Xenium Spice Review

Written By Brakken
August 2005
Introduction

Team Xodus has rapidly become one of the most respected chips manufacturers for the Microsoft XBOX. Due to their professional business standards, ethics and staff they have made themselves a reputation that ultimately lead to their success. Unlike other tops groups Xodus takes the time and effort to reach out to its community and doesn’t seem to possess the common “we make modchips so we’re a god” attitude.

Xodus’s first endeavor was a milestone in the XBOX modding scene as they were the first company to create a solderless solution named the Matrix and for a brief period of time had a business arrangement with easybuy2000, but that didn’t last long. Soon after this they released the Chameleon, which was another solderless chip.

After this they tried a partnership with OZX mods which they named TeamOzXodus, which resulted in the creation of the Xenium chip. Due to disagreements this partnership was broke off.

Finally back on their own again they developed the Xenium Ice. The Ice is a revised version of the original, but is made with better quality hardware components and features a yet to be duplicated “recovery mode” which works as a failsafe for bad flashes. Furthermore, they followed this release up with an add-on adapter coined the “Spice” which was the first and by far the best XBOX v1.6 solderless adapter to date.

Specifications of the Xenium Spice

Solderless Adapter is compatible in v1.0 – v1.5 consoles
Solderless Spice Adapter for v1.6 – v1.6d consoles
1MB reflashable EEPROM (4 BIOS banks)
Software controlled Bios bank selection
Software controlled enable/disable
LED Panel and USB Adapter included (X-S-or-Ease)
Preflashed with the NEW OS2 Operating System
Works with ALL known Xbox versions to date
No soldering required install (solder install optional)
Unique precision engineered acrylic template for wire guide and safety feature
Instant verification of correct contact on all five points through LED indicators
The first fourth generation to feature a fully solderless DIY install solution
Preflashed with the XOS (Xenium Operating System)

Contents of the Package

Xenium Ice Modchip
Solderless SP Adapter (v1.0 – v1.6d compatible)
Xenium Spice Adapter (v1.0 – v1.6d compatible)
Pin Header for solder installs
Screw/rivets for older systems with holes in the LPC
LED Panel & Wire Loom & USB Adapter

Installation

Of course I did the normal preparation of reading the documentation on Xenium's web page and visited Xbox scene for additional guidance. Depending on which version of the Xbox you are going to be installing the Xenium into you are presented with two or three installation options. Unfortunately due to the disorganization of the documentation I had to refer and cross reference information from four different installation guides.

The three installation options you are presented with are the pin header install, solderless Pogo pin adapter install and for the version 1 .6 consoles the spice install. If your old school I would recommend the pin header install, which of course includes simply the soldering the pin header into the LPC port and then D0 and power wires. If you have a version 1 .0 through version 1 .5 you can do a solderless install with the Pogo pin adapter, which just requires you to tighten the adapter over the LPC port which you've installed small rivets in. Your final option is for the 1.6 consoles for you would first install the Pogo pin adapter and then the spice adapter on top of it.

I chose to install the Xenium using the Pogo pin adapter and a version 1 .0 console which of course you know has its LPC pin holes filled with solder. So all that was required for me to do was to align the Pogo pin adapter of what the LPC port and then screw it down along with the ground point for the LED module. After this I simply plugged the Xenium ice chip into the Pogo pin adapter, inserted it’s one and only leg into the D0 point and then power on the console and was greeted by a green light which meant everything was A-OK.

To install and the Xenium into a version 1 .6 console you would do the same as above, but with a few minor variations. First you would have to insert the rivets into the LPC holes van place the plastic alignment adapter and its right position, after which you would secure the Pogo pin adapter with the spice attached to it. One should also keep in mind that the Xenium Ice comes preflashed with an XBOX v1.6 compatibile operating system so you wont have to worry about having to use another XBOX to flash it with.

Lastly you will find all the legs into the proper positions and power the console on. Place in the legs into the proper positions has never been easier as all you do is insert them into the tiny holes that have been drilled into the plastic alignment adapter. So even if your version 1 .6 Xbox has the LPC rebuild points filled in you should still get a proper contact.

As you can clearly see installing the Xenium chip is a simple task and should take even the most novice user around 30 minutes to install, but if you're a seasoned veteran plan on spending around 10 minutes to complete this task.



Usage

When you first turn the Xbox power on for the first time you will be re-created by the Xenium OS menu. The first thing I did according to the Xenium's documentation was to add the original bios to the boot menu, boot into it and set the system time (which they claim must be done to avoid the XBOX from malfunctioning). Next I set the network configuration and big Xenium OS and then FTP over the latest OS and then ran the update option.

Once it was updated I dumped the Xbox is the EEPROM and then unlock the hard drive and copied over my routine Xbox hard drive image which I used to test various functions to make sure they're working correctly. I then flashed one of the Xenium's bios banks with the Xecuter 2 BIOS and then configured it to Auto Boot to the Xbox media Center which I use is a dashboard. One of the great features of the Xenium OS is to pick which BIOS to boot from using the menu with no external adapters required.

I tested Xbox media Center's functions played some games and some emulators and everything worked fine. The entire installation process of the mod chip itself only took 15 minutes, but of course would take little longer if you’re soldering it in using the pin header install of the direct method install.

One of the best features is the built in 'recovery mode', which essentially is a fail-safe feature that will allow you to recover from bad flashes. If you accidently flash the entire contents of any other XBOX modchip with a bad BIOS, have you flash ruined by a power or technical error or if you're using a non XBOX v1.6 and put the wrong BIOS on your chip you can fix this by simply booting into the backup BIOS. Xodus did this by modifying the legal cromwell BIOS to not ruin your XBOX not matter what version you use. Like I said above, no other modchip do date of this review has been able to duplicate this feature.

Pros

Ease of Installation
Completely No-Solderless Solution
Quality of the product
Disable Modchip for XBOX Live feature
Software BIOS bank selection

Cons

Annoying rivets (easy to lose)
Lack of per version installation manuals
No little sticker

Conclusion

Due to the quality, ease of installation, installation options, features and support I would call the Xenium Spice one of the best solutions you could possibly purchase for your XBOX.

Links

www.teamxodus.com
- Official Homepage for the Xenium Spice!

www.xbins.org
- Everything you'll ever need to know about XBOX modding!

-=[ Xenium Spice 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 review product(s).