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XBox Can Now Be A Mini Rack Mount Server
An anonymous reader writes "The X-Tender Case Mod for Xbox is a complete kit that will allow you convert your Xbox into a mini rack mount server or media center with activity LEDs and expanded space for two internal hard drives. Molded to perfectly integrate with your Xbox, this kit comes with a custom front panel, a 3 activity LED, a custom made hard drive mounting plate to accommodate one or two additional drives, and a custom molded rear panel. Specially designed X-Tender rods are included to internally support the expansion, allowing you to securely reassemble the machine. Additional space on front panel will allow the support of one LCD display on each side of the system, or additional LEDs or cold cathode lights. You can switch between the newly added drives via the buttons at the front."
How long has the XBox hardware remained the same now? When they were released, sure, they were a bargain for 733MHz/64MB, but I can go and buy dirt cheap components and build a 2GHz Celeron with 256MB of RAM and video on the motherboard for the same kind of money. Isn't that better value than this?
Okay it was cool when people were running linux and what not on this but Jesus Tap Dancing Christ people! Just play the damn games and buy a real computer to do your computer needs.
-Dipster
Frankly, with all the people at home who have their own rack, I'm surprised this hasn't come out earlier. I mean I know there are articles out there about how to build your own, but sheesh. Build a box, with a rack mount case and you'll have twice the power for a pittance more.
If you have machines that are important enough to buy a rack for (by this point you obviously have the $$$), why wouldn't you just use a real PC? Would you trust your all-important data to a modded console?
Isnt the Xbox big enough? This looks like it adds 2 inches to the damn unit, who has that much space? I remember when it came out people were mocking it because it was so big. This just makes it even bigger, i thought it would streamline it a bit, like a case replacement.
I already have the perfect firewall for this. It's running a port filter on the Dreamcast - in a router-on-a-stick configuration...
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Worker 2:You forgot to press Up, Down, Up Down, Left, Right...
"is a complete kit that will allow you convert your Xbox(TM) into a mini rack mount server"
In what way does it allow you to convert one into a 'mini rack mount server'?
There is no rack mounting kit with this that I can see, nor does the mod do anything that would aid in rack mounting an X-Box as far as I can see (I had assumed some kind of side bracket to effectively make it wider, or possibly to allow two to a rack).
Am I missing some element of the kit here, or is it just poor phrasing on their part?
Imagine a beowulf of these ...
In order to utilize the HD's , users will require an upgrade device , the best one on the market by far is the Xenium , it comes in a no solder form , so anyone can install it.
I was reading this article and you missed out on the most important part!
:P
IT WONT WORK WITHOUT A MODCHIP. you cant boot another HDD without a modchip... I wonder why you left it out as there is a completely LEGAL modchip on the market called the Xenium ( http://www.xboxchips.com/ ) and it can load linux and any bios you can think of.
I have the Xenium and this kit and it works great for swapping storage (not running many hdd's at the same time though)
All you DIY people check out this chip as it can also be ordered as Solderless so anyone can install it easily
WTF? Most of the mod chips sold are "completely legal". Most of them can even load any bios you want. They're completely legal because they're not shipped to you with an illegal bios (ie, a hacked version of the MS one that lets you do whatever you want). They allow you to flash any bios you want because they can't ship them with a bios, because then they'd become illegal. For what it's worth, I've not heard many good things about the solderless chips. They work, but they're easy to jar loose, and then you have to open your Xbox again and reseat them. Just solder your chip, it's only 9 wires with most mods.
I guess the LCD Display will help when you want to turn your Xbox box into a PC computer?
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
XBox -> $150
Modchip -> $50
This Kit -> $50
New Harddrive -> $50
2 USB XBox Adapater -> $40
USB Keyboard -> $20 (no sharing components, right?)
USB Mouse -> $20
So for about $380 you can turn an Xbox into a PC. Not $150. I'm baffled why everyone uses your argument. "You can't build a PC for $150!" Well you still can't if you use a Xbox.
This is only useful if you're running Linux on your Xbox. The drives won't be available to the original Xbox BIOS *or* even to a modded Xbox BIOS with a modchip.
-psy
Now it will take up less space while gathering dust.
*cough* Sorry, someone has to make an unwarranted stand against XBox...
Gonna play the Dawn of War demo now...
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
Sorry... had to be done :)
ungggghhhh
No, it didn't. :(
I haven't really kept a close eye on the XBOX community. But wasn't it possible to boot linux without the mod chip? OR did I still have to buy that stupid game with a bug in it which ends up being more expensive than a mod chip?
:)
Second, provided I am willing to buy a mod chip (if the answer to above is no), would I be able to install winxp PRO on the machine? Do the modern (newest) xboxs still work with mod chips?
Would an XBOX be able to play any PC games for winxp at a decent speed? it isn't even a 1ghz machine, and its vid card is between a GF3 and GF4.
I'm asking because my GF currently has a 1ghz AMD based laptop with a PIEICE OF SHIT trident video card. Regardless of the specs of the laptop in print (its a compaq btw)... it performance is utterly abismal. Even on some of the lamest in GFX tycoon games. It might be mostly because of the vid card though.. I can't be sure.
