Xenium GOLD Review

Written by Brakken
March 2006 Introduction

Welcome, welcome – step right up to read the review of Team Xodus’ Xenium Gold SP modchip for the Microsoft XBOX video gaming console. Modchips are designed to allow you to boot unsigned code on your XBOX which in turn can let you convert your console from a normal round the mill video game system into a full fledged media center capable of running a massive amount of emulators and even Linux! You can do all of this plus more with the Xenium Gold!

Team Xodus are the original creators of the first solderless modchip adapters and their reputation precedes them as their adapters are the best on the market. Their workmanship and precision for detail now comes wrapped within a layer of 24k solid gold! Basically, that is about the only thing new when comparing the older Xenium Ice to this new chip, but who would not want a gold plated modification chip in their XBOX?

Features

Compatible with all Xbox versions (v1.0 - v1.6 USA/PAL/JAPAN)
CD-ROM, DVD-ROM 5/9, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW Support
2MB Onboard Flash Memory
Xbox Live compatible
Plays all homebrew (emulators, media player, mp3, divx.....)
No soldering required at all.
Installs in seconds.
Small size and great looks.
NO DIP SWITCHES
Dual SPI port for unlimited future add-ons (LCD, ext LED, memory etc)
Full color Status/Bank LED (no more Live banning!)
D0 Control. (switch to on board bios and go live safely )
Small compact design with no complicated forced extras for the unit to function.
External, dimmable, multifunction, full color, ultra bright LED*
USB -> XBOX Adaptor
Anti Clone Technology
Hardware protected Emergency Recovery System (ERS).
Inbuilt Flash system. No more need for direct connection to computer
Unique precision engineered acrylic template for wire guide and safety feature
Instant verification of correct contact on all five points through LED indicators
Fully solerless DIY system offering such flexibility and compatibility available to date
Full microkernel OS, developed by OzXodus
The Xenium Gold SP does *not* affect the original functionality of your Xbox.
This chip is compatible with your Xbox console - 100% guaranteed

* = Optional, Not Included

As per the specifications you will not have to worry about what version XBOX you own as the chip works on all known versions released on the date of this review. It also features many ways to flash your chip and to network your XBOX to your computer. Lastly, the thing just looks brilliant inside your XBOX!

Contents

Xenium Gold 24k Mod-Chip
Spice Solderless Adapter (v1.6)
Spice Solderless Holder (Acrylic Template)
Xenium SP Solderless Adapter (v1.0 - v1.5)
Power and Ground Wires
Screws, Rivets and Spacers
Pin Header for Solder Install
USB -> XBOX Adaptor
Custom Downloadable Installation Manual
Shipped in anti-static bag

Installation

You have a few options when installing the Xenium Gold modchip. First and foremost, if you did not receive the modchip from Mod-Chip.com you might have only gotten the chip itself without any of the additional connectors required to get the job done. Luckily, Mod-Chip.com is shipping the Xenium Gold with the SPICE adapter which allows great flexibility when it comes to choosing how you want to install your modchip.

You basically have two options – to solder or not to solder. You can perform both types of installations on any version of the XBOX. You are only limited to your own installation capabilities! If you have read any of my previous XBOX reviews you will know I am a fan of soldering so I started with that solution using a v1.0 XBOX as my specimen.

Installation v1.0 Solder

The first thing I did was I took the motherboard out of the XBOX and soldered the included Pin Header onto the LPC bus. I made sure to remove the unused pin, taped it down on the top of the board and soldered the points on the bottom of the motherboard. I then removed the tape which held the Pin Header in place and pulled up on it a little to make sure it was secure.

Next I located the d0 point on the XBOX’s motherboard (it is right near the LPC header on the topside of the board) and soldered on the Blue wire from the wire adapter. These small circular solder via points can be a little tough to turn into a pad which you can solder onto. I have developed an easy method to soldering a wire onto them. What I do is take a little flux and put it down inside the via point after which I put some solder on the end of my iron and touched the hole until the solder bonds to it. Now I have a pad to solder the wire onto. So I simply tin the wire and touch it to the newly formed pad for a second or two and the job is done.

After soldering on the d0 point I soldered the ground wire to the closest screw post on the motherboard I could find. The metallic outer area of every screw post is a ground point and you can use anyone you want as long as the wire reaches.

