Has anyone bought a pre-modded Xbox?

[digitalpress]

I keep saying I'll get around to it.

I'm NEVER going to get to do it myself and haven't done very well with getting ahold of someone who could do it for me. Ultimately I'm looking for something very convenient. I'd like to pay for a pre-modded console - this one wouldn't even get hooked up to the 'net - preferably with all the bells and whistles.

Has anyone here dealt with any of the various sites that offer this kind of thing? I see them from time to time but I wouldn't go forward without a referral from someone I know.

[Darth Sensei]

I didn't buy a pre-mod, but I can't recommend Omnedon highly enough for modding mine and doing some other repair work for me. :D

[racecar]

there one with a 120gig HD for $300 over @
http://home.fuse.net/yagami/

[NE146]

Personally, I did it on my own so long ago that I forgot pretty much how I did it. However, I do know a lot of people that have bought from modchipman and have been satisfied. Although generally they offer modchips, they do sell pre-modded ones as well which I think are customizable to your specs.

http://www.modchipman.com/premodded-xbox-p-144.html

The guy who runs the site, (kfree) is also on irc regularly to answer questions.. usually on #modchipman on efnet. Aside from the occasional complaint over the years, from what I see he is usually very consistent and prompt. Here are 63 pages or so of customer feedback as well.. I'd check the later ones:

http://www.modchipman.com/premodded-xbox-p-144.html

Good luck ;)

[FABombjoy]

Tough to beat the deal on that one at Yagami's site.

[chadtower]

IIRC, ToddST has one he's been trying to sell for quite some time...

[Swizzle]

I've known Jeff at http://www.themodgod.com/ who does a lot of premods. I would highly recommend his services.

[Cryomancer]

You could always do a softmod as well, they're *really* easy now, I did my girlfriend's brother's the otehr day, all i did was throw a save on a mem card, load up mech assault, and had it permanently (and reversibly) softmodded in a couple minutes.

[Jibbajaba]

How can something be permanent and reversible?

What is "Soft modding" exactly?

Chris

[omnedon]

When softmods fail, you have Problems.

[chadtower]

Softmodding is a software solution... but it doesn't usually leave you with any way to back out if it fails.

[Cryomancer]

The mod I did had a damn simple installer, with a "remove" option that basically restores the xbox to retail. What I meant by permanent and reversable is that it won't just go away or anything when ti's restarted, but if I want to make it a retail box again I can. However, softmods are obvviously not for everyone, i don't think you can change hardware with them, they have their limits. I'm also by no means an expert on the subject, and now that I think about it a softmod probably isn't really what he's looking for anyway.

[Swizzle]

When softmods go wrong you usually can't boot the Xbox (as the TSOP is corrupt). It can be re-built, however, that does require a modchip and the downloading of a TSOP off the net. All in all it's fairly easy so that might be the best bet if you want to save the $.

[mkuo7]

http://www.xbox-scene.com

Should tell you everything you need to know. It has softmods as well as everything else (modchips). I'm planning on getting a modchip(xecuter 3) and an upgraded hard drive.

[Chunky]

one of the guys that shows up to seans meets does them, and is always doing them or selling them there. i forget his name.

[omnedon]

I can sell a new one modded, for the price of the new Box, plus the mod. :)

[Cirrus]

Joe, try www.modchipsource.com, that's where I got mine. Came pre-loaded with all of the nice dashboard action, along with a few useful programs. (Even though they said they wouldn't, as it's sort of illegal to rewrite the BIOS, I guess.)

Also, http://www.bayareamods.net/ is worth looking into. I have heard very good things about their customer service.

[Cirrus]

Also, as I'm sure you have heard, this thing is the ultimate emulation machine. Four player arcade games without having to stand around the cabinet.

And that's only one tiny part of it. Watching my downloaded SG-1 episodes, etc, etc. It is the center of my entertainment system, and probably the most useful piece of equipment out there.

[digitalpress]

This is why I love you guys.

I acted on one of the first posts here, NE146's recommendation of modchipman. I did some research, saw the excellent feedback and went that route. The service was terrific, with every-other-day email updates on the status of my order. Got it in 6 days elapsed time.

Looks like quality work from the outside, I'm going to fire it up tonight.

[mkuo7]

digitalpress,
if i may ask what chip did you get?

[christianscott27]

IIRC, ToddST has one he's been trying to sell for quite some time...


that particular console found a happy home next to my saturn! i love it, best damn thing to happen to gaming in quite awhile.

from the "now it can be told" file -

had been playing it happily for a couple of months then one evening i fired it up and played for about 5 mins. then the screen froze, went black and next thing you know smoke is pouring out of the controller ports. i heard a POP and ran over to unplug the bastard. i left it out on the porch to air out.

i opened it up and found the damage was an exploded capacitor near the controller ports, left a nasty burn crater on the motherboard. i figured it was toast but had nothing to lose so i started research on how to fix it. got some good advice from around the web and from starscream at AA in particular.

so i got a 99 cent cap and a $14 replacement power supply. i cant solder so todd and i recruited his girlfriend to do it. i made em a nice dinner and then we went to solderin'. it was a really nervous moment when we plugged it back in but its worked great ever since. theres still a faint smell of electrical burn from the fans but thats just residual.

[toddst]

IIRC, ToddST has one he's been trying to sell for quite some time...


that particular console found a happy home next to my saturn! i love it, best damn thing to happen to gaming in quite awhile.

from the "now it can be told" file -

had been playing it happily for a couple of months then one evening i fired it up and played for about 5 mins. then the screen froze, went black and next thing you know smoke is pouring out of the controller ports. i heard a POP and ran over to unplug the bastard. i left it out on the porch to air out.

i opened it up and found the damage was an exploded capacitor near the controller ports, left a nasty burn crater on the motherboard. i figured it was toast but had nothing to lose so i started research on how to fix it. got some good advice from around the web and from starscream at AA in particular.

so i got a 99 cent cap and a $14 replacement power supply. i cant solder so todd and i recruited his girlfriend to do it. i made em a nice dinner and then we went to solderin'. it was a really nervous moment when we plugged it back in but its worked great ever since. theres still a faint smell of electrical burn from the fans but thats just residual.

The free (and very tasty) dinner was totally worth having Kim do all the work. Now, I have to convince her to do a few 2600 modifications for me...

-Todd

[omnedon]

http://www.oldschoolgamer.ca/sales.aspx

My pre-upgraded page.