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11-08-2010 #1 (permalink)

7Heavens

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How to open a Xbox 360 Slim

How to open the Xbox 360 Slim

To get into the Xbox 360 you’ll need pretty much the same tools you needed to get into the old

one. A flat head screwdriver helps, preferably one with a long, thin stem (a tiny flathead is also

useful in getting the heatsink clamp off if you want to go that far). You’ll need a torx driver with T8

bit. A phillips head screwdriver if you want to remove the fan on the heatsink and a selection of

thin/flat tools to help you pry bits of the case apart.

The bad news is that the new Xbox 360 is not really any simpler to disassemble than the old one.

I've included photos of the process here but for larger versions and even more than what I've

included inline, check out the gallery below. As always, proceed at your own risk - we're not

responsible for any damange to your console that happens as a result of following these

instructions. Also know that proceeding with this will surely void your warranty from Microsoft.

To start you’ll want to first remove the hard drive. Next we have two plastic grates on the left and

right of the system that pop right off. They are attached using clips along their edges so work one

part out with your flat head driver and just pull the rest off.

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The side without the hard drive is a bit more difficult. I crammed a plastic tool between the chrome

casing and the plastic grate to pull it off and then wedged my fingers in there to get the entire

piece off.

This next part is the first of two hard parts, and I’m not sure there’s a way around this. Removing

the two plastic grates will reveal two more black plastic covers. You can wedge your flathead

between the plastic cover and the rest of the system and pry it off.


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The cover is attached to the system by several plastic stands that fit through little holes behind

them. The stands are wider at their outer most edge than they are at the base, too wide to just fit

through the hole. In fact, removing these plastic covers will break part of the stands off. It looks

like Microsoft did this to make opening the new 360 something that could only be properly reversed

at Microsoft itself. Thankfully doing so doesn’t fundamentally ruin the system.

Stick your screwdriver in one of the cutouts and pry away. You’ll see a lot of flexing and then hear

a pop, once you hear one move to the next portion of the plastic cover. Do this around the edge

until the entire cover is removed. Repeat for the other side of the 360.

Now you’ve got line of sight into the system itself. Great.

At this point you can also remove the 802.11n card which is held in place by a single screw.

Remove the T8 screw and the card slides right out. It is just plugged into an internal USB port.


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Now we have to remove the two chrome surrounds on either side of the system. These are attached

via clips that can be tempted loose using that trusty flat head screwdriver. Wedge it between the

clip and the rest of the chassis and push away from the chassis:


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Some clips will give way easily, others will take some coercion. Some of the clips are only accessible

via a very tiny, very long flat head. Start with the clips you know you can get off and then try to

pry the tough ones later.

You’ve got 6 on one side and 5 on the other chrome lip, the shots below should help you.

With the two chrome surrounds removed we’re now at the second most difficult part of dissecting

the new Xbox 360. Remember these little things:


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Yep, they’re back, and even more of a pain.

On the old 360 you at least had a removable face plate and some insight into what was going on at

the rear of the system. This time around you can only look in at the sides which makes this next

part quite frustrating.

Thankfully I know exactly how many clips you have to break free: three on the back and eight on

the front.

I started on the back, got the clips loose then moved to the front. You need to access clips at both

the left and ride side of the Xbox 360. A flashlight can be very handy here. Remember you’ve got

clips at both the top and the bottom of the Xbox to work free at the front. Unfortunately during the

process I managed to snap a few of these clips, not to the point where the system couldn’t be put

back together thankfully.


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The only advice I can give you here is to be patient, persistent and have a good flathead

screwdriver at your side. Once you’ve pried these clips free the front will separate from the rest of

the system. If you’re trying to do it without breaking any clips, good luck, if you don’t mind then be

prepared to put some force into the process.

Be careful when removing the front of the system. There’s a ribbon cable that connects the 360‘s

power button to the rest of the system, you have to remove it before you can proceed. In my

original teardown the ribbon cable just ripped right out of its connector without any problems so if

this happens to you, you should be ok.

The ribbon connector attaches here

With the front removed, separate the clips on the back and the top cover of the 360’s should lift

right off exposing what we have below:


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From this point on you’ll need your T8 bit. Start by removing the two screws that hold the front

panel PCB in place. With the screws removed the PCB pulls straight out:

Now look at the side of the Xbox with the white sticker on it, there are 12 x T8 screws that you

need to remove here to take the whole thing apart. If you just want to get the cover off I believe

you only need to remove the 5 black ones.

The 12th screw is actually hidden under the white Xbox 360 sticker. It looks like Microsoft has done

a lot to figure out whether or not you’ve opened this thing. Modders don’t make Microsoft happy.

RRoD didn’t make me happy. Modders ftw.

The DVD Drive & Motherboard

I pulled all 12 screws out but left the four heatsink screws in place since I wanted access to the

motherboard. With all four removed I could pull off the bottom cover leaving me with this:


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The DVD drive lifts right out and you can disconnect the power and SATA cables from the unit easily

just like on the older models.

This is a newer version of the Lite-On drive found in the newer Jasper Xbox 360s. They use the

DG-16D2S while the Valhalla uses the new DG16-D4S.

Microsoft also outfitted the drive with a strip of rubber to help dampen vibration:


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You can also remove the CGPU heatsink fan shroud at this point, it is a snug fit but it should lift

straight off:

The piece of aluminum shielding in the lower left of the picture above lifts straight out, you can

remove that if you want to pull out the motherboard.

