opening the 360

[RCBH928]

hello
i was thinking about openinf my 360. shell and thr sides and leave it open while its running to decrease heat and the chance of the rrod happening again

any advice? any one tried this before? will i be able to attach the hard drive when i open it?

[Hobie-wan]

If it's wide open you'll either have to have it lying flat or propped up against something. Then you'd have to worry about stuff falling into it. A hard drive isn't going to sit and stay put without some jerry-rigging without the gray screen supporting it and the case bits to clip into. I'd just make sure it is well ventilated or add fans.

[emwearz]

Opening them is a bit of a pain, you need to make yourself a little tool (actually two if I recall), if its for heat issues your better off buying one of the 100 fan setups, though I couldnt recommend you one.

[RCBH928]

I did find a video on youtube that will teach you how to open it without a case tool, seems easy enough,

but 2 questions

1) Will he drive stay in place?

2) Will opening it up actually help?

[Hobie-wan]

Without the gray end and the white halves, the HD won't clip in and it will just be sitting there held only by the little bit of friction of the plug. If you bump it like that you're likely to freeze up and maybe corrupt a save file or two. As Em said, either add a fan module from the store or perhaps cut a hole in the case and add a fan mod. There's also a mod to force the existing fans to run at 12 volts all the time, but of course that's really loud. A big slow fan and cutting a hole could be done without adding much noise. No idea on those store bought fan packs.

[RCBH928]

Would you think it would be ok to cute a huge squared hole in the upper shell, this way the heat will rise up and not be captured within the console.

I don't mind doing that to my console, I bought this late 2006 so its been with me for around 4 years, and it did RROD before and I have sent it to Microsoft in 2008 I believe. So I have a good feeling that it is dying soon , I am ready to do whatever to keep it still running to play the few last games I want to play on the 360 (Shenmue 2, Fable 2, Alan Wake, Oblivion, Dead Space)

[CRTGAMER]

I'm just wondering if the airflow of the fans might be affected.
A compromise of heat convection vs airflow being misdirected.

[bacteria]

Like with a computer, the 360 will rely on air flow through the case, so removing the shell could reduce the cooling. What you need to do is to open the shell and install a decent sized fan to suck air through the middle of the case, and ideally then use the ones on the side to suck air out (reverse the fans?). More fans = better cooling.

[RCBH928]

how difficult is this to do?
Will i have to order special fans , or stuff i can find in the local stores?

[bacteria]

Old computer fans you have lying about will be fine; they are rated 12v although often work at lower voltages.