Project complete

I ran into a few issues with the software over the past week or two, mostly from Ubuntu and mostly driver related, but the good people over at the XBMC support forums have proven to be a huge help.

The White Vinyl skin was bought from eBay. It was a pain to apply, but again, this is due to me being clumsy more than anything else. They can be found in practical any colour/design one could ever want, but I found a white one for next to nothing, and it sits well with the other equipment in the room. The XBMC logos are just printed labels, the Zotac badge of course, came with the motherboard.

Click on the images for full size.

All Done

This pretty much ends the hardware side of things. I'll finish off this blog once I've recieved a few items to finish off the external cosmetics.

I didn't bother connecting the Left hand controller ports. I had a cable for it, but it didn't fit right, and I honestly didn't really care enough to make all 4 ports work. Only one is needed for the DVD remote, and port 3 is also live, should I never need to connect an xbox controller. I may, at some point, replace port 1 and 2 with standard USB ports, but until I need access to additional ports, it's just extra work.

In order to seat the lid, I had to remove the shielding, and snap off all features, excect the 4 corner screw points. The chassis provides just enough room for the board (with CPU fan), cut down versions of the original drive mounts, and all appropriate cables. There is no room for anything else in this build. I originally wanted to add an extra fan, but there wasn't enough clearance...

I've tested the system for up to 3 or 4 hous, and while it is certainly producing some heat, it isn't enough to be a concern.

I netglected to take images of the build without it's lid, to show how snug the contents are, and I haven't shown the hole I made in the lid cutting away one of the original screwpoints (Arrrgh! Clumsy!). Fortunately, the vinyl skin will cover that neatly. Expect more iamges soon.

Controller Ports

Finally, I wanted to use the Original XBox remote with this build, so I need to connect the controller ports to the USB headers on the mainboard. Once connected, the front XBox controller ports work exactly like a normal USB port. This allows the original xbox DVD kit to work on XBMC-Live assuming one has the correct keymappings configured. This works like a dream!

	The Xbox used normal usb controllers with a propriety connector. This image shows a controller block unscrewed from the chassis.
	After detaching the cable block from the controllers, the wiring is identical to standard USB ports, with a single additional wire. Solder the wires to a standard USB header able (like used to attach USB to a front panel or blanking plate), the wires are colour coded, so I just soldered white>white etc. The additional yellow wire was just snipped off.

DVD Eject Button

After successfully connecting the power button and power LEDs to the board, I wanted to make the eject button work with the Optical drive.

	I'm using a SATA DVD Multi-burner I had spare. Nothing special, but is more than adequate. I would have been better with a slimline, but after some careful modification of the Drive mount, there wasn't an issue.
	After removing the front bezel and drive housing, the eject button can be accessed on the pcb (circled).
Left: Solder the wires from the front panel to the pins on the eject button. Right: Remote Eject working.

Front Panel

The next task is to connect the original XBox front panel.

	(Image taken from sickmods.com without permission). The XBox front panel connect to the motherboard with a 10-pin block. Obviously the pinouts are not going to sit on the Zotac as they are. The Image above shows the block appropriate wiring.
	The control panel is actually positioned perfectly. I snipped some wiring from an old system to connect to the Board.
Left: I soldered the wires. Right: Endblock is a standard 2-pin connector. The process can be repeated for the two LEDs on the control panel.
	At first, I connected the wire from the Power/HDD LEDs pins on the main board, but then opted for just a solid power display, without HDD activity. I also got the wrong pin for the left LED, and ended up with Red instead of Green. Ultimately decided to keep it this way, as I think it looks better!

Fitting The Motherboard

After stripping the componants, I had to remove as much as I could from the floor of the chassis, to make room for standoffs. Like most other small parts, I was able to grab these from work or lying around at home.

	After realising that the board would need to be seated away from the optical drive, I cut a panel for the IO shield. It should be said here, that this is where most of my problems began. This is my first case mod, and I lack the tools and skill to make ANY of this look perfect. This photo has been touched up to look neater. Anybody else doing the same project will have MUCH bretter results if they use the correct tools.
	Again, this image has been touched up slightly. The board DOES fit nicely, and careful tooling will result in a better finish than I got.
Left image shows the board fixed in place. Second image shows drives seated for testing. I couldn't wait to start playing with the software hehe. Notice the switch? It's a temporary attachment.

Opening the Chassis

Lets Crack open the shell and take a look at the sweet nuts inside...

