The Xbox 360 PC Lives! 5600G/Internal PSU Console Build

[ShadowChaser]

This project stalled for a couple of months between lack of motivation and lack of good parts for the build, but I'm back, and this time I promise it won't be jank!

Or rather, not as jank. Hopefully. Realistically it'll be just as jank.

What do you mean it's been over two years since my last update?

 

 

Oh. It's been over two years since my last update.

 

What a shame.

 

Anyway, here's what's happened in the meantime:

1. I went to college! 
2. That's about it.

Now that you're up to date, it's time to tell you what my plans are (or were, rather, as I'm writing this with the computer "done" and running).

I really really wanted a budget dGPU build because that would've been awesome and rad and cool but space constraints dictated that, even with the PSU external, there just was not enough room for reasonable cooling while preserving the look of the console. And I really tried, I mean, I went on an undervolting journey with a Ryzen 5 3600 and a GT 1030 but it just wasn't working out.

I briefly considered getting an RX 6400 to play with but let's be honest here, entry level GPUs just are not worth your money.

So the plan shifted. I decided that I was going to go for an APU build, especially with the performance given by the likes of the 5600G and 5700G. They would be perfect for this build. Easy to cool. Zen 3 CPU cores paired with half decent integrated graphics would probably emulate older games without breaking a sweat. Probably. There's not a lot of room for cooling in this chassis.

 

And thus, the new parts list is as follows:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Thermalright AXP90-X47 42.58 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI B450I GAMING PLUS AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard 
Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive

Fans: Noctua NF-A6x25 PWM 4-pin Fan x2

 

I've purposefully left the individual prices out as they have dropped massively (especially the CPU) since I've purchased them, but this was not as cheap as I'd hoped, especially with the Noctua fans. Oh well.
 

 

In the next post I will be posting various photos from different stages in the building process. I'm still using the same chassis as before, but I got my self a new toy in the form of an oscillating tool! That should make cutting way easier. I know it makes cutting way easier because, again, I'm posting now with the darn thing actually finished and running games.

[ShadowChaser]

Part 1: Acquiring Parts + CPU Tuning

Pics in spoilers

 

This was pretty easy. I shipped the old motherboard to my new place of residence and after it got drop kicked halfway across the country, it arrived mostly in one piece and functional!

Spoiler

 

Next came the CPU. I was close enough to a Micro Center and just happened to be perusing their open box selection when I saw a 5600G. It was almost $35 off the list price of $160! Now that's a steal right there. Too bad it came with bent pins. Oh well. Nothing a razor blade can't solve.

Spoiler

 

 

Then I set out to figure out the best way to get as much performance per watt out of this chip I could. PBO probably would've been the best way - set a TDP and just let the cpu dynamically adjust itself, but I still wanted to tinker around a little bit. This was the jerry-rigged (3D printed) mITX test bench I whipped up. Not bad!

Spoiler

 

Anyway. Both PBO undervolting and manual tuning results were underwhelming. I got the CPU to run at 4.2Ghz all core at 1.2v CPU SET and a max power under load measured through the onboard sensors at 51W. I figured I would have a 45-50W power envelope so this seemed reasonable. The best PBO could do was -25 and gave nearly identical performance. If this runs too hot (very likely) or if there's thermal headroom (unlikely) I will reassess and try something else.

 

Next we shall actually trial the CPU under more realistic conditions! But for that to happen, the cooler needs to arrive. Unfortunately the Bezos Barn got more of my hard earned money but their 1-day shipping program just extended to my place and I was pretty eager to try that. Onwards!

[ShadowChaser]

Part 2: Janky Cooling and a PSU Brainwave

Pics in spoilers

 

Hey look! The fans and cooler arrived! In my last endeavor in this 'case' I discovered that 60mm fans were just about the largest size you could reasonably fit inside, and even then you had to sand off about 2mm of width from the frame to get them to fit without bulging the panels out. Sorry Noctua, but your pretty little fans are going to meet my 3M wet'n'dry sandpaper.

And to help these poor little fans dissipate as much heat as humanly (fanly? fanatically?) possible, I elected to get a full copper heatsink from Thermalright. That's right. This "150W" rated cooler will be attempting to cool a 50W CPU. Joy.

Spoiler

Aren't they pretty? So shiny. So brown. A match made in heaven.

 

The fins were oriented in this way so that the fans could actually push air through them from the side.

 

The reason why I have doubt is that the cooler won't have any fans mounted to it. Instead it will rely on airflow from the Noctuas flowing through and over it via an air duct to cool off the CPU. Tall order if you ask me. Here's what the testing looked like and what the whole motherboard looks like with the duct in the xbox.

Spoiler

Yes, that is clear packing tape. Listen, I tried to reduce the jank, so I can promise that there is no tape inside the console once it's done, okay?

 

Ain't she a beauty?

 

While looking at how much empty space I had now that a dGPU was out of the question, I wondered how hard it could possibly be to put the laptop brick I was using inside the chassis so that it would be less of an eyesore. As it turns out, it was really, really hard! But that was because I used the measurements from an ancient HP 220W brick. As luck would have it, I had a spare 180W 3rd party brick for my Gigabyte Aero 15X (R.I.P.) that went up in flames, and while it didn't have the right tip, that was an easy fix. And this one was perfect for the task! I removed the plastic housing and sorta jammed it into place where I envisioned an internal PSU would go, and voila!

