Xbox 360 12V Fan Mod
2/21/06
By: ClickClick 5

Here are three easy modifications you can do to your 360 to make the processor run 22 degrees cooler, the graphics run 10 degrees cooler and the co-graphics run 4 degrees cooler. (Temps are in Fahrenheit)
 

	Make one fan or both fans 12V. (I chose to do just one, the processor fan) -The RED and BROWN wires are the positive ones. The BLUE and BLACK wires are the ground. I just cut the brown one and soldered it to another piece of wire.
	-Then I set out to find a 12V source. (An easy one to find) This showed to be a very respected 12V source. (I recommend this source)
	Then I placed the cooling head on the co-graphics chip. (You can also see the 12V wiring better here)
	The final mod was the FOIL. I did not like the air-flow over the graphics chip, so I fixed that. I placed foil over the head to get the air flow to pull in more towards the front of the chip. In the end, I actually cut the foil off below the line I drew here. (This is a very nice cooling mod for the graphics chip, the air can still cool the DVD drive and get better air flow on the graphics.)

-These three simple quick-mods can keep your 360 running cooler and longer.
Play on-
CC5

Brief interview with CC5:
Q-Why do you recommend that 12V spot?
A- I looked around for a good 12V source, that could be accessed easily. My original plan was to solder the wire to the underside of the board, where the DC power comes in. But due to some problems with wiring and the spacing of the connectors, I just decided to find a spot up top to solder onto. The source I picked held constant while on Live (both wired and wireless), both kinds of games, both the memory card and the HDD. So I assumed it would hold out...and it has for four months now.

Q- How did you measure temperatures?
With an temp gun. My brother does a lot of R/C car stuff and he had a temp gun that he uses to check the temp of his nitro car's engine.
I aimed the beam at the center of the GPU heat sink after it had ran for an hour. (In the dashboard) Then at the bottom of the CPU cooler, the copper base, I aimed the laser at that base. So I'm assuming the temps are correct. His gun seemed to be calibrated correctly. Yet altitude, humidity, air-pressure affect all the temps. I live in Denver CO, so the results are different for me then they are for someone in California.
The foil thing came after I was getting ready to put the system back together. Best part of the small mod right there. More air to surface ratio. Plus with enough area to cool the bottom of the DVD drive.

*UPDATE* - The one small part I left out of the tutorial was after doing the mods, I used MadDog Arctic Silver 5 for the heat compound.  This assured complete contact and heat distribution for the heat sinks.

-Oh, and thanks for the mini-heatsink from your site!

Llamma Comments:  

Photo Soon?	You can also pickup 12V and ground at the DVD drive power cable. If your not comfortable soldering to your motherboard this is a great option
	To keep fan noise in check while increasing the flow we keep it reasonable by using a voltage regulating device, the power delivered to the fans can be adapted to about 8V which appears to be optimum for a 360 with both fans wired.

Keywords xbox 360 fan mod, xbox 360 cooling mods, 12V Fan Mod, improved performance, improve air flow, increase fan speed, 12V Fan, xbox 360 cooling fan, fan noise