This might appear to be a normal original Xbox, but what's inside it is far from normal.
Now, lots of people have done PCs in an Xbox chassis before, and if we're being honest,
the finish on some of those is better than what we've done here. But every other project we've
found either compromised on the form factor, like adding more space to the bottom, or compromised
on the performance, with most of them rocking a mid-tier gaming graphics card at best. Well,
compromise is not the Linus Tech Tips way. We will settle for nothing less than the first Xbox
with support for real-time ray tracing. Nothing less than the fastest Xbox ever. Getting all that
performance in here wasn't easy though, so let's get started.
Let's take a look at what it took to make our latest sleeper PC, Patrice. Brought to you by our
sponsor, Madrina's. Madrina's Coffee blends specialty cold brew coffees into 15-ounce grab-and-go
cans for everyone's convenience. Check them out and use offer code Linus to save 40%. We'll have
that linked below. So the very first thing we need to do is just make sure that everything that we
have here fits. So we have this GeForce RTX 2070 from Zotac.
And it should fit in. Look, I did some CAD, and everything fits in theory, but we have, I think,
three millimeters of space on the side. So, wow, that's a really long screw.
For those of you freaking out, we got this Xbox in non-working condition for $10. So don't stress
out about us destroying vintage gaming hardware. This assembly was about what you'd expect.
Inside, the Xbox One, not to be confused with the Xbox One,
is basically a normal computer with the majority of the internal space being used for a disk reader
and a mechanical hard drive. Well, we won't be needing either of those anymore. Let's do a test
fit. For this sleeper, we'll be using one of Zotac's epic mini graphics cards. In this case,
an RTX 2070 and a Core i5-8400 6-core CPU. Now, compared to some of our other sleepers,
Patrice's performance isn't as over-the-top.
We're working with a passively cooled HD Plex power supply, and we wanted to save as much of our power budget as possible
for the graphics card.
Besides, we figured chances are anything more powerful would have thermal throttled anyway.
It seems like everything will fit.
We just need to make sure it all works together and,
more importantly, that our power supply is actually able to handle it all. So don't mind the mess at this stage.
This is just for testing purposes.
Power there.
I'm short at the pins and...
Oh, hello!
Yeah, it's past test number one, but we do need to get a monitor and keyboard and make sure that it's
actually able to, like, run Windows and crap.
So, we got into Windows, no problem, everything's working. That's kind of expected.
But the real test here is when I hit start, it might shut down, and if it does, we're gonna have to rethink the whole thing.
So, uh...
So far, so good.
How are you gonna get all of that stuff in there?
That's the thing I want to discuss with you.
So, um, poorly is basically the answer.
Oh, that's not an answer.
Well, it kind of... so we can do two things.
We can either have it be really powerful, or look good on the inside.
And I don't think there's a way to have both of those things.
Okay, sleepers... let's bring it back to cars, right?
Mm-hmm.
Sleepers have to look bone stock from the outside, that we agree on, and sleepers have to be just head-turningly fast off the line.
Yeah.
Is there any rule that says they have to be gorgeous inside?
No.
Then I guess we know what to do.
You're gonna need ventilation holes on the bottom of the case.
Yeah.
Okay.
Like, you're gonna need to cut away the bottom of the case.
Pretty much, yeah.
Okay.
We might have to shave off a bit of this plastic shroud as well.
I just... I just... I just... I just... I just... I just... I just... I just... I just...
I think we just remove it.
We could probably just remove it.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, what's it... what's it even do other than look cool?
Yeah.
Yeah, I think we need to go in that way.
Then we have the perforation in the bottom.
This thing shouldn't even overheat.
Perfect.
Perf...ect.
Because we're gonna perf... orate.
And that's my cue to exit.
Goodbye.
Our methods for CNCing sheet aluminum have improved significantly since our previous attempt in Margaret.
