Watercooling the XBox 360

Steve from Hexus writes "Steering clear of jokes about overheating power supplies, one company is claiming to have constructed a watercooling kit for the XBox 360. HEXUS.gaming has obtained pictures of the product, seemingly attached to an XBox 360, though how it works and how it is installed remains something of a mystery."

Comments

Slow news day?

[blowdart]

"though how it works and how it is installed remains something of a mystery."

Almost as much of a mystery as why this a black box sitting next to a 360 is considered "news".

Re:Slow news day?

[DrWho520]

This article mysteriously made its way to the front page. In Games, this article is feesible. On the front page? Well, it does come right after the article on 5,000+ software bugs found this year.

Re:Slow news day?

[LiquidCoooled]

It probably is a slow news day.
Why the hell would anyone want to announce new things or release viruses on new years eve?

Expect tush n piffle articles whilst most people *worldwide* are all off work.

Re:Slow news day?

[LiquidCoooled]

Oh, I almost forget, Happy new year everyone.

Re:Slow news day?

[dawhippersnapper]

Two Hexus articles both written extremely poorly today. I can't even believe HEXUS posted that story, HORRIBLE!!!!

Re:Slow news day?

[xerxesVII]

It's because December the 31st is "We love Steve and his world of advertising Day". Didn't you know?

Re:Slow news day?

[Anonymous Coward]

forgot

Re:Slow news day?

[TallMatthew]

It looks like it attaches to the outside of the box, where the vent currently is. You can see the fan in the pic. This second fan would take the exhaust normally expelled by the 360 and cool it further, perhaps drawing more air through the box as well.

Re:Slow news day?

[TallMatthew]

Dude, Hexus sucks. From their article:

According to their press release, "CoolIT Systems has designed a retrofit product that will transform the stock forced air cooling system with a state-of-the-art liquid-chilled system that employs the exclusive MTEC technology pioneered by CoolIT Systems."

The "Systems" and "cooling system" are autogenerated hyperlinks to advertisements. And they're not even close to being relative to the subject matter. "Systems" takes you to Microsoft's web conferencing service. "cooling system" takes you to Sears.

What a joke. Hey we saw something somewhere and we don't know how it works, but it's got something to with an XBox360 and aren't those cool? And by the way, speaking of cool, Sears can give you a free estimate on installing a central air conditioning unit!

Re:Slow news day?

[Anonymous Coward]

Those links are JS-generated "Sponsored Links" from something called IntelliTXT.
That's why they're unrelated to TFA.

Re:Slow news day?

[apoc06]

maybe im mistaken, but isnt the xbox ALREADY supposed to be water cooled? apparently the MS solution doesnt work well enough.

can anyone verify whether or not the builtin system is still supposed to be watercooled? i guess adding a /real/ watercooling system should make it run smoother, but still... given that most of the problems are supposedly due to the power supplies, and the x360 is already huge as is... isnt this overkill? not to mention takes away from the ventilation space that the x360 and its power supply need?

Re:Slow news day?

[apoc06]

and by the way... how the hell is adding another huge ass external fan supposed to make the system "quieter"?

Re:Slow news day?

[r850i]

Looks like a bad photoshop job to me. Notice the blending where the black meets the silver(it should be a crisp contrast) and the bottom corner of the black box goes under the silver one, yet its not a curved line.

Seems like the "black box" from Sneakers is back!

Re:Slow news day?

[StompmotS]

A huge ass fan can move the same amount of air a small one can, at a much lower speed.
Lower speed -> less noise, usually.

On a PC, the most irritating noise is often from the small graphic card fan.

I RTFA

[Sylvestre]

and there's no there, there. Wow, two pictures of a cooling system. Be still my heart!

Nice of Nexus to get two stories almost in a row, too.

Re:I RTFA

[wayoutwest]

It is also about the UGLIEST item I've ever seen as an add on... JEEZ. Maybe just a little bit of asthetics.

Plus, the over heating only happens when stuffed into an tight entertainment system with no chance of air circulation. My powermac dual 1.42 G4 would behave the same way if I cut off all chances to breathe.

I have 6 xbox360's in current use every day, 12+ hours per day. Not a single problem yet, other than one game title was stolen. The 360's are very nice and a pretty scary threat to Apple's Digital Hub concept.. But then, apple innovates, and MS takes that to the real market.

Any hoo, the 360's are being caught up in a sea of FUD and I just want to say it just isn't all true.