Now I proceeded to attach the wire harness to the Xenium Gold, plugged the chip on the LPC Pinheader and powered the console on. I was greeted by a red light which meant everything was okay! I reassembled the XBOX, turned it on and was pleased to see the Xenium OS load up.

Installation v1.0 Solderless

To install the Xenium Gold onto a v1.0 – v1.5 console without having to solder anything Mod-Chip.com has included the SP solderless adapter . You simply place this adapter over the LPC holes and screw it down. Next you move the d0 wire coming from the SP adapter into the d0 hole on the motherboard, plug the Xenium Gold into the SP adapter and turn your console on! That is it!

Installation v1.6 Solderless

If I was going to solder the Xenium Gold onto the v1.6 console I would have had to rebuild the LPC manually as Microsoft went and changed the motherboard layout on this version of the XBOX. Due to the fact that the Xenium Gold does not come with a LPC rebuild module I would of have to rebuild the **LPC myself, but instead I was going to give its Spice solderless adapter a shot.

As per the v1.0 solderless install you start with the SP adapter, but this time you actually plug in the Ice module into the SP (hence the SPICE name). Once you have the two units attached to each other you lay the acrylic template over the LPC rebuild points. The first thing I noticed about the template was the fact it fit nice and snug over the chip it fits onto. Sadly, all other solderless solutions I have tried that use this type of template have failed to produce them so they fit nice and snug on motherboard. I was very impressed with the quality of this little piece of plastic that Xodus has produced.

Once the template is in place align the SPICE over the LPC and screw it down. Now, something else impressed me. The legs coming from the ICE adapter were already in their right locations so when I screwed the SPICE down with the included screw all of the legs went down in their respective locations. The only one that did not go down into its little via point was the LFRAME. So I took a small pair or tweezers and push the d0 wire from the SP adapter into the LFRAME hole.

Another great feature of the SPICE adapter is that you can make sure that all of its legs are properly inserted into their respective via points by turning the console on. Once the XBOX is powered on a LED next to each leg will light up RED. Once you have all of the LED’s lighting up you are good to go and can plug the Xenium Gold into the SPICE adapter and put the XBOX back together – which is what I did.

Now, I have heard that the SPICE adapter is the best solderless solution and it is really hard to knock the small wires out of the via holes. I tested it’s durability by shaking the XBOX and then dropped it on the floor. Sadly, the LFRAME point did come loose. So I took the tweezers and put it back into place, but this time bent it down so that there was some pressure holding it in. I then again shook and dropped the console and this time none of the legs came loose! Talk about a quality design!

Usage - Xenium OS

After I was done installing the chip I booted up the XBOX and was greeted by the Xenium OS Gold screen. It is basically the normal Xenium OS, but comes pre-skinned with an elegant gold design. If for some reason you are not fond of the skin you can change it at your will.

The first menu option is the “Launch Menu” where you can run various items such as the original XBOX BIOS or any 3rd party ones you have flashed to your Xenium Gold. In this menu you can add an item by selecting that option. Once you have selected it you can choose the original TSOP (XBOX BIOS) or an item from Flash (a 3rd party BIOS). Once you have added an item you can then Add, Rename or Rename it. Additionally, you can set the item as your default BIOS and/or assign it to the Quick Boot feature that I will explain later on.

Before you do anything you should access the second menu option “Disk Tools” which will allow you to “Unlock” and “Lock” your hard drive. Your hard drive must be “locked” if you wish to play on XBOX Live, but if you wish to run homebrew from it you must unlock it.

Also in this menu are some more handy tools for managing your XBOX includes the Drive Upgrade Wizard, Partition Manager, Hard Drive Repair, Clear Cache and EEprom tools.

First and foremost you will want to backup your EEprom by using the “Backup to BIN” option which will create a backup file of your EEprom on the drive of your choice. Next you will want to login to your XBOX and backup the C:\ partition using either FTP or Telnet (scroll down to the Networking section to read how to do this).

Once you have backed up your EEprom, unlocked your hard drive and copied your original C:\ partition to a safe place you can start to use the Xenium OS’ many drive options. The first one is the “Copy Partition” option. This will allow you to clone a partition from one hard drive to another. So if you are going to do this you will have to hookup a second hard drive in place of the DVD-ROM and then access the option. Once this is done you simply select which partition to backup, select the source drive and let her go. Cloning partitions is a handy option if you are going to be building more then one Media Center or do reviews like I do as you can prepare a universal file system to cut down on the time it takes to create one for each XBOX you will be modifying.

