Xbox 80mm Fan Mod

This is a pretty straight forward mod, trim some plastic and hook up a wire... yah right!

The picture above is of our 9 LED blue/green alien fan notice how nice the wire looks draped over the fan... learn from my mistakes route the wire to the lower right corner as it would be in the above picture.  Notice the green LED's in the center of the hub, its actually 5 surface mount LED's on a PCB that controls them to make a bunch of mesmerizing patterns, like really a lot of them... everybody at the shop thinks they are pretty cool. You need to cut an extra window in the drive tray and install a clear lid to make them visible in an Xbox.

	The tools, Pliers, beefy scissors, x-acto knife, side cutters.  Hey and watch it with the sharp tools by the way, proceed at your own risk.
	Start by disassembling your Xbox so you can see the fan Additional Info  You can see the 80mm is a bit larger than the stock fan so we need to make some room.
	To remove the fan use a small screw driver to pry open the plastic clasp that holds it in place and pull up on the fan.  You should be able to get it so it stays "sprung" out on its own, keep it like that and now go for the other side.
	Keep pulling up on the fan and release the other side using the same prying method.
	Now the fan is loose and can be pulled up and forward in the case and the top becomes loose, one more time prying on the clasp and it pops free.
	Now those clasps you fought with... now we get to break them off!  You can push the clasp with your thumb, until it snaps.  Hopefully it snapped off at the base, you can score the base with your x-acto or just go for the glory.
	Same for the other side
	Hmmm well the fan almost fits now, time to trim the bottom of the fan. This is also a good time to trim out the tin grille that is reducing air flow at the back of the console, if you choose to do so.
	I like to position the fan so the power cord is at the bottom, power supply side.  Then clip the outside bottom off of both front and back screw holes.  A final nip is required on the top front of the fan DVD drive side (front of fan only)
	Some fans require you to snip out a little part of the DVD carrirer
	But not all of them, so figure out which one yours is!
	You should test position the fan until it fits nicely to the bottom of the case somewhat wedged in place.
	We now begin with the Hard drive tray, this is where most of the cutting is required.  We need to remove enough plastic to allow the fan to fit.
	Starting at the back of the drive tray make three clips with your beefy scissors
	To break off the plastic we just fold it to a 90 degree and it gives up pretty easily with a little wiggling
	It snaps off pretty clean, don't worry about the discoloration around the crack we will clean that up later.
	A couple more snips and breaks like the one above remove a couple little pieces free the back so it can be broken off
	Note that with a ruler against the leg and flush against the DVD tray its about 2 inches, this is an important step, this measurement varies slightly from fan to fan so you may have to adjust slightly but its better to leave a bit extra.
	With the chunk missing as in this photo the longer portion of the back can be removed as in the next step.
	Weaken a row across the top in each of the braces notice the V shaped cuts?  Keep them parallel to the part of the tray we are leaving and make the angle out of the part that will be thrown away.  I like to leave the ring that connects to the DVD tray for added stability.  I have seen others cut this off and it works okay too.
	Use the X-acto to score the plastic where you would like it to break.  Grab the pliers and crank down on it to snap it off
	Should look something like this now.
	Use the X-acto to clean up the edges.  Test fit the fan in the case and trim where necessary  Pay special attention to the three support beams we clipped out earlier, the two that will be right in front of the fan will need to be shaved off flush.  Then touch up any discolored areas with a cigarette lighter, the heat makes it black and smooth again.  Careful it can catch fire if you get over zealous blow it out quick! the result is a nice smooth clean looking tray.
	There is no need to fasten the fan down if you perform the steps outlined here the plastic will be removed just enough for a fan to fit with no room to spare, once the lid is on there is no where for it to go.   Always test to see blades spin freely and that fan turns on and blows air to the outside!  You can always use the wire and connectors that come with the fan but you can also cut them short and solder them in, if you choose to do so, do not connect the white wire, red from the fan goes to the yellow wire on the hard drive connector and the black goes to either black.

-Llamma