The black piece of plastic in the upper right hand corner of the picture above is the HDD carrier. It’s

actually mounted on a flexible mount to allow for some vibration dampening and shock resistance.

There’s a single large T8 screw holding it in place, remove this screw.

The drive tray isn’t completely free yet, there’s one more T8 screw at the back of the Xbox 360 that

has to be removed. It was hidden by the casing but with that off you can now access it. Remove

that screw and the drive tray is free:


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The Motherboard

Two phillips screws hold the fan in place. You don’t need to remove them to remove the heatsink

but I did anyway:

The single large heatsink is a lot heftier than what we'd seen in previous 360s, it doesn't feel quite

as cheap or as insufficient. This time around it has to do double duty cooling both the CPU and the

GPU.

At this point I can easily remove the motherboard and flip it over, revealing our old friend: the

x-clamp.


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Place your flathead screwdriver tip here, pointing away from the xclamp, and pry the clamp off at

this point. Repeat for 1 - 2 more and the whole thing should come off easily.

Unlike previous Xbox 360s, the Valhalla x-clamp isn’t a pain to remove. In fact all I had to do was

slide a small flathead screwdriver in each of the four slots in the clamp and push down to make the

clamp pop out. I’ve marked the area on the photo above.

With the x-clamp removed the heatsink pulls off revealing Microsoft’s Xbox 360 CGPU covered with

a heat spreader. The heat spreader is great for making sure no one cracks a core while working on

these things.

The chip to the left of the CGPU is the 360’s South Bridge, responsible for the SATA and USB ports

in the system. The chip is marked as an A0 stepping which is usually the first stepping to come

back from the fab. This is probably a pretty tried and true design by now with no bugs to worry

about at this point.


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Xbox 360 South Bridge (top), 16MB SLC NAND (bottom)

The Hynix NAND on the motherboard is still 16MB in size. It is SLC NAND so it should last the

lifetime of the Xbox as long as you don’t somehow mod it into a database server.

The third major ASIC on the motherboard is the HANA scaler/video encoder chip we’ve seen before

on Jasper.

The motherboard now has two SATA ports directly on the board itself to support the new HDD tray.

Final Words

Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony are all trying to change the rules of the game for the next generation

of consoles. Five years ago we were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Xbox 360 and today we are

still left without a replacement. Microsoft and Sony want to push the current cycle of consoles


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The following users thanked this post: Decal, Luke, Penguinzers, TyRaNT, Wra, XMB Thomas

through 2012 in order to recover investment dollars. Thankfully despite the age of these consoles,

the quality of titles only seems to be improving.

The Xbox 360 slim is often referred to as what the first 360 should have been. It is smaller, quieter

and hopefully much more reliable than what Microsoft first shipped five years ago. If it is indeed

using 40nm components from TSMC I wouldn't expect a quick ramp. It may be that the slim

remains at the $299 price point for a while until Microsoft can get enough silicon back to bring it to

lower price points. Update: It looks like the CGPU is made at Chartered, now Global Foundries at

45nm. We may see a quicker ramp than I first assumed as a result.

Coupled with Kinect and some exciting titles due out later this year and next (not to mention the

360's media streaming capabilities), there should be enough life in the 360 to make an investment

in the new box today worthwhile.

That being said, I really do hope that we see just as many eager game developers take advantage

of the tremendous increase in CPU and GPU horsepower we've been given over the past five years.

When the 360's CPU was first announced no desktop CPU could manage 6 threads, today we can

have twice that paired with over 12 times the amount of cache on the 360's CPU. Today's GPUs are

similarly impressive and are going to be even more affordable this year, and faster next.

Just as the high end grows more powerful, so will mobile gaming devices. We are not that far away

from having the power of an Xbox 360 in a smartphone. An in-order triple core CPU should be

doable in an SoC within 4 years, and the GPU within a similar amount of time. And there are

companies working on both. Eventually the 360's library may be the "arcade classic" titles you'll be

playing on your smartphone.

Sweet.

All credit to Anandtech for a fully comprehensive tutorial.

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11-08-2010 #2 (permalink)

Target_Acquired

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Re: How to open a Xbox 360 Slim

Nice High Quality pics.

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11-08-2010 #3 (permalink)

MrIMOD360Regular Member

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good pics easy to follow

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11-08-2010 #4 (permalink)

7Heavens

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Quote:

Originally Posted by MrIMOD360

good pics easy to follow

Thanks man

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11-08-2010 #5 (permalink)

Penguinzers

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thanks this is a good tutorial

11-08-2010 #6 (permalink)

Gimme Half Re: How to open a Xbox 360 Slim

Awesome now I can finally Jtag mine! Thanks dude I been lookin for how to take this part forever!

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It's back o_O ↓↓↓↓

11-08-2010 #7 (permalink)

Hank HillBanned

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Looks like a pain to do.

Bookmarked just in case I get the slim.

11-08-2010 #8 (permalink)

Lolzorz

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Good instructions and pictures, but this is super old.

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11-08-2010 #9 (permalink)

Affliction

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Nice post. Very easy to understand. Thanks.

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11-08-2010 #10 (permalink)

LukeRegular Member

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Cool post nice hd pics helps alot

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