Europeans: your x360 impressions so far please.
- Thread starter Guden Oden
- Start date
When you push the power switch on the console to turn it off the fans and optical drive stop. I assume the CPU/GPU turns off. There's still power delivered to the USB connectors though because I briefly had one of those backlit keyboards connected to type in XBL registration info, and the backlight was glowing even though power was 'off'.
I don't think it draws very much power though because I have one of those 'smart' switched powerstrips where if power draw from the master socket is less than 5W, the slave sockets switch off via a relay. If I turn the x360 off, the slave sockets turn off as well. This isn't a particulary accurate method of investigation I know, as the powerstrip might not be calibrated to exactly 5W. It might be more, or less.
Anyway, 5W is pretty insignificant when a standard incandescent light bulb is 75-100W. I suppose over a year it might amount to some amount of money, but if power is too expensive it's probably better to not play a hungry machine like the x360 at all.
I don't think it draws very much power though because I have one of those 'smart' switched powerstrips where if power draw from the master socket is less than 5W, the slave sockets switch off via a relay. If I turn the x360 off, the slave sockets turn off as well. This isn't a particulary accurate method of investigation I know, as the powerstrip might not be calibrated to exactly 5W. It might be more, or less.
Anyway, 5W is pretty insignificant when a standard incandescent light bulb is 75-100W. I suppose over a year it might amount to some amount of money, but if power is too expensive it's probably better to not play a hungry machine like the x360 at all.
Does it have a master power switch in the back and a soft power in the front (so that the remote could turn it on and off)?
Maybe you have to keep it on standby to keep the clock accurate? If they're smart, they would just have the system clock sync whenever it has an online connection with a time server.
Maybe you have to keep it on standby to keep the clock accurate? If they're smart, they would just have the system clock sync whenever it has an online connection with a time server.
No. But then again, the power supply is external so that's where they'd really need to put the master power switch. Except there isn't one there EITHER. You wanna unplug it you have to pull the plug on it.wco81 said:
I'd think there is a battery in it...
Standby power to USB sockets lis likely so you can recharge the controllers and such even with the console off.
It actually does this already.
Well, it does it when you log in to Live at least, but that's almost the same thing.scooby_dooby
Legend
the original xbox had a capacitor that would hold teh clock for a few hours after being unplugged, any longer than that and it would go blank. It also ran in standby otherwise the clock would've been reset after any long periods of being off, it also didn't have a master power off switch, so nothing new.
Guden Oden said:
Thats exactly what its there for, so the play and charge kit will recharge the battery after you turn off the console.
However, they only stay powered on if the USB device is plugged into the 360 at the time you turn it OFF. If you turn it off then plug something in to a USB port later it wont get power.
I havent tested it thoroughly but this is the way it was described to work on Major Nelson's blog, by him, from the accessory team.
Finally checked out my friend's box with his ~2m screen projector and 8.2 system. Quite impressive setup
It's a core system, haven't seen any Live or BC stuff yet, only Gotham and Kameo. The first has very nice lighting, cool 3D sound, and an amazing sense of speed (and not just for forward movement, I've kept preparing for sliding out of the sofa in sharp turns. He says the game isn't much of a challange though. Some aliasing is there, and lack of AF can be bothering if you know to look for it.
Kameo isn't exactly to my tastes but it does look pretty cool. I guess the colors are too disney-ish and oversaturated to me... but technically it's pretty impressive. Better AA than PGR, and some funny stuff in the game.
Anyone complaining about lack of next-gen stuff should compare it with a PS2/Xbox on at least a good LCD HDTV setup to see how wrong he is. And it's obvious that there's a lot more room to grow.
The console is very noisy, it's quite embarassing. I hope MS can get a new revision out soon that runs more silent. My PC is still louder though... Oh and no hw problems so far.
It's a core system, haven't seen any Live or BC stuff yet, only Gotham and Kameo. The first has very nice lighting, cool 3D sound, and an amazing sense of speed (and not just for forward movement, I've kept preparing for sliding out of the sofa in sharp turns
. He says the game isn't much of a challange though. Some aliasing is there, and lack of AF can be bothering if you know to look for it.Kameo isn't exactly to my tastes but it does look pretty cool. I guess the colors are too disney-ish and oversaturated to me... but technically it's pretty impressive. Better AA than PGR, and some funny stuff in the game.
Anyone complaining about lack of next-gen stuff should compare it with a PS2/Xbox on at least a good LCD HDTV setup to see how wrong he is. And it's obvious that there's a lot more room to grow.
The console is very noisy, it's quite embarassing. I hope MS can get a new revision out soon that runs more silent. My PC is still louder though... Oh and no hw problems so far.
wco81 said:
No, none of that.
It draws very little amount of power, but it does it 24/7. Just like your TV-set does when in standby mode. To turn it off, you'd need to literaly pull the plug.
A normal TV costs you anywhere between $30-50/year even if you don't turn it on even once, same goes for PC, consoles or whatever you turn on/off with the remote. It has to ba able to wake up when it senses the remote signal, and the circuitry doing that is always awake and draws some little amount of power.
I'd think the circuitry would actually draw VERY little power for the most part, unless it was poorly designed or used some overkill method of reading the IR port (such as a CPU of some sort running a firmware program to check the input). If I was to speculate, I'd think the big consumer would instead likely be the transformer coil in the power supply, as well as other losses there. The transformer coil will always be sucking electricity when connected to the grid; after all there's a coil in it that is physically attached to the wall power socket. Even though a switched PSU has a much smaller transformer than the old passive type, it's still there..._xxx_ said:
You can turn it on or wake from standby with the remote right? (BTW, Logitech is selling an X360 Harmony remote for about $150)
Does the power supply get warm even when it's been on standby for hours?
