Modding Xbox...a little scared

[shmokes]

I'm really conflicted here.  I got an Xbox for christmas and want to mod it.  The new Xenium chip looks really nice.  Everything (like what bios to boot, etc.) is selected via the controller at startup so it won't bother my wife (having to configure things like tiny dip switches before something can be used isn't really her cup of tea).

Anyway, I've already got a 120 GB drive that I'm pretty sure can be locked (or, at least I read about the same model hard drive being lockable for someone else).  But I don't have any soldering experience.  Sending my Xbox and my hard drive to have it done profesionally will cost about $120, while just buying the chip alone will only be $50.  $120 is just so damn expensive, and I'm not even sure whether their installation would be a full-on sturdy one or some no-solder thing that could shift.

What do you think?  I don't have a solder pencil so I'd have to pick that up, but I'd guess that's cheap.  $120 is expensive, but a fried Xbox is $170.  

What if I only sent it in to have the chip installed?  That would knock it down to $85 (including price of chip).  Is the harddrive swap and setup difficult to do beyond that (I would want to set it up to be locked so I could play live)?  I've installed dozens of hard drives in PCs so I'm not worried about the actual physical swap, just setting up the hard drive so it will work properly in the Xbox.

I've read quite a bit on Xbox-scene, but wanted to get some firsthand opinions.  My box is begging to be modded.  It's even got a samsung dvd drive (lucky   ).  

[reighty]

The Xbox is like the easiest console to install(atleast for the xecuter haven't done a Xenium).   I would say get some old computer cards and practice soldering wires to it (how I taught myself).  You can also get some chips with pogo pins that require no soldering at all. Once you get the chip installed the hard drive swap is just like swaping out a harddrive in a pc.  If you choose to solder though, make sure to solder to the d0 point on the bottom of the motherboard rather than trying from the top, which is really hard.  Must mod it though, you won't regret it.

[Frostillicus]

shmokes: mod the crap out if.  I have an xecuter 2.2.  soldering was very easy, practice before hand.  If you want some tips I can provide.  The only dicey moment was the d0 point, and that wasn't even that dicey.  Took 10 secs. (I used to work in a factory as a wiring technician, used a foot pedal microsolderer and a microscope to attach wires to piezo-electric ceramic devices.  yeah it was pretty boring).  Anyways, I actually used a 7 dollar radiocrap iron on my xbox.  Seriously the hardest part was matching the colored wires up with the right contacts  Saved up for a 250 gb hard drive and now have almost 50 games on the F drive alone, with space for more.  And a whole G drive to mess with.  Just read the tutorials on xbox-scene, understand the process, and you'll be golden.

I take it home on holidays and vacations, my family and friends love it. load it up with movies, mp3s, etc it's a great little multimedia device.  Trust me you won't regret it.

I don't know about the xenium, but the 2.2pro i have can be turned off if I want to play xbox live, and now they even have bios that disable the live aware features of games (to prevent accidental logging in while your chip is on).  Good luck!!

[Frostillicus]

oh yeah, forgot to mention - that samsung drive is worth at least 120 by itself.  Look on the net for replacement dvd-drives and if you can even find a samsung, it's at least 100-120 beans.  So you can always auction just the drive if you need the $$$ and accidentally fry your mobo (which won't happen).  

[Generic Eric]

I thought you could use any DVD drive.  Is there some reason the SAMSUNG is a more suited drive?  Or is it a direct swap not requiring a modchip?  Or am I just plain wrong about using any drive?

Who makes the live aware chip?  
Thanks

[shmokes]

Most the drives won't read CD-R discs and are EXTREMELY picky about CD-RW and DVD-R/RW.

The samsung drive generally reads them all.

[Frostillicus]

I thought you could use any DVD drive.  Is there some reason the SAMSUNG is a more suited drive?  Or is it a direct swap not requiring a modchip?  Or am I just plain wrong about using any drive?

Who makes the live aware chip?  
Thanks

To echo shmokes, the samsung is regarded as the best since it will read almost anything.  I have a crappy thompson, it sucks.  Of course, I got my xbox many years ago..(waited it line). ..so it's bound to break down someday.

If you check out xbox-scene they have a news report, I think it's under a week old, about the new xecuter bios that disables xbox live stuff.  I think it's only 256MB so you could probably use any chip.

[shmokes]

Alright,  You talked me into it.  To be honest, and this is pretty paranoid, but I had a little tickle in the back of my mind saying, what if you send you x-box in to have the chip installed by someone else and it comes back with a different DVD drive in it.  Mose people who would opt to send in their box instead of modding it themselves are more likely to be ignorant about which drive they have, and the people doing the modding could totally get away with it, unless the person thought about that beforehand and took pictures.  The modder could make a killing doing swapping drives like that.

I know that the likelihood is VERY low, but hey, it could happen.

[Frostillicus]

Well I wouldn't put it past installers to swap out drives.  Just the business of installing and the option of getting pogo pins (they suck, truly) exist because people are afraid of installing.  But seriously - it's only like 8 or 9 wires, and most of the contacts are HUGE.  You'll do fine.