As many of you are now aware, a comapany by the name of Friendtech is selling modded Xboxs with a CPU speed of 1.4GHz. This major fact sparked the interest of an Xbox modder and a quest to find out how this could possibly be down was formed by a single post:
With GamesTron selling the FriendTech ehanced xbox for the hefty price
of $500, it's not a great product for those of us in the lower tax bracket.
However, a quick search for the celeron tualatin cpu on pricewatch.com brings
up a few hits at very cheap prices. So, my question is:
Is it just a question of pulling out the xbox's current chip and putting a new
one in?
and, if not:
what "magic" did friendtech do to to make this sucker work? Related
to this, what part does the "media key" play in the whole scenario?
If anyone has actually bought this x-box, and could provide pictures on what the setup looks like on the inside, that would be great.
-SBP
Now, FuzzyMuzzle.com is going to explain the basic concepts behind this to give nwebie developers joining this team and curious passer bys a test of what it involves.
The Hardware
Upgrading the CPU involves some serious hardware modifications that we're trying to bring down to the bare minimum. For example, as of now it involves desoldering your CPU, building/ordering a conversion board, soldering in the board, installing a modchip, and modding a switch into the front of your Xbox. This is something many casual gamers/modders couldn't possibly do on their own so we're creating a trade in plan, once the universal solution is discovered people with be able to send their Xbox to a modder registered with this site to have the new CPU installed.
As of now all we know about the conversion board is that it adapts the Xbox's Mobile Celeron socket to an Intel Cleron "Tualatin" sockets that this standard Tualatin processor can be dropped into. We also know that it takes 3.3V off of the Xbox motherboard to provide its logic with power, and that it has a "speed switch" that allows you to select between 733MHz and 1.4GHz. We also know that all Intel processors are multplier locked and that this adapter doesn't change the multiplier, but rather it changes the FSB (front side bus) speed. When you increase the FSB bus speed, you're also setting the core speed to the product of the multiplier and the FSB.
Many people have asked why you can't just use one of Friendtech's Tualatin adapters available here. If you don't mind playing all of the "poorly" coded games at twice their normal speed, than you're all set to just drop this thing in (with some skill). However, this adapter won't work with these games becuase it can't clock down to 733MHz, the speed these games require. Our goal in this project is to allow you to choose either 733MHz or 1.4GHz so you don't have to worry about this problem.
After further investigation and a discovery by antiflag, a very easy way to upgrade the Xbox processor to a Tualatin compatible Intel PIII has been discovered. Upgrading to a Tualatin is as simple as rerouting some of the power lines and the reset switch; the basic procedure for use on a slocket PIII adapter card can be found here: http://www.geocities.com/_lunchbox/ms6905_tualatin_mod.html. Unfortunately, this method uses a less than perfect workaround which supplies the Tualatin with the incorrect voltage. To remedy this draw back we'll combine the underlying concept behind this article, which uses Vtt to power the processor: http://www.geocities.com/_lunchbox/tualeron_zm6_mod.html#zm1. These two pages give us everything needed to develop and produce PIII to Tualatin adapter, the main obstacle now is to be able underclock the CPU to 733MHz from 1400MHz and vice versa on a whim.
Because the crystal outputs a standard video frequency, it is unlikely that the PLL on the motherboard controls the FSB, but more likely that it controls the video encoder's clock. The FSB, however, is most likely controlled by a PLL integrated into the nVidia Northbridge/GPU and can't be adjusted by simply replacing the crystal as explained here: http://www.arstechnica.com/cpu/2q99/bxhack...cking-bx-2.html. To adjust the nVidia's PLL you need to write to its appropriate registry or short its appropriate pin. Our current task is to find the datasheet for the XGPU, if anybody has even remotely any information about this chip please contact us at mrobinson@fuzzymuzzle.com. For more detailed low-level hardware information please check the DreamX Notes page.
The Software
Upgrading the CPU requires backwards compatibility to 733MHz for some "poorly" coded games programmed to be based timing solely on the system clock. Some people want to take shortcuts and simply upgrade directly to 1.4GHz and forget about 733Mhz, but what happens if those few "poorly" coded games include games like Halo, Splinter Cell, etc. For the properly coded games, however, the full speed of 1.4GHz can provide some inherent performance advantages. Unlike the RAM upgrade, any game that's properly coded can utilized the speed. For a list of games and their compatibility with the DreamX please see this document.
The Price
Upgrading the CPU in its self isn't that much (only around $40.00), but buying the tools to perform the procedure can cost a bit. Another big expense is acutally figuring out how to do this, our best bet is to reverse engineer a Friendtech DreamX 1.4GHz console or an already upgraded motherboard and see what mods are under the hood, but these cost $500.00 and $200.00 respectively. This is why the FuzzyMuzzle.com Xbox CPU Upgrade Fund has been created, to be able to buy one of these upgraded motherboards and see what makes it tick (literally). So, if people want to see 1.4GHz in their Xboxs they might strongly want to consider donating.
The Tools
The CPU in the Xbox along with many others is soldered to the motherboard using a BGA (Ball Grid Array) setup in which many solder balls are placed onto the motherboard, the chip is set on top of them, and then everything is heated or back, if you will, in an large industrial oven. This requires the hobbyist to use a heatgun for both removal and assembly and is the major reason why many people haven't attempted it. Do not try doing this with a soldering iron, you'll only burn up your motherboard and/or CPU. Despite the tools required it is very likely that this is entirely possible at home because a company like FriendTech would have done it using hand tools as they don't own their own multi-billion dollar assembly plant.
So far we've determined that the best way to add and remove the BGA (ball grid array) CPU is to use a heatgun while protecting the rest of the motherboard and components from the heat. As of now, this can be done by taping down all of the components using specialty high heat resileance electrical tape and covering everything you don't want to be heated with tin foil, this will prevent local components from unintentionally falling off of the motherboard.
More, More, More
If you'd like to know more about this project there are many resources available including this site (www.fuzzymuzzle.com) the FuzzyMuzzle.com forums, and the Xbox-Scene forums, particularly this thread. For more detailed low-level hardware information please check the DreamX Notes page. If you'd still like to know more you can visit Intel's Celeron Hardware Design website and view this datasheet in particular. Still need to know more? Post your questions in either the FuzzyMuzzle.com forums or the Xbox-Scene forums, or send an e-mail directly to mrobinson@fuzzymuzzle.com.
FAQ
Q. Why
A. With a faster CPU properly coded games will run better, more complicated emulators such as Dreamcast & PS2 can be run, Xbox Linux gets a double speed improvement, and just becuase it's cool
Q: What kind of money am I talking about here
A: Around $100.00 including tools
Q: Where can I get this 1.1GHz Tualatin CPU
A. On www.pricewatch.com for $42.00 as of this writing
Q: So which games are "properly" coded?
A. The answer is currently unknown, that's why the utmost care is being taken to provide 733MHz compatibility
Appendix
Many questions continually arise about the Xbox's architecture, bus speeds, and chipset. Thanks to Bunny's book Hacking The Xbox, here's an intuitive diagram to sort all of that out:
(This image is under the Creative Commons Copyright, courtesy of Bunny Huang)
(BGA rework video, courtesy of electronics.ca publications)
Donate to Upgrade Your Xbox to 1.4GHz
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License and is copyrighted 2004 by Michael Robinson