I know this has been covered once or twice before, but not in much detail, so I thought I would kick off a thread for anyone to chip in their Xbox silencing experiences. I also want to post this in SPCR even though the Xbox is not strictly a PC, as I am more likely to get some intelligent suggestions here than one of the Xbox forums!

I have recently bought one - not for games actually, my PC does fine for that, but to use the fantastic Xbox Media Centre for playing movies in my living room (over the network from my main PC). It's a simple, cheap solution for this BTW, as it will play just about any media. The only limitation is that it won't record TV.

Of course the first thing I did was take it apart, thereby invalidating its warranty the same day I bought it!! I installed a modchip to get XBMC working, and immediately started looking at ways of modding it to make it quieter, and seeing if I can improve the airflow at all.

The Xbox is ideal for silencing, as it only has 1 fan in the entire system (modern versions don't have the GPU fan as in the image below) so only has two sources of constant noise, the fan and HDD. But mine runs pretty hot (high 60s C in the warm Sydney summer) and I want to mod it for optimum airflow too.

I've looked at all the tutorials/forums over at Xbox Scene and have come up with a list of things I want to do. I'm wondering if anyone else has tried them or has any further comments/suggestions/experiences they can add to my own:

• Replace the stock thermal paste on CPU and GPU with Arctic Silver. I've just done this, and it has dropped temps by several degrees, well worth it.
• Replace the stock noisy 70mm fan with an 80mm Panaflo. Probably the most important mod as the stock one sounds like a buzz saw. Xbox Scene has plenty of tutorials on that, but I want to soft mount mine with EAR fan mounts. Will this be possible or are the clearances too tight (given the extra thickness the fan mounts will create)? Anyone tried this? I will probably attempt this in the next week or two, and report back here on my experiences.
  Update 22/2: Done, see post below. One thing to note: space is so tight for an 80mm fan I can't see a way of decoupling with EAR mounts, as this would move the fan 1-2mm further into the case, interfering with the mobo. It is also in contact with the HDD & DVD trays on either side, so it would still not be decoupled.
• Decouple Hard Drive. The stock 10GB Seagate is pretty quiet, but it's hard mounted to a plastic tray which will surely resonate quite a bit (I won't really be able to tell until I've done the fan mod first!). I might also upgrade to a larger (and maybe noisier/hotter) HDD in the future.
• Optimise airflow to run over the hottest components most efficiently. Probably the hardest and most contentious issue, and being a closed system you might think Microsoft have already done this. They have to a certain extent, but I think it can be improved on, although there is a risk of creating hot spots within the case.
  • Looking at the below image (bottom of pic is rear of case) you can see the exhaust fan sucks air in from the sides and the front, but most of the hot components are on the left of the picture, so I might try partially blocking the vent holes on the right. I'll have a look at measuring the temps of those 3 large capacitors on the top right first, and maybe leaving an intake gap near them.
  • The HDD sits in its tray over the top of the CPU/PSU on the left of the pic (the DVD on the right), which itself affects airflow a lot. The tray even has a vertical baffle underneath it to direct air towards the CPU. But not much air flows over the HDD itself, so I have thought of hacking the tray a bit to improve things. Has anyone else tried this?
  • Create some additional ducting with cardboard/plastic to direct air more. Haven't even though much about this yet, but I've done it successfully in my PC and I don't see why it shouldn't help here.
    
    The better I can get the airflow, the more I can turn the fan down (XBMC has a manual override setting) and keep it quiet and temperatures cool, which is my overall aim!
• Intake filtering. Err.... forget it!

That's the sum of my experiences/ideas, the floor is now open to anyone else. Now, Bluefront, do you have an Xbox?.......

Edited 22/2: Updated with Panaflo mod

Sorry I don't have any suggestions to offer.
I just need to try out that fan mod one of these days. My Xbox is terribly loud. Especially for trying to watch DVDs in quiet room.

Any idea what the rating on the 70mm fan is? Or really, ANY information on it?

The exact model of 70mm fan you get in various batches of xboxes varies.
I got a Canadian Xbox that came bundled with Crimson Skies & Project Gotham Racing 2.

