Xbox 360 slim hardware thread

AzBat said:
Yep.

Anand has done a tear down...

http://www.anandtech.com/Gallery/Album/708

Tommy McClain
Click to expand...

Interesting they went with a full sized DVD drive again. I'm going to guess it includes sound and vibration deadening material inside as well as whatever else was done to reduce noise when the DVD drive is at full speed.

There's be no way to reduce noise of a 12x slim DVD drive.

Looks like they could have made the new 360 S a lot smaller if they had wanted to sacrifice noise. Slim (but noisy DVD drive) and smaller but noisier CPU cooling solution might have cut another 3/4-1 inch off the "height" (when laying flat).

Regards,
SB
 
AzBat said:
More pics there, but they're all small with big the watermark.

http://solomods.com/2010250gb.html
Click to expand...

Wow, that video was hilarious on so many levels. First, really? In 2010? We still have people cutting open a panel and replacing it with plexi and neon? Really? And second.. That video shows just how incredibly absurd it is to have your console in a vertical orientation when the drive is horizontal.

It took him forever to gingerly take the RDR disc out of the drive and the console is shaking back and forth the entire time. Who really keeps their consoles in that orientation? My workstation at work is actually like that, but I only live with it because I've only accessed the dvd drive twice in 3 years.

It's just silly all the way around.
 
Here's a video of everything already torn apart.

 
RancidLunchmeat said:
Wow, that video was hilarious on so many levels. First, really? In 2010? We still have people cutting open a panel and replacing it with plexi and neon? Really? And second.. That video shows just how incredibly absurd it is to have your console in a vertical orientation when the drive is horizontal.

It took him forever to gingerly take the RDR disc out of the drive and the console is shaking back and forth the entire time. Who really keeps their consoles in that orientation? My workstation at work is actually like that, but I only live with it because I've only accessed the dvd drive twice in 3 years.

It's just silly all the way around.
Click to expand...

LOL, Hey I like mine vertical. Never had it horizontal. Don't have any problems putting my DVDs in.

BTW, I just realized that one ports isn't on the retail board...

13642225.jpg


It's most likely the Kinect port. They probably had the original Ethernet/USB connectors 2 ports to the right. Then decided to replace the USB port with the Kinect port on the retail version.

EDIT: Nope there is something there. What the heck is it? It's not accessible outside the case is it?

_DSC4551.jpg


EDIT 2: It's the Wifi adapter...

_DSC4520.jpg


_DSC4524.jpg


:oops:

Tommy McClain
 
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Grall said:
Just wanted to point out that the CPU design used in the xenon (and Cell) was never used in any Apple product at all, nor any other personal computer whatsoever. It's not a derivative of any of the G-series PowerPC chips.

So Apple couldn't have moved away from it, since they never used it! :p
Click to expand...
Bleah, it's close enough that we were using Macs for early xbox 360 prototyping and kernel development. :)
 
Slim VS Slim pics...

rljb7o.jpg


v7tlit.jpg


27zg020.jpg


PS3 looks thinner in height. But the 360 looks thinner in width & depth. A bit of a wash. Though the PS3 looks cleaner on the back with the ports.

Tommy McClain
 
RancidLunchmeat said:
That video shows just how incredibly absurd it is to have your console in a vertical orientation when the drive is horizontal.

It took him forever to gingerly take the RDR disc out of the drive and the console is shaking back and forth the entire time. Who really keeps their consoles in that orientation? My workstation at work is actually like that, but I only live with it because I've only accessed the dvd drive twice in 3 years.

It's just silly all the way around.
Click to expand...

Um..it's not silly at all. DVD drives made for desktop PCs have pretty much always allowed vertical operation/mounting even though most desktops have them horizontal. This is possible because they use a clamping mechanism on the disc. Standing the console vertical means it has a tiny footprint that's why many people like myself have the console standing vertical...same philosophy behind PC towers. I hardly ever use the eject button on the console, I usually use the controller.
 
Kotaku said:
UPDATE - According to Microsoft's support team, while the console won't display a "red ring" in times of hardware failure, it will still clearly indicate an error by switching its power indicator (the light in the centre of the ring) from green to red. So we'll get a red...dot of death instead. RDoT. It has a certain ring about it, no?
500x_reddot.jpg
Click to expand...

Now we will have RDOT or 1 Red Light. LOL

Tommy McClain
 
It looks like they have significantly reduced the complexity of their board, anyone wanna take a stab/educated stab/knowledgeable and honest leak of the cost of one of these things to make?

Is it fair to say its about $40 cheaper?
 
Microsoft is probably paying about $4 for their X360 motherboards nowdays LOL.

