The Xbox 360 Elite laptop: Ben Heck strikes again

We think it's possible that the time has come to admit that Ben Heck (aka Benjamin Heckendorn) has officially taken it to the limit, put the pedal to the metal, and a large number of other cliches that suggest something has been pushed just about as far as you can take it. That's right folks -- it's the Xbox 360 Elite laptop. We're not even going to try and pretend to understand how an individual could go about creating this kind of extreme mod to the Microsoft console -- needless to say that if there was one man who could do it, Ben is that guy. Luckily for us lay-people, he's included a graphic breakdown of just about every step on the road to a portable Xbox 360, replete will all the case cracking, innards opening, wire splaying photos you could possibly want or need. Sorry NEStari and Atari 800 laptop -- there's a new boss in town.

Update: Be sure to check out the charming video after the break to see Ben showing off the mod -- we're sure you'll enjoy the intro as much as we did.

[xer0 @ Feb 4th 2008 12:43AM]

That is awesome! :D

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Feb 4th 2008 1:26AM]

If it ran Linux, then it would be totally kick a$$!

[Chebwa @ Feb 4th 2008 1:46AM]

What in the fuck would be the point of that?

[ethana2 @ Feb 4th 2008 2:14AM]

firefox
blender
the gimp
inkscape
samba
xsane
brasero
pidgin
ekiga
openoffice
tremulous
nexuiz
warsow
openarena

Gee, I don't know! What /is/ the point of the OtherOS menu option of the PS3?
...the 360 is utterly worthless to me. I try not to have things i don't own.

[polobunny @ Feb 4th 2008 2:44AM]

I was fine with my NES being a stock NES ethana. Then again, I was also fine with all my consoles being pretty stock ('cept for a way to play imports) 'till the original Xbox...

[DarkLightConnection @ Feb 4th 2008 2:54AM]

Why the hell is the caps lock key lover low ranked?

He's right, it would kick a$$, you would have a killer gaming machine and a fully functional computer in one

Or you could buy an AlienWare laptop and have the same on a sexier form factor, but if that's what you want, what would be the point of having this XBOX 360 1337 laptop anyway?

[Liam @ Feb 4th 2008 7:50AM]

If it played Doom, this would totally kick ass!

[tcc3 @ Feb 4th 2008 8:43AM]

I'm with you man. I was going to buy a toaster the other day. Then I found out I couldn't put Linux on it. Fuck that, I wont be oppressed.

[Chebwa @ Feb 4th 2008 11:18AM]

@ethana2:

Wow, a list of crap that works with Linux!

"...the 360 is utterly worthless to me."

Ah, so just a bulky, overpowered laptop with Linux it, then. You're right. That *WOULD* be sweet!

Just because Linux exists, doesn't mean it would be cool or useful to slap it on everything with a processor.

[GrizzlyAdams @ Feb 4th 2008 3:16PM]

@Chebwa:

Nah, thats what NetBSD is for.

[PeterF @ Feb 4th 2008 4:31PM]

@Liam
Doom is available on xbox live

[James C @ Feb 4th 2008 5:24PM]

@ethana2

Yeah, not being able to install OpenOffice on my gaming console is totally a deal-breaker for me too. How am I supposed to get any work done??

[Familyguyrokz @ Feb 4th 2008 12:43AM]

First!

[mushrooshi @ Feb 4th 2008 12:58AM]

Will this matter in 20 years?

[Ignatius @ Feb 4th 2008 1:52AM]

I'm sure to him it will.

[Chebwa @ Feb 4th 2008 1:50PM]

In 20 years he will probably be 27.

FAMILYGUYROKZ!

[Darth Meatloaf @ Feb 4th 2008 4:34PM]

@mushrooshi

2 answers to your question:

1: In 20 years, he will have done the same thing with whatever system there is at that time.

2: This particular project will matter more than you do 20 years from now.

Just an FYI...

[Chebwa @ Feb 4th 2008 4:57PM]

...hmmm... now I don't know what everyone in this thread is talking about. The "FIRST" comment not mattering, or a laptop mod not mattering.

I guess neither.

[aguiluz @ Feb 4th 2008 6:05PM]

Here's the thread: (My name's Aguiluz there, obviously)
http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?t=23019

Here's a Video of the unit in action: (Uploaded by me, with permission of benheck.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXsaCF8n6AQ

[Liam @ Feb 5th 2008 5:24AM]

@PeterF

I was taking the piss.

[Paulmichael @ Feb 4th 2008 12:49AM]

Does he sell these? Wow. I really wish I had the time to even try and do something like this.

[teej @ Feb 4th 2008 10:12AM]

if you pay him what it's worth (materials + labor + profit + etc.), i'm sure he may entertain the idea.

[Ray @ Feb 4th 2008 1:10PM]

NO! Ben is sooooooo tired of people asking him to make these things, no matter what you're offer. These things are fuckin HARD to make.

[Paulmichael @ Feb 4th 2008 5:18PM]

Well, at least he put some instructions for how to do it yourself...