The fan was REALLY loud. The loudest part of the system, even compared to a spinning DVD.

Compared to a first gen Xbox (1.0), the one with 2 fans (GPU & Case) it was much much louder.

I've done the Panaflo mod with a 80mm "low noise" version. In retrospect, I should have bought a slightly different model. The panaflo 80mm comes in three flavours, and I got the "quietest" one. However I need to run the fan at ~55-66% of full speed to reach cooling temps of 55C CPU (the recommended). So I think maybe the other two panaflo models may have worked better for me. The stock Xbox fan runs at 20%.

I didn't do anything to make my bigger HD quieter. I think any drive with low seeks should suffice. I can't hear my HD idle at my distance, though I do hear seeks.

I did cut part of the HD tray to fit a 80mm fan. Maybe that did something to airflow but I didn't check b4/after temps.

XBMC has the auto fancontrol whcih should suffice for you. It'll try to maintain a desired temp setting (default 55C) which is about right.

I just found this at Xbox-Scene:

The post is dated Nov 2002 so I guess it's a v1.0, and I have no idea what fan the current version (1.6) has. I might have a Google when I eventually do my fan mod.

Your post is interesting Edirol, as I am thinking of using the low noise Panaflo (the de-facto standard around here), as it is what I've already got. I will be disappointed if it is too low airflow and runs too fast/noisy. But maybe careful attention to the airflow as you mention might help.

I'll see how it performs when I do the mod....

Even at 66% it's still a lot quieter than the default fan of 1.4 and 1.6s. It could be quieter though. I could redo the arctic silver mod though...cuz I didn't use arctic silver and only used the compound that came with the zalman heatsinks. I'm not sure if that is that much worse than arctic silver.

Pangit, I find this thread very interesting and look forward to your findings concerning airflow.

I've had a 1.1 Xbox for over a year now. I think I have a moderately quiet stock fan (compared to one my friend has). Still, it's much too loud for my taste.

However I will most likely postpone any moddings for my xbox until the xi-fi or xecuter replacement cases are released. I might switch to a Panaflo fan before that, I dont know. It might take forever (literally) for those cases to become on sale..

Anyway, I'm very interested to know what you find with your experimentation with the airflow. It will most likely become useful information for the replacement case cooling desings as well.

Well I did the Panaflo fan mod, and it is much quieter now. No annoying "buzzing" at any speed. I've taken some photos and will post them on my website soon. It required quite a bit of case and fan modding to get it to fit, but Mr Dremel came in handy for that!

However I'm slightly disappointed in the temperatures, as they are no lower than before, around 65 deg C. I suppose I should have expected that as the Panaflo is a low airflow fan.

In XBMC you can either manually adjust the fan (10-100%) or set your desired temp and let it automatically control it. But even at 100% (which I think is 7V) it would not go below about 62 deg C. Bearing in mind that ambient was probably around 28 last night when I tried it.

I don't know how else I could do to improve temps other than increasing fan speed with a 12V mod (which I won't) as I don't think there isn't room inside for another Panaflo, either at the back or front. Hmmm... I think it's safe at these temps though, as Xboxes do run quite hot normally.

I haven't done anything with the HDD as it is quite quiet unless it's busy (which isn't that often), but it should be possible to soft mount it or even suspend it with some serious hacking of the plastic HDD tray. But that's for another time....

I forgot to mention last time that the standard fan on the xbox (1.4)...is actually decently quiet if you can stop it from vibrating with the case. Like if you power up the xbox with the top off you can hear the annoying noise. But if you hold the fan down with your hand so it doesn't rattle the metal inside case, it's fairly quiet.

Considering they were losing money on each Xbox sale when they first came out, you can understand why the workmanship inside would ba a little shoddy. Still though, their next-gen console had better be... better.

Yeah, if it wasn't for the incredibly annoying buzzing sound the stock fan on my 1.6 would probably be OK. All it needs is a quieter bearing really. When I took it out I noticed it is a Delta!

Nuff said.......

The only way I can think of to improve temps without increasing noise is to add some ducting between the fan and CPU/GPU.