===========
Great Giggles - check out this auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =8247683126

jesus

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF is this? The article is smaller than the /. summary and is basically just two almost-identical pictures of a black box sitting next to an XBox 360. Maybe it's a slow morning for news, but this is just lame.

Re:jesus

[Urusai]

It's not that there's a black box, but what's inside it. It could be a water pump, heatsink, and fan; it could be a leprechaun with a pot of gold; it could be ninja gerbils wielding nunchuks! Think of the possibilities!

Re:jesus

[amliebsch]

it could be a leprechaun with a pot of gold; it could be ninja gerbils wielding nunchuks!

Even a boat! We'll take the box!

Oooookay

[OverlordQ]

Slap a stick on lexan cube and set it next to an XBox and call it a XBox Microwave.

Let's just say that article is rather light on details, the story summary pretty much is everything minus pictures.

Re:Oooookay

[kesuki]

just to be pedantic, it would be a Convection oven, not a microwave... as the xbox produces a lot of hot air, but not a whole lot of microwaves..

why?

[Novotny]

I really don't get this - surely in any normal gaming scenario, the xbox's internal cooling will be drowned out (no pun intended) by the gaming sound? What's the point in overclocking the thing, even if its possible?

Re:why?

[CosmicDan]

360's DVD player is slightly louder than a 757. Was watching Serenity and I found myself wondering why I could hear the drone of the ship's in every scene. Then I watched Mel Brooks' Silent Movie and found myself wondering why I could STILL hear Serenity's engines in every scene. The cooling system, however, is almost silent.

Re:why?

[zsadiq]

I'm pretty sure if a 360 DVD drive was louder than a 757 and if you had watched a few movies on it that you would pretty much be deaf right now. According to OSHA

Re:why?

[Anonymous Coward]

You pedantic cunt.

Re:why?

[zootm]

You pedantic cunt.

Bravo, sir. Bravo.

Re:why?

[jandrese]

Too bad no amount of watercooling is going to make a DVD drive any quieter.

Re:why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just drop the drive into water and it'll be quiet allright.

Re:why?

[it_ain't_my_fault]

Watercooling is not always used for overclocking. I watercooled some systems without ever wanting to overclock them.

Re:why?

[themysteryman73]

Was watching Serenity and I found myself wondering why I could hear the drone of the ship's in every scene.

Ironically, there's no engine sounds in Firefly/Serenity when the ship's in space, which is pretty much all the time, except when it's grounded.

watercooling, or steam cleaning?

[User 956]

I tried watercooling my XBOX 360. I ended up with a bunch of steam.

Re:watercooling, or steam cleaning?

[TubeSteak]

Me too, but I didn't give up.

I used the steam to spin a turbine which powers the peltier i'm using to cool the water back down.

And I know what you're thinking "peltiers are power hungry," but be not afraid, my steam powered cooling system can handle it.

Re:watercooling, or steam cleaning?

[Anonymous Coward]

Steam for XBOX? Oh no not again! Steam was my biggest gripe about Half Life 2.

Re:watercooling, or steam cleaning?

[Anonymous Coward]

Gives new meaning to the term "vaporware" ;p

Re:watercooling, or steam cleaning?

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

I tried watercooling my XBOX 360. I ended up with a bunch of steam.

Steam? Don't you mean Xbox Live?

Re:watercooling, or steam cleaning?

[Anonymous Coward]

I ended up with a bunch of steam.

Could you play half-life with it?

Dear God Why?

[Matey-O]

You have a sealed box unit that's been tested to pass UL requirements for fire resistance and has been pounded to within an inch of it's life in development (yeah yeah, they never put the power supply on a scrap of deep shag, whatever)

And someone's selling additonal cooling for it? Makes as much sence as a water cooler add-on to your coffemaker.

P.T. Barnum was right.

Re:Dear God Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Makes as much sence as a water cooler add-on to your coffemaker.

But now my coffeemaker makes espresso!

Re:Dear God Why?

[Malor]

Often, the reason to go to water cooling is to quiet a system down, rather than to cool it more. The 360 in game playing mode really is pretty loud, and some folks would undoubtedly like it quieter.

Yes, the water cooling would probably run the chips at a lower temperature, but the two major reasons to do this (overclocking and improved reliability) don't really apply. Nobody in their right mind is going to be overclocking a 360, and extending the lifetime of the chips is just making the strongest link in the chain even stronger. Water coolers replace the airflow in the box. The decreased cooling of the hard drive and DVD would make THEIR failure a lot more likely. So, not only are you making the strong link stronger, you're also making the weak links weaker. From a reliability standpoint, not a good decision.