I guess with wireless, these consoles can be placed in the entertainment center close to the TV (where they may have ventilation problems) as opposed to tethered consoles which you have to place closer to where you sit rather than closer to the TV.
BTW, how is the wireless controller performance? Any lag or interference problems?
I wonder, because there are sometimes a half dozen Wifi networks which can be detected at my home. I don't know what frequency the X360 controllers or the PS3's Bluetooth controllers use (I'm too lazy to look it up) but I wonder about the potential for interference. Then you add cordless phones (some of which also use 2.4 Ghz) into the mix too.
Does the power supply get warm even when it's been on standby for hours?
I guess with wireless, these consoles can be placed in the entertainment center close to the TV (where they may have ventilation problems) as opposed to tethered consoles which you have to place closer to where you sit rather than closer to the TV.
BTW, how is the wireless controller performance? Any lag or interference problems?
I wonder, because there are sometimes a half dozen Wifi networks which can be detected at my home. I don't know what frequency the X360 controllers or the PS3's Bluetooth controllers use (I'm too lazy to look it up) but I wonder about the potential for interference. Then you add cordless phones (some of which also use 2.4 Ghz) into the mix too.
wco81 said:
No problems with the wireless controllers whatsoever. My understanding was that the controllers are using custom 2.4ghz tech nology designed to NOT interfere with the other 2.4ghz devices in the typical consumer home. Theres an interview with Todd Holmdahl of MS i can prolly dig up if you like where he talks a little about it.
No. If it's even slightly above ambient, then it's so little it's barely detectable by the human hand. Even when running full-out my PSU only barely gets a bit warm, and never hot.wco81 said:
I can only say "excellent" in this regard. It feels no different than a corded controller, other than it's heavier than any other gamepad I've ever held, and has no cord of course...
There is some amount of lag naturally, as it wouldn't be technically possible to make it completely lag-less, but it's totally unnoticeable by mere mortals. People rack up millions of points in Geometry Wars using the wireless pad, they couldn't do that if input was even slightly laggy by human standards...
Not noticed any interference, but then again I don't have a wifi network myself (prefer cables since it's cheaper, faster and supremely more convenient when all my computer stuff is in within arm's reach of one another
). MS claims the pad uses 2.4GHz like most other wireless consumer stuff, and also frequency-hops between channels like bluetooth to evade interference. Guess we'll have to see what happens when one places a Rev, a 360 and a PS3 all alongside each other and try to use wireless pads and wifi on all of them...Guden Oden said:
It _is_ a very little amount, but 24/7, 365 days a year.
EDIT: just saw this post from Dave:
http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showpost.php?p=644406&postcount=1
So it's about 1W idle. Feel free to calculate, dunno the costs over there. Seems to be much less than $30, though. I'd say some $5 a year. TV's do need a bit more, AFAICR.
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Solzhenitsyn
Newcomer
Corwin_B said:
I didnt think DoA was on the backwards compatibility list because heaven forbid people might not buy the new game then.
dubyateeeff
Newcomer
I was under the impression that this thing was gonna cost the same as the dollar value + a nine at the end like: Core 2999 kr and Premium 3999kr. However I saw an add for an opening of a new store and they sold 40 cores for 1500kr. Considering the peripheral prices (HDD for 999kr) I figured in the end I would save to little that I would rather sleep in that morning (there were other reasons too). This was on the 6th of december.
A few days later I finally get around to reading the ads that drops in my inbox (real inbox). One large retailer in Sweden sells the box for 2499kr and 3499kr (ElGiganten). That is such a good dollar to swedish crown ratio, together with a quick launch that if they end up putting out some interesting games coupled with a hardware revision I may just buy one.
I would say they have atleast earned a bit mindshare, but Ill wait for PS3 to decide which way to go (likely wait out a second hardware revision for that too, I dont expect it to be silent...).
EDIT: I also saw that wargame, great graphics but another FPS wargames? Give me something new.
A few days later I finally get around to reading the ads that drops in my inbox (real inbox
). One large retailer in Sweden sells the box for 2499kr and 3499kr (ElGiganten). That is such a good dollar to swedish crown ratio, together with a quick launch that if they end up putting out some interesting games coupled with a hardware revision I may just buy one.I would say they have atleast earned a bit mindshare, but Ill wait for PS3 to decide which way to go (likely wait out a second hardware revision for that too, I dont expect it to be silent...).
EDIT: I also saw that wargame, great graphics but another FPS wargames? Give me something new.
Where did they sell core 360s for SKR1500? That's crazy.
Elgiganten and such large department stores often use stuff like consoles etc as "fishing lures" to draw people to the store and shop for other more expensive items (DVDs are often used the same way). Even at recommended retail price there's hardly any profit at all on the units I'll wager.
Elgiganten and such large department stores often use stuff like consoles etc as "fishing lures" to draw people to the store and shop for other more expensive items (DVDs are often used the same way). Even at recommended retail price there's hardly any profit at all on the units I'll wager.
dubyateeeff
Newcomer
Guden Oden said:
SIBA that opened up in Nordstan. There werent any queues there 5pm the day before so I think it would be quite easy to get one. Also PS2 for 799 and a lot of LCDs got a nice pricedrop of 2000kr, but I am not interested in LCD-TVs with good LCD-monitors available (DELL 24" and upcoming 30").
Yeah, I am betting, if they had more X2s they would bundle a lot of them up with the HDTVs.