Xbox 360 Cooling Units

[alex_p]

After reading all about 360s cooking themselves within 5 mins of being turned on these forums, and seeing some cooling 'solutions' avaliable in Game and Gamestation, i was wondering if anyone had any experience with them? Are they any good or are they just a crock & I'd be better off relying on luck or my warrantee?

[Fidgits]

I think just making sure your 360 is well ventilated is probably as good, if not better than these things.

[_Batty_]

Fidgits said:

I think just making sure your 360 is well ventilated is probably as good, if not better than these things.

mines by an open window :S

[baz7175]

Mine has been standing upright in open air (i.e. nothing on either side of it by around 6" or so) and I've had a "light up green" cooling fan mounted onto the back of the xbox since I got it in November - no problems yet (touch wood)...

[Dellage]

I've been told not to have it stood vertically as they're more likely to eat game discs, something to do with the disc tray not holding the disc very well when vertical.

Cooling wise definately keep it in the open, they get very very hot when kept in a unit or similar.

[tim2100]

when you look at the design of the CPU heat sink they really should be kept horizontal rather than vertical. The heat sink is not anywhere near as effictive when verticle.

[Fidgits]

Dellage said:

I've been told not to have it stood vertically as they're more likely to eat game discs, something to do with the disc tray not holding the disc very well when vertical.

Cooling wise definately keep it in the open, they get very very hot when kept in a unit or similar.

yeah, I heard the same...

[baz7175]

Well there's going to be good and bad for all options - my reasoning for standing it up is that there is a much smaller area of the body in close contact with the surface (floor), if I was to get picky I would come up with a stand with 4 upward-facing legs which would go on the floor that the 360 would then sit horizontally onto meaning it would have minimal contact and maximum airflow all around it

Edited by baz7175 on Thursday 5th July 13:09

[foreright]

baz7175 said:

Well there's going to be good and bad for all options - my reasoning for standing it up is that there is a much smaller area of the body in close contact with the surface (floor), if I was to get picky I would come up with a stand with 4 upward-facing legs which would go on the floor that the 360 would then sit horizontally onto meaning it would have minimal contact and maximum airflow all around it

Edited by baz7175 on Thursday 5th July 13:09

I've been told (although it might not be a completely reliable source!) that using the cooling fans is not a good idea - surely it's just blowing warm air back inside the unit unless it's actually an air-con unit and is actually generating properly cold air??

FWIW I've been running with my XBOX vertically since I got it two weeks ago (and the unit was hot to the touch) until a couple of days ago when I found space to put it horizontally. Last night after leaving it on for several hours, it hadn't warmed up at all. There has been talk on some of the forums of people getting replacement units which appear to run noticeably cooler and/or quieter so maybe the newest ones do have some kind of mod?