Gamexpert Cooler King cools your Xbox 360, hubs its ports

Quite exactly why anyone would want to connect "up to 4 media players at the same time" to their Xbox 360 is beyond us, but fortunately that's one of only three jobs that the Gamexpert Cooler King claims to do very well. As well as providing a 4-port USB hub for a quartet of PMPs, the Cooler King "cools" your Xbox 360 in a similar -- but not identical -- way to the Nyko Intercooler, and provides standard VGA, component, optical audio out, and S-Video connections, bypassing the need for pesky proprietary cables altogether. As the Cooler King appears to draw its power from the Xbox 360's unique A/V port, it should hopefully bypass the concerns that dogged Nyko's solution as well as providing the bonus of a non-proprietary port for each of the Xbox 360's currently supported outputs. Play.com is currently shipping the Cooler King to the UK for £17.99 (around $35), which is only a modest premium over its primary, and less featured, competitor. Next up from the third party Xbox 360-cooling cottage industry? A HDMI output for pre-Zephyr Xbox 360s: pretty please!

[Thanks, SRW985]

[Yoweigh @ Jan 27th 2007 3:07PM]

Look at all them ports! Might be worth it just for that, especially since it has VGA and optical audio.

[Sam @ Jan 27th 2007 3:13PM]

Is this PAL only??? I hope it supports NTSC....

[James Ollier @ Jan 27th 2007 3:20PM]

Can't you read? "The Cooler King appears to draw its power from the Xbox 360's unique A/V port"

[Mr. B @ Jan 27th 2007 3:35PM]

...sure would be nice if gaming consoles were built with those ports to begin with.

[Karl @ Jan 27th 2007 3:59PM]

True, but it might be a little hard for consumers who don't know what the differences between the port types are. For them, it's better to have as few ports as possible, so multi-purpose ports are best.

Also, it gives the console manufacturers to make back some of the money they lose on each console: they depend on game and accessory sales.

[Jason @ Jan 27th 2007 3:57PM]

IAW Mr. B. The first thing I thought was "If only that was the default I/O interface for the X360. Of course, then they wouldn't make a profit by selling you an overpriced VGA connector.

[impressme @ Jan 27th 2007 4:30PM]

Wouldn't this cover up the dock for the wireless adapter?

[Anchit Panchal @ Jan 27th 2007 4:34PM]

thats why you get the premium version and not the core version.

[Torben @ Jan 27th 2007 4:59PM]

looks like it does cover the wifi snapin part.

but if you already have the HD drive, you probably don't care.

I just wonder if you are not just shifting the potential problem of the Niko cooler powerdrain to a different part of the system.

was the AV port really designed to provide power to fans and three usb devices?

why don't they design a cooling system that doesn't drain power of a system that already puts out so much heat that you need a secondary cooling system in the first place? who cares if you have another wire running from the back of the console.

[Porsche 911 @ Jan 27th 2007 6:12PM]

What were you trying to state with your statement, both Xbox360's have the wireless adapter port; it does not mater whether you buy the core or the premium. Your statement is irrelevant… unless you were talking about the PS3?

[nojok3 @ Jan 27th 2007 5:02PM]

"The Cooler King appears to draw its power from the Xbox 360's unique A/V port"

Doesn't the Nyko one do this? Isn't this why the Nyko one doesn't really help (besides from burning the contacts on your 360)

[Dr. Homez @ Jan 27th 2007 6:30PM]

The Nyko one draws it's power from the 360's main power socket, this is from the Audio/Visual proprietary slot on the back of the 360 where you normally plug in your audio and visual cables.

[SRW985 @ Jan 28th 2007 4:27AM]

both PS3s have HDs though

[paul irwin @ Jan 27th 2007 8:14PM]

you can't just add an HDMI port... i hope that last sentence was a joke!

[kevina @ Jan 27th 2007 8:18PM]

are those dip switches??