We now have a single flute end mill and double-sided tape that doesn't gum up the surface.
better rigidity compared to the paper thin metal that's currently in here off camera i did a
prototype bend with with our little vice break here and it's we could just kind of go yeah good
enough but it's not good enough no so we have a solution okay um i i took the credit card and
we we got a we got a really big thing that's going over here do you want do you want to come
oh that kind of solution is this safe how are you supposed to move these things um
oh that's why you guys are all here okay uh okay how much was this like 800 bucks
oh that's actually not as bad i was expecting just based on the weight
yeah no it was actually very on sale we got a good deal i wanted to buy the three thousand dollar one
all right well then in that case good work alex all right fun fun fun actually this
is not that bad with six people wait so this countertop is going to be basically unusable
for like weeks months who signed off on this um you said you don't care that's that's the actual
quote of what you said about it all right okay hold on so you guys go ahead and come out
why do you get the coolest toys around here brandon also gets really cool toys
that's true but i think this one's cooler and how do you pick the angle you want
you eyeball them elated just kind of eyeball it okay and then you unlock it down and then uh boom
there you go you done bent some metal there boy so for bending sheet metal
kind of the best way to do it is to use this what's it called blue layout die and that lets you
come in you just cover it it dries really fast and you can scribe directly on it and get this
super high contrast and also very precise line we have a plan here that just tells us all of
our dimensions where the bends need to be and also i've numbered each bend because like if you bend
let's say number six before number one you won't be able to complete it because the bend will hit
the rest of that as it goes around since the part wasn't designed with this break in mind a couple
of the bends were pretty sketchy but v2 got all of the critical dimensions correct and was miles
ahead of the previous prototype so we consider it a success the next step was a test fit and oh no
don't worry mr Linus so it was at this point that we confirmed that the stock fans and shroud from
our graphics card would need to be removed while he was at it alex replaced the original thermal
paste with some cryonaut since we're going to need all the help we can get when it comes to cooling
with our replacement liner prepared the old liner was forcibly removed and all of the old
mounting needs to come out now with lots of dremeling and oh wow that fits like a glove
now we have to make some holes for the uh motherboard and GPU there
yeah this is
this is really the point of no return right here like the stuff on the inside you can't
tell but if i screw this one up geez we're just we're just done first the bulk was removed with
a cutting disc then alex brought it close with a grinding bit finishing off with a file for a
nice smooth cut so uh what's about to happen is not for the squeamish um so the dvi connector here
it goes in like this and unfortunately it kind of interferes with where
the power connector is going to be 10 out of 10 would not recommend doing this to your GPU
the now dvi connector list card got blown out with compressed air to ensure that no
metal shards would short it out then it was taped up and reassembled
but that actually wasn't the end of the carnage for this poor thing the io shield needed to be
first flattened out and then cut down to size to fit into the extremely small space we have for it
in the bottom of the case were drilled out
and a fan intake was cut into the bottom.
A hole was added for the power connector,
not because this is the best time for that step,
but rather because we forgot to do it before.
And then the sheet metal interior
was ready to be riveted together.
We're actually getting pretty close to final product here.
So the blue layout dye that was covering it
was removed with acetone
and then our liner was given a coat of black paint.
While that dried, the hole for the GPUIO
was created with the Dremel
and we were ready for a real test fit.
Since the original GPU's fans ended up being too big,
smaller ones were added using zip ties.
Fitting everything in a case like this is difficult
even with purpose-built parts.
As for our machine, well, everything does have its place,
but getting it in is another story.
Like the GPU is so close to the motherboard
that even the IO cover needed to be removed
for it to all fit.
But lo and behold, everything did fit.
Now it's just time to make sure that it all still works.
Oh, nice.
Like it's showing up over there.
Oh, wow.
It just worked.
I honestly wasn't expecting it to just work.
I figured I'd have to do at least one little kajiggering.
Damn.
That's not the power button.
Look, I didn't have an Xbox.
That can be controlled, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Like that can be dialed back?
Yeah, if you want it to be full-blown sleeper,
you can just be like, kabam.
Okay, is it supposed to be green?
Yeah. Okay.
Oh, I'm enjoying this.
It's not especially quiet.
I wouldn't describe it as crazy loud either, though.
And the exhaust system that you've built, such as it were,
does seem to be working.
Like there's definitely warm air coming out.
So let's see what kind of performance
we can expect out of this thing.
130 to...
160 FPS.
Not bad.
Get that glory kill.
Ba-ba, ba-ba.
Oh yeah, you're dead.
So we're seeing 84 degrees, 96% GPU usage though.
So we're definitely hitting it hard.
And then our core clock is here.