Anyways I want to get her a real PC so she can play those shitty little tycoon games (some of them do need Directx 9 , and decent 3d). She might play some more hefty stuff, but nothing FPS.
Would a modded XBOX to the trick? of course on paper it does seem like the xbox cpu is slower than her laptop's. But I dunno.. God her laptop is junk
Love, Zaq
You don't need a new hard disk any more than you'd need a new DVD ROM drive, as it comes with one that works just fine.
You don't need a keyboard and mouse either, unless it's not clear to you what people are using it for (they are using it for servers and media centres, not desktop replacements...). Just boot from a bootable CD, and ssh into it to install your free operating system of choice.
You don't need a modchip to install Linux either (I'm not sure where you got the weird idea that that's the only way to install Linux).
So, it's just 150 USD (with the far more useful IR remote - that's usable in Linux - that you can get bundled instead of a game as apart of a regular combo deal). Oh and of course you'd need to get your own one of these if you decided to build your own PC (thus adding more to the 'build your own cost').
Added to the low price, it's very convenient because it's prebuilt and quite reliable. Sure you *can* build a better system for only a fraction more, but you still have to put the system together, which is more hassle than the 'slight speed bonus' is worth for me (as I value my time).
Analogy:
It's like at the cinema - I can get 'large popcorn' and 'large coke' instead of 'small popcorn' and 'small coke' for only 5.25 instead of 4.75 but I don't have any use for the enourmous large size, I never eat all the popcorn and I drink all the coke I'll end up having to take a leak half way through the film, so although it's a 'better deal' in principle, the added 'value' is worthless to me, in fact it's more of a hassle because I can't hold them both in one hand meaning I have to hold the cinema ticket in my mouth so the usher can check it. There simply is no real value in the larger size for most people, given the circumstance.
I built my gaming system myself and put quite a bit of a cash into it (SATA RAID 0, a 256 MB DX9 card, P4 3.2 Ghz, 2 GB RAM, 802.116g, Gigabit Ethernet, etc), even took the time replace the lousy vendor heatsync on the GPU and replace it with a half decent custom ThermalTake one, because I value my gaming time (and want it to be both as enjoyable and reliable as possible) but I don't want to spend time putting some crappy 'media centre' box together when I know an X-Box will do the job just as well and work without faffing. That it's cheaper is a bonus.
And is *is* cheaper - if you actually try and build a system in the same form factor and noise level as an X-Box you'll come in waay over budget. Granted you'll have a more powerful system, but people don't have use for the extra power in a media center system.
A PC system built on a budget of almost equal to an X-Box will end up looking crappier AND bulkier than an X-Box Midi Tower case. It's going to be a hell of a lot more physically intrusive and a lot nosier than an X-Box's system. Even a CPU fan on a cheap AMD system will be louder than the the X-Box system, which is remarkably quiet - something that's important to people in a living-room-centered device like a media centre.
If your going to build a Media Centre PC I say either buy an X-Box and save some cash and get a very reasonable system great for the job, or spend some money (around 900 USD/UKP) and get a decent system with a proper case - LCD display, very low profile form factor, 'silent' CPU and PSU fan, CD/DVD writer, dual TV tuner, SATA, 802.11g, etc.
I fail to see the point in building a cheap system that's builkier, noiser, slightly more powerful, but with otherwise the same functionality for *more money* when you can (a) do it cheaper and with more style or (b) do it more expensively but significantly better. There are some people for who building their own system makes more sense (e.g. if they want to be able to extend it's future use beyond a media center and can't afford more than one system), but there quite a number of people who don't have that requirement for their dedicated media center system and for them an X-Box is really good cost saving (and time and hassle saving) alternative.
To everyone out there saying stuff about needing a modchip, and this wont work. Please skim through this:
1.)The newest versions of Xbox do need a modchip that runs around $50 to run a modified BIOS on load yes. But the older versions do not. You can either flash the internal BIOS, or get a $10 modchip. And if you don't want to flash the internal BIOS, you van make a "bootable from media" [bfm] BIOS. Then hack the xbox dashboard, so that you can access Linux, or another prefered dashboard without ever opening up your xbox. Thus is is still under warranty.
2.) The Xbox BIOS at the moment can not run with two harddrives in any order. You cannot remove the DVD drive and replace it, nor can you just throw in a second harddrive. The BIOS cannot handle that, and this would require a very substantial BIOS hack, that is possible, but not likely to be done. Thus Linux is the only way to access both harddrives.
3.) This case is useless. LED status lights are a joke to solder in, and if you want to, then you can get 3 harddrives in the stock xbox case with the DVD drive in as well. It would require a bit of case modding, moving the DVD drive over to the right. In this instance, there is room for 3 harddrives on the left side.
4.) And as for buttons to switch the harddrive that is active, that is also easily done. And I am currently looking into a software method to do this.
People who buy things [...] are fools
The compressed version.
(You can't escape the upgrade cycle. Call it entropy if you prefer.)