We are designing a new case for the Xbox and debating whether to have the memory ports on the front. I have been using the Xbox 360 with a hard drive and never have a need for the memory ports. I can see if you need to transfer something from one Xbox to another, but how often would you really need to do that? Are there any reasons why you would not want an Xbox without the ports?

Only real reason for eliminating them is to keep the look of the case clean. We do not want to have any mickey-mouse hinged doors or the like since our cases are built to survive a nuclear bomb.

I have never used the ports on my Xbox.

But, that doesn't mean that I may not in the future. I can't see removing them if they are already included...

At first I thought you were talking about the USB ports. I had completely forgotten there's the memory ports on the front.

So no, I can't say as I'd miss them :)

But that's not to say I'd be willing to buy an XBOX with less features for more money ;)

I'd leave them in but it depends on your target market. This knocks out arcade owners and makes it a pain for anyone upgrading HD's.

I have never used them and never will. With a HDD why would you go buy a memory card??? I guess I understand for peeps with multiple 360's transferring saves and what not.

Owners of multiple Xboxen typically store their profile on a memory card, so they use it. My son does this so he can take his profile to his buddy's house and play with his profile without having to do the "recover gamertag/recover gamertag" thing.

Do not block the ports for aesthetic purposes.

You never know when you'd use them for moving stuff (for example, I just did that a few weeks ago), and as Lord Flatus said they are convenient for moving profiles to friend's houses. Especially since the "recover gamertag" thing takes forever and sucks.

I think the hinged doors are whats nice about the front of the 360 instead of having open ports. I dont even notice them really. Definitely dont cover the ports up.

I keep my profile on my memory card so I can play games and watch netflix on any of my 360s, and it's used daily. I would be very interested in a rackmount 360 case, but no memory card slots would be a deal breaker.

Yes, I use them.
Not sure I'd want a new case though.
Not unless it does something special.
(And no, pimp-mobile light ropes are *not* special.) ;)

Yes, I use them.
Not sure I'd want a new case though.
Not unless it does something special.
(And no, pimp-mobile light ropes are *not* special.) ;)

I would look at a new case if it was rack-mountable. I'm probably not the only one who hates how their XBOX, Wii, and PS3 all look like they were designed by graduates of the Playschool College Of Design. Actually, I think my Wii looks the most "mature" of all my consoles, from a physical standpoint. Looks like an external disc drive :) I guess once I turned 25 or so (I'm 36 now FWIW) I wanted my game consoles to look more grown up and less like toys.

I don't understand the need for a radiation-hardened XBox. If my neighborhood got nuked, the Xbox is probably the last thing I'd be worrying about.

I don't understand the need for a radiation-hardened XBox. If my neighborhood got nuked, the Xbox is probably the last thing I'd be worrying about.

Radiation hardened? Am I missing something?

What exactly are you planning on doing after the nuclear dust settles? You can only shoot mutants in the head so long before you'll be dying to get back into gaming, and you'll be SOL with your melted pile of xbox plastic.

I would look at a new case if it was rack-mountable. I'm probably not the only one who hates how their XBOX, Wii, and PS3 all look like they were designed by graduates of the Playschool College Of Design. Actually, I think my Wii looks the most "mature" of all my consoles, from a physical standpoint. Looks like an external disc drive :) I guess once I turned 25 or so (I'm 36 now FWIW) I wanted my game consoles to look more grown up and less like toys.

Very true. I can't stand the look of the 360. Give me a generic looking black box any day...

I use mine constantly because I have use a mem card to carry around my profile.

I don't understand the need for a radiation-hardened XBox. If my neighborhood got nuked, the Xbox is probably the last thing I'd be worrying about.
The "built to withstand a nuclear bomb" comment undoubtedly refers to a perception of being solidly built (i.e. a sturdy case), rather than radiation resistance. Although you likely already knew that, I suppose.

FWIW, I use mine all the time to transfer profiles between my two boxes.

Use mine all the time to move profiles around and to back-up all my game saves (you never know when/if a hard drive will go).

I vote for keeping at least one memory port available.

Jason

Mem Card slots... I gotta have em.
3 Xboxes, 2 kids with gamer tags on Mem cards. It lets them play on any of the 3 anytime without any hassle.

I recently bought a MU so that when I went over my brothers I wouldn't be giving him anymore free gamerscore when playing with my nephews. My brother hates it. :D

I use mine all the time between the 3 consoles I have in the house, its just faster than switching HDD's.

It has probably been said already but I think the case would benefit greatly with the memory cards because all of us move between the three 360's in the house and when I leave on deployment.

Thanks for the feedback. I will either make the memory ports a standard feature or make it optional -then people can choose and I can get a sense for how many need it.