[Camper @ Feb 4th 2008 12:49AM]

Site down. :(

[Jakob @ Feb 4th 2008 9:08AM]

It's your lucky day, the site is down, and you get highest ranked.

[Chris @ Feb 4th 2008 12:53AM]

Is the keyboard just for chatting?

[Zeus.:God @ Feb 4th 2008 1:42AM]

Anything that would require text, be it chatting, naming screenshots, etc.

[Zeus.:God @ Feb 4th 2008 1:42AM]

Anything that would require text, be it chatting, naming screenshots, etc.

[lhawes @ Feb 4th 2008 3:12AM]

As far as I know keyboards aren't compatible with the 360 (cept the game pad add on thing). So without RTFA I assume it does nothing except make it look like a laptop. I should prolly RTFA to find out if it is useful...

[Andrew @ Feb 4th 2008 4:21AM]

Then you'd be wrong. The 360 will accept and use a USB keyboard for any text input, as said before for chatting, MSN, naming screenshots and so on.

[Phantom1219 @ Feb 4th 2008 12:53AM]

This is awesome, I want one.

[Josh @ Feb 4th 2008 1:06AM]

More importantly, does it even matter now?

[Andrew Fong @ Feb 4th 2008 1:12AM]

You know, a console-as-a-laptop would sell pretty well if it were done officially. The XB360 is still a little too chunky methinks but I'm surprised Sony hasn't made a combo Vaio-PS2. They've gotten both of those small enough to the point that they could literally duct them together, put a shiny shell around it, and it would still be portable / look good.

[waiownsyou @ Feb 4th 2008 1:24AM]

One of the reasons they don't do that is because computer games can easily be hacked then pirated. Console games are a lot harder, are easier to develop for (because PCs have too many variables and require so much testing to ensure compatibility), and companies like GameStop would be a lot happier.

[Student Driver @ Feb 4th 2008 1:28AM]

And you get the red LCD of death with it, not to mention a convenient package to ship back for warranty.

This is coming from someone that had to send his in once already.

[Andrew Fong @ Feb 4th 2008 1:33AM]

There doesn't have to be any serious integration between the laptop and console -- they could almost literally be duct-taped together. No shared memory (or some clever partitioning scheme) would make it no easier to hack than any other console -- and the console-laptop would still present the same hardware profile for developers.

Besides, if you did it with a last-gen console like the PS2, you'd have an easy way to add a few extra years to the lifespan of your product.

[vb @ Feb 4th 2008 7:09AM]

Except that Sony would rather that you buy the PS3 and not try to add life to its older products.

[Froggy @ Feb 4th 2008 9:44AM]

but does it fit into a manila envelope? cos if it does not it's very last year. ;)

[Dennijr @ Mar 27th 2008 5:00PM]

technically, a console developer wouldn't even need to make a console/laptop combo, all they would need to do is exactly what Benheck has done, which is take a console and make it look like a laptop; screen, keyboard, cam and wireless internet connection combined into one console sized package. other than the fact that it would be quite expensive
(nearing $1k, example-
Screen = $200-300
Console = $350-450
Wireless internet = $100
Awesome design = $50-100?)
people would think it was the greatest thing since sliced bread

[Bryan Law @ Feb 4th 2008 1:07AM]

Sucks that it'll probably be banned on Live :(

[darx23 @ Feb 4th 2008 1:09AM]

Why would it be banned on live? He hasn't modified the firmware in any way.

[jason @ Feb 4th 2008 2:24AM]

Modding firmware is not the only way to get banned. MS can ban for any reason they want to including out of spec power fluctuations and anomalies. People that have replaced the fan inside their 360 have found themselves banned because it is an "unauthorized modification to improve performance".

[ch993 @ Feb 4th 2008 11:11AM]

More like "unauthorized modification to .. prevent this POS from breaking AGAIN".

[karts41 @ Feb 4th 2008 1:14AM]

"We're not even going to try and pretend to understand how an individual could go about creating this kind of extreme mod to the Microsoft console"

Hasnt he already made a 360 laptop? And didnt engadget have a step by step article on how to make it?

It just seems Engadget is making a big deal about this one

[Covert @ Feb 4th 2008 1:19AM]

Yep, but it wasn't an Xbox 360 Elite. ;)
http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/17/xbox-360-laptop-mk2/

[Chebwa @ Feb 4th 2008 1:19AM]

Yeeeaaaaah... unless the guts of the Elite are somehow larger and harder to remove than that of the original, I don't see why this is a "next step" at all.

He could have just added a larger hard drive to the original XBox 360 laptop and called it a day.

[Student Driver @ Feb 4th 2008 1:30AM]

Maybe he wanted HDMI support as well? I can't get to the site so I don't know if he's leveraging that port.

[Brian @ Feb 4th 2008 2:33AM]

It has every episode of doom.

(Some on XBLA, some on original xbox disk)

[Nitin Kumar @ Feb 4th 2008 1:33AM]

Great.. plays Halo 3.... but does it play doom?

I know its a trollish post, but seriously other than xbox 360 gaming what else can i do on this?