Ash, with the exception of resoldering the entire motherboard, I can't think of any way that your mate does it which would make it more effective than these home fixes.
BTW for me, GTA 4 was the straw that ended up breaking it again LOL. The newer 360's have smaller processor dies, and slightly improved cooling, as well as more effective methods of keeping the chips attached to the board.
I used the nylon + metal washer method on mine, and fiddled around with varying amounts of pressure, washers etc etc
The newest itineration of the Xbox has signifigantly improved cooling and even more efficient power usage, but even the latest update before that is pretty much free of the RROD problems.