Finalman's Xbox 360 Internal Disc Drive to External HD-DVD Enclosure Mod

THE IDEA

This mod is to externalise the Xbox 360s FATs internal disc drive into a Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive enclosure. So that I can either:

1. Have an extra CPU heatsink on the GPU while at the same time retaining the ability to play or rip game discs on my JTAG Xbox 360s.
2. Use the drive as an 0800 ripping drive.

PERCENT COMPLETE

100%

TASKS

Complete:
Prepare the Xbox 360 disc drive
Create the Xbox 360 Internal to external adapter plate
Create and build the HD-DVD enclosure replacement interface PCB design

Create the cables

Not Complete:


XBOX 360:

The internal to external connections are accessible all of the time from the disc drive tray area.



Internal to external Bracket:
In the place of the of the disc drive is a bracket that has the eject switch, external drive power connector and SATA port. The bracket metal is from the side of a PC power supply that has been cut off and down to what you see. I drilled, cut and filed the ports into the bracket. It mounts using screws going through holes that already exist in the Xbox 360 motherboard metal tray





Internal Cables:
The internal to external power cable is from an original Xbox as it is the perfect length. It has been rewired to suite my needs. The internal to external SATA cable ends are an eSATA bracket mount to regular SATA end. The eject button has been wired directly to the eject switch on the Xbox 360 motherboard.



Xbox 360 disc drive power pinout.

XBOX 360 DISC DRIVE:

Modifications:

All that is required to make the Xbox 360 disc drive fit perfectly into the HD-DVD enclosure the plastic legs need to be removed. After that modification the disc drive will sit perfectly where the HD-DVD drive sat. As pictured any of the plastic legs below the red needs line to go.

TIP: Get a hacksaw, lay the blade flat against one side of the drive front and back legs outer metal where the plastic legs go through and slide hacksaw back and forward to cut off two plastic legs off perfectly even with the metal that the legs go through. Then do the other sides two legs.

Drive Tray Facia:
To make the HD-DVD drive tray facia fit on the Xbox 360 Lite-On disc dive a piece of the tray that sticks out must be removed so that the drive front around that area is flat. As seen outlined in red in the following pictures.

Before.

After.


Before.


After.

XBOX 360 HD-DVD DRIVE:

Modifications:

No permanent modifications are required on the actual HD-DVD drive enclosure.

Adapter PCB:
I will be replacing the HD-DVD drive USB connectors with a custom made PCB that I designed which will have the eject / fan / LED connector, drive SATA ports and power connectors. Without modifying the HD-DVD drive the PCB will have 2mm spacers between it and the HD-DVD plastic mounting screw locations which stops the PCBs SATA port colliding with the black metal frame.

NOTE: Without modifying the HD-DVD Drive the rear external power and SATA ports will be recessed a bit but they are still easily accessible from my experience

External to Internal Cables:
The cables used inside the HD-DVD enclosure include the Xbox 360 drive SATA and power cable. The Xbox 360 drive power cable had to be rewired to suite my needs.

Powering:
I'll just run the power directly from the Xbox 360 with the extended 20 inch disc drive power cable I've got.

Eject and LED:
The original HD-DVD drive eject and LED circuit board remains in place but I've added an LED to above the eject button then have run wires from the LED legs and eject button solder points back to my custom made circuit board.

Replace the Capacitor:
While your inside the HD-DVD drive enclosure take the time to replace the largest capacitor on the power board before it fails and ruins the PCB. The capacitor is yellow and green and is manufactured by SANYO and is rated as 16V 1500uF. I've got ten HD-DVD drives and nine contained that exact capacitor. Of those nine eight were bulging and/or leaking, the ninth I replaced anyway before it could fail. The tenth was still OK and different coloured so I assume it to be from a different manufacturer so should be OK.



EXTERNAL CABLES

Are an ESATA to regular SATA end cable and a 20 inch extended disc drive power cable. See the following for eBay item auction details for the disc drive power cable.

eBay seller ocean515732.

eBay seller store.
Ebay Item.- Auction is for Xbox One cause its cheaper than the Xbox 360 auction and also contains the required 11th wire.

PICTURES

FOR SALE

End...

Finalman's Xbox 360 FAT / SLIM / E PC Case Mod

THE IDEA

This mod is to basically develop two Xbox 360 motherboard adapter plates and wiring adapters for all FAT and Slim Xbox 360s that are able to be transplanted between different PC cases with no modification to the PC cases or Xbox 360 motherboards.

PERCENT COMPLETE

90%

TASKS

Complete:

XBOX 360 FAT:

Separate the metal chassis bottom motherboard tray
Build the motherboard adapter plate

Build the ATX power connector adapter

Build the Fan adapter cable
Build the Fan mounting hardware
Build the Fan Shroud
Paint the cutdown motherboard tray

XBOX 360 SLIM:

Separate the metal chassis bottom motherboard tray

Build the motherboard adapter plate

Build the motherboard adapter plate

Build the ATX power connector adapter
Paint the cutdown motherboard tray

XBOX 360 E:

Separate the metal chassis bottom motherboard tray

Build the motherboard adapter plate

Build the ATX power connector adapter

COMBINED:

Build the HDMI PCI Bracket

Build the Ethernet PCI Bracket

Build the Optical Audio PCI Bracket

Build the PC rear IO panel
Build the disc drive mounting hardware

Not Complete:

XBOX 360 FAT:

Prepare the ROL board for antenna extension

Build the LEDs and button wiring adapters
Separate the Non-HDMI metal chassis bottom motherboard tray
Build the power adapter PCB.