I've heard lots of complaints about MS sourcing cheap components, and as far down the cost curve as they are now, I bet they're very cheap.

Cant wait for Anand to measure the chips and tear that heatspreader off next.

It's kind of disappointing the cost savings evident here (CPU+GPU combined on one package, presumably 40nm process according to Anand), yet no 50 dollar price drop.

Hopefully MS makes it worth it by springing "now bundled with kinect for the same low price!" or something in the fall, but early indications go the other direction.

MS gaming divisions has been profitable going on three years now, and with these further savings, I've got to figure the hardware is pretty profitable, and the same on Kinect if the 149 pricing is right.
 
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Rangers said:
Microsoft is probably paying about $4 for their X360 motherboards nowdays LOL.
Click to expand...

What does that include? Just the traces and PCB?

It's kind of disappointing the cost savings evident here (CPU+GPU combined on one package, presumably 40nm process according to Anand), yet no 50 dollar price drop.
Click to expand...

They still have to get rid of their old stock! Patience please! :D

Hopefully MS makes it worth it by springing "now bundled with kinect for the same low price!" or something in the fall, but early indications go the other direction.
Click to expand...

Which indications?

MS gaming divisions has been profitable going on three years now, and with these further savings, I've got to figure the hardware is pretty profitable, and the same on Kinect if the 149 pricing is right.
Click to expand...

I personally don't trust the $150 figure. It seems like a price which errs on the high side in order to take pre-orders. They can't say $90 or whatever then come out later with a price which is $30 more for instant, they'd have to sell it for the price they listed it as. Possibly Microsoft said "Less than $149 or equal to that number" for pre-order purposes.
 
Indicatons like the 149.99 pre order price of Kinect at every major retailer, and the rumored 399 X360+Kinect bundle, which I think also showed up on some websites for preorder.

And I dont buy the "149 is a retailer placeholder" thing. It's now 149.99 at Best Buy, at Amazon, and Gamestop. That's more than coincidence. While I can believe the final price of Kinect isn't nailed down, I cant believe 149 isnt the figure MS is giving these major retailers, even if it's just a trial ballon as I suspect.
 
I'd imagine that has to be Kinect + Game. It would be stupid to sell just Kinect by itself.

And that would give more credence to rumors of a 360 + Kinect package being 100 USD more than just the 360 by itself.

In other words, possibly 100-110 for Kinect hardware then 40-49 for the game. But since it's a package deal, we'll only ever see 149 for Kinect. Assuming that's the correct price which seems more and more likely.

Regards,
SB
 
I saw the pictures, although I could not understand if this new motherboard still has those 512MB flash memory built in.
Does it still has 512MB flash or has it been removed?
 
menmau said:
I saw the pictures, although I could not understand if this new motherboard still has those 512MB flash memory built in.
Does it still has 512MB flash or has it been removed?
Click to expand...

Noticed that myself. Doesn't look like it & there doesn't look like there is any place for them either. Might be evidence of one of 2 things: 1) a different motherboard for the upcoming Arcade replacement, or 2) the Arcade replacement will come with a hard drive.

Anand got his tech article up...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3774/welcome-to-valhalla-inside-the-new-250gb-xbox-360-slim

He wouldn't take the heat spreader off...

Anand said:
It’s not totally clear whether Microsoft is building these chips on a 40nm, 45nm or 55nm node. The 40nm approach would make the most sense but TSMC is very capacity constrained at this point so it would be a slow ramp before all Xboxes got the Valhalla treatment.

The uncertainty is because of a pesky heat spreader. While previous Xbox 360 CPU/GPUs were visible to the naked eye once you popped the heatsink off, the Valhalla design has a heat spreader covering the Xbox CGPU (Microsoft’s term, not mine). Unwilling to potentially kill yet another Xbox 360, I’ve left my heat spreader intact for the purposes of this article.
Click to expand...

CGPU.jpg


Tommy McClain
 
Now, who will be the first to sacrifice one to tear up the heatspreader to see what lies underneath?
 
Kaotik said:
Now, who will be the first to sacrifice one to tear up the heatspreader to see what lies underneath?
Click to expand...

Hopefully one of the hundreds who were given one during E3. This way, it won't be a complete conflict of interest :) I'd love to see Engadget tear it up and see what lies on the inside, if they haven't already :LOL:

One thing I'm interested in seeing most is the DVD Drive. Does anyone know if they've added anything to help keep the disc secure?
 
tha_con said:
One thing I'm interested in seeing most is the DVD Drive. Does anyone know if they've added anything to help keep the disc secure?
Click to expand...

To keep it from scratching discs or pirate protection? If the former, no, it still scratches them. If the latter, no idea. You're probably better off checking Xbox-Scene.

Tommy McClain
 
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