I have always liked the Xbox over any other console system, however I am a computer nerd and consoles never appealed to me after I started to play PC games.  I am however a big fan of hacking things up to make them work to my advantage. 

I decided I needed to have a PC close to my tv so I could stream video from my server, listen to my music, or do some light duty surfing from my couch.  Typically I would build a small computer and shove it in my closet and be done with it.  Then I remembered there was a lot of mods and hacks out there for the Xbox to do some of the things I wanted.  As a added bonus I could play Xbox games and use a emulator to play older stuff like Nintendo and Atari games--the stuff I grew up on.

With the Xbox 360 coming out really soon, (as of the time of this writing) Xbox prices are dropping monthly.  This sounds like a terrific solution to fill my need. 

This article will document my creation and development of my Frank-en-box I will dub, the Xbox180.  I call it the Xbox180 because it has far more functionality then the standard Xbox, but not as good hardware.  So, its far better then the standard Xbox, but not quite up to par with the Xbox360.  So I cut 360 in half and got a Xbox180.

(cue music)

There are literally thousands of articles relating to case mods ranging from , stickers, graphics, Dremmeling, cutting, jeweling, and cramming bling into your Xbox case. 

Well I had no desire to have a standard modded Xbox.  It just wasnt my style.

I wanted something easy to work on, something with plenty of room.  Something that looked like it belonged near a tv, but something that definitely didn't look like a toy.        

I bought a Mico ATC style pc case a few months back from a computer store. It was really small, sleek and begged me to buy it.  I didn't have a purpose for it at the time, but it was on the bargain table so I was able to pick it up for 20 bucks.  It was destiny or something--who knows.