xbox 360 coolers question -- are they really bad? which is best?

[Poofta!]

hello there, i recently got the halo 3 360, so my old fan addon with vga out is no longer working (this makes me sad).

anyway, i got an official microsoft vga cable and am looking for a good cooling solution for the xbox, i have a few questions:

first, i heard that 3rd party coolers can damage your xbox, is this true?

second, is an external fan cooler necessary for the new revision xboxs?

lastly, which would you guys recommend?


thanks to all!

[diskoboy]

With the new revisions, you shouldn't need one. Especially the Halo 3's and the Elites.

I've never heard anything good about any cooling units, for any system... Namely the Nyko one messes up the voltage, and could short out your 360. But this was a while back, and may have worked out the kinks.

I'm not sure if that's true or not. But I've heard this has happened.

[Poofta!]

With the new revisions, you shouldn't need one. Especially the Halo 3's and the Elites.

I've never heard anything good about any cooling units, for any system... Namely the Nyko one messes up the voltage, and could short out your 360. But this was a while back, and may have worked out the kinks.

I'm not sure if that's true or not. But I've heard this has happened.


yeah exactly, i heard some were bad. i used a pelican one and it was excellent.

[otaku]

Avoid the nykos! I pulled them from my shelves at the store after my nyko intercooler killed my 360. It cooled great I saw temps drop about 10 degrees around the entire system and it ran much more stable for months (it froze up/shut down alot before that) but in the end the cooler killed it. Also if you think a stock 360 is loud wait till you get a cooler for it!:o

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

When the Nyko "Intercooler" was released, I picked one up.

It looked good (3 fans? wow! runs directly off the 360's power brick? neat!) HOWEVER, I noticed when installing it, that the space where you insert the plug end of the 360's power brick did NOT have the two "locking" spaces that the actual 360 console has.

So, while you can fully plug the cord into the intercooler ... it will NOT stay locked in ... and much to my dismay, that design flaw was SEVERELY problematic with my 360, as any time the console was shifted even SLIGHTLY the power cord would move in it's non-locked-in-slot and cause a temporary "red ring of death" - until I powered the 360 down and re-seated the plug in the inter-cooler.

Eventually my 360 began having mechanical issues that I can't directly blame on the inter-cooler, but I bet all the (temporary) red rings couldn't have been GOOD for it.

I've since swapped my 360 for a later model at my friend's game store, and dumped the inter-cooler. Nice concept, but VERY poorly designed product.

I'd say avoid them.

[PapaStu]

The problem with these intercoolers is that they are feeding off the power thats running through the system forcing the system to draw more power into it to run properly, instead of having their own power supply. What eventually happens is that this overdrawing of power will cook the internals of the system leading to a CPU/GPU failure.

Avoid all intercoolers at all costs. Just keep the system out in the open and in a well ventilated place and you'll be doing it the most good.

[TurboGenesis]

As it has been stated in the previous posts,

Stay far, far, far, AWAY from the Nyko Intercooler.
A great way to kill the Xbox 360.


‡Of note, I have never use cooling fan and my Xbox 360 (built on 10-31-2005 -- purchased at launch) is still running with out a hitch@_@

I kind of want this thing to die so I can get it repair -- I only have a little more than a year now.

[diskoboy]

Avoid all intercoolers at all costs. Just keep the system out in the open and in a well ventilated place and you'll be doing it the most good.

This is excellent advice. And make sure to lay your 360 on it's side, and keep it that way. That way, if excessive heat were to dilodge a part on the mobo, laying it flat means theres a better chance the part will stay in place.

[YoshiM]

I figure I'd toss this out: laying the system horizontal I noticed the 360's feet were really tiny, barely giving any clearance under the unit. I picked up some taller sticky "feet" that's commonly used for creating spaces between components like VCRs and DVD players and such and stuck them under my 360 (peel n' stick). Now there's a good 1/4"+ of space so hopefully that will add to the cooling.

Doesn't hurt to try something like that.

[RARusk]

"I figure I'd toss this out: laying the system horizontal I noticed the 360's feet were really tiny, barely giving any clearance under the unit. I picked up some taller sticky "feet" that's commonly used for creating spaces between components like VCRs and DVD players and such and stuck them under my 360 (peel n' stick). Now there's a good 1/4"+ of space so hopefully that will add to the cooling."

I will go one better.

I did the same thing and noticed a difference as well (game discs were not as warm - same with the top of the unit).