The hard drive tray does a pretty good job but if I completely enclose the fan in a box that connects directly to the CPU/GPU heatsinks that will ensure 100% of the airflow will be sucked over them, rather than about 60-70% at the moment.

I'll report back on the results......

Well I've just got my modded Xbox back...

I had an Xecutor 2.6 Lite chip fitted, plus a Samsung SV1604 160gb HDD and an Arctic Cooling Pro TC fan fitted. (Didn't fancy trying to do all this myself considering I don't have a soldering iron or a dremmel).

Overall, including to/from shipping, it came to £82 (I supplied the HDD & fan).

Impressions are that is undoubtably quieter but not quiet quiet if you know what I mean . It's now acceptable for DVD/DivX playback, which it wasn't before.

I went for the Arctic because it of it's temp control/RPM adjustment. It's a couple of dbs louder than the Panaflo but it can shift a bit more air. I think it might need a small touch of oil as there's a tiny bit of whine and the wind down isn't a smooth sounding as I think it could be Hopefully, I can get at the fan without having to take the Xbox's top off.

I haven't had long enough to see how temps are but the unit still gets pretty warm.

One thing Microsoft really need to look at is putting a proper power switch on the back like the PS2. With the power connector connected but the unit off it's still warm, especially around/under where the hard drive is.

Overall, I'm happy..if a better cooling option comes along I might look at it and I hope in the future the Xbox2 improves on these things, be nice if they use a standard fan size next time too.

Modding an Xbox isn't easy, so if you aren't confident of your soldering/dremelling skills it's definitely a good idea to get a professional to do it. I nearly stuffed up my mobo when I installed my modchip, as I lifted a tiny track I was trying to solder to. Fortunately I managed to bridge it OK, but I was a bit worried for a while!

Xboxes do run rather hot, I'm still not happy with the temps on mine but that's the price you pay for a single fan system in a fairly tightly packed case I suppose. But I would much rather that than several noisy fans, and with the Panaflo mine is very quiet now. But I'm planning a ducting mod so I'll see if that improves temps at all. In my experience with ducting PCs it always works a treat.

I think trying to lubricate your fan through the grille in the back will be nearly impossible, IdontexistM8, as there is a thick plastic ribbed grille then a metal mesh, so the fan sits back quite far into the case. You would probably end up dripping oil onto your mobo! But opening the case isn't difficult, there are tutorials on Xbox Scene and you only need a couple of Torx screwdrivers to do it. Remember your warrantly is already void due to the mod.

As for the Xbox 2, I can't imagine it will be quieter as it will be a lot more powerful, hence more heat! Oh well, there will always be a challenge out there for us silencers!

Well we all know having a quiet system was the last thing on the designer's mind.

I did compare my newly modded unit with my old PS2 and I really noticed the difference! The PS2 really sounds like a low blowing hairdryer, I guess when you get deep into a game you don't notice it so much.

As it was my intention from the start to use the Xbox as a more general entertainment system (frankly because those divx DVD players aren't quite up to the job yet), dealing with the noise level was important from the start.

I think if I see any increase in whine I'll open the case up and have a look, TBH I'm being picky...but I guess that's a trait of all who come to this portal

If something better comes along fanwise I might feel brave enough to have a go...though from what I've read it really depends on the individual unit on how much they need shaping to fit properly. As the cutting work has been done internally, I guess it wouldn't be the worse job in the world.

One thing I thought of doing in the here and now re: heat was simply moving the unit from the carpet floor to a small table. I think the semi-insulation of the pile must keep temps higher than needs be. And as I'm running a temp controlled fan it sounds like a sensible idea to place it elsewhere.

Me too. In fact I researched dedicated media player boxes (with or without built in DVD drives) and came to the conclusion that the Xbox + XBMC is far superior and generally cheaper. And I am extremely pleased with my decision and I can't recommend it enough.

Part of the attraction is the fact that XBMC is an open source project that is constantly evolving. You're not at the whim of a commercial organisation to decide how much they want to develop/fix the software. The XBMC community has some very dedicated and clever coders who are constantly implementing users' suggestions.

One of the big plusses is that it passes the "wife test" - it's very easy to use once set up.



