A future home for my Xbox Series X

With no plan to buy one soon

I am not saying I won't, I am just saying I have no plan to buy one.

So here's the thing – I didn't even attempt to pre-order an Xbox Series X. I didn't even plan on buying an early version. Our Clan plans – except for Graybush who got his hands on THREE! – discussed over several Sega Nites and one or two coffee runs were to wait.

To wait and see how things turned out and, perhaps more importantly, wait to see if there was a special edition announced.

The thing about the fridge design of the Xbox Series X is it lends itself to easy redesigns.

But then, then, the Xbox Series X was released and...

A Plethora of potential Xbox Series X designs. All borrowed from online. None Official. Some of these are available as skins.

...I can't help but want one. I do. I just do. No logic or anything I just have a feeling of need.

I decided to stave off this feeling of need through a kind of nesting syndrome. I have spent the time since its release prepping a spot for my future Xbox Series X. Some of it reasonable and some not so reasonable.

I ended up with some extra Cat6 network cable from a job. Not a lot but enough to provide a direct Cat6 path from my router to my Xbox home. This is through a modem, a router, and two gigabit switches. Technically the extra Cat6 only made it to the second switch under my desk.

Reasonable, no? This is when it turned unreasonable.

I decided I needed, NEEDED, to complete the rest of the run in Cat6. The previous cable was Cat(?) from over twenty years ago as I was reminded by Guba. Original Cat5 maybe? If I was lucky.

I small purchase later of 1000ft of Cat6, 25 Cat6 jacks, surface mount wall port boxes, and 100 Cat6 cable ends (my existing stock was low) and I was on my way to finishing my Xboxes Cat6 network upgrade. Along with the rest of the house and every single patch cable I could lay my hands on.

A small purchase.

One week and 500ft of Cat6 cable later my house was upgraded to Cat6 everywhere. Including places that don't need it and will never use it.

Although I suspect all locations, even that of the Future Xbox Series X, would have been just fine on the existing Cat cable. But now I KNOW it's all Cat6.

Any one want some slightly used cable?

Pointless? Probably, but it did help ease my feelings of Xbox Series X need.

And then. And then!

I discovered my original plan of sticking my Xbox Series X into the corner of my desk was not acceptable for cooling purposes. Apparently the stereo cabinet unfriendly design of the Xbox Series X recommend 6" of clearance on all sides. And while I am willing to cut a few inches off of that 6", I decides that the zero inches on one side, and 1" on the other might be a little much. This meant a strategic redesign of possible locations. Locations presently full of Gaming Collectibles, Lego , and many other trinkets. And my Xbox One X. And dust, several years worth of dust that was forming itself into an impenetrable, fossilized layer, ostensibly as a protective layer. Don't worry, Guba didn't believe that either.

I can not tell a lie. Some Lego was dissembled and stored away. All to relocate a Halo Master Chief helmet, a Call of Duty RC-XD, Call of Duty Night Vision Goggles, and a Call of Duty drone. Not to mention a Strange Brigade Zeppelin, a remote control zombie, a Lego pistol, some Call of Duty medals, some Walter Poddubny hockey cards and a stuffed Carleton the bear. A Lego Millennium Falcon and Gargle Dragon were also relocated. Along with dusting all of this, it was quite an ordeal.

Probably all this was included in the unreasonable category except, possibly, for the dusting.

And then you would think I was done but you would be wrong. Again.

And then - take two

I decided that I need to mark the territory of the Xbox Series X before it became mysteriously full of gaming Collectibles of which I still have many, many in the original box. I am looking at you Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag Limited Edition! At you!

I designed and printed a sign! As shown in the original photo. I designed it to hold a business card size paper and printed it in wood filament. It turned out better than it had any right to, particularly considering how little time I put into it.

But it still wasn't enough. I had a tendency to ignore signs. Particularly the obvious ones. Sorry for all those wasted years Stormblade.

I discovered a 3D design for an Xbox Series X mockup. A 3D print of a Xbox Series X would definitely mark its future home until such time as I replaced it with a working, original version.

This is were I managed to steer away from unreasonable territory, albeit only temporarily. A full 100% size mockup of the Xbox Series X would have taken 2.5 days to print. Two and a half days! One 18 hour print and one 35 hour print.

I scaled this back to 75% and managed to cut it back to just over a day. Only 26 hrs. See? Reasonable.

And then on to totally unreasonable

Now that I have a home for the Xbox Series X it seems totally reasonable that the home is filled. Totally reasonable.

I have now started actively looking for an Xbox Series X.

But I wouldn't worry too much. No one has them and they can't be found.

It seems that saving up the cash for one has kind of backfired as none of the retailers I have spoken to are carrying them in store. Hard to pay cash for an online purchase. Not a big problem I admit but still, against my original plan.

Best Buy and Walmart at least are only selling online. Nothing in stores. Keep an eye out on their twitter feed to keep up on stock warnings.

EBGames may carry them in store but the one I visited had an eight page wait list. They were told to stop taking names by head office.

So I expect, if I want one (and I kind of do), that I will need to scour the web and hit the exact right time for Walmart or Best Buy to post their availability and try to jump on it with everyone else.

If nothing else, at least I have a Xbox Series X home prepared.

PS- Even if I manage to score an Xbox Series X it is more than likely that it will disappear into the Black Hole of "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL CHRISTMAS" which seems to have swallowed up most of my recent purchases.