Building a better Xbox: Preliminary Evaluation

Okay. I've gutted my Power Mac (leaving the power supply in for later use for fans). I've identified the ports and switches I want to replicate in the finished product. I do want to make this easily removable, so I think all of the soldering will be done with quick connects to allow for this.

Ports:
HDMI
optical out
3 USB out

Switches:
power switch
controller sync switch
DVD tray switch

LEDs
4 Xbox jewel LEDs

For space, I'm going to mount the unit face down in the case, since the DVD drive will be mounted in the standard drive bay, which will require some modding. This orientation will allow for better mounting of the external drive (which I will have to mount either by fabricating something or by adhering the current mounting surface in a non-traditional way). I had originally thought about running leads from the connector to some sort of dock on the top, but I'm not really that interested in quickly removing the drive. The other option was to mount it permanently, which I don't want, either. The only other ports are for the memory cards, which I can also get to by opening the PowerMac case, no real ordeal.

The only last thing to contend with is the power, which I don't want to make unusable with standard equipment, so I think I'll run in 120VAC to both the Mac power supply and a butt connector to the OEM transformer that comes with the Xbox, for ease of removal.

The rest will be cosmetic, except for some slight fabrication of a metal adapter frame to mount the Xbox to the case, and of course some ducting to allow for directed airflow across the stock heatsink/fan which I may replace at a later date.

Skittles Syrup, an Update.

Okay. The coffee press/filter idea was good in principle, but the pressure lowers the melting point of the hydrogenated palm kernel oil, which makes up most of the nonpolar constituents, so with any reasonable amount of pressure, the oils don't filter properly. The best solution I've found so far is to keep the mixture in an ice bath, and drain via sep funnel. This still takes too many iterations for my liking, since the narrow band of temperature is between -2 degrees C (at which the water in the solution starts to freeze and around 5 degrees C. The next iteration, I will use a saltwater bath, which will at least decrease the cooling time between iterations. Any suggestions are welcome, as always!