Can I hire anybody for a project?

[Daniel_BMS]

Can I hire somebody to make custom PC? I'd like to be able to build a PC into an X-Box, but I would need help as I have nowhere near the experience necessary for a challenging project.

[.Maleficus.]

Welcome to the forums Daniel_BMS.

Generally speaking, we don't really mod for hire here. Depending on your location, you may be able to find someone willing to, but it's much more fun and rewarding to do it yourself. Building a PC into an Xbox wouldn't be too challenging at all, since at it's core, the Xbox is a standard PC (with a proprietary OS). Do you have the Xbox that you want the PC in? Have you taken it apart? If you can find a Torx 14 (I believe...) screw driver, take apart the Xbox and you'll see, it isn't too different from a normal PC. It has some strange setups, like the open PSU, but you could easily manage to put it in yourself, without much handywork needed.

I can tell you right now, you'll need at least an M-ATX motherboad for size sake, and you'll probably want to continue using the mounting structures for the hard drive and DVD drive. The only real problems I can see now, are the PSU and changing the DVD face plate. With a little problem solving and hard work, it can be managed though.


Edit: Forgot about a graphics card. Unless you use onboard graphics, you'll need a way to fit a graphics card in there. The only solution I see would be a 90 degree PCI-E angle for the card.

[Luke122]

Hmm.. .that's actually a pretty good idea... hmmm
:D

[Daniel_BMS]

Thank you for the welcome.

Yeah I guess I will find somebody local to help. I know it can be a fun project, but I have another major project I have to work on, so I won't have time to learn a new craft. Fortunately hiring somebody to build a PC into an X-Box isn't an extremely difficult request. I don't yet have an X-Box for a project, but there are always plenty of broken X-Boxes on eBay waiting to be sold. I could try to start the project myself, but to make it really complete I would really need the help of somebody who knows how to do challenging mods.

[doug91]

you mean the original xbox right? and from how I read your post, you want to gut the actual xbox and put a custom pc in there?
That seems like a good idea but I'm not too sure it would work unless you use a motherboard's onboard graphics. There's simply no room for a graphics card in that xbox case. Also, the cooling potential of an xbox plain sucks. The heat from a graphics card would probably be too much.

[jdbnsn]

It's been done, so it can be done again. Like .Maleficus. was saying, there are PCI extensions that allow you to plug a ribbon cable into your PCI/PCIe>AGP slots and this would allow a GFX card to be mounted parallel to the MB. The cooling could be an issue, is this going to be for gaming or novelty? PLus, where do you live? Maybe someone here lives in you area and you could work on it together.

[Daniel_BMS]

I live in Sonoma, CA.

How much power could you pack into an X-Box's shell? It's mostly for novelty so it doesn't need to be able to do intense 3D gaming. But is it still possible to pack a video card in that would allow it to have TV out functions?

[jdbnsn]

I live in Sonoma, CA.

How much power could you pack into an X-Box's shell? It's mostly for novelty so it doesn't need to be able to do intense 3D gaming. But is it still possible to pack a video card in that would allow it to have TV out functions?

Sure, I have an ATI TV Wonder card in my comp (PCI) and they are quite tiny actually. You would need that and a graphics card unless you got an ATI All-In-Wonder card. But either way, you'll need two things: PCI slot extensions to mount the cards horizontally, and an external power supply.

[Daniel_BMS]

External power supply? Would that ruin the illusion and take away from some of the novelty factor? Or would it just be giving the X-Box a notebook like power supply? The latter wouldn't be bad at all.

[.Maleficus.]

How about something like this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817147019) for the PSU? 1U power supplies are pretty small.

Also, here's a mobo (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813141007) with onboard graphics AND HDMI.

[d_stilgar]

Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813153092

Ram
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820231022

HDD
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822148290

DVD Drive
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827106072

PSU
http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-120-power-kit?sc=8&category=13

All those parts would be easy to fit. The only exception would be that the DVD drive might be a little big, but you would just switch it out for a slimline DVD drive.

Other parts that you might want to consider.

