[Squilliam]

Originally Posted by AzBat

Yeah, but they still didn't take off the heat spreader.

Tommy McClain

Its not the taking off which is the problem, its putting the heat spreader back on!

[AzBat]

If the current Slim motherboard lacks room for flash memory like the current Arcade's motherboard, then does that not suggest that either the new Arcade will get a hard drive or at least a USB thumb drive? I'm leaning to the former.

I'm also coming around to the idea that there will only be 2 SKUs come Holiday 2010. 1 SKU with Kinect & 1 SKU without Kinect. They are going to keep targeting the the core gamers with a non-Kinect bundle. Still struggling which one will have a hard drive and what the price will be. But if they stick with the $200 Slim model like they said this past week, then it may not have Kinect. Then the $300 model would. But then again, if Kinect is cheaper than $150, then they could blow everybody away & release a Kinect bundle at $200. I don't really see that happening though. The Kinect bundle will probably be between $250 & $300. There is also no point in selling a +$300 Kinect bundle with the maxed out specs. Only core gamers care for the maxed out specs and they are most likely not going to be buying Kinect(right away at least).

Tommy McClain

[obonicus]

Originally Posted by Squilliam

Its not the taking off which is the problem, its putting the heat spreader back on!

But it's not like they can't go back and buy a new one.

[AzBat]

Originally Posted by Squilliam

Its not the taking off which is the problem, its putting the heat spreader back on!

They already went through the pain of taking it apart. Might as well go all the way for the sake of science!

Tommy McClain

[Squilliam]

Originally Posted by obonicus

But it's not like they can't go back and buy a new one.

Ahh so you're volunteering now?!

Originally Posted by AzBat

They already went through the pain of taking it apart. Might as well go all the way for the sake of science!

Tommy McClain

All for the sake of curiosity! In this case curiosity kills the console, or does it?

Anyway, I think we should have a betting pool on how long its going to take for someone to work up the courage.

My bet is two days and 12 hours from now.

[obonicus]

Originally Posted by Squilliam

Ahh so you're volunteering now?!

I don't run a PC enthusiast site. If it were for my job, yes, I'd shell out $299 to completely wreck brand new hardware and get the scoop. Maybe this guy isn't big, but why haven't the bigger names, like AnandTech taken that last step?

[AzBat]

Bunch of wusses. I'm still surprised nobody from the mod scene have done it.

Tommy McClain

[Shifty Geezer]

Originally Posted by AzBat

If the current Slim motherboard lacks room for flash memory like the current Arcade's motherboard, then does that not suggest that either the new Arcade will get a hard drive or at least a USB thumb drive? I'm leaning to the former.

That would defeat the point in having an optional HDD in the first place! All cost saving measures to get the cheapest entry-level possible. Maybe they'd be banking on buyers having a USB stick of their own? I think that's fairly reasonable.

[Silent_Buddha]

Originally Posted by AzBat

There is also no point in selling a +$300 Kinect bundle with the maxed out specs. Only core gamers care for the maxed out specs and they are most likely not going to be buying Kinect(right away at least).

Tommy McClain

That's a very interesting point and makes quite a bit of sense. So it's quite possible that for this holiday season we'll see the new X360 S, X360 cheap version (arcade) and X360 Kinect bundle.

Probably with the Kinect bundle coming in at 299 just like the X360 S or maybe in between at 249. That'd be pretty attractive also. 199 "arcade", 249 Kinect system bundle, and 299 X360 S.

Regards,
SB

[Dr Evil]

Originally Posted by AzBat

Bunch of wusses. I'm still surprised nobody from the mod scene have done it.

Tommy McClain

The text says that they have actually attemted to remove the heat spreader, but haven't been able to, maybe it's superglued or something

[Rangers]

Originally Posted by Dr Evil

The text says that they have actually attemted to remove the heat spreader, but haven't been able to, maybe it's superglued or something

I assumed the "attempted" meant "gingerly enough to avoid hurting our console".

I mean, even if it ripped off the top half of the die or something, you'd still be able to see what was going on down there if you got it off. I just assume nobody want to wreck their 299 X360 right now.

[Rangers]

Hmm, is this new (meaning, did old 360's have this capability)? The unit now shuts down, along with a red dot warning, when overheating, possibly preventing RROD? http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/21/n...ead-not-quite/



Reminds me of the iPad and it's overheating messages.

Hmm, on digging in the GAF thread it appears the old boxes may have done something similar http://support.xbox.com/support/en/u...egory=hardware

Also I think this is the first image of slim that really made me want one. Looks nice there.

[Mindfury]

http://www.hotchips.org/program/conference-day-one/

Session 2: SoCS (Session Chair: Christos Kozyrakis, Stanford)
The New Xbox 360 SoC
Authors: Rune Jensen
Affiliations: Microsoft Corporation

[corduroygt]

Would taking one to an airport and putting it in the x-ray machine work?