XBOX 360 SLIM:

Prepare the ROL board for antenna extension

Build the LEDs and button wiring adapters

XBOX 360 E:

Prepare the ROL board for antenna extension

Build the LEDs and button wiring adapters
Paint the cutdown motherboard tray

COMBINED:

Build the ROL Antenna PCI Bracket

Extras: (Not important so I might do later on)

MOTHERBOARDS

The motherboards will be mounted onto cutdown versions of their motherboard trays. Only the bottom of the motherboard tray will remain the sides will all be removed.

XBOX 360 FAT:

The motherboard will be mounted with its motherboard tray bottom which measures about 271mm x 217mm.

XBOX 360 FAT NON-HDMI motherboard tray.

Pic To Be Added...

XBOX 360 FAT HDMI motherboard tray.

XBOX 360 SLIM + E:

The motherboard will be mounted with its motherboard tray bottom which measures about 218mm x 220mm.

Xbox 360 Slim motherboard tray.

Xbox 360 Slim E motherboard tray.

ADAPTER PLATE:

The purpose of the adapter plate is to combine the standoff holes for the XBOX 360 and PC case motherboard onto the one plate.

I will create a single 3mm thick final version adapter plate for FAT / Slim Xbox 360 versions. I'll call this the master plate from which I will create copies onto 1.5mm thick aluminium plates which will be the ones actually used in the PC cases.

Process:

1. Separate the XBOX 360 motherboard tray bottoms.
2. Prepare the sacrifical motherboards for templating. To get the most accurate results I purchase faulty motherboards then grind the motherboard bottoms perfectly flat.
3. Use the XBOX 360 motherboard tray bottoms and PC motherboard as templates to drill the standoff adapter plate holes. The basic process is as follows:
   

1. Clamp the XBOX 360 tray / PC motherboard in place
2. Use a bench drill-press to mark the holes
3. Remove the clamps and motherboard tray / PC motherboard
4. Drill the marked holes all of the way through
5. Clean the aluminium plate of any burs
6. Mount the Xbox 360 motherboard standoffs.

Xbox 360 slim motherboard chassis without bottom.

Chassis Graveyard.

Example XB1X Pictured.

XBOX 360 FAT:

The motherboard tray is to be mounted on an aluminium adapter plate measuring 305mm x 244mm, being the standard PC ATX motherboard size.

Xbox 360 FAT motherboard adapter plate.

NOTE: All Xbox 360 FAT versions (Xenon, Zephyr, Falcon and Jasper) have the same mounting six hole locations for the standoffs to secure to the adapter plate.

XBOX 360 SLIM + E:

The motherboard tray is to be mounted on an aluminium adapter plate measuring 244mm x 244mm, being the standard PC Micro-ATX motherboard size.

Xbox 360 Slim + E motherboard adapter plate.

NOTE: All Xbox 360 Slim and the Xbox 360 Slim E versions (Trinity, Corona, Winchester) have the same mounting six hole locations for the standoffs to secure to the adapter plate.

COOLING:

Fan Adapter:

I made the following fan adapter cables to go between the Xbox 360 motherboards and the Processors Fan/s.

Xbox 360 FAT versions.

Xbox 360 slim version.

Heatsink:

OPTION 1 - Original Heatsinks

Take original FAT Xbox 360 CPU heatsinks and rotate them 90 degrees then place them on both the CPU and GPU chips.

NOTE: The heatsink on the GPU must always be the 2nd gen all aluminium heatsink.

OPTION 2 - PC Heatsink

Is to take a stock PC heatsink and adapt it to suite the Xbox 360.

Probably the Fujitsu-Siemens V26898-B854-V2 due to the ability to easily adapt it to the Xbox 360 X clamp design. .

Original Heatsink.

Modified Heatsink with shortened legs.

The x-clamp hardware can still be used but require a bit of extra effort.

HARD WAY - Use the Original X-Clamp Hardware

Attach the x-clamp heatsink studs to the heatsink by:

1. Drill the Xbox 360 x-clamp stud screw holes into the heatsink base.
2. Tap 5mm thread into the stud hole on the heatsink base.

NOTE: Listed as the hard way because drills tend to walk\move even when enlarging previously drilled holes. Also the x-clamp stud holes need to be tapped perfectly straight down.  Otherwise if both are not perfect the holes will be off center\axis and the x-clamp will not fit over all of the studs.

EASY WAY - Modify the Original X-Clamp Hardware

1. Drill the Xbox 360 x-clamp stud screw hole all of the way through using a 2mm drill.
2. Thread the hole in the stud all of the way through with a 2.5mm 0.45 inch thread tap.
3. Remove the 5mm screw thread area on the stud so that the x-clamp Hex nut area is flat.
4. Attach the x-clamp studs to the heatsink base using 2.5mm screws.

