james2025a

I am buying an Xbox 360 in the next week or two and wondered which is the best cooler for it. The system seems to get very hot and a cooler seems like a must. I notice that EB Games has a few for sale. Can anyone recommend which is the best to buy. Cheers.

kakihara1

None of them. I've heard nothing good about any of the external cooling units. Now if you want a sure fire way to fry your 360 the Nyko one is the best option.

Shagrath

Just make sure you've not putting it in an enclosed space, so that it has plenty of room to breathe. As long as it's got some space, the heat should dissipate fairly quickly and you shouldn't run into any problems.

james2025a

I am actually in Puerto Rico....and it can get a tad hot here. Do you still suggest not getting one and just ensuring that it is in an open space? I just want to make sure that i don't fry the thing within a few weeks of having it.

Thanks for the advice by the way.

darkside

I think an alternate thing to try is to get a small fan and have it blow across the back of the 360. If you are worried about heat building up back there this should solve it without the chance of damaging the 360.

PixyJunket

Xbox Cooling Systems = Snake Oil

mmconhea

People have been saying the cooling fans are no good, but have nothing to back that info up with. I have a Mad Catz stand and my box runs significantly cooler when using it. Not sure how a cooling fan can actually harm the system, but some people just run with rumors just so they have something to say.

Save Ferris

In the summer I try not to let my place get hotter than 75 and its never had a problem. Its in a cabinet but nothing is on top of it, and theres about 3" of space on the sides and a few feet in back.

I wouldnt try to help it with an additional 'clip on' cooler. If you want to point a household fan at it, thats probably fine.

possible explanation why attached fans can harm an Xbox360:

these are attachable fans that sit on the exhaust vents of your xbox. When you place multiple fans around a unit, there is a chance that the forced air can create a 'vortex' of pressure that keeps the air from flowing: If one fan is sucking and one fan is blowing, or if one fan is significantly stronger than the other, the pressure could cause the internal fan to stop spinning alltogether.

Fetzore

The problem with those external coolers is that they fuck with the power supply of the 360, which can create much bigger problems with your 360 than the cooling issue you might think you have. I'd do what darkside says and get a fan that blows cooler air towards the back side of the 360...

james2025a

Well thats great advice from everyone. I think i will just use a small fan and place it behind the 360 and ensure that the unit has space and is the coolest place possible. Its a shame that i am not back in my native England...there would be no problem with it overheating there.....lol. My nephew here recently bought a 360 and has one of the coolers attached, so i will update him with your information. I was surprised at how hot his unit was when i played it. Now it appears that the cooler might only be adding to that.

Thats why i love this board. People give you the real insight into things. Thanks again everyone.

Michael Corvin

MS's Side of the story

There were some photos of a burnt system floating around as well, but I can't seem to find them at the moment.

kakihara1

Dude the internal fans for the 360 are meant to provide a certain level of air flow in the system attaching an uncalibrated fan and forcing air into the system is absolutely not going to help anything. Where is your proof that it's actually doing any good? You say it runs cooler but you can arbitrarily say basically anything you want, Unless you have actual thermalcouple data with and without the external cooling unit from the CPU and the GPU then you've provided no more proof that it helps than we have that it doesn't.

stacking fans on top of one another is not the answer. Ventilation is

Arpeggi

You don't need a cooling system, don't be a moron and waste your money on useless products.

james2025a

Well its funny but reading a lot on the net about the 360's it seems that an extraordinary amount of them have problems within a few months (or less) of buying the unit. Is this an issue with older models, or do even new models have problems? I wonder how many problems are created by adding these coolers onto the consoles.

So should i buy one of these consoles or not? I am dubious now about picking one up after reading so many negative things.

kakihara1

I can say without a doubt that you should pick one up. But it is an absolute must that you buy the warranty. I've had mine since December 05 with no problems but that doesn't mean I won't have problems in the future, the warranty really helps ease the worry. It's an amazing system, you'll love it.

james2025a

Well it comes with the 1 year warranty i believe now. If i get an extended warranty how much approx. will that be?

Barney1234

all I know is, after hearing the horror stories about the Nyko cooler, I removed it, then my system dies 2 days later. I had the Nyko on my system since it was available, Zero problems. May have been a coincidence, but I dont' think so. The 360 gets hot! Especially if you game all day, like me(sometimes). I have modded my Nyko, it now has an external power source.

kakihara1

Does it come with a one year warranty now? I thought that was only for the launch systems since they were having issues with them. For $60 you can get a warranty directly through MS that covers you for 2 years with unlimited repairs. Or you can get a warranty from BB and the like that will cover you for one system replacement after that you have to rebuy the replacement warranty. The difference is with the BB warranty you get a new unit, with the MS warranty you don't. Personally I think the MS warranty is the better option but opinions vary.

james2025a

From what i can see as of December 2006 they have introduced a one year warranty with the system. Seems reasonable, but i think i would also get the extended warranty to be sure. What is BB by the way? I would probably buy from Compusa here....wonder if they do a warranty service.

kakihara1

BB= Best Buy (sorry I'm lazy)

I've heard good things from people about CompUSA's return policy or warranty. I don't pay much attention because we don't have a CompUSA here

mmconhea

They have fans that use external power supplies.... so there goes there therory that they screw with the power supply of the 360.
The fan I have is a stand, and it injects air into the vent, not another fan. It's not fighting with another fan.. in fact I feel the exhaust fan of the 360 shoot out more air when the external fan is on... it's assisting with it.
I'm sure there are some poorly designed fan systems out there, but the big name ones seem to have their act together.

Save Ferris

think about it though, if you are 'injecting' air into the case, couldnt this force the stock fan to spin faster than the motor is allowing? In time couldnt this strip the threads/kill the motor?

Maxflier

I don't mean to be a wiseass or anything, but are homes in Puerto Rico not climate controlled (ie. have air conditioning)? I just don't see why it would matter if you were in England or P.R. when it comes to worrying about your XBOX overheating.

james2025a

Yes they are. But when you are trying to keep your bills at a reasonable level then you don't have the air condition turned on 24/7. I will use the air condition when needed, but i don't want to have to turn it on every time i want to turn on a 360.

I was joking about being in England by the way. The weather tends to be so cold over there that you would not ned a cooler at all for it.

Chrisedge

I would love to find a bigger case for the 360 that would allow better ventalation and cooling.