new xbox media center boxes

Columbia College was throwing away these two awesome metal boxes.

My plan is to gut them, put in computer hardware scavaged from current machines I’ve got laying around and build an awesome looking Xbox Media Center without the Xbox.

To-Do:

  1. Take one box apart
  2. Remove all the internal components
  3. Take apart an existing computer to retrieve:
    • motherboard
    • processor
    • ram
    • hard drive
    • optical drive
    • power supply (need a mini supply: option 1 & option 2)
  4. install XBMC
  5. get a remote control (lifehacker recommends)
  6. cut sheet metal to fill in the front holes
  7. cut a slot for the dvd drive to extend out
  8. attach the cut metal to the dvd drive facia

The main reason I want to do this is the XBMC project dropped support for the classic Xbox, and it’s just a pain to work on the original xbox because of all the hoops you have to jump through.

Plus, if the DVD drive ever fails, it’s a huge pain to change.

Upgrades for the Future:

  • It would be really cool to add a TV capture card to download shows