Here is in like the 14, 13 high, 14 lows.
Okay.
So-
It's like right at base clock for the car.
Should we hook it up in its new home?
Sure.
So right down here, guys.
We've got the Xbox One X versus...
You could call this like an X box.
You know, it's got that X factor.
It's Patrice.
Patrice.
Sure.
Apparently the One X runs at 60 FPS.
What compromises are they making here?
I mean, the Xbox One X is what?
Like an RX 480 or something like that.
Well, okay, so fine.
The Xbox One X runs at a higher frame rate
and is probably less buggy than the PC version.
the PC version.
Okay, that was not smooth.
Shut up.
You're in a field.
There's like four trees.
Wee, oh God.
So this is a little overpowered
for most like local multiplayer PC gaming experiences,
isn't it?
Are you saying we should have put less power in it?
I'm saying the power we put in it
might've been unnecessary.
Oops.
No, I meant to put it down in my hair and then I missed.
This is just hard to, this is hard to watch.
Oh, no way.
How do you slide?
X, I believe.
Yep, that works.
Okay, cool.
I can't believe they saved that.
They're better than us so far,
but they're not very good.
I can't find the ball.
I legitimately have no idea where the ball is.
Did they quit?
We won.
We're that bad and we still won.
This is gonna be awesome once we have this
like all set up and everything.
I mean, this aspect of it is basically good to go.
Like we can plug wired controllers in from the front.
We've got wireless Xbox controllers.
So you can use any kind of controller you want.
Cause if someone wants a PS4 controller or whatever,
they can just plug in a wire.
Like this is freaking awesome.
And it's so stealth.
It's our most useful sleeper ever.
So we've got one terabyte of storage now
cause we're using a one terabyte M.2 boot drive.
But I suspect we're gonna wanna add a larger game library.
I mean, the worst case scenario
is we grab an external four terabyte hard drive
and plug it into USB 3.
Set resolution.
Just, you can't set any other resolution.
You know what?
I bet if we just exit the game again
and try again, like Rocket League,
it'll just, it'll just get its act together.
This is like really not a great sales pitch for PC gaming.
It's really great after you go into like,
a config file and manually,
I'm just seeing if it has that.
No, I don't see an obvious way to, I doubt it.
Oh, all right.
Oh, heck yeah.
There we go.
Okay.
You can't do this on a console.
Yeah, you wouldn't want to
cause it's a really, really bad experience,
but 3840 by 2160 full screen.
I bet I have to change that to true.
Okay.
I don't think there's anything else
we should probably change in here.
That all looks fine.
PC gaming.
Yay.
Find the parameters, change the parameters.
And then, oh, it's time to go to bed.
You missed out on your gaming time tonight.
That looks better.
Yeah.
Damn it.
Why is this necessary?
Oh, that looks so much better.
That was worth it.
Yes.
Okay.
Campaign?
Yep, sure.
I don't understand what weapon I have.
Oh, I have a flamethrower.
Oh, cool.
Nice.
He's actually OP.
He is?
Yeah.
Oh, does it make a difference?
Like do all the guys have different weapons?
Yeah, they do.
Did you kill me?
Did I die?
No, you killed yourself.
Why?
MacGyver throws dynamite.
Okay.
Well, I didn't know.
There you have it.
We built the world's most powerful gaming Xbox.
Take that Microsoft.
There were some anomalies with Forza,
but we're gonna blame Microsoft for that.
They stacked the deck in their favor.
So all that's left then is to tell you
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If you just go to freshbooks.com slash tech tips,
we're gonna have that linked below.
Just make sure you enter Linus Tech Tips
in the how did you hear about us section.
So thanks for watching guys.
If you disliked this video, you can hit that button.
But if you liked it for its sheer awesomeness,
then go ahead.
Hit the subscribe button, get subscribed,
or maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff
we featured at the link in the video description.
I mean, yeah, not this specifically, but like,
I don't know, Zotac has super compact graphics cards
and we've used them for all kinds of cool stuff
at this point.
So you can go check those out.
Also linked in the video description,
our merch store, which has cool shirts like this one
and our community forum, which you should totally join.
We'll also put CAD files down there.
Oh, really?
Nice.
Yeah, might as well.
Bro-fest.
This game's pretty fun.
We should play some more later.