But quieting it down.... yeah, I could see that. This will probably get more common when the consoles get cheaper, and folks have less to lose..

Re:Dear God Why?

[PhotoBoy]

If you've ever heard a 360 at full "whine" you'd understand why some people would fiddle with the cooling. Maybe I just got a dodgy 360 but the fan and DVD drive are so loud in mine they drown out the fan in my projector. And my projector already sounded like a hair dryer. Honestly it's like playing games at the hair dressers! ;)

Re:Dear God Why?

[BobPaul]

And someone's selling additonal cooling for it? Makes as much sence as a water cooler add-on to your coffemaker.

I have one of those

Waste of time

[swimfastom]

This acticle was a waste of time. I cannot believe it was put on /. It contains two similar pictures with no descriptions. Talk about brevity, the whole article is missing!!

Re:Waste of time

[AlvySinger]

Will the detail be in the dupe?

Re:Waste of time

[Anonymous Coward]

Who reads TFA anyway!

Re:Waste of time

[carlvlad]

thats the new slashdot effect!

That is no water cooler

[Oldsmobile]

It looks just like a car heater.

Like so:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000V0AKE.16._A A260_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Re:That is no water cooler

[Galston]

Maybe this is also a heater in disguise secretly being funded by Sony so that all 360's will burn up and everyone will then get fed up and go and buy a PS3 when it comes out.

Re:That is no water cooler

[Inda]

That's funny. The two look nothing like each other.

Re:That is no water cooler

[Oldsmobile]

"That's funny. The two look nothing like each other."

Thats because one is an Xbox and the other is something that isn't an Xbox.

Re:That is no water cooler

[wheany]

That's no water cooler. It's a space station.

News?

[zsadiq]

One, why is this news?

Second of all... whats the point? I'm pretty sure Microsoft is handling the cooling issues well, and problems have only been reported in a small number of instances. I for one think buying this would be a big waste of money.

Re:News?

[apoc06]

MS themselves have stated that the problems are only present in 3% of the consoles, and of those something like 1% have been returned. thats /if/ you want to trust MS numbers. [i dont...] that doesnt mean anything in itself. what that means is that buyers are sucking it up with dealing with the crashes, because kids dont want to go over two weeks without their new console or shiny new christmas present.

theyve sold something around 300,000- 400,000 xboxes, that means ~12,000 [one in 33] are "defective" or crash-prone. keep in mind that these are only people that are actually taking the time to call in. thats a huge friggin amount of crashing considering this is the BEST case, most optimistic, MS pr dept's best case scenario. actual estimates are probably around 5-10%
http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/9943/NPD-Group-Relea ses-Xbox-360-Sales-Data/&docTitle=NPD%20Group%20Re leases%20Xbox%20360%20Sales%20Data%20-%20Xbox
http://www.openxbox360.com/modules.php?name=News&f ile=article&sid=233

i agree that this watercooling deal is overkill, but you cant downplay the fact that MS dropped the ball on properly cooling their unit and power supply.

Re:News?

[Jarlsberg]

It's not the Xbox that gets too hot in the affected cases, it's the PSU. Watercooling the box is pointless.

Slashvertisement

[DavidV]

Just how much is Hexus paying for the Slashvertisements? It probably wouldn't be so obvious if there were more than one article in between them.

Re:Slashvertisement

[BushCheney08]

Hexus probably bought x number of slashvertisements for the year. Now that it's the final day, Steve is reminding the "editors" that he's still owed y ads.

Re:Slashvertisement

[Anonymous Coward]

What are you talking about? I thought slashdot was quite honest when they posted a story about their slashvertisment policy on April first of 2002.

At least they are nice enough to still let us post anonymously!

In all seriousness

[erroneus]

This should not be necessary. Microsoft screwed this up and it never should have hit the market in this state. This serves one of two things: (1) lowers further the quality expect by consumers (2) lowers further the quality expected of Microsoft. Take your pick, but sadly, I lean to the damage of 1.

Re:In all seriousness

[Quarters]

So every 3rd party XBox controller only exists to fix a flaw in the standard one? Every set of 3rd party cables only serve to cover up some manufacturing flaw?

Companies will make a buck on anything. That this exists doesn't imply Microsoft screwed up. It implies that CoolIt knows there are enough suckers out there that would be interested in buying their product.

Re:In all seriousness

[deaddrunk]

Much like the requirement for anti-virus, spyware remover(s) and firewall on Windows. Why would a desktop OS need any ports open or to respond to ICMP by default in any case?

