Tutorial written by : halo9054
Last edited: August 22, 2003

Vantec Stealth Case Fan Upgrade:
Here’s how to increase your XBox cooling yet keep it from sounding like a jet engine!

Starting Temperatures:
Stock Fan 7V with no case mod.
After 1 Hour playing Brute Force
MB 48.0 C or 118.45 F
CPU 61.250 C or 142.25 F
Replaced Stock Fan with 12v Vantec Stealth 80mm Case Fan. (SF8025L)
Vantec Stealth 80 mm runs on 12 V, Fan Speed 2050 RPM, Air Flow is 27 CFM's, Noise 21 dBA, Double Ball Bearing. Comes with mounting screws and 3-4 pin molex power through adaptor. http://www.vantecusa.com
After 1 Hour playing Brute Force
MB 42.0 C or 107.6 F
CPU 52.0 C or 125.0 F

Additionally I did the following adjustments for better cooling.
Trob Rear Fan Touch Up. Credit to Trob for the suggestion
Replaced Heat Sink Thermal Compound. (Tutorial)
After 1 Hour playing Brute Force
MB 39.125 C or 102.425 F
CPU 46.500 C or 115.7 F YEAH!
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Vantec Stealth Case Fan Install:
- Removed top interior facing corners - leaving exterior facing stock.
- Removed both bottom corners (interior and exterior) Basically rounded the bottom corners of the case. Keep the bottom flat cuz you'll wanna use some double sided tape to secure the bottom of the case fan down.
- Removed stock plastic fan hooks. You just bend them in and snap them off - I guess you could keep them - but I wanted to make sure the fan was not going to move around/vibrate.
- Secured top exterior facing corners using zip ties. Saw this here in the forums - worked great. Good idea - just forgot who I got that from so if it was your idea thanks. Updated - Thanks to Ben_999 for this idea.

Modified HDD Case:
Used 'Warning' label as horizontal guide and removed everything above label - stopping one section to the right of the warning label - to just accommodate fan case. Any more and I was concerned about creating cavitations inside the box. Thus later, I used electrical tape to seal the top HDD case off - in other words I wanted the fan to pull heat down from the HDD case and then out the back rather than to have it pull air simultaneously out across the top and then out the back of the HDD. I made no changes to the DVD case - the original post remains intact. Used 3-4 pin molex adaptor (included with new fan) and piggy backed power from HDD. Makes for a much cleaner installation. Okay easier - hehehe.

Trob Rear Fan Touch Up.
Now before you go any further, it's good idea to mark your case fan's width just so you can get an idea of how much to cut. Now the first thing I did was completely removed the MB, Fan and Power Supply. Since you are modding the metal case there's a chance that you'll get small metal pieces flying around and if they stick to the MB or Power Supply - well unno - zap!

There's a tut with pictures on how to remove your MB so I’m not going to repeat that here. And here's a picture of the Power Supply - Note the red circles - two screws hold the board in place. Carefully slide the PS to the front of the case and then lift out. I found that if you pushed on the female end of the AC connection it moves quite easily.

Now there are a number of bits and pieces you'll need to remove to fully extract the metal case from the plastic chassis. So take your time and carefully remove each item.

You must remove the sockets for the controllers (two set of two female sockets at the front of the box). And then the Front fascia (front face of the xbox). It clips on either side of the xbox from the outside and then there are 3 clips on the inside. Just pry one side to off then work your way across the inside clips and bingo - it will pop off.

Cutting Metal Grill
Okay here's a shot of the grill with some of the metal cut out. Originally I was going to keep the metal straps that mirrored the plastic case. But then I thought - why have them at all - SNIP - SNIP .... gone. The red outline is how much I actually cut out.

Onwards to the Plastic Case
Now's the time to get your Dremel warmed up (LOL). Two things while we are here. One, the big red circle on the right was the clip that the old stock fan used. Well I dremelled it out down to the lower AC connection box. Second, remember the lower case fan clips? Well this time around I made a mental note to make sure I sealed these off. Otherwise the fan will just pull air in from these gaping holes.

Dremel - take your time!
It's easy to get carried away with removing this and that. I found that the faster the Dremel spins the easier it is to control (duh!). Now I know my buddy Trob was excited about cutting the upper and lower left side to accommodate the 80mm case fan. But in reality cutting that little AC Connector box would have been a real pain the ass (no disrespect trob). I just didn't wanna end up with too many holes. So, in this pict you will see the areas i modified.

Here's how it looks with the lights on. hehehehe!

Finally, all back together.

But wait there's more.....
Now I didn't really expect that there would be significant change with just this adjustment. So considering that I was going to pull everything apart - I looked at those heatsinks and thought perhaps I could put some expensive thermal compound and help to expedite the heat transfer. I assumed M$ would probably use some cheap bubble gum stuff so..... the rest they say is history!

To upgrade your thermal compound check here.