Does anyone here have any modded XBoxes? I read that Microsoft has now lifted the restriction on modding the original XBox, though this still voids the warranty. I'm looking to mod mine, but for the music players capabilities only. My new DIY project involves *hint, hint* an XBox with FLAC files and pictures, nothing else (no DVD pirating, or illigal game copying, so don't even go there). I understand the new XBox dashboards allow more freedom of codecs like WMA lossless or even FLAC, as well as picture storage. I don't know where to start. Modding the XBox can now be done without even opening up the box or adding any chips - cool. Suggesstions?

it still only has a 10 gig harddrive tho so if you are going to mod it for that you will probly have to put a bigger one in witch will involve opening it up. mine is a modded 1.6 i havent updated the dashboard but if the new one will do what you want then it is not that hard. i have not looked into softmodding but the hardmod was not that hard ;] just keep in mind the harddrive size

Glad to hear at least one person here has a modded XBox. Here's the plan: I know I'll have to upgrade the hard drive - I have a spare 200gig drive in my garage. I am going to dismantle the XBox and put it inside another box that is more *component freindly*. I plan to trick out the box, as far as cosmetics go - I'll put my *touch* to it :D . The XBox is a very powerful machine (not videogame withstanding). It has a great video card, very fast processor, great 5.1 digital sound, and a DVD capable unit, and some of the coolest visulizations around. It will be used only for music storage, picture storage, and occassional DVD playback - all remote controlled. I need the dashboard to be able to handle a lossless codec, like FLAC or Windows Media Lossless. I also need the new dashboard to be able to download cover art, artist info, album info (i know the new dashboards let you do just that). So, this box is a perfect machine for music and picture playback. It will be a great project. But I need some guidance in the modding department as I've never done that before. I guess I just need to find some here in San Antonio that can mod it. So, what's your experience with your modded box? What neat things can it do?

I have not modded my XBox and if I did, would want to make sure it played original classics like Chronicles of Riddick and Halo 1 etc. but running Linux on a bigger HDD seems to be one of the more popular mods I've seen. As for soldering better components onto the board, I have no clue, but wouldn't attempt it without another XBox handy. Just tossing in my 2 cents :P

well modding it was a pita
but i picked a bad time to do it
i have a xbox 1.6 and at the time the chip i used (exacuter 2.8)
was a bitch to get on.
i would use the exacuter chip, it is the most versitle (altho i dont now if that is how they spell it or not)
once you get a chip form them on there webpage they will have detaled instruciotns of how to put it on, depending on your version of xbox.
i would guess by now they are past 1.6
but no matter they have a solution for ever version (unless you get one of the first of the new version and dont wate for there solution... doh)
i have a older version software running on myn but once you get the chip in you just burn the software to disk and put it on, once again with very detalied instrucitons found online

i would suggest to you that maybe you should get the wireless logitec controller, it runs on 2.4ghz radio wave so you could put the resever inside the new box, that way if you ever wanted to play games you could, and you wouldnt have any unsightlyness.

as for collest thing it dose, it has hundreds of nes snes and saga genasis games on it along with emulators to play them... (i sware i own all the cars for all those games ;] ) and i think i could probly get atari games to if i wanted.

it streams movies on ocation off of my other computer, and when i go on trips i ocationaly take it because it has a few of the games i own riped to it (i own all of them i honest ;] ) and a few moves and it is very portable for how much data a 200 gig hard drive can carry, just one box one connecter one power cord and a few controllers and you have everything you need to entertain for a weekend, or maybe even a week

p.s.
people talk about heavy audio components... that thing must go 15 lbs

p.p.s.
im prity sure if you wanted you could leave that hard drive in there and add the 200 gig one also, or add 2 200 gig ones, i think all you would need is a ide cable with a master and a slave, once it is modded it shouldnt have any trouble picking up the second hard drive. it would have been more work then it was worth to change the way ide worked just for the xbox. the only reason more people dont do this is because there is no place to put the second one inside the xbox, but since you are going to put it in its own home for the cheep price of a cable you could gratly increase its capabilities