Re:In all seriousness

[erroneus]

This is a consumer product and not a "computer" by virtue of marketing and placement.

A cooling kit is meant to make this thing WORK not improve game play or customize the system. The basic system, as shipped, should be sufficient and it is demonstrably not. The need for a cooling kit illustrates it perfectly.

Re:In all seriousness

[erroneus]

I wouldn't go that far.

A game console is not intended to be a general purpose computer system although it could be fitted that way. It is intended to be a simple, "turn it on and play a game" device for entertainment purposes. As such, it should be simple and reliable. If this device is needed to make the machine operable for extended amounts of time, then it's a problem with the design of the machine. If it cannot be placed in the same locations as other game consoles in the past (i.e. in front of the TV on the floor), there's a problem with this game console.

General purpose computing, while I agree shouldn't be as troubling and hazardous as it is [for Windows users], the comparison between a computer system and a game console shouldn't be made.

If my DVD player or TV set needed a cooling kit to get good use of it, then I'd take it back for a model that doesn't require it. It's ridiculous. And if it needed such a kit for good use, then it should be provided with the device.

Re:In all seriousness

[zootm]

Serious question: Has anyone reported the problem to be with the CPU/GPU? I was under the impression (from all the accounts I've seen, which is admittedly not many) that the PSU is to blame, since it wasn't tested in the sort of environment that it'd be used in, and that the XBox itself was not the overheating unit.

Anyone? Apologies if this has been asked already.

Re:In all seriousness

[GrungyLotG]

Do we even have accurate statistics of how many systems are overheating? It seems that the majority of these cases fall under a few main issues:

1. Placing the "power brick" (It truely is the size of a brick) on carpeting or in a cramped space; causing it to overheat.
2. Having the system in a poorly ventilated AV rack, or extremely closed off cabinet.
3. Sitting the system on top of other equipment, or placing other equipment on top of the system.

If it is actually a widespread manufacturing flaw, then certainly M$ should be blamed for rushing it out for the Holiday '05 season. From most of what I've heard, however, the majority of the problems are caused by poor placement or ventilation. I'm sure there are some actually defective consoles, as is to be expected with any launch, but to be claiming that there is a design flaw that causes overheating is insane. I find it strange that the basic system is "sufficient" for the vast majority of cases, but utterly useless in others.

Related to the story, how the hell did this make it through the strict (Sarcasm) editorial control on /.? The summary is as long as the article, and the photos are a joke. For all that can be gathered from those photos, it could be a PC case (Or CPU) fan painted black and taped onto the side of the console!

Re:In all seriousness

[jacksonj04]

"General purpose computing, while I agree shouldn't be as troubling and hazardous as it is [for Windows users]"

You what? Troubling? Hazardous? I'm sure trying to remember 101 cryptic commands to use in the shell is so much less troubling for 99% of people...

I'm fairly indifferent to the whole OS wars, if anything OS X is the far better of the three big ones, but to call Windows troubling and hazardous is just trolling.

Anyway, I thought the overheating issue was with the PSU block, not the console itself. This 'watercooler' is just a waste of money for the same people who put 'Type-R' stickers on their body-modded cars. A complete non-story.

Re:In all seriousness

[Quarters]

Why do you think there is a need for this? You keep implying that 360s are defective and that Microsoft is to blame and CoolIt is just fixing the problem for them. On what are you basing that assumption?

By your logic AMD and Intel are at fault for poor chip designs because 3rd party companies make water cooling kits for computers.

This is just a gadget for people to waste their money on. There's no absolute need for it, just like there isn't a need for quite a lot of things that companies sell to people.

Re:In all seriousness

[deaddrunk]

You obviously don't provide unpaid tech support for friends, family and co-workers then. Windows isn't user-friendly it's just more familiar than the alternatives.

just one thought.

[SharpFang]

It's winter now.
Think of XBox360 in the summer. You'll dig back throgh /. search and be thankful to the world for this slashvertisment.

Re:just one thought.

[3vi1]

I think the majority of people that have XBox360s play them indoors.

Re:just one thought.

[DigitalReality]

I'm sure (or at least I hope) noone is playing their 360 outside.

Re:just one thought.

[zsadiq]

As for the Slashvertisements...

What if we Slashdotted Slashdot?

Is that even possible?

(You like the pun dont ya?)

Re:just one thought.

[Anonymous Coward]

Xbox 360's die in hot cars.

could Xbox 360 be considered the dog of next gen consoles?

ps, not the dogs bollox either.

Re:just one thought.