Inspired, I decided to try something better. Mind you, I just started this a few days ago so the jury is still out on this idea.

I went to OfficeMax and picked up a wire mesh style desktop letter tray. I also had some leftover small vinyl bumpers.

What I did was flip the letter tray over, moved around the soft plastic bumpers on the letter tray (so they could be a little closer to center), and placed the small vinyl bumpers on top of those. Then I placed the X360 on the tray (still flipped upside down) making sure that it sat on the vinyl bumpers and that nothing interfered with the bottom vents.

Now the X360 sits about two and a half inches off of my desk and the wire mesh construction of the letter tray allows the bottom vents to be completely unblocked.

After running my X360 for several hours one time I noticed that the center of the top was only a little warm. This is cooler than before I placed it on the tray.

Only time will tell if this is a potential cure for the RROD. But, so far, so good.

[Poofta!]

i keep my xbox up on its side, and i have a back attachment to it with 2 fans and other video/audio outputs.

[RyanMurf]

Who ever said that the NYKO intercooler is bad your wrong. The intercooler has 3 fans. Each fan draws 0.10 amps. So that is 0.30 amps. This is such a small amount that the xbox doesn't even know it has it attached. Also the only thing that would brake would be the powerbrick not the xbox. The power brick is working harder not the xbox 360. So keep your inter coolers on there if you want to maximize its life expectancy. Now I have heard of it melting your power port. My answer to that is everything has a defect rate!

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Who ever said that the NYKO intercooler is bad your wrong. The intercooler has 3 fans. Each fan draws 0.10 amps. So that is 0.30 amps. This is such a small amount that the xbox doesn't even know it has it attached. Also the only thing that would brake would be the powerbrick not the xbox. The power brick is working harder not the xbox 360. So keep your inter coolers on there if you want to maximize its life expectancy. Now I have heard of it melting your power port. My answer to that is everything has a defect rate!

I said it was bad ... and regardless of how much power it pulls from the brick, this is a MAJOR design flaw :

While you can fully plug the cord into the intercooler ... it will NOT stay locked in ... and much to my dismay, that design flaw was SEVERELY problematic with my 360, as any time the console was shifted even SLIGHTLY the power cord would move in it's non-locked-in-slot and cause a temporary "red ring of death" - until I powered the 360 down and re-seated the plug in the inter-cooler.

Temporary or not, any RROD can't be a good thing. And the design flaw is with NYKO on that one, not Microsoft.

[RyanMurf]

The design flaw isnt really a design flaw the new elite power bricks dont have those push/lock buttons on the side so it not really a design flaw anymore. Yes i do have an elite and yes I do have the power brick that came with it w/o the push buttons on it. In the end the intercooler is still a positive piece of hardware. We are talking about 0.30 amps. That is nothing.

[RyanMurf]

I said it was bad ... and regardless of how much power it pulls from the brick, this is a MAJOR design flaw :

While you can fully plug the cord into the intercooler ... it will NOT stay locked in ... and much to my dismay, that design flaw was SEVERELY problematic with my 360, as any time the console was shifted even SLIGHTLY the power cord would move in it's non-locked-in-slot and cause a temporary "red ring of death" - until I powered the 360 down and re-seated the plug in the inter-cooler.

Temporary or not, any RROD can't be a good thing. And the design flaw is with NYKO on that one, not Microsoft.
If the power in your house flickers you will get a temp. rrod. This is a failsafe for the system. When ever that happens in your case when yopu shift it whioch i dont know hy the hell you would ( its a 360) that is just a failsafe so nothing wrong their. To eliminate this problem jsut try not to move your xbox while your playing it I know you want to for some reason but try not too.:p

[esquire]

I said it was bad ... and regardless of how much power it pulls from the brick, this is a MAJOR design flaw :

While you can fully plug the cord into the intercooler ... it will NOT stay locked in ... and much to my dismay, that design flaw was SEVERELY problematic with my 360, as any time the console was shifted even SLIGHTLY the power cord would move in it's non-locked-in-slot and cause a temporary "red ring of death" - until I powered the 360 down and re-seated the plug in the inter-cooler.

Funny. I have an system launch 360 Core with the push/lock buttons on the power supply cable and have had an Nyko Intercooler for 1 year now, and (1) the power supply cable DOES lock into the Intercooler and (2) I've never had a problem, including any RROD.