You can also use the “Format Partition” option to format any partition of your choice. Simply select this option and then select the partition.

If you are going to be adding a larger hard drive to your XBOX you can run the Xenium’s HDD Prepare tool which will prep the hard drive for you and allow you to put the extra space onto drive F or G. Yeah that is right. You can not just put in a drive and go as you will have to prepare it first. If for some reason the preparation goes wrong Xodus has included a “Repair HDD Upgrade” option to fix the drive.

Lastly, you can clear the Cache Spaces which should free up some space on your hard drive.

The third menu option is the “EEprom Tools” which will allow you to change different aspects of your XBOX including the video output (NTSC or PAL), DVD Region and Game Region. You can also backup and restore the EEprom from this menu.

The Settings menu is the fourth menu option which will allow you to customize the way your Xenium Gold works. From this menu you can select a new skin to use, chose the way the LEDs on the chip or the external adapter work, set a password and toggle the boot functions. If you wish to use the Quick Boot option from the Launch Menu you can turn that option on in here.

Under the Xenium Settings are the Network settings where you can tell the Xenium OS to use DHCP (default) or assign the XBOX’s IP address manually.

Next is the FTP server which you can turn Off and On and change the username and password. The FTP option will allow you to FTP into your XBOX and manage the files on the partitions. This is handy for installing homebrew such as the XBOX Media Center (XBMC).

Like the FTP option you can turn the onboard Telnet server Off/On and set the username and password. You can use the Telnet interface to manage files on your XBOX as an alternative to FTP.

Lastly, you have the SMB settings where you can configure your XBOX to share its hard drive using the SMB protocol so you can actually login to the XBOX using Windows Explorer and manage the files just like you would on your local computer’s hard drives.

The final options from the main menu will allow you to Reboot the XBOX, Recover from a bad flash or turn the XBOX off. The Flash Recovery option is really great as if you accidentally flash your chip and mess it up you can pick this option and you can recover from the bad flash as it will restore the original Xenium OS to its factory state.

Usage – General

Basically, when you first install your Xenium Gold you’ll want to go in and backup both your EEprom and C:\ partition. Once this is done you can FTP/TELNET or access the Xenium OS using the built in HTTP server and flash it with a 3rd party BIOS. Next you can setup a dashboard by accessing the XBOX by FTP, TELNET or SMB and copying over the files.

Once this is done you can add the 3rd party BIOS to the Launch menu and if you want to save some time set it to AutoBoot. After all of this is done you’re set to enjoy many homebrew applications, emulators, games and the fantastic XBOX Media Center.

Conclusion

With the many installation options, ease of installation, solid quality and plethora of features in the Xenium OS I would suggest adding this to your list of chips to consider if you are going to be modding an XBOX soon. Additionally, if you already have a modded XBOX with a Xenium Ice I would defiantly switch it out with this one because who would not want a 24k gold chip!

Although the Xenium Gold does not feature as many external options – such as LCD compatibility and control panel support it is a well designed chip and of course like I said above the Gold aspect is just amazing. Even though I’ve taken the best pictures of the Xenium Gold compared to any other reviews I have read you really have to see the chip in person to understand how good it really looks.

Hopefully Team Xodus will come up with some custom connectors which will take use of the expansion port on the Xenium Gold to integrate it with 3rd party devices such as LCD screens and possibly the X3™ Control Panel as all it does now is output to the external LED module (not included).

When all is said and done it is an above average modchip made from 24k gold. If that is not enough to convince you to adding one to your collection I don’t know what else to say.

Positives 24k Gold Layered Perfect No Solder Solution Ease of Installation Fantastic onboard OS Networking Features Optional LED Panel

Negatives 2MB BIOS Space No LPC Rebuild for v1.6 Price Lack of External Device Compatibility

(high resolution scan)


Links

TeamXodus Webpage
Mod-Chip.com - Worldwide Reseller




-=[ Xenium Gold Review Discussion Thread ]=-

Product(s) were received from the website above. ISO-420 will always link back to whomever sent the product(s) *respect*, but please remember that the reviews are independently written by our staff and are not subject to alteration by whomever supplies us with the product(s).