Which oXBox is the best for my purposes?

[Devezu]

In the future, I would like to softmod an oXbox in order to:

Run XMBC at 1080i!
Emulation!
Run Backups!

However, I see a lot of conflicting information. Which 0Xbox (such as a particular serial #, manufacturing date/location, etc) is best for me. So far, all I know is that I can get ahold of the exploit games + software, I can solder the USB port in, I can get ahold of a torx kit, I have a spare HDD that can be "locked", and the best DVD drive model to work are the Samsungs. Help? I don't want to get one and find out I can do it / do it with lots of caveats!

[Krooner]

The Samsung drives jam up all the time, the Thompson drive is the best, the Samsung will read a CDR but that's all it's got over the Thompson and how likely are you to be using CDR? Expecially with USB wired in...

The Xbox will only display 720p in HD mode over component. Also bare in main that softmodding won't change the system bios and that limits the USB sticks that the machine will accept, you can flash the TSOP (1 wire IIRC) and rewrite it to the xecuter bios though, that'll solve you problem. will also make the HDD install a ton easier..

The System version you go for doesn't really matter the things are built like tanks and all the components are hot-swappable.

[lisalover1]

A lot of what you want depends on external hardware, not the Xbox itself. For the 1080i [which looks spectacular, by the way,] you need an Xbox Component cable. I got a $5 one off Ebay, and it's served me quite well. Also, I highly, HIGHLY recommend upgrading your HDD. I put a 500 GB and XBMC on mine, and it's the best media center I could ask for. Now, the most important part; the actual modification. You can choose between a chip [hardmod] or exploit [softmod]. The chip will cost you a fair bit of cash, especially if you want the Xecuter 3, but you can do a lot of cool stuff with it, like load a modified BIOS on the Xbox, which can give you support in XBMC for external hard drives. Also, a chip makes installing a new HDD much easier. The softmod is simpler and far cheaper, and can do almost everything a chip can, but it's your choice. If you're really feeling adventurous, you can overclock your Xbox to about 1 GHz, and even install extra RAM to more than double its original amount. If you're extremely serious about using your Xbox for a media center, you might want to consider this. However, I suggest letting an expert do these more sophisticated mods, as they can be very risky to install. As for the Xbox hardware alone, I don't have as much knowledge in that area, but logic would tell me that you should get a v1.5 Xbox and not a v1.6, as you would be getting the newest model [i.e. less prone to failure], without getting a v1.6, which is known for causing some problems and limitations in hacking. I hope this helps; if you need any more info, feel free to ask.

[Devezu]

Cool beans! This is great info! The only thing now is, how do I identify a v1.5 oXbox?

I just want to leave it stock (besides HDD) thank you... I have faith in my modding abilities, but I just want to do the mentioned, nothing too crazy. I feel that in my case, the soft modding would be easier. The reason I want a Samsung drive specifically is that I want it to play anything I throw at it, even my CD-R music collection (to keep my pristine CD cases in-tact). Just a few more questions for you guys...

How is emulation of the...

NES?
SNES?
N64?
Genesis?
PlayStation (1)?
SMS?
NeoGeo (MVS or AES)?
CPS-1 through 3?

And can you play oXbox games off the HDD? Is there a special loader for using backups on DVD-R?

[lisalover1]

A Dashboard on the Xbox will do all of what you're looking for. On mine, I have EvoX as my main Dash, with XBMC as a secondary one. From what I've heard, XBMC makes a good main dash, but there are no categories for Apps, Games, Emulators, etc.

As for the emulation questions, all of them run perfectly, except N64 and PS1. For the N64, majority of games run exceedingly well [by which I mean perfect speed and almost completely perfect graphics], and are a joy to play. The PS1 is a bit trickier, but still, a surprisingly large number of games are speedy and playable. Here's a compatibility list for some of the more advanced emulators: http://sdmods.com/forums/index.php?show ... e=threaded

Yes, you can play games, emulators, essentially everything off the HDD. I haven't had to put a disc in my Xbox in months. You run these through the main dashboard you install; not extra programs are needed for this function.

Also, I'm pretty sure you can check which version an Xbox is by looking at the sticker on the bottom of the console.

EDIT: One more thing I should mention, to complete your oXbox gaming experience, try out the program "Xlink Kai". It's a program that tricks your Xbox [and it has support for other consoles] into thinking it's connection to a LAN game, when it's actually connection online, to the Xlink server. With the closing of oXbox Live, it may not be a bad idea to check this out. The only downside is that all anyone ever plays on it is Halo 2, so if you want to play other games online, you either have to be in the right place at the right time, or arrange a match beforehand using the Xlink forums.

[gtmtnbiker]

The reason I want a Samsung drive specifically is that I want it to play anything I throw at it, even my CD-R music collection (to keep my pristine CD cases in-tact).

I never use my drive anymore. I play everything off the hard drive (250GB) or off the network via SMB.

[lisalover1]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you can rip most media right to the hard drive from XBMC, or, through FTPing it to the drive from your computer. I loaded every game I possibly could think of onto the HDD, and I still have over 300 GB free! I'm going to load a bunch of my movies and TV shows onto it soon to use some of that space.

[gtmtnbiker]

The chip will cost you a fair bit of cash, especially if you want the Xecuter 3, but you can do a lot of cool stuff with it, like load a modified BIOS on the Xbox, which can give you support in XBMC for external hard drives. Also, a chip makes installing a new HDD much easier.

I don't think there's any need for a fancy chip. The DuoX2 chip ($15 at eurasia.nu) does most things the Excuter will do except for built-in ftp/web server which is not really that important in my opinion.

[Devezu]

Cool stuff! Just one last question (really... I hope...) -

Was the Samsung drive used earlier or later on in the Xbox's life?

Edit: got it!

http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=367210

Thanks for all the fish guys!

[Niode]

The Samsung drives jam up all the time, the Thompson drive is the best, the Samsung will read a CDR but that's all it's got over the Thompson and how likely are you to be using CDR? Expecially with USB wired in...

The Xbox will only display 720p in HD mode over component. Also bare in main that softmodding won't change the system bios and that limits the USB sticks that the machine will accept, you can flash the TSOP (1 wire IIRC) and rewrite it to the xecuter bios though, that'll solve you problem. will also make the HDD install a ton easier..

The System version you go for doesn't really matter the things are built like tanks and all the components are hot-swappable.

The thomson drive is by far the worst as far as playing copied discs. It's incompatible with almost every single type of recordable media. My Phillips drive is compatible with everything I've thrown at it, including DVD+R and DVD-R, even CD-R and CD-RW.