Slashdot Mirror
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."
Almost as much of a mystery as why this a black box sitting next to a 360 is considered "news".
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.
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.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
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?
I tried watercooling my XBOX 360. I ended up with a bunch of steam.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
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.
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
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!!
http://tomgould.com/
It looks just like a car heater.
A A260_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
Like so:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000V0AKE.16._
Some say he is made with ascii, others that he is eyeballed daily by millions. All we know is, he is known as the Sig
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.
Privacy is underrated!
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.
!sig
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.
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?
Does a Christian soccer team even need a goalkeeper?
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.
Pining for the fjords
I think the majority of people that have XBox360s play them indoors.
As for the Slashvertisements...
What if we Slashdotted Slashdot?
Is that even possible?
(You like the pun dont ya?)
Privacy is underrated!
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...
Here are the pictures, so you don't have to load the ads:
________
| |
| |
| |
|______|
|| ||
||____||
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
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.
I don't respond to AC's.
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.
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.
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
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?
SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON
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.
"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?
You need a FREE iPod Nano
http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/view_release.php?i
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.c
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
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:
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!
"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.
How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
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.
I read the internet for the articles.
... but maybe I can use this on my hacked, overclocked Roomba!!
FREE LEMMIWINKS!!!
Why is this news, does the cooler run Linux or something?
Beware the fury of a patient man
- John Dryden
I thought the biggest issues were with the power supply? Shouldn't they have made a water cooler for that?
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.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
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!
My sig beat up your sig.
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.
My cat's picked up a Hammer. HEY! Put down that Hammer. Put Down that Hamm...THUNK!
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.
iPod Videos and Xbox 360s... Two articles right after each other and both of them puff pieces. Lame.
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.
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.
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.
Mirrordot link of this story
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...
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.
... and then they built the supercollider.
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?
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
Spooooon!!!!!
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.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
i just clicked the link for shts and giggles, but DAYUM! he /is/ a busy slashdot tipster...
"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!"
The real litigious bastards...
What if we Slashdotted Slashdot? my god! that would create rift in space-time continuum!
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...
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.
Does a Christian soccer team even need a goalkeeper?
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.
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.
Karma: a simple way of silencing those with unpopular views regardless how correct or just that view might be.
Watercooler jokes: they're not just about Seinfeld anymore.
My script don't crash! She crashes, you crashed her!
It is also about the UGLIEST item I've ever seen as an add on... JEEZ. Maybe just a little bit of asthetics.
m =8247683126
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&ite
Noticed on Penny Arcade that HardOCP is doing this for real.
And yes, it does void your warranty.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.