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New Xbox 360 S Uses Less Power, Makes Less Noise
Vigile writes "Microsoft unveiled a new Xbox 360 S console at E3 this month, and without delay the new machine has been dissected and tested. The most dramatic change is the move to a single-chip CPU/GPU hybrid processor that is apparently being built on the 45nm process technology from GlobalFoundries, AMD's spun-off production facilities. With the inclusion of the new processor, the Xbox 360 S uses much less power (about 30-40%) compared to previous generation machines, and also turns out to be much quieter as a result of a single, larger fan. This article has photographic evidence of the teardown, with comparisons between this Valhalla platform and the older Falcon system, along with videos of the reconstruction process and noise comparisons."
The new console also takes measures to protect itself from overheating, so RRoDs shouldn't be a problem with this revision.
The new console also takes measures to protect itself from overheating, so RRoDs shouldn't be a problem with this revision.
They shouldn't have been a problem with any revision.
It scratches DVDs if you move the console while it's operating, which we all learned not to do at the start of this console generation.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
a teardown to PCB level of a new large revision of a gaming device isnt news for nerds?
Sure /. could have given it a better title, but TFA is actually quite interesting
As for the slim machine, if i didnt already have two 360's, i might consider getting this, less noise and all, but as it is, i have enough gaming hardware.
And still slightly annoyed by the fact that this probably means no new xbox for two more years or so..
People, what a bunch of bastards
Just because people have lowered their standards and accept such defects doesn't make them any better.
New Xbox 360 S Uses Less Power, Makes Less Noise
...Has Less Cooling, Still Overheats
Why is it all hardware is set by default to run just barely below the overheat point? It just makes it more likely to die, sitting at those temperatures and then you have to replace it... wait, answered my own question.
Just because people have lowered their standards and accept such defects doesn't make them any better.
Microsoft has upped their standards. Up yours!
I don't understand the problem of your rant. If you want to play XBox software, then you buy an XBox. If you want to play XBox 360 software, then you buy an XBox 360. I understand that people can be a bit disappointed in the fact that the backwards compatibility of the XBox 360 isn't all that MS made it out to be, but since you already appear to have a bunch of old XBoxes lying around, I really don't see the relevance of your rant in the context of this article. MS ain't exactly hurting you with the release of the 360 S.
I really wonder about this, The sole reason everyone was moving their 360 was because of the gravity orientation on the 'Ring of light' anyway, has anyone ever tried rotating a ps1/ps2/saturn/dreamcast/gamecube/xbox in the same way?
i'd say the disc scratching is a non-issue, sure some pads would be nice, but any carefull gamer wouldnt move a running console around anyway..
People, what a bunch of bastards
Should MS really cover every violation of common sense? I don't really consider this to be a defect - the XBox360 was not designed as a portable platform, and as such there is a reasonable expectation that the unit should never be moved when in operation.
Less cooling my arse. It has a much larger heat-sink and a proper 120mm fan bolted right on top of it. It's got comparable cooling to my enthusiast desktop. Not to mention the simple, inescapable thermodynamic certainty that a machine that is consuming less electrical power will produce less heat.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
a) That was a demo model, not a production model.
I doubt it. The Xbox360 Slim was on sale just days later. It would be pretty retard to use a prototype instead of finished hardware for presentation when the final hardware is ready.
b) It's a bad idea to move anything that has a spinning disc in it, from harddisks, to dvd-players, whatever.
Yeah, so what. Fact remains the Xbox360 is the only console in history that is famous for destroying discs. It was never an issue with any other console, not even with the Xbox1. And Microsoft has known this for the last five years, yet refuses to do anything about it (no, warning sticker doesn't count).
c) Why would you need to move your console while it's running anyway?
It is not about need, it is about stuff that happens in real life use. Cats might bump into it, people might trip over cables or maybe you just bump the console a little while you try to insert a USB connector. Just see the destructoid video, guy wants to get a closer look, lifts it up, Alan Wake goes bye-bye. He shouldn't have done it, but neither should the Xbox360 destroyed the disc.
Since when is moving a unit while a disc is spinning a good idea? I've always assumed such a thing isn't a good plan. At the speeds those discs spin, there is going to be a non-trivial amount of gyroscopic force. Given that with normal DVD drives like you find in desktop computers and DVD players and the 360 the disc just floats on the spindle, movement wouldn't be good.
Now something like a laptop drive is more designed for that sort of thing, it grips the disc directly and has less room for it to move around. Of course there's tradeoffs including a higher cost, and lower speeds. However even then I try to keep the thing sitting still when it is reading something.
Just because something can't resist any and everything doesn't mean it has a "defect". There are real physical issues you have to contend with. My car won't survive a 40mph impact with a wall, it will crumple to the point it is destroyed. However, it isn't defective (in fact it is designed to fail so that the bodies inside it do not).
the XBox360 was not designed as a portable platform
A lot of platforms that aren't ostensibly portable get used as such. Case in point: a game console run off an inverter in a minivan or RV for 3-hour road trips. These subject a machine to whatever road vibration the suspension doesn't absorb.
If something like this came out five years ago, it would have been more expensive than a PLAYSTATION 3 was at the time.
Because customers like their hardware fast, cheap, small, and quiet?
Indeed, the ideal woman.
My friend moved his 360 while Gears of War was running and it left a huge gash in the disc. He tried playing the game and could only play multiplayer, so he gave it the toothpaste treatment. After that, he could only play single player. Toothpaste again, only multiplayer. After that, he had to toothpaste it depending what he felt like playing.
