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Water Cooling an Xbox 360
An anonymous reader writes "HardOCP has done it once again. They have an article running down the process of water cooling an Xbox 360, and with surprising effectiveness and remarkable styling." From the article: "We had plans to water cool an Xbox 360 for over a year now. Little did we know that not only will this water cooling project be more fun than the original, but it may even be practical. Imagine that. With reports of heat related issues and a heat sink that can get almost too hot to touch after marathon gaming sessions, the Xbox 360 water cooling project now had a sense of purpose. We bought a retail Xbox 360 specifically for this project. The minute we got it back to the [H] labs we tore into it and, with a little help from the fine folks at Koolance, we have put together a water cooling solution that will handle anything the Xbox 360 can throw at it and literally knock your socks off." Actual implimentation with hand-holding. Hexus.net was discussing a kit to do this a few days ago.
How about a small fan or maybe, just maybe, not shoving the whole thing into a tiny space with no ventilation.
The standard 360 cooler uses liquid to transfer heat more efficiently from the CPU/GPU afaik. Maybe in the next revision they should consider taking this idea further and add a radiator and pump... :)
Why do modders always go compete ape shit over stupid stuff like this? I have an Xbox 360 and it works. It just works. No it doesn't have water cooling. I also did case mod it, and it still works! Yes, some people have had problems. Just don't put the power supply in a bad place and you'll be fine. Water cooling for PC's may make sense because there are different types of PC's. Right now an Xbox 360 is just a 360, and if you follow instructions and have a bit of common sense, you'll be fine. It either plays the game or it doesn't. A water cooling system isn't just unecessary, it's stupid.
I fail to see how a water cooling system would do any sock-knocking. I guess they don't actually know what the word literally means (hint: it isn't a superlative nor does it simply add emphasis).
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
With what, water pressure?
*grumblegrumble*
vk.
"With reports of heat related issues and a heat sink that can get almost too hot to touch after marathon gaming sessions.."
I just love touching the heatsink after a good session of gaming, and now I can't with the Xbox 360; I gotta get this product now!
It's the PSU that overheats, causing the majority of recent problems.
;)
But hey, if you'd rather spend ~180 on a water cooling system instead of not stuffing the power block deep inside a cabinet, more power to you.
They used all Koolance products throughout, with no discussion at all about why they used those particular parts when several other better ones are available. This really doesn't seem that useful anyway unless you pipe the water through the power supply. Even the most intrepid of the PC water cooling community are wary of doing that.
I had one fall on my leg.
It ripped my flesh to the bone, knocked my sock off, broke my big toe and killed my cat.
damn you Microsoft
DAMN YOU
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Well I look at it like they did this for a few reasons.
1) For people who already bought an XBox 360 and cannot wait for MS to "fix the problem"
2) It's a cool thing to do.
3) Third parties can see that watercooling an XBox 360 is possible and will release kits that people can use.
But yes in a perfect world MS should fix the problem, it's not 100% guaranteed that they will though. Power to the people.
If 'almost too hot to touch' is below the specs for the processor's operating temperature range...it doesn't matter how hot it feels to the user.
It never ceases to amaze me how people with no training will second-guess the basic competency of others with degrees in their field. Yes, the power supply gets too hot if placed on a rug...but that doesn't mean the xbox itself isn't designed properly. Probably just means that they didn't do a lot of testing in people's homes with the bricks on rugs and such; from what I understand, the problem is pretty rare even if you don't "cool" the brick.
I also love the egotistical "we drive 'em hard" implied in the "marathon gaming" bits- as if they're HARDCORE users who STRESS the xbox beyond its limits. I guarantee Microsoft had units running benchmarks/game demos for WEEKS at a time doing burn-in...
Please help metamoderate.
it's sad that after all the hype, MS seemingly ignored such a basic component as verifying that internal components remain within thermal limits. I should be able to leave my xbox 360 on overnight without having to worry about it overheating, and I shouldn't have to resort to water-cooling the 360 to ensure it operates properly. Props to those who got this to work, but a user who spends 300+ bucks on a console shouldn't have to make the choice of voiding their warranty (and spending extra to put a cooling sys together) in order to keeep their 360 operating within thermal specs, or risk overheating and failure in the future. MS never seems to quite get it, they made a _huge_ deal pre-release about the chassis being smaller and more attractive (especially those stupid swappable front covers), yet all the hardcore gamers I know would prefer a stable system with great performance to an attractive POS that overheats when you leave it running overnight.
If you own a Xbox 360 you will quickly realize how loud the two case fans are. The liquid cooling modification if done properly will make a huge difference in the noise level provided you can remove, replace, or slow down the stock fans.