Most 80mm fans will fit in with the removal of a couple of the flanges. It's not that hard, especially as the case has already been modded to take an 80mm fan. And the hard bit - soldering the mod chip - has already been done for you.



Yes, ensuring good airflow all around it will help. It doesn't have any intake grilles underneath, but it sucks in air from the bottom of the front, which would definitely be restricted by a carpet.

I'm not about to mess about with the work that's just been done for me but I'm wondering about how good the SilenX fans could do.

This unit looks extremely well suited.

Well my curiousity got the better of me

Got the SilenX fan and took a look inside the Xbox..

The work that had been done wasn't all that pretty, certainly wasn't that smooth. The Arctic fan hadn't been fixed properly. It was jyst basically held in by the four sides and the way it had been trimmed. I'm not saying it was loose but it wasn't the best.

Anyway, I used a hacksaw on the SilenX and after a bit of extra cuttting got it to fit reasonably well. I've used a couple of cable ties and hooked them through the grill mesh. IMO it's as secure as it's going to get without glueing it in.

End result is that it's not overly different to to the Arctic...now my only conclusion is that this because it's running piggy back via 3 pin molex off the hard drive power cable. I presume this is the 12v mod. I'm wondering if it ran off the motherboard instead it would run at the SilenX stated speeds/decibels..

A bit later on today I'm going to have another play.

Must stop posting in a row ...anyway here's some info of mild interest.

I took the SilenX off what I now know is a 12v mod (the piggy back) and attached to the motherboard. Result - it's now very quiet...but the concern is airflow, there really isn't a lot. Temp wise well my EvoX dashboard always seems to tell me the same temp..so I'm not sure of what use it is.

I've been connecting and disconnected fans both in and out the Xbox and via the 12v mod and motherboard. The Arctic Cooling Pro TC works fine with the mod but doesn't want to know when connected to the m/b. Why I couldn't tell you...perhaps someone else can? My only guess is that it's down to the spec of the fan and it needs 12v to run at all.

The SilenX is happy running on either, I've only tried the stock fan on the m/b (and that's noisy enough).

One thing I've noticed is the Xbox gets very unhappy very quickly if the fan isn't right in position (i.e. out of the box)..in fact twice it's gone into a sort of sleep mode..where the power cuts and the front LEDs flash. As I have no experience of a pre-modded unit I don't know whether this is usual behaviour or as a result of some 'safety' measure by the modchip.

I'll fiddle about with it some more tomorrow.

Out of interest - Pangit - what's the manufacturers code of your Panaflo?

It's a standard low speed L1A (made in Japan). I can't remember the full manufacturing code off hand, but it's the same one a lot of people around here use.

Yes, the Xbox has overheat protection and that sounds like what you've experienced. When you say "out of the box" I presume you mean the fan set to exhaust? This is the correct way. If you set it as an intake fan the hot air will circulate within the case and heat up, so it's not a good idea if you only have one fan.

My Panaflo is connected to the standard fan header (7V) and set to 70% speed in XBMC, so it is still quiet and just about cool enough. The Xbox does run quite hot but I don't think you need to 12V it, especially if you are concerned about silence.

When I said 'out of the box'..I literally meant outside it to see how fast it spins and how much noise it produces. So it's really no surprise the Xbox shuts down.

One thing I was wondering about..is there an app or something outside of XBMC that can speed set the fan? It's very useful in XBMC, but as soon as you exit it, the fan goes back to the standard 20%. In the case of the SilenX this IMO is too low. I kept an eye on the temps in XBMC with the SilenX inside and running at the standard 20% speed and it went up to 70C+, too high as far as I'm concerned. If you could set it for every app at say 60% I think the temps would be acceptable.

Edit - from a quick google the setting appears to be in the bios, I will have to dig around to find out more

I'll take a closer look at some of the Panaflos, looks like it's on this site

http://www.dorothybradbury.co.uk/

I'll also widen my search to see what else may be acceptable at 7V...expensive fun this

Another edit - I think there must be some holy grail fan out there somewhere for the Xbox...it's just a case of finding it!

