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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.
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.
Just because people have lowered their standards and accept such defects doesn't make them any better.
Microsoft has upped their standards. Up yours!
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?
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.
I was only 28,931 registrations away from having a 6-digit UID
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.
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'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...
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.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.