Now, with the newer 360's such as my Halo 3 Edition, there is no push/lock button on the PS cable and it does not stay in the Intercooler. however, IMO there is no nead for the Intercooler on this 360 model as it is much more quiet and seems to run less hot.

I am guessing you have an Elite or newer model 360 Premium?

Maybe Nyko will release a different model Intercooler for these newer models.

[RyanMurf]

Yeah the intercooler is fine. People don't listen to dumb rumors or defects about it. It is fine and im pretty sure that nyko will guarantee the xbox it is put on. I have been using the intercooler for about 2 years now its a must have for the xbox 360!

[mnbren05]

I have a pro system and an Nyko Intercooler (bought them both back in March of 07') I have used them together since purchase and have never had any problems. My only real complaint is that the 360 is quite noisey. Actually it was producing more noise without the Intercooler on it. I personally don't see any problems with the Intercooler, I suppose a bad batch got out and rumors start flying. I think for the most part my 360 works better with the Intercooler, Gears of War certainly plays better with one. Any suggestions for quieting the 360?

[nate1749]

I had the nyko on for about 10 minutes before I took it off. It sounds like the 360 is about to take off from the runaway, so annoying.

Nate

[RyanMurf]

I have a pro system and an Nyko Intercooler (bought them both back in March of 07') I have used them together since purchase and have never had any problems. My only real complaint is that the 360 is quite noisey. Actually it was producing more noise without the Intercooler on it. I personally don't see any problems with the Intercooler, I suppose a bad batch got out and rumors start flying. I think for the most part my 360 works better with the Intercooler, Gears of War certainly plays better with one. Any suggestions for quieting the 360?

Yes you can order the whisper fans and install them. They are about 25 bucks and they glow also. They move air faster and they are "whisper" loud.

[jdc]

My Nyko cooler caused problems to my initial 360......but not anything that has been mentioned thus far. My fan produced an unusual amount of suction (and noise) which, according to the service dept at Microsoft, had pulled my disc tray completely out of alignment. I had sent the 360 in because immediately upon installing the Nyko, something had caused the disc tray to stick closed unless flicked with a fingertip.

[RyanMurf]

My Nyko cooler caused problems to my initial 360......but not anything that has been mentioned thus far. My fan produced an unusual amount of suction (and noise) which, according to the service dept at Microsoft, had pulled my disc tray completely out of alignment. I had sent the 360 in because immediately upon installing the Nyko, something had caused the disc tray to stick closed unless flicked with a fingertip.

Im sorry but this kind of BS just makes me laugh out loud (LOL). Now take no offense im not laughing at you im laughing at the fact the MS would come up with such a ridiculous reason like that. The dvd drive is just like a regular PC dvd drive. It is completely enclosed inside its own metal case. It is bolted to the motherboard and case with some pretty thick bolts. A tornado could have ripped through your xbox and the DVD drive wouldn't move. The reason why your disc drive wasn't opening anymore was because in some cases the magnet does not let go of the top of the drive so then the tray doesn't drop and come out. Normally replacing the magnet fixes this problem. I have fixed over 5 xbox 360 that have had this problem. MS really needs to get some better excuses. Then again it worked on you;)

[lendelin]

YoshiM and RARusk, thanks for the great advice. Very useful advice indeed.

I followed YoshiMs example after reading this thread yesterday. I didn't buy sticky feet but just cut 4 pieces out of wood and used them as "feet" for the Xbox 360. They are 3/4" high, so my 360 has now a nice ventilation area at the bottom. Great advice to do something to prevent overheating although I didn't have problems with my unit so far (bought it 18 months ago.) However, like so many of you I noticed that the 360 gets pretty hot after hours of gameplay.

In the pic you can actually see the little feet, in reality from an adults viewing angle they aren't noticeable at all...the only thing is that the 360 looks now bigger than the PS3.

'Bigger despite serious design problems' compared to its competitors, sounds like the PS2 two years after its launch and sounds like an omen as well.

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u104/lendelin/Gameroom091.jpg

[RARusk]

This picture shows the current "letter tray" setup I posted about earlier.

[mnbren05]

I've heard little in the way of the Whisper Quiet fans that is good. From what I have seen and read online the Whisper Quiet reduces noise by only 10% and does little to reduce the temperature. Some people claim the noise is actually turned from a deeper noise to a high pitched whine at times. I wish they would just come out with a good mod already.