The irony is the quiet fans are too slow @ 7v to keep temps down to an acceptable level, and @ 12v they are too (relatively) noisy for SPCR types .

So what's the answer....not sure yet...but if necessary I'm going to keep buying fans (with reason) and testing them (prior to getting the hacksaw out again) and then deciding which is best.

On brief shortlist at the moment are Papst, Vantec and Panaflo..but if anyone wants to pool info resources that would be helpful.

Ok...not cheap..but once I've cracked it I'll have the best going and the rest will be appearing at an auction site near you (one careful owner)

Just found this

http://store.yahoo.com/svcompucycle/80s ... ueled.html

Be nice if we could find a way to adapt it to fit in with the Xbox case! Finger tip control

Yep, Dorothy is the person to get Panaflos from if you are in the UK. It's where I got mine from and her service is excellent.

Unfortunately there is no such thing as a high airflow quiet fan, so you just have to pick the one best for you. I still believe the Panaflo is one of the best at any voltage, although at 12V it's not silent.

I cut out the wire grille and removed half of the plastic ribs on my Xbox to improve airflow. I'll post a pic some time to show you.

You can use EVTool to modify the fan speed in the BIOS if 20% is too slow, I've used it to get rid of the annoying flubber animation and it works a treat. But I haven't adjusted the fan speed in it yet.

The other alternative would be to use the 12V line (from the HDD) and use a Zalman fanmate to manually set the speed on a Panaflo. But whatever you do, don't buy a Thermaltake fan!

Here are some photos of my Panaflo mod (click to enlarge).

This shows the mods I needed to make to my Panaflo to get it to fit:


And here it is installed before putting the HDD/DVD trays back in. As you can see the CPU HS is pretty optimal for airflow. The only way it can be improved I think is to enclose the gap between the two heatsinks and the fan completely with a duct. That's my next mod! (note the blue Duox2 modchip on the left)


This shows the fan from the back. I removed the metal grille and half of the plastic ribs to improve airflow. I also cut the top cover a bit as the Panaflo is slightly taller than the stock fan. Every little helps! It's now about as unrestricted as possible.


A couple more pictures are here. I will be finishing off the text shortly!

Have you secured the fan with cable ties or is it wedged in?

I'm pretty much certain I'm going to try the Fanmate, just as long as I can find a suitable place to 'stick' it.

Update - going to order the Fan Mate 2 tonight or tomorrow, I've identified where it can be best attached on the case and where the point of entry should be into the guts of the unit. The gap(s) left from breaking away the original stock fan are perfect to feed the connectors and cables through.

My only concern is that according to the Zalman site it comes with 800mm of cable, seems a bit excessive! Have to see what I can do with sticky pads and cable ties. I don't want the inside to become too crowded.

It won't look overly pretty...perhaps Zalman should do a Crystal Fan Mate. But it should, in principle, be effective.

I'll report back when I've hopefully got things off to a tee.

Well I'm now using the fanmate and I'm pretty happy so far.

I've got the SilenX fan connected on the 12v mod via the fanmate and it appears to be working quite well.

There doesn't appear to be much control right at the top end of the fanmates range but at middle-low it's good. The fact the fan is the Thermistor probably makes a difference.

Keep it @ max for gaming and then take it down for XBMC. I haven't done a full study on temps but maxed seems to be in the 50-55C range.

Anyway, I'll come back with more soon and if anyone wants pics let me know and I put them up somewhere.

Edit - tell a lie on the temps more like late 50s to 60C when maxed. When turned down around 65C.

Have any of you looked into heatpipes for the xbox ?
It would be a sweet way to cool the inside down.

Yes, I'm sure it would. Due to the limited space inside (i.e. no room for a tall tower heatsinks) it would be cool to run heatpipes out the back to a passive external heatsink. Maybe a project for the future....

The recently unveiled Xbox 360 has heatpipe cooling (although they call it water cooling, but there is no water in heatpipes!) but I don't know any more details than that. Could be interesting...

Time to dig out this thread again...

Has anyone ever tried putting a 2.5" drive in? I know the tray isn't the right size but with a bit of jiggery pokery I would have thought it could accomodate one.