Need Advice on Xbox 360 Sleeper

[ShadowChaser]

I've been doing a bit of research on Xbox 360 builds but all of the ones I've seen either use the original fat 360 chassis (original/elite) or if built into the slim cut away far too much of the chassis. I have an Xbox 360 E - which pretty much has the same external volume as the slim but looks boxier and more closely mirrors the look of the Xbox One. With an internal volume of about 3.3 liters and a goal to minimize external changes, I think this'll be a fun challenge to build a decent portable gaming machine using common off the shelf components.

 

The biggest challenge I can foresee is vertical height management in the chassis and so all the parts I am researching will have to conform to a need to maximize the use of the internal space. So far I am planning on using a Mini ITX motherboard and an ITX graphics card, and space is already looking awfully tight.

From the outside there appears to be plenty of room left using my paper mockups of potential components, but on the inside there is far less room to maneuver.

Height is going to be a major issue. While the motherboard won't be oriented this way it is clear how close the top panel will be relative to the rear i/o. The divot where the original wifi module was housed will have to go since it will only serve as dead space.

Where the GPU mockup sits right now it is able to intake through the original top exhaust, so very little modding will be required there. Hopefully the worst I'll have to do is to model and print a custom intake shroud as the placement isn't concrete yet.

This side of the 360 is almost just wide enough to fit a 60mm fan. I'll have to file down ~1mm on either side of the fans to fit them if this cheapo one is any indication. With this revelation I've also determined how to cool the CPU. I intend to use 3x 60mm intakes on the side pictured above and 3x 40mm exhausts on the side with the old hard drive tray, and rely on chassis airflow over a heatsink much like a server chassis. I'll have to print airflow guides but that won't be too much hassle compared to the modding I'll likely have to do.

 

With that prelude out of the way here's my preliminary plan:

CPU: R5-1600AF

Cooler: Reeven Vanxie

Motherboard: MSI B450I Gaming Plus AC

Memory: 2x4GB 3000+

GPU: MSI GTX 1650 Super Aero ITX (Using a 1060 3GB as a placeholder currently)

PSU: HD-PLEX 200W + 180W Laptop Brick

Storage: Some 500gb M.2 SSD, probably a Sabrent Rocket PCIe 3.0 since I have one of those already.

 

Some of these parts may seem questionable, and I would be inclined to agree. I also have my doubts about thermal management in this chassis given how constrained it will be.

• The Reeven Vanxie is the only low profile cooler I can find where the fins can be oriented parallel to my intended airflow path. Everything else in this size range (NH-L9a, Cryorig C7, IS-30, etc) has a finstack oriented so air flows towards the rear i/o and memory slots, which is 90 degrees off of what I need in this case. 
• The 1650 Super choice is born out of power (and by extension, thermal) limitations. This card is the highest performing for the TDP of 100W (and I intend to undervolt it further), and while I'd love to get a 1660 or better, the 120W+ TDPs of those cards push me awfully close to the 180W power limit and these bricks and DC-ATX converters are not cheap. I'm trying to target total system power draw under full load to be <150W.

 

I have a few questions and need advice on some fronts as this is my first ultra small form factor build:

• Is there a better cooler choice out there for me? With a height limit of approximately 45mm all in the Vanxie only occupies 24mm without its fan and that doesn't seem efficient.
• Should I even be using a 65W TDP chip in this form factor? I am toying with the idea of using an Athlon 3000G for its lower TDP and having an iGPU will help with troubleshooting, which I'm sure will be a pain with this build.
• Extension to above - How does the 1600AF undervolt/underclock? I'd like to have 6c/12t and if I must drop clocks then I will. If I can match an 8750H in performance I'd be happy and that thing only runs at 2.2Ghz base. According to NFC the Vanxie can handle a R5-2400G without any issue, so I'm hopeful.
• I don't like my GPU choice and I'm sure many of y'all disagree as well. What would you choose instead?

 

I've also been scouring the interwebs for other 360 sleeper/PC builds and I'm sure I've missed a couple. Any links to a complete build would be very much appreciated!  

[ShadowChaser]

After some chatting with Noctua and Reeven reps, it seems that no, the Noctua NH-L9i cannot be rotated 90 degrees with the AM4 adapter unlike on intel boards, and yes, the Vanxie can support a 65W CPU officially, just without any overclocking. The video from NFC only showed the 2400G pushing ~40W so I was a little concerned on that front. I have also made my fan selection, using 3-pin versions of the fans I currently have on my 3D printer. While they aren't noctuas, they do push more air and when held at 12 inches are barely audible except for the flow of air. Certainly the less whine there is in this system the better.

 

I also looked a little deeper into the heatsink of the MSI 1650S Aero ITX, hoping that if I remove the fan and shroud I can shave off a few precious millimeters. Evidently that won't be happening as there are taller fins hidden underneath the shroud, where there isn't much airflow. Why MSI decided to alter their Aero ITX design I have no clue, especially since the design has been proven on higher TDP cards and is even present in their current lineup (1650 non Super on the low end, 2060/70 on the high end). Though those fins are oriented in an unhelpful way, at least the height stays consistent. I might have to resort to snipping off fins with flush cutters if a better option doesn't surface, but I've got time.

 

Sourcing a B450 ITX motherboard has been surprisingly difficult as the human malware pandemic has inflated prices rather drastically - what was an $80 motherboard is now a (relatively) eye-watering $130. Not that I was going to buy new anyway, but this does hurt the used market value of these boards, at least to potential buyers. Still, with the spec of the rear i/o easily accessible and knowing I'd have to replace VRM heatsinks anyway, I'm not too worried about getting a motherboard to replace my paper mockup as in almost every motherboard I've seen, the VRM heatsinks tend to be the tallest structures on the PCB.

[ShadowChaser]

So while I was doing a routine cleaning of the HTPC I gifted my parents, I decided to see if what I envisioned was possible. The MSI Trident 3 has an ITX motherboard and GPU, or so I thought. While the custom 1060 3GB was indeed mini the motherboard seems to conform to a different standard or is completely custom. Seeing that it needs i/o on both the front and the rear of the board it is longer than mITX in that dimension by 20mm, but for my purposes it was enough to roughly get an idea of how difficult it would be to fit everything in.

 

With this we can see, even with a mini ITX board, the GPU overlaps with the motherboard. Old news, really, but something that I need to take great care of. The good news is that if my measurements are correct, the GPU won't interfere with any protrusions of a mITX board if it's flipped. Either way I'll have to wait for components to arrive to see if everything fits as intended, especially since there isn't much room for the gpu to go anywhere else.

After all this is the only intake that any GPU would be able to draw from and I intend to use it as such. Since I don't own a dremel and need to borrow one from a friend I'm not expecting to make much progress on this project for a few days, though with my luck, I won't be getting components till mid-May.