Hi everyone, ive been doing alot of reading and u guys really seem to know your stuff. i apologise in advance for this being long. So i have a few questions im not really sure of. First ill tell you my situation. I dont have an xbox but i want to buy one and put in a larger hard drive, and a mod chip. All i want it to do is store games, movies, and music on there so i can play it later. What things do i need to do this? im guessing just an xbox, larger hard drive and a mod chip... is that all? I dont really know anything about flashing the card or bios or even what that is. I only want to attempt it myself because i would save AU$125 and the guy who would install it seems like he doesnt know what hes doing anyway. so i thought i may as well have a go and save my money. What do u think? is it really that hard for someone who only knows how to solder and knows bugga all bout computers, i can format em, thats bout it. I was going to get a Western Digital 200GB 7200rpm ATA100 Hard Drive with 8MB Cache, and a Xecuter 3 Modchip, and put it in the new xbox, but ive heard a few different things. First 200gb and the 7200rpm overheats, there is little difference between 2mb and 8mb cache, and the version 1.6 xbox is hard to mod and stuffs up when u do. I just dont wanna throw my money away. Also when i do this, can i just plug it into the computer and download stuff from the pc to the xbox, like mp3's and movies etc? really sorry its long, im just confused. I appreciate ur help as reading the faq's seems to be gettin me nowhere. If u can tell me thats great, or point me in the right direction, thats good to. Thanks.
Hi I can only answer a few of your questions but i'm sure someone more knowledgeable will fill in the blanks All you need is a HD, modchip and Xbox. Tools needed are either a CDRW drive and disk (or dvd-r) to flash the chip from disc, or a network adapter (LAN/ethernet port and crossover cable) OR a router for flashing via FTP. If you're wanting to flash via FTP then you'll need the X3 chip (or another chip with on board networking components). A new Xbox will almost certainly be a 1.6. This will require soldering, although there is a solderless solution for the 1.6 now called a Spider chip. I dont know if they're any good or not, so i cant comment. Even so, soldering the box isn't that hard, just take your time and dont get frustrated. Once you're soldered, you need to flash the BIOS, then install a dash. If you want easy, i reccomend you download Slayers 2.6. This makes the hard drive and dash install a simple point and click operation. For connecting to the PC to transfer files/music etc, its very simple once the dash is installed. Simply use a FTP program with the network setup mentioned above. I know this probably sounds like a lot of confusing babble, but just take it one step at a time, and search for a tut on that particular area. Dont be scared by it, i did it in 3 days, with no knowledge of FTP, BIOS, soldering, dashboards or anything. So you first mission is decide on a chip and get it ordered. Hope this helps Guy PS - I'd like to know about the hard drive questions too
Thanks for your reply i really appreciate it. It all seems like babble to me. I think i would be right installing the chip and hard drive, but i would have no idea what to do once i got past the soldering because all the tuts seem confusing (i have bugga all computer knowledge) I can buy the parts and get the guy to do it for me, but i think he is self taught and he doesnt seem to know much. I mean he couldnt answer my questions, the ones i asked here. he just mumbled i think so and yeah not sure.... and he seems to think im being greedy wanting a 200gig hdd and i should only go the 120. dunno if i trust him with my new xbox. Any ideas? struggle myself or take the gamble....
my western digital 120 gig hd spins at 7200 rpms, too, and i have never had a problem with overheating. although they are different sizes, i don't see how that could make a temperature difference, just the speed in which they spin. i wouldn't say youre greedy for wanting 200 gigs, especially if you want movies on there. i will never use all my 120 gigs b/c there's just not enough great games to copy, but i use dvd-r's for movies so i don't need my xbox for a movie center. it's all very overwhelming at first, but like evoxguy said, take it one step at a time and you'll do fine. by the way, don't pay that guy to do this, in a couple of days, it sounds like you would know more than him and plus it's not as hard as it seems at first.
thanks for that. just a few more. i have a cd burner so i can make boot discs. so how do i connect it to the computer? do i have to buy a network adapter? and all these programs ie slayer and others, can i download them or do i have to buy them? i was hoping to go with a solderless solution because i dont want to risk stuffin anything up. whats the spider chip like? id prefer to go with the x3 because it seems to have a good rap, and the solderless should be coming out soon. Also, should i do the 12 volt fan mod? or just try puttin in another fan? Thanks.
If your computer is pretty recent it should have on board LAN (looks like a modem connection, but isn't). If so, a crossover cable (less that 5ukp) is all you need. If you use Slayers, you wont need to connect to the PC to get your Dash up and running. Slayers is free, for more info, email me.