[Dan @ Jan 27th 2007 11:03PM]

This seems to be very useful in my situation where I don't need to use wireless adapters and all that fancy stuff. Plus the extra A/V ports are good for people who don't want to buy that extra VGA cable or S-Video that didn't come with their system. Nice product.

[dmihalic @ Jan 28th 2007 1:02AM]

I think the reason all of these intercoolers work by 'parasiting' themselves off the 'mothership' XBOX360 power supply (whether directly or through USB/A/V, is VERY simple. They want things to be neat and clean so the average go can figure it out. What do I mean? Well, when you turn off the XBOX360 will ALL of these designs, the coolers ALSO turn off! Brilliant right!?!? If they were on their separate power, you would have switch off your xbox360 and the power would contine to run to those things....(making noise that folks seem to get so upset about).

[Todd Loewen @ Jan 27th 2007 11:54PM]

God I want This! I have a Gateway FPD1730 Moniter and it accepts input in at least 1080I How can I get one Stateside?

[Britboyj27 @ Jan 28th 2007 1:29AM]

One question - Where do I plug the power supply in?

[Conradq @ Jan 27th 2007 2:58PM]

Where you normally would. The hub/cooler doesn't cover the AC port.

[geehal @ Jan 27th 2007 3:00PM]

#1 Power jack is untouched in this product. It's a little bit shorter than the 360 so it doesn't cover it.

[Jypson @ Jan 27th 2007 3:04PM]

I'm guessing above it. I don't think I would trust it without it's own power supply. It was too much of a close call for me when I was using that stupid intercooler thing. It kept giving me an error code when I tried to boot it up. A good idea, but I think I would be willing to pay a bit more if it was more refined with its own power source.

[myscrnnm @ Jan 28th 2007 1:41AM]

"thats why you get the premium version and not the core version."

The wireless adapter dock is covered by the Cooler King no matter what version you have. The back of both systems is the same.

[Devil24 @ Jan 28th 2007 5:34AM]

Here's a very detailed (and huge!) pic of the Gamexpert.

http://www.pinpointce.co.uk/Images/GS3606.JPG

[cmetaphor @ Jan 28th 2007 1:38PM]

looking at that high-res pic, it looks like you cant output component and vga at the same time :( sigh.

[LR @ Jan 28th 2007 11:54AM]

Drawing your power from the power plug could be a problem, as we witnessed from the Nyko version.

This is the type of article I wouldn expect to find on Joystiq. Wonder why it's not there.

[LuckyCharm2007 @ Jan 28th 2007 10:24PM]

The device takes power from the USB port on the back so is universal works on every region, it doesnt touch the XBox360 power supply connector.

the dip switches are to change the video output , from VGA , Composite , Component and SVideo

[Crucial @ Jan 29th 2007 11:45AM]

Too late. I waited and waited for this because I wanted the VGA port but I couldn't take it any longer and bought the MS cable. You missed out on this sale.

[shotputking @ Feb 8th 2007 11:31PM]

well, this thing looks pretty sweet, and i'm definitely looking into it... but won't having the power for four usb ports and the fans on top of also outputting the video have some kind of negative effect on the video output?? it just seems that having all of those things run off of the port that we're used to just video running out of would make it look not quite as good as it could...

[LEE CLARKE @ Feb 22nd 2007 5:44PM]

Bouhg tone of these from play.com, arrived yesterday spent £20 on rgb component cable and £10 on audio cable plugged in then realised could not have HD settings on 360. phoned them up and they said send back to play.com as there doing a free upgrade (http://www.pinpointce.co.uk/index.asp - read in here on this page!) but realised i lived about 4 miles away from warehouse so went and picked one up. now have HD and blows lot of of hot air out so well happy with purchase now. these sell for £17 on play (free p&p) but search for them on ebay then there about £20-£30

[LEE CLARKE @ Feb 22nd 2007 5:46PM]

*BOUGHT ONE EVEN* Now has place for wireless connector as well (i do have wireless connection)