[Anonymous Coward]

Meaning the seasonal temperature change is like 10-20F, not 80. So just heat your XBox360 up by 20F and see how it works.

Re:just one thought.

[SharpFang]

Well, after some great, memorable achievments like slashdoting NASA, Google, Microsoft, White House, RIAA, MPAA, physical snailmail mailbox of some spam lord, computational cluster of IBM, Bugzilla, Chernobyl webpages and quite a few others of lesser significance, seems Slashdot should be the next target. Difficult but not impossible.

Re:just one thought.

[3vi1]

20 degrees? Close your windows and turn on the air conditioner or something. My home never varies from the thermostat by more than a couple of degrees.

If you don't have air conditioning, then you probably don't live in a climate where it's hot enough for it to matter anyway. I can't recall the last time I saw a home without air conditioning here in Louisiana. People who can't afford air can't afford a 360, nor would any sane individual put a 360 higher on their list of priorities.

I have to go along with the people calling BS on these pics. This fan only appears to cool the main XBox, when the external PSU brick is what would overheat first. If it's not a hoax, then it is at least an extremely ill-conceived idea.

Re:just one thought.

[dangitman]

If you don't have air conditioning, then you probably don't live in a climate where it's hot enough for it to matter anyway.

That's a very odd statement. I live in Australia. It was 46 degrees centigrade yesterday. Most people I know don't have airconditioned homes. We are just used to the heat. Furthermore, airconditioning is a massive waste of energy - not environmentally friendly. Some people don't want to waste and pollute enough to cool a whole house, when they only want their videogame to work.

This attitude seems to be uniquely American - the addiction for air conditioning, and the feel that it is a must. Think of people living in huts in Africa or the Pacific islands - do you think they need airconditioning? No, they design their houses for the climate and use common sense.

Re:just one thought.

[Fritzed]

More specifically, this is American city dweller. I don't personally live in an area that gets that hot, I know a lot of people that do. While I'll admit that most of them have air-conditioners, they are mostly cheap window units that almost never get turned on, when they do, it's to keep the temperature to about 45C.

-> Fritz

Re:just one thought.

[carlvlad]

What if we Slashdotted Slashdot? my god! that would create rift in space-time continuum!

Re:just one thought.

[kannibal_klown]

We have central air in my house. But we don't use it that much, we try to keep it around 78F (24C)

It's not the heat that's bad, but the humidity. The summers in my state get fairly humid, and that's the killer. I've been to California a couple of times and "dry heat" really means something. High humidity adds like 20F in the uncomfortable level.

UL certification does not mean reliable

[Flying pig]

Sorry, but all UL certification means is that the thing will not catch fire or get hot in a way that will cause damage in a domestic environment (that's why it's Underwriters' Laboratories for Heaven's sake). Every single example tested could fail open circuit in five minutes and it still could be UL certified because it does not create an INSURANCE risk. UL approval does not mean that additional cooling could not be beneficial.
Odd you mention coffee machines because some years ago there was considerable trouble with them catching fire and it took UL a long time to evolve an acceptable testing methodology.

But this leads to an interesting possibility about these add-ons. It's possible that additional cooling could cause a thermal trip or similar overload protection device to fail to operate when it should, perhaps resulting in a fire starting elsewhere in the system. (For instance, a number of systems use PTC devices as simple thermal trips. Blowing additional cold air over a PTC could prevent it tripping). If this resulted in a fire, you might find your add-on cooler had invalidated your household insurance and you were not covered. The situation with changing the CPU cooler is different because the total heat and net airflow in the case should be unchanged.

Re:UL certification does not mean reliable

[ajs]

"Every single example tested could fail open circuit in five minutes"

But I think the GP's point was taht UL certification means that it's not likely going to overheat to the point of being dangerous.

Go CowboyNeal!

[Anonymous Coward]

Alright! Another homerun for the always amazing and ever informative CowboyNeal!

not exactly a watercooling system

[behindspace]

it appears to me more of an air conditioner unit that replases the stock cooling, almost like a forced cold air system. could be interesting...

Got To Be Kidding

[Anonymous Coward]

Any consumer product that overheats in the wintertime is a total joke.
I'll give it the fluid cooling it deserves. Come see me about midnight after I've had my beer.

News?

[sl0cb]

So why is this considered news? Most people tell me to RTFA, but I really don't see one here ... :P

Pictures.

[Poromenos1]

Here are the pictures, so you don't have to load the ads:
________
|      |
|      |
|      |
|______|
||    ||
||____||

Re:Pictures.

