CoolIt Xbox 360 liquid cooler - Latest pics from CES

[Steve]

Last week we generated a HUGE amount of interest with shots of the add-on Xbox 360 liquid cooler from CoolIt… well now we’re at CES 2006 we’ve had a chance to actually get our hands on the real thing, so we can bring you far more detail than just a couple of promo shots.

http://gaming.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=4329

[CocoPops]

it could be that the Xbox 360 Cooler is just the answer for those who find their Xbox 360’s noise output too high.

It's not the fans that make the noise tho, it's the DVD drive!

[poolking]

I like the look of their beverage cooler.

[Steve]

/Dons enthusiast hat

I'm trying to work out how this thing can do what it says.

...multiple TECs or peltiers to chill the liquid coolant. This increases thermal capacity and provides for faster heat absorption at the source. This allows for lower temperatures with slower fan speeds and therefore less noise.

For those of you not familiar with TECs, they're an electrical device with two plates. One gets cold, while the other gets hot. That means you can use a TEC to cool a component but you still have to get the heat away from the TEC (and there's going to be more heat than without a TEC.)

It looks like in the case of this system, however, that the TECs are used to cool the water down rather than come into contact with any of the XBox's componentry. Nevertheless those things are going to draw some power and put out some heat unless they're only cooling the liquid down slightly.

[maranatha]

I guess thats why they need the external blue box, so the heat can pumped from the Graphics/CPU heatsink in the xbox to the external heatsink, which will probably run quite hot, but as its not directly attached to the CPU or Graphics cores it won't inhibit the running of the CPU and Graphics cores.

[unreal]

Argh I'm sorry but I won't be doing any cutting to my Xbox thank-you-very-much

[Steven W]

Argh I'm sorry but I won't be doing any cutting to my Xbox thank-you-very-much

According to Nick you don't do the cutting. You buy a normal Xbox 360 and send it off to this company. They then do it for you with their expert skills.

[Synergy6]

According to Nick you don't do the cutting. You buy a normal Xbox 360 and send it off to this company. They then do it for you with their expert skills.

Perhaps he just doesn't want the sacrosant cover of his white box to be defiled in any way, by "experts" or otherwise

TBH, I find it interesting that, not a year hence from the launch of the 360, there is already a sizeable market of those so worried by either the noise or the heat of their expensive machines that they'll pay (probably a decent amount) to have it sent away and have a (not exactly stylistically fitting) box stuck to it, which manages to void the warranty in the process. Not needing to breathe while speaking FTW.
Synergy6

[Nick]

That's right, you don't hack into your Xbox 360 case yourself, it is an aftermarket add-on that you get fitted by pros. In fact, the CoolIt Xbox 360 system will very, very likely not even be sold direct to consumers... you'll just send your Xbox 360 away to have this fitted.

By the way, the article has been updated with new shots of the interior plumbing.

[kempez]

Good work Hexus!

BUT I am agreed with the people who say that this is pointless. Yeah the console heats up but its the DVD drive that makes all the noise - and not the actual system fan. Plus sod voiding my warranty just for the 1337ness - cause afaik you can't even OC the thing - so whats the point?