Adding RAM?

[Jdemon]

I'm trying to piece together the correct information on this topic, if anyone can point me in the direction of a good tutorial or can give any insight to the questions I'm trying to answer it would be greatly appreciated.

I'd like to do the additional RAM mod to the Xbox I'm currently working on but the only information I've been able to find about the process is kind of sketchy. Unfortunately there is no tutorial on xbox-scene for this mod that I can see.

Q#1 Do I have to have a Cromwell bios? I read this on a thread on Xbox Scene, but I don't know if that information is accurate. I've got an Executer X3 with the latest bios, not even sure if I can use the Cromwell with that.

Q#2 What chips can I use? I've searched to try and figure out if I can buy the chips but the only online place I've found is in Germany(I'm in the U.S.) and out of stock. It appears from what I'm reading that you can also use the chips from other Xboxes which would actually be ideal for me because I know I have at least 2 or 3 old boards I could snag them from in storage.

Q#3 This will not work with a 1.6 Xbox? I have a 1.1 and a 1.6

Q#4 I have to install all 4 chips before my Xbox will boot properly and not appear fragged? Also something I read in a thread.

This Xbox will be used mainly as a media center and though I don't NEED the extra RAM it would be great if it operates faster/smoother when running XBMC

[Jdemon]

Well, after getting a few hours of searching this evening I seem to have found some answers.

A#1 The Cromwell Bios is apparently for Linux use and the X3 apparently should work fine with 128MB or RAM

A#2 Chips from other Xbox Motherboards are what you need since they no longer seem to be sold anywhere. You can still buy used/broken Mobos from Llamma.com to scavenge the chips from. $15 for 2 boards.

A#3 1.6 Xboxes are not compatible as they do not have the empty spaces for the extra chips.

No answer on Q#4 yet.

Something else that has come up is that I'm not sure of the capacity of the chips. I would assume that they are 16MB each, which accounts for adding 64MB more to the board to bring it up to 128MB. This would mean that there are already 4 chips on the Xbox Mobo, but I have yet to confirm that.

All of the info I've found is somewhat old. It would seem that the upgrade doesn't do much except for EMU usage. Does anyone know if newer versions of XBMC can actually use the extra RAM or is this mod more or less pointless unless you have the CPU upgrade?

[rayatlondon]

Well, after getting a few hours of searching this evening I seem to have found some answers.

A#1 The Cromwell Bios is apparently for Linux use and the X3 apparently should work fine with 128MB or RAM

A#2 Chips from other Xbox Motherboards are what you need since they no longer seem to be sold anywhere. You can still buy used/broken Mobos from Llamma.com to scavenge the chips from. $15 for 2 boards.

A#3 1.6 Xboxes are not compatible as they do not have the empty spaces for the extra chips.

No answer on Q#4 yet.

Something else that has come up is that I'm not sure of the capacity of the chips. I would assume that they are 16MB each, which accounts for adding 64MB more to the board to bring it up to 128MB. This would mean that there are already 4 chips on the Xbox Mobo, but I have yet to confirm that.

All of the info I've found is somewhat old. It would seem that the upgrade doesn't do much except for EMU usage. Does anyone know if newer versions of XBMC can actually use the extra RAM or is this mod more or less pointless unless you have the CPU upgrade?

Since Gears of War came out, I have really wanted to purchase an Xbox 360. However, the price of the premium package is slightly too expensive for me. I was considering buying the core package, and eventually buying either a memory card (even though the price is a rip off) or a hard drive. I have been considering buying that off ebay.

However, I would like Xbox Live, and game saves to fit, so I was just curious how much space an Xbox Live account takes up, and if it is feasable to play Xbox Live without the hard drive.

[MasterGouken]

I'm trying to piece together the correct information on this topic, if anyone can point me in the direction of a good tutorial or can give any insight to the questions I'm trying to answer it would be greatly appreciated.

I'd like to do the additional RAM mod to the Xbox I'm currently working on but the only information I've been able to find about the process is kind of sketchy. Unfortunately there is no tutorial on xbox-scene for this mod that I can see.

Q#1 Do I have to have a Cromwell bios? I read this on a thread on Xbox Scene, but I don't know if that information is accurate. I've got an Executer X3 with the latest bios, not even sure if I can use the Cromwell with that.

Q#2 What chips can I use? I've searched to try and figure out if I can buy the chips but the only online place I've found is in Germany(I'm in the U.S.) and out of stock. It appears from what I'm reading that you can also use the chips from other Xboxes which would actually be ideal for me because I know I have at least 2 or 3 old boards I could snag them from in storage.

Q#3 This will not work with a 1.6 Xbox? I have a 1.1 and a 1.6

Q#4 I have to install all 4 chips before my Xbox will boot properly and not appear fragged? Also something I read in a thread.

This Xbox will be used mainly as a media center and though I don't NEED the extra RAM it would be great if it operates faster/smoother when running XBMC

A#1 There is a reason for using a cromwell bios, it lets you know if each chip is installed correctly. Quote from xbox scene:

I would like to point out for anyone out there interested in doing the ram upgrade that it is possible to check your install after each chip to know whether or not it has been installed correctly.The bios that needs to be used to do this is cromwell 2.40 I have not checked any other versions of cromwell to see if they will work as well.
How you can tell that the chip is installed correctly is after you install it and you turn it on it should boot with a normal solid green led with no audio or video. If it has a short or bridge it will FRAG (flash red and green) or FRAO (flash red and orange). It will not nor any other bios that I have tested would not boot correctly with an odd amount of chips every other bios I tried besides cromwell would 3 boot frao when 5 to 7 chips were installed.

A#2 Use old broken xbox motherboard ram chips as you already said

A#3 Wont work on a 1.6 for the reasons you already mentioned

A#4 See my answer to Q#1

It does help in XBMC, less slowdown :)

[MasterGouken]

Since Gears of War came out, I have really wanted to purchase an Xbox 360. However, the price of the premium package is slightly too expensive for me. I was considering buying the core package, and eventually buying either a memory card (even though the price is a rip off) or a hard drive. I have been considering buying that off ebay.

However, I would like Xbox Live, and game saves to fit, so I was just curious how much space an Xbox Live account takes up, and if it is feasable to play Xbox Live without the hard drive.

Wrong section of the forums, this is the original xbox section