[CODiNE]

Clearly a fraud, here's the REAL image.
_________
|       |
|       |
|       |
|_______|
||\ | /||
||- o -||
||/_|_\||

Huh... looks like some kind of goatse.cx robot.  This MUST be more than a coincidence!

This article sucks

[DogDude]

Plain and simple, this shitty advertisement disguised as an "article" sucks. Seriously, can we get the Editors to make up a new "advertising" category so we can opt out? I know that that may be asking too much from people who can't even bother to spell check a 3 sentence article summary, or check to see if the same article was posted in the past 24 hours.

Re:This article sucks

[VedicIntent]

The article does suck, but it's simply covering a press release from "CoolIT Systems Inc.," albeit poorly. A few clicks into the article produce this forum post which then links to this (relatively) more in-depth coverage regarding the press release.

The only really informational bit:
"CoolIT Systems Inc. today announced that it is showcasing the world's first truly liquid-cooled Xbox 360 in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show from Jan. 4 - 8, 2006."

There are even pointless audio and video versions of the article for those of you who are illiterate. Do I even need to say RTFA?

So lets get this straight

[oztiks]

Okay the xbox is a nice gray little unit that is much "slimmer' then its predecessor but the only ugly attribute of the system was the big bulky power supply, so what do they do? build an encased cooling system that makes it even more bulker and uglyer ....

Makes sense to me ...

Re:So lets get this straight

[Anonymous Coward]

lets = allows
let's = let us

Re:So lets get this straight

[Anonymous Coward]

There is a reason why you'll never be laid.

Troubling

[rinkjustice]

It says on the front page HEXUS.gaming is UK's leading gaming website, but after appraising the articles and layout of the website, it can't be so. Don't get me wrong, I'm not about ripping apart other people's work, but this site is about making a dime on cheesy in-text advertising and ugly, blocky ads in place of content. /. certainly shouldn't be directing their loyal readership to this internet flotsam when they know full well it's a lame scam.

I seem to be asking myself how long will I put up with this crap before I stop frequenting this site?

Re:Troubling

[Anonymous Coward]

I quit reading hexus many months ago and instead read bit-tech (.net), another UK publication who seem to kick hexus into a can by comparison.

Boil the Witch!

[Mulletproof]

"though how it works and how it is installed remains something of a mystery."

And what part about "boil your xbox" don't you understand again?

The Press Release

[TubeSteak]

has more info
http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/view_release.php?id =13373

MTEC i think stands for M ThermoElectric Cooler. Not sure what the "M" stand for.

Here's something random Google picked up
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:www.vfa195.co m/forum_viewtopic.php%3F3.40+coolitsystems

Mon Oct 4 2004
I'm the CTO of a PC HW company called CoolIT Systems http://www.coolitsystems.com/, where I get to invent stuff (two patents w/almost 100 claims), build super fast PCs with prototype components and design cooling systems for PC OEMs.

I'm confused

[jandrese]

Why did they watercool the 360 itself and not the power brick? Everything I've read suggests that the power brick is the most likely component to overheat on the 360, if anything they should create a custom cooling solution for it, especially for people who live in hot environments.

Re:I'm confused

[BushCheney08]

I'm guessing that what they're selling is in fact a water-cooled power brick. Which includes a big honking fan.

Re:I'm confused

[TommydCat]

My own xbox 360 is experiencing overheating, but the power supply itself remains only a bit warmer than ambient. There's a distinct smell of melting plastic that comes from within the xbox 360 itself.

The transformer is on a shelf by itself (glass plate on a component rack, not mounted on the wall, so it has 5 sides of open air) as well as the xbox 360 placed on another shelf (again, nothing around it). This didn't seem to do the trick, so I suspended a big box fan to the side blowing cold basement air over both of them. At least now it's not the DVD drive noise that bugs me.

During my call to 1-800-4MY-XBOX to see about warranty repair, the operator asked what kind of troubleshooting measure I have done, to which I replied with the description above. She them asked if I could pull the xbox 360 out of any enclosed area, to which I described the above again with the addition that there were no walls or encroachment within 4 feet of the top or sides. She them asked if I could move it further away from the glass plate it was sitting on.

Apparently those drives are that loud as MS expects them to be able to bring the xbox 360 into a hovercraft state. Are the sides of the case concave as a styling cue or is it just MS sucking?

