Gaming Decisions, Decisions......

[Devin]

Alright, I've wanted a JTAG'd XBOX 360 for a while now, and I figured I'd buy one. I have 2 options. A: Buy a Pre-JTAG'd XBOX 360 from Wtf, or B: Buy a JTAGable Jasper from a friend, and either learn how to JTAG it, or send it to Wtf, and pay for him to do it. Now, option A would seem like a good choice, but I'm buying just the console, so I would have to buy another HDD, Power Brick, and AV Cable. While as my friend has a 60 GB HDD, 1-2 controllers, and all the hookups, and he wants less for it.

A: Buying a Zephyr Pre-JTAG'd. Console only.

B: Buying a Jasper JTAG'able XBOX 360. Comes with everything. It needs to be JTAG'd.

Now, it may not seem much, but this is a $50 situation difference. WTF is selling his for $200's, and my friend is selling his for $150. If I JTAG it myself I'll have to buy the equipment since I'd have to start from scratch, but I heard the equipment isn't that expensive. It all comes down to whether or not I'm able to do it. For those more experienced on a level of 1-10 how easy is it to JTAG a XBOX 360, and what option should I take?

 

[hundshamer]

I personally would go with the Jasper. It's more reliable, and worth more as a Jtag than a Zephyr which is basically a Xenon with HDMI. I would practice soldering, pre-tinning, and using flux before soldering to the 360's motherboard. Also be sure you have a PC (XP operating system peferrably) with a serial printer port. If not be prepared to buy a USB NAND flasher. I learned how to do it by reading tutorials and have no official technical background and had to learn to solder. I got it the first try but it took me hours to solder everything in, and dumping the 16MB NAND (before Xellous version with 2MB dump) took awhile. On a grading scale of difficulty I would give it an 8.75/10.0.

 

[Devin]

I personally would go with the Jasper. It's more reliable, and worth more as a Jtag than a Zephyr which is basically a Xenon with HDMI. I would practice soldering, pre-tinning, and using flux before soldering to the 360's motherboard. Also be sure you have a PC (XP operating system peferrably) with a serial printer port. If not be prepared to buy a USB NAND flasher. I learned how to do it by reading tutorials and have no official technical background and had to learn to solder. I got it the first try but it took me hours to solder everything in, and dumping the 16MB NAND (before Xellous version with 2MB dump) took awhile. On a grading scale of difficulty I would give it an 8.75/10.0.

Thanks. I'm just going to buy WTF's Zephyr. For $10's more he said he'll throw in a AV cable, and a Power Supply. Now, all I need is a cheap HDD....

 

[tk_saturn]

I'd go for a Jasper too, but only if it's a pro console (which presumably it is ~60GB HDD). From looking around forums, there seem to be a few people who have issues JTAG'ing a 256MB/512MB Jasper, but i've not come across any similar posts for the 16MB Jaspers. It's also a lot sfer to do the 16MB consoles over LPT, saving the added cost of a USB SPI flasher.

I can't remember if WTF has 12V'olted the fans, but if not I have a file somewhere which will softmod the fans to 100% regardless of what dashboard etc you use.

If you really are on a budget and don't want to solder, get a cheap 20GB drive of eBay, get a 1 Metre Male to Female Sata cable, open the 20GB's caddy and remove the drive, plug the Sata cable into the caddy and the other end into a 1TB+ 3.5" HDD, then take the power from your PC.

Perhaps if you offer WTF $15-$20, he might be prepared to solder in a Sata + HDD Power cable for you? remember though you won't be able to use a xbox 360 original drive at the same time (ie the caddy drives). If you want to do that yourself, there's a guide here. You can use one of these cables to cheaply do it.

 

[Devin]

I'd go for a Jasper too, but only if it's a pro console (which presumably it is ~60GB HDD). From looking around forums, there seem to be a few people who have issues JTAG'ing a 256MB/512MB Jasper, but i've not come across any similar posts for the 16MB Jaspers. It's also a lot sfer to do the 16MB consoles over LPT, saving the added cost of a USB SPI flasher.

I can't remember if WTF has 12V'olted the fans, but if not I have a file somewhere which will softmod the fans to 100% regardless of what dashboard etc you use.

If you really are on a budget and don't want to solder, get a cheap 20GB drive of eBay, get a 1 Metre Male to Female Sata cable, open the 20GB's caddy and remove the drive, plug the Sata cable into the caddy and the other end into a 1TB+ 3.5" HDD, then take the power from your PC.

Perhaps if you offer WTF $15, he might be prepared to solder in a Sata + HDD Power cable for you? remember though you won't be able to use a xbox 360 original drive at the same time (ie the caddy drives)

I'll have to send him a PM about that. I have a few Sata HDD's lying around from a couple old computers.

 

[nico445]

also dealextreme has a cheap xbox harddrive case, i ordered that one

 

[al5911]

Jtagable Jasper??? I want.
Jasper for more reliable and zephyr(already jtagged) for hassle free.