right... my friend has had a modding idea, the idea being trying to squeeze a fully functioning pc into an Xbox 360 chassis [or as much of it as possible]...

now these things aren't particularly big [compared to a standard mATX/ATX case] so he's limited to low profile cards [assuming even they will fit] or what's on the mobo...

low profile cards are fairly easy to come by... from a gaming perspective they're all crap but as he'll be using a low-end core 2 or an atom gaming he's going down the htpc route so... are there any [decent] low profile tv tuners, sound cards or anything of use that you lot can recommend? same goes for a cpu cooler, I know zalman do one but it can't remember the name of it...

i can think of two good sounds cards, depending on budget. the creative soundblaster X-Fi extreme gamer, bout £65 (clicky), and the auzentech X-Fi forte, for about £120 (clicky)

the forte has many more features and is PCI-E, i think its better quality components, but im not so sure on that. the extreme gamer is a lot cheaper and PCI, but should have all the features you need for a HTPC (CMSS-3D, crystalizer etc).

i dont know much about TV tuners, but i think a lot of them are basically the same, once you trek past the included software and other rubbish

Here is one done some time ago.
http://www.gadgettastic.com/2007/12/22/ ... 0-pc-case/

So add a 360 to a Laptop, and the Laptop to the 360>??, now theres an idea

http://benheck.com/Games/Xbox360/x360_page_1.htm

Anyway, I think 360 into Laptop has more benefits (maybe Gaming on the go if you have a Pouwer plug nearby..)

If only I had loadsa money

thanks for the suggestion[s]... the 360 itself is FUBARed... it red ringed a while ago and it's just been sat in a cupboard... it was a review of some itx board that gave him the idea...

i'll show him that mod 'snake, it might give him some ideas... the main issues were going to be the cpu cooler and PSU... hence him thinking atom...

I'm building a simalar project.
Zotac do some good mini-itx boards that take a core 2 and have a pci-e slot (Atom's don't generally). A mini-itx/Micro-Atc PSU would works and give you up to 200w to play with.

if its going to be a HTPC then atom would be a great way to go. he might want to have a look around for an Nvidia ION board if hes looking for HD movie playback, they are much better at it and probably wont cost much more when they are released. trouble is, Mini-ITX boards most of them only have a single PCI slot, so youll probably end up being stuck on onboard sound with a pretty old PCI TV tuner

@saspro i guess you are referring to this?

Does the eggbox have USB ports? If so you could get an external sound card and/or TV tuner.

the 'eggbox' has 3... [5 if you include the modded memory unit ones] but these are pat of the 360's mainboard... though any motherboard used will have usb ports [and headers] so a usb tuner is an option... usb sound cards tend to be crap so that'll be best left to the onboard sound or a PCI[-E] card... if we [i've been roped into helping] can get it to fit [either with a low-profile card or a 90 degree riser card thing...]

low profile if possible, some riser cards are pretty craply made and will deteriorate the signal going across the slot