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I have around 170 retail XBox 360 games, I've had 4 XBox's due to 3 RROD failures in the early years. I've had my dog knock my console over whilst playing once or twice and have knocked it over myself once and since moved it and placed it horizontally.
Through all this I've yet to have a single disc scratch. I suspect to get disc scratching you have to go through some quite speciifc motions, which seems to be what happens in this video- a quick abrupt shake:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdOjzuJByXg
I also suspect that it's something that effects many DVD drives in general as there's nothing specific about the XBox 360's, only most people don't tend to give their DVD player or PC an abrubpt shake.
Just as most people have learnt that putting a device like a mobile phone or an iPod in your pocket along with your keys (the screen will get scratched) is a bad idea, I think this is probably one of those problems that just requires a bit of common sense to solve.
Certainly with all the general wear and tear my 4 XBoxs have faced and the amount of discs that have been through them, the amount of usage they've had, although the RROD has been a frustrating problem until the latest one which seems fine now at around 2 years old, disc scratching has been an absolute non-issue.
If something like a PLAYSTATION 3 had come out five years ago it wold have been more expensive than a PLAYSTATION 3 at the time.
I'm impressed with the clever solution they had to this: replace the red LEDs with green ones. Guaranteed, no more red ring of death. Just don't ask about the green ring of death.
I've seen absolutely no indication whatsoever of anything that backs up your claims (in fact, the game you mention came out before the 360 S, and the Wikipedia article on the topic doesn't contain any instances of the word "Slim"). Older revisions of the 360 are more prone to overheating, don't have built-in WiFi, and may have different ports - for example, the oldest models lack an HDMI port - but their CPUs and GPUs execute the same code at the same speed, they have the same amount of RAM, and they run the same OS* as the new Slim model. Kinect works just fine on older consoles. The new console may look different, but it runs exactly the same games.
* I'm assuming you keep your console's OS up to date, typically done via the Internet but I believe it's possible with a DVD as well. Unless you've modded your console, the update process is completely trivial. If you *have* modded it, they *you* are the one with the XBox 365 (or perhaps 355), not "Microcrap" (as you so very maturely refer to the company whose product you chose to purchase).
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And if something like the Playstation 3 had come out 500 years ago, it would have caused cries of "DEMONIC SORCERY!" and led to a witch hunt.
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That's the Only reason I bought a 360. I had a PS3 already, but I wanted to get some gaming done with my local friends. All the folks with whom I played PC games had moved 2 time zones away and it was hard to schedule gaming time. All the local people had 360s and were playing Halo 3 and Gears of War. Before that I never would have considered playing an FPS on a console.
It turns out I have a lot of fun with the 360 and play on it by myself as much as I do on the PS3. I've learned not to be a snob when it comes to consoles because the only person losing out would be me.
I'm 2 years running into my 20 gig Xbox 360 unit. I really wish Microsoft would reduce the hard drive add-on prices to more realistic levels. The casing around the HD can't cost THAT much. It would almost be better to just buy the new slim unit(that has over 10 times the hard drive space I have) than to buy the 250 gig drive alone.
I could buy a 1 terabyte drive for my system for less than they charge for a 120 gig unit.
I've owned my XBox 360 for almost 3 years now and I've never had it fail on me or so much as even crash. I dunno what if I'm doing things right or other people are doing things wrong...
Disclaimer: I own gaming consoles from many different companies (Atari, Sega, Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, etc), and although I use Windows 7 on my gaming rig, I have Ubuntu running on everything else.
but after Vista and the 360 RRoD problems, they've gone back to being a joke in my eyes
That's a shame. Windows 7 and everything from the Falcon revision or later for the 360 have been solid, well-made products. For me, the 360 was worth it for a few reasons:
1. Exclusives. There are some Xbox Live Arcade exclusives ('Splosion Man, Trials HD, and Shadow Complex alone are almost worth the price of the console) and some retail exclusives (Fable II and soon III, the Crackdown series, Chromehounds, Dead Rising, etc.)
2. The controller. I know that the dual shock is considered to be the "pinnacle" of controller design...but fuck that. I've always found it to be a bit awkward to hold, and slightly too small. The 360 controller is, aside from the horrendous d-pad, just about perfect. YMMV, of course.
3. This no longer applies, but keep in mind that the 360 was the first 7th gen console that was released, and ushered in a new era in complexity for consoles (admittedly, complexity that we PC gamers had enjoyed for nearly a decade, but still...it was exciting.) My time spent with friends when the 360 first launched are some great memories, so even though the console is only five years old, I already have nostalgia associated with it.
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If by strategy you mean "trying to get tax discounts in the EU and failing," then yes.
You're confusing Other OS on the PS3 with Basic on the PS2. As I understand it, Other OS was there to get developers familiar with the Cell architecture, which Sony planned to use in all sorts of consumer electronics devices. Cell's seven integrated DSPs were supposed to be the future of signal processing until someone figured out how to "abuse" the GPU to act as a generic DSP. This led to CUDA and eventually OpenCL, the decline of Cell, and no more need for Other OS.
I've had mine for over four years and about a month and a half ago I got the dreaded RROD. The only thing I've noticed I do differently as compared to friends is I never had it sit vertically. It was always sitting flat.
A friend of mine is on his twentieth xbox. All RROD. Of course, he plays it a hell of a lot more than I do, but still... that's getting ridiculous.
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Are you sure about that? Hairdryers consume a LOT of power, take a look at the meter when you're using the dryer since you'll see it speed up massively. I doubt the 360 draws as much even in its old incarnation.
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