The case will be built similar to our Mini-Client 2500 case giving it the look of high-end audio equipment. It will also have a 19” rack mount faceplate option. Internally it will be fanless using our HeatSync cooling system on the CPU and GPU. The DVD drive will also have noise reduction features to keep it quiet.

With games becoming more realist, I thought making it able to survive a nuclear blast might be a good feature :D

My gamercard is also on a memory card and so I use them all the time. In fact, I use both of them as my son's gamercard is on his own memory card as well.

Like others, I use MU to hop profiles between X360s. Not so much for gamesaves, but essential for RB DLC and Netflix.

I decided to make the ports an option. Here is a picture showing no ports.

HeatSync Three-Sixty
http://www.atechfabrication.com/products/HeatSync_three-sixty.htm

http://www.atechfabrication.com/images/htpc/products/HeatSync%20three-sixty%20093-640.jpg

That looks fantastic! But with silence in mind did you quiet down the dvd rom or is that just impossible.

We mounted the DVD drive to special super soft isolators to prevent vibrations from resonating the chassis. Some of the sound comes through the tray opening in the drive, so we made a thick tight fitting aluminum cover to help block those waves. Is's completely silent when idle or when playing a DVD, but you can still hear the drive when playing a game. But with the roar of racing engines of explosions, you can't really hear anything :D

Very nice! Does it have room for a HDD? I took a quick look through your photo gallery and didn't see that option...

We are designing a new case for the Xbox and debating whether to have the memory ports on the front. I have been using the Xbox 360 with a hard drive and never have a need for the memory ports. I can see if you need to transfer something from one Xbox to another, but how often would you really need to do that? Are there any reasons why you would not want an Xbox without the ports?

Only real reason for eliminating them is to keep the look of the case clean. We do not want to have any mickey-mouse hinged doors or the like since our cases are built to survive a nuclear bomb.

I always use the memory slots with my five xbox 360's. I have my two Gamertags on Memory Units and I carry them between machines.

Very nice! Does it have room for a HDD? I took a quick look through your photo gallery and didn't see that option...

The drive is located under the top cover. You just have to remove the HDD from the plastic snap-on module, inside is a regular 2.5" SATA HDD that you see in the picture below. You can use the stock 60GB or replace it with a larger aftermarket drive.

http://www.atechfabrication.com/images/htpc/products/HeatSync%20three-sixty%20024-640.jpg

I thought the 360 wouldn't recognize aftermarket HDDs unlike the PS3. Otherwise I just might purchase my own HDD.

One thing you might want to add into your documentation or change is that you currently have for one of your options "Wired controller ports" listed. I would suggest that you change it to something better since that is not all that the front ports are for.

You could go with either Front Xbox 360 Accessory Ports or Front USB Ports for Xbox 360 Accessories such as wired controller,wireless charging cable, Xbox Live camera and HD DVD Drive.

We are not adding an aftermarket HDD, just taking the stock 60 GB HDD out of the plastic module included with the Xbox 360. But I think you can upgrade the HDD with a 120GB drive that comes on the Xbox Elite.

Accessory ports is probably a better name. We just wanted to point out that you don't need these ports if you only plan to use the wireless controller.

Yeah you can either buy the official 120gig drive from MS for $149.. or you can buy the aftermarket Western Digital 120gig street version for like $75.. which is identical version of it, change the firmware on the drive and have the 360 recognize the aftermarket 120gig as the real deal MS one.

There have been rumores that MS tracks the bios/firmware on the HDD's and will ban you if caught.. but I think its all just made up myths. I've never actually heard of anyone being caught doing it.

This looks pretty awesome. So how does it work? Do you just sell the cases and we get to put our 360s in, or do you sell the whole package?

So you're telling me that there is no noise of fans while this is running!? How much would this run?!

Is there a way to clip the wifi adapter to the back? If not, could you guys add that?

"I've never actually heard of anyone being caught doing it."

Every single person that has ever connected their box to Live after adding a modded 120GB hard drive has already been "caught" doing it. They have just not been banned for it.

Yet.

I can't wait for the day that they all do get banned. :)

Is there a way to clip the wifi adapter to the back? If not, could you guys add that?

The case pictures don't show the clip holes but the WiFi adapter is strictly a USB device and it doesn't need to clip to the case to work; all you need to do is plug it to the rear USB port and (maybe) velcro it to the back of the case.

Depending on your layout, you might actually get better performance by using a USB extension cable and hooking it up away from the 360.

Radiation hardened? Am I missing something?

What exactly are you planning on doing after the nuclear dust settles? You can only shoot mutants in the head so long before you'll be dying to get back into gaming, and you'll be SOL with your melted pile of xbox plastic.

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/are_violent_video_games

Yes, the fan is not on when operating at room temperature. It is only there if the ambient temps rise above 31c or 88F.

If you use NXE and run your games from the HDD, the system stays totally quiet.

It will be sold as just the case, or we can install the Xbox system for you.