives. Resource: 

 

2) Depends on what you want. I know nothing about this particular console but since it has XECUTER 3 printed on the LCD I’ll assume you have one and you can pretty much stick with that BIOS as I believe it’s the most feature packed. I do not know if IND-Bios works on those chips but it seems the next most likely contender as it’s got extensive customization options. Resource: https://www.reddit.com/r/originalxbox/wiki/bios/features

3) Again, depends on what you want. There’s little practical difference between each revision board, so, I’d go with pretty much anything except a 1.0 or 1.6 as you have to rebuild the LPC and 1.0 has that stupid loud GPU fan. But maybe you prefer a 1.6 because the clock caps are good. Or maybe you’re a crazy person and want the 1.0’s extra fan header to make it easier to install some custom liquid cooling. If you’re REALLY trying to build a perfect unit you may want to consider installing a board with RAM/CPU upgrades but this can hurt your game compatibility and your wallet.

 

4) Holy BALLS that is an incredible looking machine. Hats off to you, my friend. 

Edited by Magicaldave
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I guess ill pick the board i want once i open those other units. Right not this one is a 1.6. I'll just stick with the blue drives if it really doesn't matter. Now i'm looking for a SATA to IDE adapter. Funny thing is..... i bought a cheap 2 pack for $10 i think and they didn't work. So i bought a nice one with foam backing on it for around $18 and it still didn't work. Come to find out its my 40 pin ide cable. I bought a 40pin 80 ide cable now it works, but with the cheap adapter?? the more expensive won't work weird??? Not sure if i should stick with the cheapo's or not, lol.

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The adapter/cable thing is definitely a mixed bag. I had one of those cheap adapter that worked for about a year with a 40-wire and then the console wouldn’t boot any more, and IGR never worked until we removed the DVD drive. 

People have said those cheap adapters have killed their drives on occasion, so be careful when installing one but if it boots now you’re *probably* fine. 

As far as the more expensive adapter, which did you buy? The one most commonly recommended is the StarTech IDE2SAT2. Never had any issues with these. The only difference you might really notice is that the cheap ones tend to initialize a bit slower so it might take a few more seconds to get to the dash. 

Also not sure if this is an option with X3 BIOS and the blue faceplate on your drive, but try swapping or removing your DVD drive when using the more expensive adapter.

For the board, if you’ve already got a 1.6 I see little reason to switch. You can keep your clock cap and the rebuild work has already been done. 

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I agree with Magicaldave comments.

I have a X3 chip with the LCD in a 1.6 box using a 2tb hard disk.

I purchased 4 SATA to IDE adapters from AliExpress and found that 2 worked in the Xbox using a 80way lead and the other 2 only work in a PC.

The only reason to go with  lower MB (1.0 to 1.5) would be for the extra RAM upgrade.

As for the clock I have set a local time sync IP for updating the time and date on boot as all my boxes are networked so clock cap not needed.

 

Cheers

 

SS Dave

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I understand. As for the sata adapter goes, i used the Kingwin Sata To Ide Bridge Board Adp-06.  That one didn't work. I laready ordered the WD Blue 7400 rpm 2TB which will be here next friday. I'll just try to hunt down some more artwork in the meantime. 

Edited by excaliburlives
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