Seeing that i have time on my hands, i decided to increase the air cooling capability of my Xbox.

My requirements / objectives :
- Increase air flow within the Xbox (increase the air flow into the case)
- Prevent dust buildup (maintain positive pressure and filtering the inlet fans)
- Do not void the warranty (no chassis modification or opening of the console

Part A : Setup theory

In the Xbox, there is two main possible inlet / outlet points, where are : (xbox, lying horizontal with you looking at it in front)
- the right side (not the hdd side)
- the rear

Before deciding on my air cooling setup, lets do some research. We shall use the HardOCP Nyko vs Pelican review as a case study : http://console.hardocp.com/article.html?ar...CxoY29uc29sZQ==
From the review, we can see that :
- Nyko is an outlet type cooler, which sucks air out of the xbox. It is mounted on top of the existing 2 Delta 70mm fans, and has a body which acts like a small shroud. It has 3 fans, running at 12v.
- Pelican is an inlet type cooler, which pushes air into the xbox. It is mounted on the right side (or bottom if the xbox is verticle). It has 1 fan, running at 5v.

Seeing the review results, we find that the Nyko is better than the Pelican by about 2.3C at best. So most people would think that having an inlet at side, and outlet at back type setup would be good. Until i read this : http://www.overclockers.com/tips336/

It seems that fan stacking, doesnt really help much, unless, you stack a stronger fan on top a weaker (which is same as using just the stronger fan alone), or you stack a contra rotating fan on top of another. In that case, why does the Nyko increase the cooling performance of the Xbox?

I figured that it is because the 3 fans on the Nyko, collectively, together with the shroud, sucks more CFM than the 2 stock fans inside the Xbox. This is not really a efficient design, and it would be better if the original 2 fans are just removed, and the Nyko is used alone.

Also, what impressed me is that the Pelican, having only 1 fan, and running at 5V, managed to hold off just a 2.3C difference. If the voltage were to increased to stock 12V, and more fans were added, i believe the cooling performance will be better that of the Nyko. Even better still, if the Nyko can be modded of push air into the case instead, and mounted onto the rear, and the 2 original stock fans removed, that would have been the idea situation.

But of course, we cant open the case in order to preserve the warranty. So the rear fans must be left as it is. Thus, the basic setup of the xbox air cooling has to be inlet at the side, and outlet at the rear with the above reasons as my justification.


Part B : The equipment and setup

The fans that i'll be choosing will be determined by its :
- air volume (CFM)
- fan noise
- static pressure
- dimension

Actually, before i did the research, i actually gotten myself 2x 70mm thin profile fans pushing about 30CFM and mounted them on the rear. The air flow was pretty muffled because of the grill behind, and turbulence caused by the original 2 fans served to further decrease the performance of the 2 new fans. I have now removed the two fans, and decided to remount them on the side, to push air in instead.

The problem im facing now is, whether the current fan i am using has enough static pressure to force air into the case. Because the air flow from the fan will be obstructed by
- filter
- plastic grill
- internal metal grill
I'm also wondering whether does a home made shroud be able to improve performance.

- to be continued with pictures and more updates -

im not actually using nyko, but im using the nyko vs pelican as an example to show the ineffectiveness of just using outlet
my project is to, if possible, put both inlet and maybe a stronger outlet over the original xbox 360 fans
my plan is to put more inlet, and slightly less outlet, so that there is abit of positive pressure
it'll prevent dust from entering the vents

im also considering fabricating a duct, but i'll try testing to see whether duct or no duct will be any difference

Good idea, if :

- you dont move your xbox much
- you can afford to on the air con all the time

I cant . I travel between two houses often, and one of the house dont have air cond. Besides that i dont have moolah to on the air con all the time whenever i play .

haha thats why u gotta use positive pressure to keep the dust out. as well as filter the inlet, but u can never get rid of it 100% la

i am using external power source, but i was hoping i can make my own shroud, tho it wont be easy. basically the idea is just like what u meant. two fans for inlet, just like the pelican, and two fans for outlet, like the nyko
but for the outlet, u have to have stronger fans than the stock delta one
and for positive pressure, u have to have stronger fans for the inlet than the outlet

that translates to alot of noise
unless, you use a shroud, and a big 120mm fan, but its ugly, and cumbersome >.<

yeah best is actually to evenly distribute the air flow from the GPU and the CPU
but i cant open it without voiding the warranty >.<

will try to get pics soon
now is just the 2x inlet only

I know its destroys xbox 360s by starving the unit of power. But im referencing the nyko for the purpose of studying its air cooling capabilities and its design.

