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OG Xbox Forums => Hardware Forums => General Hardware/Technical Chat => Topic started by: kdogg- on January 06, 2004, 01:27:00 PM

Title: Mcpx Heat Sink Upgrade
Post by: kdogg- on January 06, 2004, 01:27:00 PM

Not that anyone cares but I was resently in my local pc store and they had some tiny little heat sinks that were just the right size for the MCPX chipset for like $2 bucks each. I mod alot of consoles for people so I picked up a dozen or so of them and installed one on my personal XBox.

I know alot of people say this upgrade is not needed unless your XBox is having problems but i figured what the hell, why not try it and see how much it helps.

I spent the night at my friends lastnight and he played my XBox for like 10 fucking hours straight at which point was was like when u can save, let me check out the temps. He started to play XBox around 8:30pm and it was almost 6am when I checked temps.

My temps were as fallows after installing the MCPX heat sink and doing the 12 volt fan mod:

Motherboard/MCPX = 31.0 C
CPU = 39.2 C
Harddrive (Maxtor 80 GB 7200 RPM) = 26.0 C

Before doing these mods I was seeing around 43 C on the motheboard and almost 50~52 C on the CPU and like 40 on the HDD.

My next upgrades are going to be  a 80x25x80 mm Thermaltake Smart Fan 2... They have an airflow rating of 75 to 78 CFM  at 4800 RPM and I'm going to mount some sorta 40 to 50mm fan roughly where my modchip is now flowing air in over the heat sink on the MCPX chip. That and the 80mm fan will sure get some good airflow moving threw the case.

Also I'm going to pick up some Goo Gone and remove the gum looking shit from the CPU and GPU and replace them with Artic Silver 5 compound.

Just thought I would share. I have also included a picture of what the heat sink I installed looks like installed below.



This post has been edited by kdogg-: Jan 6 2004, 09:40 PM <

Title: Mcpx Heat Sink Upgrade
Post by: NeO529 on January 06, 2004, 08:10:00 PM

fuck goo gone, sand that shit... I sanded it with 600 grit and got it all clean then went to 1500 grit and lapped it.  <

Title: Mcpx Heat Sink Upgrade
Post by: kdogg- on January 06, 2004, 10:55:00 PM

Seems sorta pointless.

I've been building computers for years I cant ever think of a time when I had to sand a heat sink. Thats the point of the compound, to fill in any imperfections the head of the GPU/CPU and heat sink might have for a solid heat transfer.

Goo Gone cleans them off VERY well. Cant even tell the gooy gum looking shit was on there to begin with afterwards.  <

Title: Mcpx Heat Sink Upgrade
Post by: i.stole.this.name on January 07, 2004, 02:35:00 AM

true, however when i did my upgrade, the bottom of the heatsink is fairly unsmooth anyway, so u used 1200grit on a belt sander till it was nice and shiny .

u dont need goo gone i just used the isopropyl and it worked fyne... the bubble gum crap tends to stick together right after use so i used a tiny screwdriver on the warm processor and pulled it off in 2 chunks...

i then replaced it with OCZ silver, this stuff is like way better than arctic silver, and my poor m8 was stuck with arctic ceramique [insert puking emoticon].

p.s. the 12v fan mod makes the xbox sound like a jet engin, how do u stand that!  <

Title: Mcpx Heat Sink Upgrade
Post by: Andy Holloway on January 07, 2004, 04:13:00 AM

well you get a quiet 80MM fan on 12V not the stock fan  <

Title: Mcpx Heat Sink Upgrade
Post by: kdogg- on January 07, 2004, 12:26:00 PM

Well the nice thing about Goo Gone is that it sorta melts the sticky stuff for a lack of a better word. The shit will just wipe right off afterwards.

As far as the fan goes, my XBox is located inside an enclosed entertainment center and I have a surround sound stereo system. Trust me, the jet noise isnt even noticed.

Like I said, I'm about to install a Thermaltake Smart Fan 2, which is rated upto 78 CFM at 4800 RPM. Normal 12 volt 80mm fans are like 20~30 CFM. This sucker will make the XBox fan with 12v mod sound silent..

Altho the nosie really dont bother me anyway. I have 5 80mm fans, counting the cpu and 2 92mm fans in my computer.. You sorta just get used to it.   <