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Fantasy360 Console Shells in the Works (Part II) Published by patto on Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Xtreme Enterprise posted Part2 of their series about their upcoming Fantasy360 Console Replacement Cases:
In Part I, we talked about how critical the RF cage was in holding together the main elements of the Xbox360 together with its other role as a RF interference inhibitor. We also mentioned how the Xbox360 was actually a box within a box and how removing the RF cage will have a minimal effect on the gaming experience. Having said that, RF shielding plastic enclosures (available commercially in aerosol spraycan solutions at less than $25) can still be achieved painlessly should there be a need.
In designing a new console case for the Xbox360, due consideration was given to retain the original look of the 360 while endeavouring to add as many mod options to the user as possible. We continue our feature story with more design considerations of the Fantasy360-Console.
One major complaint that we have is how the 360 is shaped the way it is. If you take a closer look at the 360 faceplate and console case, you will realise that it is curved in 5 axes: X, Y, Z, A & B. This has several implications for the rest of the case. It means the front face with all its requisite parts (eg. dvd bezel, USB doors, power buttons) and the part where the faceplate attaches itself will have to be designed in the same degree of curvature, thus making the job of shell duplication alot more complex than usual. This is also a common cause of duplicate shells not being able to fit correctly since this curvature design requirement was given a quick-and-dirty-fix treatment.
Alot of gamers were quite surprised at the exclusion of the jewel (that became synonymous with the identity of the Xbox) in the Xbox360. In place of the jewel, M$ chose instead to carve its nexgen console name "XBOX360" directly on the plastic face. Deliberate or not, this was another design limitation due to the shape of the console. If you check the opposite side of the console shell sidefaces, you will find that the centre of each sideface is substantially shallower than its edges. To confirm this fact, lay the Xbox360 shells on its side and pour enough water on its center and soon enough, a little pool of water will collect in the center. Due to this design, there is very little to no clearance space from the sideface to the RF cage within, which meant the jewel idea had to be booted out.
The final complaint we had was the dualfans with its associated attachments. The air funnel that channels hot air from the CPU/GPU heatsinks was designed with 4 securing points, only 3 of which was used: The 2 screw positions, a tab that hooks to the dualfans and the unused 4th screw position next to the DVD leg insert (positioned directly under the screw position that holds the DVD drive cover). Although the merit of securing the air funnel to the DVD drive is questionable, we were unhappy with the air funnel's loose seating position and its effectiveness in channelling hot air.
The dualfans are exclusively designed to fit the use of the 360 and alot of users will have preferred that such a standard computer accessory was interchangeable with commercially available PC fans. The dualfans have 2 attachment points to the RF cage: the 2 bottom legs and top stubs that slots into holes. Also, the dualfan sits into an angled bottom slot on the RF cage, which is a further custom design point that makes it even more difficult to fit standard fans. The hot air is then exhausted via holes in the RF cage, then out of the box via holes in the console case. Due to the random nature of the exhausted air movement, accessory companies have come up with various devices to assist in withdrawing this hot air out of the 360 at a supposedly faster rate than stock. However, we feel that once the internal hot air guidance solution is solved, such "cooling add-ons" will no longer be necessary.
Indeed, at Xtreme Enterprise, we would go even further to say that M$ may not have considered the implications of its unfriendly design for its 2nd Xbox iteration. The giant of a machine with the first Xbox enabled gamers in such a way not even fathomed by its originator: Coders and developers, case manufacturers and third-party accessory makers all came together and created a powerful secondary industry that supported the growth of the Xbox and ensured its longevity until the plug was prematurely pulled with the introduction of the Xbox360. In an industry where game software sales make up for the losses of every console sold, swifter market penetration via a friendly and flexible console design is paramount.
Official Site: www.e-linksoft.com and www.xbox-central.com
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