Search what?

the xcm voids warranty cause it requies me to open the xbox
in fact, if i can cut my own hole, i'll put an even better fan than the xcm

but i dont want to void my warranty
cause putting the fan wont be a permanent solution, it wont fix the problem
i rather send back to singapore and change the xbox. who knows by end of this year, Opus board will be out and i'll get to change for it 0.o then i wont have any 3ROd anymore =D
that is, if the Opus can actually fix the problem

Who said wait 3 months? Most people RMA in Singapore take 10 days.

You use your XCM, it doesnt work, and it'll void the warranty, and you cant get a new one.

I rather wait 10 days, and get a new one or refurbished one. At least i still can play after mine 3ROD.
You use your XCM, it'll still 3ROD, and you cannot get warranty. You'll have to buy a new one to play. You can do xclamp, but it wont last long.

Which is better? Wait 10 days or pay RM1500 again?

Ok we believe that you are still schooling, so please, do not talk like you are 12 years old ok? Its so embarassing.

lol we have few members here change already
anyway believe what you want to
cause when your 3ROD comes, you'll understand what we're talking here
right now you think your XCM can save your console from 3ROD
its a matter of time
then you'll know, you shouldn't have voided your warranty

The purpose of this thread, as MmxZero pointed out, is to determine the best ventilation method, and to what extend would stacking a fan like the Nyko intercooler does, serves to help air flow. Its not directly 3ROD related, more on air cooling. Having better ventilation doesnot eliminates 3ROD, but it serves to prolong the period before 3ROD, on top of that, extend the life of every component within.

But anyhow, thanks for the support .

Anyway, back to the topic, I kinda did a trial by air cooling the sides, and i roughly was able to tell that it didnt really helped much. i'll try to determine why, and on top of that, need to find a more systematic method of testing results cause i've been relying on my hand .

PS : i would appreciate if the mod is kind enough to purge the past posts that veered off course. i apologize for somewhat fanning the flame.

This post has been edited by daijoubu: Apr 12 2008, 03:25 PM

I've noticed too that the holes on the other side (top) is larger than those that of the bottom grill, which shows that MS really did botched up the desing of the xbox. Such a pity. Anyway thanks for sharing your experience. I did wanted to put a fan on the top too, but the hole is too small. Perhaps a shroud will do, but i have no time to make a proper shroud at the moment .

Some updates, after using the fan at the side, it seems that the temperature did not decrease as much as when putting the fan on the rear. This blows out my whole initial theory >.<.

edit : By the way, what type of 80mm fan you used at the bottom? I've used 70mm fans, mounted right next to the grill. The static pressure of the fan isnt strong enough to overcome the grills, which i believe is the reason to blame why that setup doesnt cool the xbox significantly better than mounting it on the rear (which has larger grill holes).

This post has been edited by daijoubu: Apr 15 2008, 08:50 AM

Good stuff man Got at least 1 person interested in the same idea as mine. But unfortunately one of my constraint is that i cant void the warranty, which serves as the greatest challenge to setup a proper cooling system onto my Xbox.

Anyway, i have thought of dust, and the only was is to filter the intake. This wont eliminate it for good, but it'll greatly reduce the amount. But to filter the intake, you'll need a fan with a high static pressure so that it'll be able to push the air through. To achieve this, you can do two ways :

- to maintain aesthetics, you can opt to use a high speed 80mm, but the draw back is that it is VERY noisy. be prepared to use at least 45++dBa fans. standard 80mm filters can be used. best is to use two fans to obtain a good enough air flow

- to maintain silence, you need to use a larger fan, like a 120mm fan, and use a shroud to reduce the size to the inlet area. you'll have a more silent operation, more CFM, but its bulky and looks ugly (hard to blend it into the xbox). there is a catch here tho. using the shroud, you have to design the shroud in a way that the outlet hole total area does not differ much of the inlet area. if its too big, then you'll lose pressure, if its too small, you'll most likely constrict the air flow

My intention is to actually do trial and error for both of these method and see which works best. Progress is slow cause im trying to source some parts to make the shroud . I could either opt to makeshift my own shroud from cardboard or aluminium sheets, or an easier method is to buy a broken intercooler or fan stand (nyko, pelican, or 3rd party), rip out the old fan, and put the new fan in and use it as a shroud.

Hope you have better progress =D. Update us too ya.

Looks good bro. Could you get me the model number of the fans on the Nyko?

Also, i can see that you use a 120mm fan next to the intake. I tried that but i feel very little air flow into the case because of the lack of shroud, and the very small holes of the grill

Haha noisy but is the CFM it push good? Could u get me the model number of the fan? I cant see it properly cause your picture is blur. Want to find out more about the fan's specs

Guys, i'm gonna put this project on indefinate postponement because of a major change in my life. In fact my whole xbox gaming will be on hold for a while as i readjust to this change in life.

To the rest of you, happy gaming.