TV Tuner to make it a HTPC.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116620

A Great Keyboard and Mouse combo.
This
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126008
and this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826104089
Or this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126176

If you want me to make a parts list for a faster computer, just tell me. I could do one with everything comfortable maxed out too.

[Daniel_BMS]

The motherboard and RAM look powerful and efficient. However we may have to ditch the DVD drive entirely. Having a regular DVD drive would ruin the illusion and there is probably no way to rewire the existing drive. The only thing I will allow to help ruin the illusion will be USB ports in the front of the box.

I don't get the PSU you suggested. How do we cool this system? Do we use both the iStarUSA and the Pico?

Instead of a 300GB hard drive how about a 7200RPM+ -80GB hard drive? This computer won't be able to function as a main computer so speed would count for more than space.

The TV card looks good. I hope it can fit in the back of the X-Box.

[d_stilgar]

If you have a TV card, you'll want the Hard Drive space to record TV, and then the X-box becomes a HTPC, which makes it pretty cool and way practical. Also, the increased speed of the drive isn't going to make a huge difference in performance since it would be a single drive in a no-raid machine.

The DVD drive could be stealthed to look like the X-box one. That would be more than easy. The system is pretty low power, but a few 40mm fans would help to keep the air moving.

The Pico PSU could power everything, the hard drive, the dvd drive, the motherboard, a half dozen USB devices. That motherboard CPU combo only takes up 25W.

Also, you could easily wire the controller ports to USB so that X-box controllers can be plugged in the same slot as before and be used with the computer.

Those are just thoughts though. The idea of seeing this done is really starting to grow on me though.

[chaksq]

However we may have to ditch the DVD drive entirely. Having a regular DVD drive would ruin the illusion and there is probably no way to rewire the existing drive. The only thing I will allow to help ruin the illusion will be USB ports in the front of the box.The XBox actually uses a normal computer type DVD drive although the one already there is probably not that great to hook to a normal computer. But any other standard DVD will fit right in the XBox if you take off the front bezel of the drive and the XBox cover can be easily modified to fit on the new drive's drawer so no one will notice it's been swapped.

As for the USB the XBox controller ports are actually USB ports with a weird connector so people thought it was unique. Whoever does the project could theoretically wire them up to an internal USB hub and the mod XBox controllwer cables as USB extension cords for more of an illusion.

I kinda want to do this project now, in fact I'd offer to do it for you but I haven't actually completed any mod projects of my own for any kind of reputation. I'm sure I'd be able to do it, as long as you didn't want me to paint it.

[SgtM]

As for the USB the XBox controller ports are actually USB ports with a weird connector so people thought it was unique. Whoever does the project could theoretically wire them up to an internal USB hub and the mod XBox controllwer cables as USB extension cords for more of an illusion.

Yup.. check my sig for a tut on how to mod your controller.

[Daniel_BMS]

You're probably right about the 300GB hard drive. That much space would keep options open for all kinds of uses. But we may want to opt for an 80GB hard drive to keep costs down. Just an 80GB hard drive is plenty for games.

I'm amazed to hear about the DVD drive's possibilities. That's awesome. That would really help the illusion. You can get a WTF?! response from friends when they see a Windows XP screen.

The suggested Pico power supply sounds good. It would surely give the system long life. But I am really amazed to read about the controller ports's possibilities. That's amazing! So you can have regular controller ports that function as USB ports? Awesome! But how would you plug in a USB hard drive. Above all else this system would have to be designed to allow large data transfers.

I'm getting excited about this idea. The only problem is that the only time I can think of using this system would be at a convention only 3 weeks away. I can gather up the money for the system quickly, but the time to build it would be an issue. Guess I will have to think of other uses for it.

[chaksq]

The only problem is that the only time I can think of using this system would be at a convention only 3 weeks away. I can gather up the money for the system quickly, but the time to build it would be an issue. Guess I will have to think of other uses for it.

Well there will be future conventions/LAN parties. I know the reason I mod is not to have a cool case (although that is nice too) but because I like making stuff, I find working with that kind of stuff fun. I might suggest adding a TV tuner card and using the computer as a HTPC if you can't think of anything else to do with it.