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 Cooling an Xbox 360 for cheap
      So a few days ago I went to Gamestop and they were having a sale, some things up to 50% off. They had some hardware as well as the myriad of failure titles (and the occasional good game) and they had a little product called The Cooler made by Pelican. Some of you might have heard of it, it's a little USB powered fan that sits on the base of your 360 under a stand and forces cooler air into the 360. It's a decent little piece of machinery by itself, but I had a problem when I bought it. I got it for $9.99 so I figured if I mess it up it isn't much of a loss. The Cooler

      Anyways, when I hooked the Cooler up to my 360 I noticed that it wasn't sitting flush with the bottom of the 360 because I also have an Intercooler attached to my 360 which, if you don't know, is a piece that attaches to the back of the 360's main power supply and uses 3 fans to suck out the hot air. The Cooler is designed to fit the size the bottom of the 360 but with the Intercooler present poking out the back it was unable to perform properly. I wanted both of the fans on the 360 because God forbid I get the red ring again. Therefore, this is what I decided to do and I'll post it step by step in case anyone else wants to do it as well. And btw, it isn't hard. At all.
You'll need the following:
1. Either a handheld sander or for the individuals who want to put elbow grease into it, regular sandpaper. I used the sander, it shaved off an hour's worth of work (No pun intended).
2.The Cooler, obviously.
3. Not needed but recommended, a bottle of canned air to spray out the shavings that fall into the fan and inside the casing. You definitely DON'T want that stuff getting inside your 360.

      Take the sander and begin sanding the top edge of the cooler that’s closest to the USB wire. If you want you can take the back edge completely off, which may be easier, but I tried to keep it snug with the Intercooler to A.) Not to lose any air between the Cooler’s fan and the base of the 360 and B.) Keep it looking nice J. Come around with the sandpaper and CAREFULLY start sanding off some of the side closest to the back, as seen in this picture.
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Notice how the sides slope down towards the back? This is how high the sides originally were.
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      When you sand the back-side area, it isn’t necessary to make it as low as the back unless you just want to. It’s just to help the Intercooler fit in with the Cooler snug. And honestly it wasn’t necessary to go as far up towards the front with the sander as I did, but it’s all personal preference as long as the Intercooler sits in nicely. Also, while sanding, periodically use the canned air and spray the outside, the sanded area, into the fan (so that it spins), and anywhere else you see dust. Shake the Cooler as well and if you hear anything rattling, try and shake it or spray it out. If you’ve never used a sander before, try and sand in a small circular motion. This keeps the plastic from building up on the edge but not fully sanding off. Basically this is all trial and error, but it’s much easier than it looks. It’s good to have your 360 nearby if you can to test it out when you change something but PLEASE keep it away from the dust. This is how mine turned out.
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Good luck with it, please be safe, and I hope this helped.

- Tyler Pilgrim
    Posted by saber19 on 2008-07-16 20:35:53 | Rating: | Views: 40
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saber19
McDonough, Georgia, United States

Latest Posts

 A Possible Job?
 An Upcoming Game Night
 A few thoughts on E3
 My Gaming Life (thus far)
 Cooling an Xbox 360...

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