I just recently picked up my interested for the original Xbox after years of neglect. Could somebody give me a quick high level breakdown on why one should upgrade the original xbox cpu/memory, bios changes, softmod vs chip and whatever else is interesting to do nowadays please? Want to take up some projects on above, however I need some motivation to do so. I would not go through all the hustle upgrading cpu/memory just for the sake of upgrading and seeing the numbers on my screen without any real advantages. Same for softmod vs chip, why chip if a softmod would essentially almost? provide the same? Please excuse my ignorance, as I really never went deep into xbox, but would like to soon. What mods do you guys have and why?
Memory update: to 128M allows to play some chihiro arcade games. It also allows mameox to play more games. Further, you won't get memory issues if you run a debug bios. For retail xbox games, it shouldn't make a difference. CPU update: Allows XBMC media center to play more video content without hickups. Also makes all homebrew emulators better as they have more cpu power. Not much difference for retail xbox games. Softmod: Works fine as long as you know what you are doing. If you mess things up, you need to remove the harddisk and connect it to a pc to fix it. Modern softmods like nkpatcher 11 make it possible to enable a shadow c drive and virtual eeprom. Those hide the real c partition and real eeprom from the user so that their contents are somewhat protected. Some softmods are based upon hotswapping, a technique the pata bus was never designed for. (Disconnect the data cable and connect a pc data cable to the harddrive without removing the power cable.) It can damage your harddisk and / or your pc or xbox. With a softmod, it's not possible to run the xbox without dvd drive. With a softmod, it's not possible to leave the harddisk in an unlocked state. It needs to be locked for the system to boot. Modchip: If things go wrong, you can insert a cd and fix it without the need to open your xbox. A tsop flash pretty much has the same fonctionallity. However, if a Tsop flash goes wrong, it can brick your xbox. The only solutions are a 28 wire modchip so that you can reflash the tsop, or a modchip so that the tsop is no longer used. Xbox 1.0 and 1.1 had a 1MB Tsop that had room for 4 biosses. So, if shops modded xboxes, they preferred a Modchip as it prevented unhappy customers. Modern modchips have a connection for an lcd display that can be used to display tracks and other information if the xbox is used as media player with xbmc. This might not have covered all of it, but it's a start.
Thanks obcd, that's a really nice summary for some questions I've had recently myself. I just unearthed my OG xbox w/ mod chip and have been wondering if I should do any of these other mods (for me the answer appears to be no). I have an old case extension so that I could switch between the original HD w/o modchip or a larger HD w/ modchip. This was to be able to use the system on XBL still, but since XBL is no longer a concern for original xbox I'm thinking I can just remove the original drive and the case extension and just roll with the larger drive. Are my assumptions here correct (e.g. is there any reason today to use the original HD in an unmodded state)?
If you only want to play games, a softmod is fine. Opening the console is not needed to play imports and backups from discs. The original HD is just small. Installing games onto it works but horrendous storage capacity.
Thanks guys, appreciate all the information provided. I don't think the cpu or memory upgrades are worthwhile for me, but maybe i will consider them one day. for now I have just done the softmod and will play around with all the software options. I will consider a modchip if I run in to one.