[Scott_Arm]

x-rays are cheap. I pay about $120 to have a BGA part removed and replaced, which includes an x-ray after placement. The x-ray is a minor cost in the whole thing. I'm not sure what you'd be able to see. I don't look at them often.

[(((interference)))]

I want a slim!
Too bad, I just bought a new 360 this Jan (funnily enough it wasn't RROD related at all, the bag it was in was dropped in transit and some gears in the DVD drive got knocked out of place and it wouldn't open).

Maybe if I can trade my current one in and get a slim for like $100 i'd do it. Or maybe i'll just buy a wi fi adapter, there should be plenty going cheap once people upgrade to slim's making them redundant.

Does anyone know how quiet it is compared to a Jasper? Is it a significant difference, when the DVD drive is not in use?

Also, what's behind that report of load times being quicker on the slim
http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/18/n...-ps3-slim-and/

[AlStrong]

Does drive noise really matter with game install The slim has 250GB....

[BRiT]

The difference between Jasper and Valhalla is 3db load with spinning discs and 5db idle, with power draw difference ~20 watts. The difference between Falcon and Valhalla is 30 watts. I don't remember sound perception measurements, but I think it was something like each 3db is perceived as twice the volume.

EDIT: Found the reviews.

The difference between Falcon and Valhalla ( http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid...e=expert&pid=4 ):



Noise difference:


Now some info on Jasper and Valhalla ( http://www.anandtech.com/show/3774/w...box-360-slim/3 ):

[Graham]

Originally Posted by AzBat

If the current Slim motherboard lacks room for flash memory like the current Arcade's motherboard, then does that not suggest that either the new Arcade will get a hard drive or at least a USB thumb drive? I'm leaning to the former.

I imagine they will put a ~ 2GB flash drive in place of the USB wifi adapter.

Looking at the tear downs, it's pretty clear MS have improved the build quality quite significantly. While it's not on the level of the PS3, it's a significant improvement.

[menmau]

Originally Posted by Graham

I imagine they will put a ~ 2GB flash drive in place of the USB wifi adapter.

Looking at the tear downs, it's pretty clear MS have improved the build quality quite significantly. While it's not on the level of the PS3, it's a significant improvement.

Could you please enlighten me in which ways the new Xbox 360 motherboard has a lower build quality than PS3?
One I can notice is almost all capacitor are solid.
Sorry but I do not know much in this area.

[Graham]

Sorry I shouldn't have used the term 'build quality'.
And I didn't specifically mean the motherboard, more the design and construction of the system as a whole. The 360 S appears to be a vast improvement, however I'm still amazed how sony managed to cram so much into the PS3 chassis. The use of the available space is exceptional.

Of course ultimately it doesn't really matter, but it's still interesting

[Silent_Buddha]

Originally Posted by Graham

Sorry I shouldn't have used the term 'build quality'.
And I didn't specifically mean the motherboard, more the design and construction of the system as a whole. The 360 S appears to be a vast improvement, however I'm still amazed how sony managed to cram so much into the PS3 chassis. The use of the available space is exceptional.

Of course ultimately it doesn't really matter, but it's still interesting

The PS3 Slim from the comparison photos should have just a little less internal space than the X360. When horizontal it's a tiny bit shorter, but wider and longer. The curved top allows them to somewhat mold the PS3 around the tallest component (the heatsink).

If MS had used a slim drive (noiser), smaller side mounted fans on the heatsink (noisier), and a less bulky HDD cage they probably could have cut another 1/2 inch off the height (when horizontal). MS decided to sacrifice a bit of size to make the system quieter. Probably the correct choice considering the blurb I read on Anandtech has the system 5 db lower when in use than Jasper.

Regards,
SB

[RudeCurve]

Yep MS could've made the system even smaller but it would probably cost more. They'd need to use a laptop DVD drive and low profile copper heatsink and fan. My PC internals fit inside of a 1U chassis and it has PCI slots and vertical DIMMs so I don't see why the internals of the new Xbox couldn't if it used a slim DVD drive like my PC.

[(((interference)))]

Does anyone have a slim yet?
If they do, try and see whether games load quicker

[BadTB25]

Originally Posted by (((interference)))

Does anyone have a slim yet?
If they do, try and see whether games load quicker

I have one and it appears to load not only games but the Dashboard items quicker. I can't do a more detailed analysis as my launch unit is dead, but it certainly seems to load everything quicker from what I could remember.

Texas Hold'Em arcade definitely loads much quicker as the game is usually loaded before all 5 cards of the splash menu completes its animation. It used to take a couple of seconds after the completion of the animation from what I recall.

It is also very quiet--actually more quiet than my MGS4 edition PS3 which has gotten quite a bit louder than when I first got it.