Making the XBox quieter...

[RichKS]

My XBox get used pretty much exclusively as a media centre these days. But it's kinda noisy. Anyone done any tutorials or whatever for replacing the fans with something quieter?

It's a UK Crystal with executer 2.6 if that makes any odds.

 

[edent]

Two quick tips
1) Open it up and blast the dust out of there
2) In XBMC set the fan speed lower

 

[RichKS]

Good point, blasting the dust out might be a good idea. And pretty easy. I need to poke about in the XBMC settings a bit too.

 

[Johnkg]

2) In XBMC set the fan speed lower

Good point.

I was wondering about changing the fan in mine as it seemed to get a bit noisy after prolonged used. Setting the fan temp to 52c seems to have shut it up markedly!

Has anyone replaced the 70mm fan with another, and if so can anyone recommend one?

 

[Johnkg]

RichKS - I found this which may be of help: http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/80mm-fan.php

but I found some posts saying they had replaced the fan with one of the same size, which I thought was more interesting (easier!).

 

[John]

Whilst your over at X-S , have a look through the tutorials for Xbox , there are several "quietening" mods .I have my Fan temp overide set to 55degrees . The fan barely gets over 10% speed now

 

[johnnygal]

Best move I ever made to quieten the xbox was to install a XBMC build made after 3/3/07. From this point HLT cpu commands were introduced to greatly reduce the CPU temperature. At idle, fan speed drops to 2% with CPU temp at about 45degC.
Even when I'm playing back a film, if I pause and jump out to system info the fan speed is low (have cpu temp auto-controlled to 55degC max but CPU never gets there!)

John

 

[Chunder]

There's another thread floating around somewhere here about replacing the fan; I changed both my boxes over to an AccoustiFan (I think? Something like that anyway!) dustproof one from quietpc.com - it was recommended and linked in the other thread; whisper quiet, fits easily without having to cut the HDD tray, and keeps the box nice and cool - moreso than the original fan.

I'm also tempted to take the heatsinks off the CPU and GPU, and to apply some Arctic Silver to improve the thermal transfer to the 'sink...

 

[Johnkg]

I changed both my boxes over to an AccoustiFan (I think? Something like that anyway!) dustproof one from quietpc.com - it was recommended and linked in the other thread; whisper quiet, fits easily without having to cut the HDD tray, and keeps the box nice and cool - moreso than the original fan.

Was it this one? http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/casefans/afdp-7025b

 

[Chunder]

That's the jobbie!

 

[doomlord]

That's the jobbie!

Looks good. Do you just take Xbox apart, and simply swap the old fan for this new one ? If so I may be tempted to try it.

 

[JeLLyMaN]

doomlord: Yeah you should be able to - i'm 99% sure as there is no need for any configuring as its simply just a fan.

The total price is 14.50 with shipping (1st class 1-7 days). I'd try looking at other sites first though, see if you can get it any cheaper.

I'm definately going to do this as I can hear my fan when playing films and stuff that are quiet in some places - i'll report back here if I find the exact fan (AcoustiFan: DustPROOF 70mm fan) anywhere cheaper.

 

[Johnkg]

i'll report back here if I find the exact fan (AcoustiFan: DustPROOF 70mm fan) anywhere cheaper.

That'd be great. I expect I'll end up doing the same...

 

[JeLLyMaN]

Awesome, lemme know if you do it soon (I'm not in need of a quieter fan at the mo, so no rush for me!)

ps; I looked around and the link above is the cheapest around, everything else is from £2 and £10 more expensive.

 

[Chunder]

Looks good. Do you just take Xbox apart, and simply swap the old fan for this new one ? If so I may be tempted to try it.

Yep, 6 screws from the bottom (under the rubber pads, and under two of the labels) and then remove the HDD tray (easiest to remove the power and data leads first. Unplug the fan, making a note of which way around the plug is connected. The existing fan clips in on each side - I found that a flat-head screwdriver and a bit of a gentle tug worked best.

The Accoustifan comes with rubber grommet kind of things which I used instead of the usual mounting screws; they fit in the normal fan screw holes, and fit quite nicely into the metal shielding in the XBox fan vent - make sure that you have the fan mounted low enough (one row down, IIRC) otherwise the HDD tray won't go back in properly. Don't forget to plug the fan in and to tuck the wires out of the way so they don't get trapped by the tray, or caught by the fan blades or a screw...