Re:I'm confused

[Anunnaki]

From the one evening I have been sitting in front of an XBox360, it seemed to me that the Box itself is what is really heating up, not the (Delta Electronics) Power Supplay (16Amps @ 12Volts..) All in all and with the exception of the DVD drive it seemed very solid manufacturing (though reports suggest its quality level is quite ..uhm.. ?dynamic' ) Even when in the XBOX OS alone, it gets very hot meaning theres nothing like powersave or nap modes implemented .. :D

Re:Slow news day? think: Roomba!!

[Anonymous Coward]

... but maybe I can use this on my hacked, overclocked Roomba!!

for the love of god

[Prince Vegeta SSJ4]

but what's inside it...gerbils wielding nunchuks!

FREE LEMMIWINKS!!!

reasons

[GeekyMike]

Why is this news, does the cooler run Linux or something?

Gimme a break, puhhlleeezzeee...

[Anonymous Coward]

Watercooling the XBox 360

As ridiculus as watercooling can get!

Steve from Hexus is QUITE prolific ... too much so

[Anonymous Coward]

Search google:

Steve from Hexus is a very, very, very busy friend of the Slashdot Overlords.

Like ScuttleMonkey and his little pal Beatles-Beatles. This place is pathetic sometimes. Or that Roland troll they ALWAYS post even when he sneezes. Sad.

Whoa...

[Anonymous Coward]

This was ridiculus, already. But fanboys like to get fucked in the ass I guess.

this is ludicrous

[Anonymous Coward]

xbox360 = consumer appliance

if it doesn't work properly straight out of the box and needs third party addons to perform it's normal function then it's simply faulted consumer appliance.

Power Supply?

[insomniac8400]

I thought the biggest issues were with the power supply? Shouldn't they have made a water cooler for that?

Make money fast

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Take a photo of two objects next to each other (anything will do)
2. Submit to Slashdot
3. ???
4. Profit!

Re:Make money fast

[Anonymous Coward]

you missed point 5... "Get flamed by the slashdot massiv"

Hoax

[mwilli]

I call hoax. I think it's just a fan slapped on the side of a 360. I doubt there's any more to it than that. No modification or anything. It's complete BullShit!

Re:Hoax

[cgenman]

An additional external fan could be quite helpful. The loudest part of the old PS2 design was the fan on the back of the unit... a larger, slower moving fan that stopped the internal fan from spinning could provide a lot more cooling at a much lower noise level. Even without stopping the internal fan, most of the noise from high-speed fans comes from the intake not getting air quickly enough to feed the blades. Adding a larger, slower, less noisy external fan would greatly increase the amount of air available to the fan, and thereby greatly reduce volume.

Re:Hoax

[EvilSporkMan]

No, an external fan set next to a 360 wouldn't do much except cool the case itself.

Re:Hoax

[cgenman]

Unless it was on top of the intake fan, or was feeding through additional circulation holes.

Khaaaaaaaan....Oops, I mean. Watermaaaaaaaarks!

[Anonymous Coward]

Holy shit, could they put a bigger, more intrusive watermark on those pictures? Could be that they just need more. They've only got two now. How about they make it flash red and green. That wouldnt detract from what's actually being shown at all.

What really should have been shown...

[CygnusXII]

I think the picture they should have shown was the water cooler for the power supply. The Nifty little white box next to the black brick.

Yeah, that's why people buy consoles.

[Lisandro]

So they get to mess with their guts like the people who assemble computers. Sheeze. Does the console even neeed watercooling? Is the fan cooling system that loud?

    Nice ad, by the way.

God forbid

[seabreezemm]

If we actually hold M$ accountable and make them fix the problem. No, no, lets spend more money giving it a water cooling system instead. Sorry I don't buy a new car without tires and I don't buy an Xbox that overheats.

Re:God forbid

[seabreezemm]

Oh no, I offended some asshole fanboy and got a troll. Face facts fanboys M$ is not your friend and the xbox2 is not a good product as it currently is.

Hexus.net must have paid for the Editors'...

[divisionbyzero]

iPod Videos and Xbox 360s... Two articles right after each other and both of them puff pieces. Lame.

I call BS.

[supabeast!]

Why the hell would anyone make a watercooling unit for the Xbox 360 when the built-in cooling system does the job just fine? The problem with the 360 is that the external power supply overheats - not the system itself - and even that problem doesn't require anything as complicated as watercooling, it just needs to be located somewhere air can move under it.

but it's winter

[Anonymous Coward]

just put it outside the window

xbox360 is awesome in japan

[floodo1]

not really
<a href="http://www.nintendojo.com/infocus/view_item. php?1135923450">sales figure in japan</a>

360 REALLY Next Gen???

[Anonymous Coward]

A next gen system needs an additional cooling system? So sad. PS3 will own 360. Suckers.

