Introduction

Early on in the Xbox’s development, many Xbox skeptics questioned Microsoft’s decision to build the system around a standard x86 system running a Coppermine Pentium III with reduced L2 cache. Two years of experience has proved that Microsoft chose wisely. Like Sony before them with the original PlayStation, Microsoft has established itself as one of the leaders in gaming technology.

Xbox motherboard

Close up of the Micro-PGA2 socket

Although the appeal of consoles is the fixed and regular platform, it is common for developers to push the limits of a system to bring gamers the most exotic graphics. Often, this results in the “slowdown” during gameplay. In most cases, the slowdown is an acceptable sacrifice for the overall experience. As a PC-based platform however, the Xbox is fertile ground for hardware optimization and improvements. One Taiwanese company, Friendtech, has recognized this opportunity for Xbox hardware modifications and has come up with a 1.48GHz Xbox.

The original Xbox mainboard with the CPU desoldered (removed). There are 370 soldering pads remaining.

Friendtech engineer de-soldering the original 733MHz Xbox CPU.

Friendtech is a company known primarily for CPU upgrades in the style of Intel’s classic “Overdrive Processor.” They historically sold CPU upgrade adapters that regulate voltage of a CPU, allowing you to run a Socket 478 P4 in a Socket 423 motherboard, or Socket 370 Tualatin in a Slot-1 motherboard. Their latest product, the DreamX console, is a modified Xbox that replaces the Xbox’s 733MHz CPU with a 1.48 GHz Tualatin Celeron and increases the unified DDR-RAM to 128MB. The idea is that software that pushes the limits of standard Xbox CPU will be able to run more effortlessly on this new DreamX system.