What the x-clamp stud should look like.

PORTS

HDMI:

I will be able to use the following HDMI extension adapter to suit. The PCI bracket HDMI cut-out was done by myself. This will be attached to one of the PCI slots.

Optical Audio:

I will be able to use the following Optical adapter to suit. The PCI bracket cut-out was done by myself. This will be attached to one of the PCI slots.

Ethernet:
I have custom made a Ethernet bracket. I pulled the RJ45 port from an old laptop, cut the square hole out of a PCI bracket blank and soldered the port to the PCI bracket. I then soldered an 80cm ethernet cable to the RJ45 port pins. This will be attached to one of the PCI slots.

USB:

I will be able to use the following USB extension adapters to suit. These will be attached to the PCI slots or the front panel usb port.

USB3 to USB3 PCI bracket.

USB3 to USB3 Pin header for Front Panel USB.

USB3 Angle Adapter.

WIFI:

Due to the Xbox 360 slims WIFI only supporting 2.4GHz WIFI I will probably just use one of the external PC USB ports to connect the dual band Xbox 360 official USB adapter.

DISC DRIVE

Internal:
I have built the disc drive mounting hardware out the metal top part of an old 5.25 inch disc drive. I cut down the metal chassis top part to size and turned it upside down thereby allowing me to mount the Xbox 360 drive to it.

The disc drive being used is a Lite-on DG-16D2S from a FAT Xbox 360. It has been heavily modified using a grinder and files to allow it to fit into the mounting hardware and the original DVD-ROM drive plastic faceplate and the tray bezel.

The drive and tray faceplate are from the original drive and the eject button is fully functional. 

External:
Since most new PC cases no longer have 5 1/4 inch drive bays I'll still be able to use the disc drive externally with the internal to external extension PCI bracket I created. See my other blog here for a Xbox 360 internal drive in a Xbox 360 HD-DVD enclosure.

 

HARD DRIVE

With the PC case setup I'll be able to use 3 1/2 inch PC HDDs and power them directly from the PC power supply. 

XBOX 360 FAT

I'll probably just use the connector found in the Xbox 360 HDD unit and a male to female sata cable.

XBOX 360 SLIM + E:

Won't require any kind of adapters. 

WIRELESS CONTROLLER FUNCTION:

Highlighted in ... are the antenna/s that need extending for wireless controller function for this I will be using a WiFi pigtail.

XBOX 360 FAT:

XBOX 360 SLIM:

XBOX 360 E:

WiFi Pigtail.

POWERING

See here.

PC CASE

Case Buttons:

The following pictures indicate pinouts.

Yellow => Power button

Blue => Eject Button

Red => Sync Button

Black => GND

XBOX 360 FAT:

XBOX 360 SLIM:

XBOX 360 E:

Case LEDs:

PC Case => Xbox 360
Power     => Power

HDD        => Error

XBOX 360 FAT:

XBOX 360 SLIM:

XBOX 360 E:

PC Case Rear IO Panel:

I have placed a sticker over a standard PC rear IO plate to hide the PC port holes.

FINAL VERSION PICS:

To Be Added...

CLEARANCE ISSUES

Working out the heatsink clearance:

FAT:
The new height of the Xbox motherboard will be 1.6mm (adapter plate) + 10mm (Xbox motherboard standoffs) + 1mm (Xbox motherboard tray)+ 1.5mm (Xbox motherboard) + 3mm (APU) = 17.10mm.

The height of the Intel CPU cores above the pc case will be 1.5mm (PC motherboard) + 8mm (CPU) = 9.5mm.

To find out if the chosen heatsink will still fit height wise into the PC case you must subtract that amount from the 23mm (XBOX CPU core height) - 17.10mm (PC CPU core height) = 7.6mm the Xbox Processor cores are higher than PC CPU core height.

Then take that figure off of the PC case heatsink clearance specification to get the new value for the supported case heatsink clearance height specifications and choose a cooler height of that amount or less.

WHAT I STILL NEED TO KNOW

1. How do I properly tap into the antennas on the Ring Of Light / RF board and extend them using WIFI pigtail?

HELP NEEDED

Any help needed will be asked for here.

MENTIONS

Id like to thank the following people for their input.

• ocean515732 eBay User - For his info and for supplying me with the long drive power cables - Haven't found anywhere else to get these anymore.
  

ITEMS FOR SALE

V26898-B854-V2 Heatsink - Expression of interest:

I have the opportunity to purchase a lot of about twenty used V26898-B854-V2 Heatsinks. If I have sufficient interest I will purchase and modify them to suite:

PS3 - Fats and Slim - Not supers slims

PS4 - All Versions

Xbox 360 - All versions

Xbox One - All versions

Modifications would include:

Clamping hardware holes drilled

Heatsink legs trimmed or removed depending on the console you require them for.

Price wise I would be looking at about $50 Australian dollars for the modified heatsink. Not including postage to you.

Post a comment if you are interested in a Pre-modified Heatsink.

More Updates to follow...