Fantasy360 Console Shells in the Works (Part I)

Xtreme Enterprise released a bit more details about their upcoming Fantasy360 Console Replacement Cases:


We've been pretty swamped with work lately, with the launch of new products coming up in late September and October and the start of several new projects come November and December this year. It has been a pretty fruitful year for us at Xtreme Enterprise and we would like to thank everyone for supporting us thus far. Give yourself a hip-hip-hooray!

In our introduction to the Project Fantasy360-Console, we mentioned that the heat issues continue to bring alot of apprehension to gamers, prompting many to think of innovative ways to get around the problem. In addition, many are looking for cases that will complement their individuality such as unique case colors and modding options. Over at Xtreme Enterprise R&D Department, we are hard at work to make sure that this wishlist is not just a dream but is to become a reality.

This is the first part of a series of releases that will explain in detail the types of features that will be going into our Fantasy360 console case. Read on to appreciate:

Part I : Shape

You might say "Oh no! Not another colored case for the Xbox360 that does nothing but copy the originals curve for curve." The market is littered with copy cases made by companies wanting to earn a quick buck with little regard for the potentials of the Xbox360 and the options that are available to the user. Real easy to get away with making a straight copy. But how often does a manufacturer go further and ponder about the enormous potential of the 360 case and actually invest some time and money incorporating new features into the case?

First thing that struck us was the compactness of the 360 case. If one looked back at the first-gen Xbox, we immediately realise that the older console had tons of space as compared to the 360. In fact, so much space that people are able to put up to 4 HDDs into a stock case, and still manage to slap on the top cover. And now, the 360 has raised the bar of difficulty for people to actually install more add-ons to the stock case by keeping everything within a strong metal cage! So strong that to cut it, you will need an industrial grade metal saw. Definitely not a job for amatuer modders!

By keeping everything compact within the metal RF cage, it seems the 360 has effectively retained its form factor thus gaining a threefold advantage of a reduced size, functionality and keeping modders at bay. The one thing we didn't like about the case is that it really is a case within a case. If we stripped down the 360 and left everything within the RF cage only, the 360 will still work very well on its skeletal form. But obviously, aesthetics matter most in every product and so the 360 had no choice but to dress itself up in another layer of plastic.

So really, does the 360 need to be caged up twice? At first glance, it seems obvious that the cage functions as an RF interference inhibitor and hence preventing gameplay disturbance. However, time and again, people have proved that the level of interference was low enough to be insignificant and that the metal cage was actually a redundant item. Well we can throw away this notion of redundancy as M$ ensured that the cage becomes well utilised to serve dual functions of signal disturbance prevention as well as physically seat the motherboard, ON/OFF PCB and dual fans in place.

So what happens if we remove the RF cage? Removing the top cover of the cage is non-consequential. Users have also come back to us and said they have not experienced any problems when they started gaming with the cage cover removed. It is the problems that are associated with removing the lower cage which becomes more glaringly significant, as well as more hardware than software related. The related problems are as follows :
1. The dual fans will lose its major support via the cage and cannot stand on its own.
2. The motherboard will be unable to secure itself to any anchor points.
3. If the motherboard cannot be secured, it leaves the DVD drive dangling at the seams too.
4. There are no alternative anchor points for the motherboard anywhere on the case
5. The power button PCB will lose its anchor point on the cage
(To be continued...)

Official-Site: http://www.e-linksoft.com/ / http://www.xbox-central.com/