NOTHERN HEMISPHERE BIAS!!!

[2e]

You said, It's winter now.
I hate all of this NOTHERN HEMISPHERE BIAS!!!
When will it end?!?!
I live in the southern hemisphere, and it's SUMMER HERE NOW!!!
But it seems that everyone on slashdot and the 'mainstream' media all act as if the northern hemisphere is all that matters!
By definition, the southern hemisphere is half of the globe.
You think you're so cool, just 'cus you have so much landmass...
Oh yeah, we have more ocean!!!
Show some consideration...
-Steven

Slashdot strikes again...

[nneonneo]

The site is currently down for essential maintenance

Looks like we managed to take down another site ;)
Mirrordot link of this story

Re:Slashdot strikes again...

[SheeEttin]

Maybe they need to use watercooling on their servers.

Ooops

[Anonymous Coward]

What I find amazing is that M$ screwed up the cooling in their console so badly that there is a market for this product. I never needed to buy a cooling system for my NES to increase its performance, nor any other console I've owned for that matter.

A better mystery...

[SeaFox]

how it works and how it is installed remains something of a mystery.

much like the reason why you would want to install a liquid cooling aparatus on a device that can maintain opertaing tempratures on its own!

I haven't heard of a huge overclocking community of XBox'ers, and it's not like you can easily upgrade the graphics to something that would add lots of heat to the system. The actual usefullness of this product seems rather limited.

Now, if they'd had made a cooling device for the power supply...

If you are looking for

[Anonymous Coward]

A possably good xbox 360 cooling solution a calgary based company (canada) called Cool It Systems (http://www.coolitsystems.com/) released a pres release they have a liquid cooled solution coming for 360 to be revealed in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show this Jan. If their cpu unit is any judge (http://www.coolitsystems.com/index.php?option=com _content&task=view&id=79&Itemid=29) it could be less ugly and more practial than whatever that company is trying to pawn off.

Press Release
http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/wr/122905/13373.htm

Slashvertisement

[Sir Holo]

Ugh. Blatant and heavy-handed slashvertisement.

BTW, opening the case of a device does not void the warranty, although manufacturers would like you to think so. (Magnusson-Moss warranty act)

And "special cooling liquid?" What suckers would fall for such a coarse pitch?

useless...

[YesIAmAScript]

Xbox 360 is already water cooled as it comes from the factory.

And to those who said "I thought it was the power supply was the problem", why not just not comment at all until you have one? The power supply doesn't get hot enough on its own to shut down. It may be more sensitive to heat than the main unit (at least some of them may be), but it doesn't generate much heat on its own.

Finally, the Xbox 360 doesn't have an overheating problem unless you put it in an enclosed space. If you do, the sheer amount of heat will cause the entire enclosed space to heat up. This unit will not change that. You need to get the heat outside of the enclosed space.

A simple fan in the enclosure will be 100X more effective than this thing. Or just not putting the 360 in an enclosure.

I had hoped wider availability would make it so more people understood what was going on simply through experience.

Do not buy this thing. If your 360 is not in an enclosed space, it doesn't need it. And if it is in an enclosed space, this will make it overheat even faster.

Re:Steve from Hexus is QUITE prolific ... too much

[apoc06]

i just clicked the link for shts and giggles, but DAYUM! he /is/ a busy slashdot tipster...

Peter Griffin got it right!

[maztuhblastah]

"Hold on Lois... a boat's a boat. But the mystery box could be anything. It could even be a boat, and you know how much we've wanted one of those!"

Dreamcast...revisited...

[OneFix]

This is really nothing new. The Dreamcast uses/used a closed liquid cooling system that operated on convection (a single fan cooled one part of the closed loop)...

It worked for the Dreamcast...why not for the 360...what surprises me is that in 5 years, noone has come up with a better idea for cooling a console...I would really like to see a zero noise console...

Re:Dreamcast...revisited...

[Anonymous Coward]

The NES, SNES, and N64 run silent.

Watercooler jokes:

[Somatic]

Watercooler jokes: they're not just about Seinfeld anymore.

a real watercooled 360

[Anonymous Coward]

Hardocp.com posted an article on a watercooling mod job for 360, and unlike this worthless article, it actually describes how they do it: http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=OTM5

They say at the end it had a huge affect on temperature, dropping the temperature 50 degrees fahrenheit.

HardOCP is doing it for real...

[The-Bus]

Noticed on Penny Arcade that HardOCP is doing this for real.

And yes, it does void your warranty.