Spoiler

DO NOT DO THIS.

 

LIKE SUPER DO NOT DO THIS.

 

I cannot overstate this enough. DO NOT DISASSEMBLE A PSU UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. Please. Please. Please.

 

At this point I could see that everything was going to fit. Great! All that was left was some slight case modding to accommodate the new locations of the components and to fire it up for realsies!

[ShadowChaser]

Part 3: Final Fitment + Case Mods + Troubleshooting

Pics in spoilers

 

Well, I moved again, this time into an apartment with a little more room to play around with. Unfortunately all that extra room went immediately to my 3D printer and associated accessories. Oops. We'll get em next time.

 

If you followed the original build you will have noticed that the metal cage is gone. That makes fitting the rear io shield a little more difficult but after some trial and error (and an oscillating tool rather than a rotary tool) it was done! And it doesn't look completely stupid, either, so that's a win in my book

Spoiler

Mmm, nothing like the smell of melty ABS that really gets me going.

This is a joke. Do not breathe plastic fumes.

 

Next was to tackle the front panel. The Xbox 360 E uses a small daughterboard that handles power, disk eject, and controller pairing. It is connected to the main board with a ribbon. I wanted to use the ribbon once I figured out the pinout but soldering to it proved to be nearly impossible. Wish I had solid instead of stranded wire but the daughterboard itself has a few points that can be soldered to, so I'll use that instead. I used the original power switch for power and the disk eject button for reset. Not sure what I can do with the pairing button yet. Unfortunately I've not found a good way to power the LEDs so that may just have to be for a later date.

Spoiler

Getting serious octopus vibes from this. 

 

Hey, see that common ground that I attached both ground wires to? That's an issue! I didn't realize this until later! This isn't foreshadowing at all!

 

I then did one final power on to check that everything still worked and... hmm. The CPU LED is on. 

Now, this was the first time I've powered it on since moving into the apartment, so maybe the cooler shifted and the cpu needs a reseat. It happens, okay? So I do that. Doesn't fix the issue. I start to troubleshoot by taking away one piece at a time and putting it all back in. Pretty easy considering that it's just two fans, two headers, and one power cable.

Spoiler

My workbench is a mess... but it lives!

Turns out the problem is that I flipped the reset pin so I was connecting the signal to ground any time it was connected. Derp. Flipped it 180 degrees and it worked right as rain and booted straight into Windows! Now I just gotta reassemble the thing again. Hey, at least the CPU got new paste. Not that it needed it.

 

And here's a final look at the little thing! Isn't it adorable? No spoilers because I deserve it.

I won't include any performance or thermal data in this post (I have a flight in a few hours home) but initial results are... mixed. Hopefully I'll have a new post after a week of daily driving this thing to tell you all about my work and gaming experience on it!

[ShadowChaser]

After a few days of using this thing as my daily driver, here's what I have to say.

Overall, it's not a terrible little machine, and performs about as well as any APU build does in most tasks. I'm being rather mean to it and forcing it to drive two high refresh QHD panels, one at 75hz and one at 144hz, and so the vega graphics are often starved for memory even doing such simple tasks as watching youtube while having two additional windows open.

 

Here's the numbers you're probably looking for, all temp values are Tdie taken in a room with an ambient air temp of 20C, all power values are CPU Package as reported by hwinfo64.

 

Cinebench R23 - 1311 SC | 10332 MC at 4.2Ghz locked

3D Mark Fire Strike - 3763

3D Mark Time Spy - 1461

 

Idle (8W): 40C, one fan off, one fan at minimum duty cycle

Browsing (12W): 46C, ~1300rpm on both fans, which is noticeable but gets drowned out by the HVAC system.

Light load (Cinebench SC, 18W): 59C, ~1500rpm on both fans, not noticeably louder than before.

Moderate load (35W, most games are around here): 71C, ~2100rpm on both fans. It's getting somewhat loud in a vacuum but any set of speakers or headphones will immediately eliminate it

Full load (Cinebench MC, 57W): 97C, ~2900rpm on both fans, about as loud as a well cooled gaming laptop but at a much more pleasant pitch.

 

All that to say, in a quiet room where this is the only thing making a sound, it's noticeable, but if there is literally anything else, like music, or a fan, or even family walking around, those will all be perceived as louder since the tone of the noise these fans make is very easy to cover up.

 

I'm definitely pushing up against a thermal boundary here, but maybe with a better air duct I can get more cooling capability. Either way I'm happy with having a little LAN capable machine that plays all the esporty games I want at well over 120 fps and still managed playable frame rates in heavier titles, such as a "cinematic" 30fps at QHD or 50-60 at 1080p. It underperforms ever so slightly, but that was wholly expected given the power budget I was working with.

 

That's pretty much it! I'm happy with it and it'll have a place of honor in my living room and probably be my choice of LAN party pc if I'm feeling lazy.