Modding an X box

[metal_slug_az]

  Hi everyone, I have been around this site for over a year and this is my first post.  I love this site and it has been very helpful in getting me into Mame and building my own arcade controls.  

I have a console question though.  I am getting and x box and am looking at the matrix mod chip.  I only want the chip to be able to play back ups of my games, not for linux or adding the larger hd.  Is this a good chip?  Has anyone here used it?  I know the solder mod chips are more powerful but I just want it for backups, nothing else.  Thanks in advance for your assistance.

John

[Frostillicus]

I modded my xbox a little while ago and all I can say is to go to xbox-scene.com and read every tutorial they have.  Seriously  They have a tutorial or forum post for just about everything.

[pointdablame]

I modded my xbox a little while ago and all I can say is to go to xbox-scene.com and read every tutorial they have.  Seriously  They have a tutorial or forum post for just about everything.

This man speaks the truth. I don't have an xbox myself, but I modded a friends, and this site is invaluable.

[eightbit]

Xbox-scene is the definative xbox modding resource site. It is to the xbox mod scene what this site is to building arcade controls. It is an excellent place to start.

I've done 7 boxes and I have only used the x2 chips both the pro's and lites. I attempted with my first chip a no solder adapter and was unssuccessfull at making it work, I've done solder jobs with no problem ever since. I work with about 10 people that have chipped probably 20 boxes between them and they have all used the matrix with good results.

Its a good chip and the solder chips aren't necessarily more powerfull, there just different and each has its own advantages.

[Frostillicus]

Thanks go out to eightbit for pointing me down the yellow-brick road of modding.  I got the x2 2.2pro since it came with a programmer.  It has saved me from a few bad alpha-release bios  If you can solder at all you can install a chip.  It's unbelieveable easy to install software and even a new HD using the tuts on their site.  I just installed a new HD and it only took about 20 mins total.  mmmm...sweet sweet 250Gb of storage...

Recently it's gotten a _little_ more confusing due to the fact that now there is support for HUGE hard drives.  Not all good apps support the new partitions, etc you'll see on the FAQ sections.  Just keep reading all the posts and eventually it makes sense....much like this site

[metal_slug_az]

  Thanks for all the input.  I have been reading the xbox-scene.com forums and am thinking about getting a chameleon mod chip, have any of you used them?  Is it hard to flash the bios?  I was also looking at the Evox dashboard, have any of you used this?  How easy is it to download a bios?  Thanks again for all of the help.
 

[metal_slug_az]

 ;)Oh and by the way, I am excellent at soldering, mastered my skills in my father television repair shop and putting mod chips in psx's for friends.  I just would like somthing that would be easy to remove.

[Howard_Casto]

chamealun isn't the most popular of chips

I would stick to xecutor.  


Evox is great.  Very easy to use setup and install.  

No rom requests!

[metal_slug_az]

Not interested in any roms or emulation on the box.  Just playing backups of my games so that my son and I don't scratch up my disks the way all my psx and saturn games are.

[eightbit]

x2 chips have a solderless option.

If your thinking you want to do the chameleon so that you won't void your warranty, good luck. You still need to punch holes in the stickers to get the screws out and to scratch the clear coat off the contacts so that the pogo pins will make good contact. The solder chips are just as easy to remove or upgrade. The x2 chips come with external switches to switch bios banks or disable them. With the chip turned off its the same as it was before you chipped it. The multiple bios's is a huge feature because you can upgrade the bios without any fear of messing it up because even if you mess up one bank you can switch to the other and recover the messed up bank.

[Frostillicus]

The x2 chips come with external switches to switch bios banks or disable them. With the chip turned off its the same as it was before you chipped it. The multiple bios's is a huge feature because you can upgrade the bios without any fear of messing it up because even if you mess up one bank you can switch to the other and recover the messed up bank.

d@mn skippy.  That's saved my butt a few times - flashed banks 1 and 2 but can always switch to bank 4 if i need to redo it.  I strongly recommend the x2 pro.  

[Howard_Casto]

How easy is it to download a bios?  

Like I said no rom requests.  We can't discuss where how easy or how to get illegal or pirated software here.  The xbox bioses out there are technically illegal.

[metal_slug_az]

I apologize about the bios question.  I read up some more on the xbox-scene.com and now realize that they are illegal.  Modding a console is so much more complicated now then when I used to do psx's:)  Thanks for the help.

[eightbit]

Article on legal xbox modding- http://xbox-linux.sourceforge.net/docs/legal.html

Its a good read even if your not interested in running in Linux.

[eightbit]

Another interesting article on the legality of what MS is doing with the xbox.

http://xbox-linux.sourceforge.net/docs/remotedelete.html