Easy do-it-yourself Xbox laptop kits and turnkey editions.

So I was hunting the net for stuff on the Xbox 360 since I've been thinking about breaking my own code and buying one. (My code is retro gaming. No new consoles unless it's age from original release is 10 years.) I found plenty of stuff ranging from simple vinyl kits to the hard mods like chips, NAND flash, and even DVD drive emulators. Then I found lotsa Xbox laptop projects.

Finally I found this. It promises to also be Xbox One compatible for those of you who will be getting one...
It's currently still on Kickstarter but the funding has been met so maybe we'll see production in a few months.

I'd like the complete 1080P screen kit that has everything ready to go minus the actual Slim console itself. But I no has $600 to spend on that plus whatever else I need to spend on for the console and mods I'd do to it...

The Wasabi DVD emulator kit aint cheap...

EDIT: Looked into the Wasabi more. Screw it. It's terrible. I'd go for the x360key instead. At least it is smaller and would fit in a laptop project better not to mention it seems to be invisible to Xbox Live if you use the remote option for loading games.

 

that is nice but 600 buck is a bit of expensive.

 

There are cheaper options if you want to assemble it yourself and add your own screen. Prices should go down if they manage to get the casing parts outsourced instead of 3D printing them. The $600 one comes with a buttload of stuff.

The one part that really drives the price up is this one. Copy Paste from Kickstarter page:

This project wasn't simply about taking an Xbox and building a new case for it! We actually invested a lot of time in rethinking the human interface and electronics. We designed and built a custom capacitive touch interface board based on the Arduino processor and incorporated it into Darkmatter. We call this board the Xduino360. Since the Xbox 360 already comes with two touch controls (Power and Eject), we wanted to extend that human interface paradigm to all the other controls, for example volume controls, mute and sync. That's exactly what the Xduino360 board allows us to do. All the control icons are laser etched into the acrylic case; you simply touch them, and voila! It works!

 

That is very, very cool.

Where are the instructions on how to build your own? Oh wait, I don't think it's released yet...

 

I was at one point looking to just make myself one of these, but instead of sticking the console in an external shell, I was looking mod the whole thing. Benheck forums is dedicated to this sort of stuff, there are some really interesting builds over there.

$600 isn't actually bad, once I think about it. Making one your self will run you quite a bit, but at least you get to decide what it'll look like in the end. It you can do a cheap ass poor mans job using recycled parts, and save the cash.

 

You can get just the casing with no screen or electronics for $200 for those who are just looking for a casing and can handle the wiring and such.