	As I stated before, the chassis itself needs a little clean, but it's essential in excellent condition. I didn't get a snap of the bottom, but there are 6 torx bolts holding it together... Simple enough...
	The Lid is easy enough to remove, and the first thing worth noticing is how well the XBox was put together. Nothing was designed to be upgraded or tampered with (not that it ever stopped anyone). The Optical Drive and HDD are mounted on interlocking brackets. Everything is so snug.
Removing the brackets reveals the simple interior. We're not interested in any of this garbage, so I removed the lot. The board is screwed to the chasis, and removal is simple.
Shown here on the right is the PSU from the XBox. It's of no use to us.
The exhaust fan is in the way, but it just lifts out. Finally, I've removed the left hand controller ports. The right hand ones will remain, these will hopefully be replaced with normal USB ports.

XBox delivered...

XBox arrived this morning. All present and correct. Haven't tested yet, but no real need to as it's being stripped anyway. Needs a good clean, but otherwise excellent condition.

I'm begining to have doubts about having enough room to seat an optical drive, but this remains to be seen. Should begin stripping out the excess tonight.

Motherboard arrived....

The Motherboard arrived at work today, and it's a day ahead of schedule :) The board is so small it's a joke, and the external PSU means I should have no trouble finding room inside the XBox chassis to mount a drive etc. The XBox hasn't turned up yet, but the entry on eBay has been upgraded to "Despatched"



I'm half and half on whether I'll be using a Solid State Drive in this build (Advantages include speed, noise and heat) or a Standard SATA drive (i.e. Free, as I have some lying around). I've already got access to some DDR2 Modules, so memory won't be an issue. The last bit of hardware I need to worry about now is a SATA Optical Drive.

The Box....

Have just won an auction on Ebay for a used XBox.

I'm a little peeved as I've had bids on several faulty items over the past few days, hoping to score a cheap deal, but time after time I've been outbid with seconds to spare. This time I sniped the buggars right back, and landed the box for £23.59 including delivery. The box looks a little grubby, but that'll be cleaned up later. I'm frankly not fussed if it even turns on as I'll be trashing it anyway.

For anyone wondering, my local CEX sells unboxed used consoles for £25, so I guess I'm up on the deal. I'll probably take in the controller and get a few quid off the price anyway. A shame that I couldn't wait a while and get a cheaper case, but I want to get started ASAP.

Total Cost

This Post will be updated with total running cost of the build. If anyone can assist with tools or parts, please let me know.

ITEM	SOURCE	COST
Motherboard	ebuyer	139.99
XBox Console	eBay	23.59
VGA-RCA Componant Cable	eBay	2.90
XBox Vinyl Skin	eBay	8.03

TOTAL: £174.52

Motherboard Purchased

Having compared various Intel Atom Boards, I've settled on the Zotac ION-A series.

The board is a little more expensive than I was wanting to spend, but it comes bundled with an external 90w PSU - This brings the cost back into budget, as well as frees up space inside the XBox chassis. In Addition, the external PSU block should be pretty silent and reduce internal heat.

The board has an integrated Intel Atom N330 processor (1M Cache, Dual Core 1.6 Ghz 533 FSB). As well as HDMI and Digital Audio output. It's my no means a power house, but should be more than enough for any HD video playback.

Welcome to Project HTXB!

This blog chronicles my project to build the ultimate Home Theatre XBox.

About 5 years ago, I got my hands on my first HTPC. I sadly don't remember the spec of the machine, other than the fact it was running the original Windows XP Media Centre edition.
At the time, it was the most amazing media experience since Moses came down from the mountain with two tablet pcs running Commandments v1.0.
Of course, compared to the plethora or purpose-built media streaming devices, and the ready availability of Media center computers, it would be somewhat long in the tooth by now.

A few years later, I discovered XBMC. After several attempts, I succesfully soft-modded my XBox to run Linux, and use this amazing piece of software to stream my movies, TV Shows and Music from my server (and it's 2TB Media store).

Now, XBMC doesn't do anything groundbreaking when it comes to streaming or playing media, it looks a little different to Windows Media Centre, and might not be as recognisable as Apple TV. The reason I love XBMC so much, is the Media Library. Once appropriate information has been scraped from IMDB and TheTVDB, XBMC presents the user with the most amazing library functionality I've ever seen, right at the mercy of your remote control. You can, for example, view plot synopsis for a movie, and view cast information. Click on an actor, however, and you can see every other movie and tv episode you have starring that actor.

Anyway, recently I have been accessing more and more HD content, and while XBMC will play practically ANY format thrown at it, the hardware beings to choke at anything above 480p.

The XBox 360 is a long way from being opened up enough to run a Linux OS, and I'll be damned if I'm going to surrender the library and karaoke functionality of my beloved media player, so I'm upgrading to XBMC Live. It's pretty much identical software, but is installed as a bootable OS on a standard PC.

This blog has come to life following my decision to build said PC right into the shell of an original XBox, maintaining the sleek design in my living room, while allowing a nostalgic feel to the library and interface.