Is it recommended to mod the fan if you add a 160GB/7200rpm hard drive? I read how to do it, but I can not find where I read it. I think it is currently 7v and you jump a wire from the hard drive to the fan to get 12v??? Thanks for the help!
just cut the black wire and solder it to the metal grounding case in the xbox. This will make the fan run at 12V all the time.
You could also use a dash like avalaunch that has the fan speed in the xml file that can be changed. OR a dash like XBMC or unleashedX that have utilities that will let you set the temp you want the xbox to run under...and then when the box gets close or to that temp the fan will speed up to cool it down.
Will those utilities actually speed up the fan as if you were to ground the black wire? I have avalauch and XBMC, but when I play games I usually don't launch them from either, would I have to? (I am trying to keep it simple for my 9yr old) Do you know an ideal fan speed or mobo temp? thanks I cut the wire on one, but I would like to try this on my other one. Punqewe, what do you mean by switchable fan, is this a software switch or manual, and why(for noise control)?
The fan speed adjustments in avalaunch only work while in the dash....and my switchable fan is a hardware mod. I have the normal 7v speed on one setting and the 12v speed on the other setting. I have the normal speed for everyday use and the faster speed for the lan parties when things tend to get hot. I now use unleashedX as of a week ago (i haven't changed my sig yet) and I like the features in it. Especially the ability to put a password on my settings so that people can't tinker with them. And having a 9 year old it might be a good change since you can put the passwords on the games as well,locking him/her out of the 'bad' games. As far as ideal temp...the xbox will shut down around 72 degrees celcius as a safety feature...so anything below 60 degrees celcius is good....I wouldn't worry till it gets above 65.
BTW the switch I used was one with the center being OFF....not good to have but it was the only switch I had laying around at the time. Anyways here's the schematic I used. What you do is cut the black ground wire of the fan in half. The part of the black wire that's still conected to the fans plug goes to #5. The part that's atill conected to the fan goes to #4. Bridge #2 and #6 and splice into it and conect that wire to the fans power by splicing into that. Now you just ground #1 to the motherboard by using a screw that holds down the mobo. Now when the switch is one way the fans running at 7v and flip it the other way to run it at 12v. A better way eould be to use a dimmer and have an analog control of the speed. OR use a dash with the features built in.
thanks for the schematic, on the last box I did for my brother, I bought a hdd plug that has the little 12v plug coming off for the fan, it works great, but I would like to be able to turn the fan down(noise) at certain times, so this would be possible by using avalaunch and adjusting the xml file? I haven't made it that far yet, but I am assuming it will default back to 12v when I exit avalaunch(if I normally use evox dash)? I also just seen a dimmer switch/fan setup at the pc store, maybe I'll check for just the dimmer switch.
