is there any advantage to owning a first run XBOX

[googlefest1]

from the point of view of modding for emulators

I have a first run xbox - i have been thinking of selling inorder to buy a new one. i have hopes that the xbox will have a nice price drop in the months to come and am planing to pick up a couple more. so, if i do indeed get the chance to own a bunch of them i was thinking of getting into the xbox emulation i hear so many good things about. the confusion i have is if a first run mother board is the best for modding.

[omnedon]

Only advantage in my eyes is that the RAM can be upgraded on the older boards. Xboxes made since April of 04 cannot be RAM upgraded.

The RAM upgrade is not an easy job.

[heyricochet]

Any links to instuctions for the ram upgrade? That helps with MAME too right? And, lastly do you remember if the one you did for me was a first gen?

[Jagasian]

Any links to instuctions for the ram upgrade? That helps with MAME too right? And, lastly do you remember if the one you did for me was a first gen?

Its not worth it. The latest version of MAME for the Xbox uses virtual memory to get around the 64MB limitation. The RAM upgrade involves surface mount soldering. Early run Xbox's tend to use crappier DVD drives, and they also have a faulty circuitry in the internal part of their power supply.

To tell you the truth, I am not sure if there is a revision of the Xbox that has fixed the fauly circuitry crap. It should not be acceptable for a game system to catch fire.

[googlefest1]

ive had the xbox for 4 years and the optical drive has not given me problems nor has there been any fires.

if you mistreat any electrical product you should expect problems - even fires BUT!! How the heck did they pass regulatory testing with a box that has flamable materials. I dont know about the reg consumer testing but in the medical arena your products cant be flamable -- they can burn - but they have to stop burning as soon as there is no more outside flame being applied -- they also cant melt and have burning fluild exiting the unit.

anyways - i never thought of increasing the ram -- thats a nice feature -- ill have to look into that

does the performance of the system improve at all -- will the xbox games themselves be able to use the additional memory

[Jagasian]

does the performance of the system improve at all -- will the xbox games themselves be able to use the additional memory

AFAIK, only homebrew Xbox software benefits. I am specifically thinking of a few emulators and XBMC. It really isn't worth it IMO. There was also a company that would do both a RAM and CPU upgrade of your Xbox. It let you have a turbo speed switch, which ran the CPU at twice the Xbox's normal CPU speed. This caused many games to get buggy, but some games got an improved frame rate. Home brew software definitely benefited.

[omnedon]

The Xbox PSU 'short' failure is caused by abuse only. The kind of abuse where someone is moving their Xbox around a lot, and they wrap the AC cord around the console like it's lawn mower kind of abuse. This causes flexing on the connector for the internal PSU, and eventually a full 120V short circuit. This will cause smoke, PSU failure, and possibly fire. BUT you have to be yanking on that poor socket for a while for it to occur.

Xboxes made since April of 04 have a different setup on the external connector for the internal PSU. It will flex and bend when abused, as opposed to break when abused.

The 'breaker in the cord' recall fix they did is a joke, for a short that would be occurring inside the unit. :roll:

I cannot remember your unit specifically heyricochet. The date of manufacture should say what you need to know. If it's before april of 04, it is likely RAM upgradeable. Jagasian's post about a crap DVDrom drive in older Xboxes can be true. Yours heyricochet will not have that issue because it's been properly upgraded, and I put a good DVDrom drive in it for you. 8-)

Jagasian is correct about only hombrew apps and emus benefitting from a RAM uprade. I haven't even done my own, but I may try it. No apps really cry out for it, except the odd MAME game emulated.

[ProgrammingAce]

There's a program out there to make SOME games recognize the extra memory, but in my oppinion, it's completely worthless. You can find it in the "usual places" under debug. Only use it if you have the extra memory installed. I don't even offer the upgrade anymore, I can't see the difference asside from some N64 emulators.