The pic above shows the board in question, with the chip part of a rumoured redesign for the Xbox 360 console, testing of which has recently been completed in China. This isn’t simply a new board for the existing hardware, either; it’s reportedly a total redesign of the console. Think the PS3 Slim, only… for an Xbox 360.
Now, considering the source, there’s every reason to be sceptical of the images, and the info. Then again, with Natal due later this year, rebooting the 360 itself to go along with it would make a lot of sense, especially if a reduction in size could come with a reduction in cost.
What do you think? Legitimate Chinese leak, ala the PS3 Slim, or just some punks pulling a stunt?
Update: Removed erroneous information about Intel chipsets.
XBOX360新款主机蓄势待发 [A9VG, thanks Yang Bo!]
Justin Robson
March 17, 2010 at 6:30 PM
If there’s no more RRoD, when my current Xbox dies, I’d probably replace it with one of these… that is if it’s not phony. I would have thought Micropoo would have done this years ago, by the way.
Report PermalinkJason Oliver
March 17, 2010 at 9:33 PM
I thought a remodelling would be a while off actually, the PS3 slim is kind of unique – most mark II units come much later in a console’s lifespan, still to launch a redesigned unit with Natal makes a lot of sense
Report Permalinkopm881
March 18, 2010 at 3:57 PM
Its not that late for a slimmer model to be released of the 360. It was released in Nov of 2005 remeber, and the ps2 slim came out 4 yrs after the ps2. Considering there hasnt been any official announcement about the 360slim, and the fact that natal’s release date is simply “for christmas 2010″ then the release of the 360slim will be closer to 5 yrs after the original 360 release.
Report Permalinkalinos
March 26, 2010 at 2:37 PM
then theres also the fact that they want this generation to last 10+yrs
which means its about time for the mark 2 console
also makes more sense they w8 to release it
Ps3 slim was kinda early in the lifespan this time tho
they should make the 360Slim require a HDD tho
Report Permalinkthat requirement is still holding the 360 back IMO
Jay
March 17, 2010 at 6:50 PM
If they can cut their costs even more to make a juicier profit, like the Wii – then they could sell the Natal at a consumer happy price (which means making a loss) and it wouldn’t hurt so bad.
Especially with the rise of sales of consoles when Natal ships… could even be some Natal+360 SKU that they keep denying.
I dunno if i would trade my current Xbox in for a Slim if released this year, i havent even had my newest model for 8 months! And for the record, no technical difficulties resulted in me buying a newer 360 – storage and motherboard were the reasons! Luckily i’ve never had a dead 360 on any of my 2 consoles :)
Report Permalinkalinos
March 26, 2010 at 2:39 PM
how is storage or motherboard not a technical issue
motherboard implies something broke or you broke it
and storage its called get a HDD for it not a new console
Report Permalinkplmko
March 17, 2010 at 8:02 PM
All the PS3 slim achieved was allowing themselves to catch up to Xbox sales levels.
Would the Xbox slim do anything given that its a saturated market?
If anything this would be more along the lines of trying to take a clean slate and start off their new model as the new Wii.
Report PermalinkJay
March 18, 2010 at 12:22 AM
ALSO a reply to “jim smith”
i agree with plmko here – Sony used that strategy (earlier than expected) to catch up in sales. People did complain a lot about the size of the PS3 but mainly the price.
Sony used the Slim as a way to drop the price. Obviously it was cheaper to manufacture & all – but by bringing out a Slim it was also a big “NEWWWWW PS3 SLIM + PRICE DROP”
It appealed more to consumers and it worked.
The problem with “it did wonders for PS3 so MS has no reason…” is that, MS aren’t lacking sales with the 360 and would a Slim really lower the price of making the 360 so that MS can drop the price for consumers. I see it only to increase the profit for them – the 360 is cheap enough really…
I dunno, all it is, is speculation right now! See what happens, but i do see a SLim coming eventually. The size of the 360 IMO fits the shape etc.. and i know its not all about THAT. If it means a profit etc… they’ll take a certain route. But judging on looks, the PS3 slim does look nice (minus the finish) but a Slim 360 may look a tad weird.
Report Permalinkalinos
March 26, 2010 at 2:43 PM
Slim would also loose the RROD Concept that is inherently tied to the 360 as it is even if its now moved on the fact is its still a contributing factor
The PS3 slim may have picked up hardware sales but it was also right before all the good games started to pop up since by then MS had run out of its bloodmoney to pay everycompany to make games exclusive
but eh PS3 is basically a Blu ray player for me nowadays except for the stuff i cant pick up on PC
and as such i havent seen enough games to warrant the purchase of a 360( an Halo is not a reason hasnt been since halo 2)
Report PermalinkStinky
March 17, 2010 at 8:30 PM
That would be pretty cool, but the mobo pic is totally an ITX PC board.
Report Permalinkjim smith
March 17, 2010 at 9:12 PM
slim 360 would make sense with a natal relaunch.
it did wonders for PS3 so MS has no reason not to follow suit.
Report PermalinkHayview
March 17, 2010 at 9:50 PM
Where the Chinese get their information is beyond me, they prematurely enveiled the PSP 3000 and the PS3 slim, im 99% sure that this Xbox slim cross section is real.
Report PermalinkPeter Richards
March 17, 2010 at 10:09 PM
The main reason to be skeptical is the CoolerMaster fan on there – I find that highly unlikely. We know they are working on a new mainboard, there was a job ad for it, but it is probably a ways off and will possibly be for the natal launch.
Report PermalinkGlen Bruton
March 26, 2010 at 10:07 PM
its an engineering sample. they are just slapping any old cooler on there to keep it going.
Report PermalinkMichael Barnes
March 17, 2010 at 10:52 PM
ouhhh i wonder what a redesigned 360 would look like!
Report PermalinkJordaan Mylonas
March 17, 2010 at 11:52 PM
The PS3 needed a slim, it was the black monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The 360 is a decent size already, nobody is really crying out for a slim other that people with more dollars than sense.
Report PermalinkReece McPherson
March 18, 2010 at 12:42 AM
Well I just went and had more heatsinks and an internal fan put in my Xbox 360.
Wouldn’t need this anyway.
Report Permalinksemperfid
March 18, 2010 at 1:44 AM
Thats a PC board
How many jumper slots does the board want??
current 360 only uses 2…one for HD and the other for dvd drive..i count at least 10 there
This board is probrably out of one of their table tablet thingys
Report PermalinkSabmac
March 18, 2010 at 3:55 AM
I wonder if these ones will explode marvelously. It will make for a better spectacle than weak, uninteresting melting.
Report PermalinkNaKAhi70
March 18, 2010 at 10:14 AM
I have one of those heat extracting fan things for my 360, so it’s always cool, but ust incase RRoD does happen and this is the real deal I might get it. As long as specs are the same (or better) and it’s not going to have a ridiculous price.
Report PermalinkEl Phantasmogoro
March 18, 2010 at 11:23 AM
The heat sink is too big for a tablet and the USB and other ports aren’t in very good positions for it.
This may or may not be real. I’m thinking that if it is, being a prototype for testing, they’ve retrofitted a PC mainboard for testing and if all goes to plan, they can start mass producing the proper redesign. After all, the 360 mainboard is more or less a PC mainboard anyway.
Report PermalinkSkarteh
March 18, 2010 at 2:26 PM
Haha Coolermaster Heatsink eh :P or just fan?
Thats one fugly board. I know that is going to sound nerdy but I’m so used to PC mainboards I forgot how ugly a generic green one looks :P they’re truly becoming an artform now. The new EVGA Classifieds are sexbomb!
Report PermalinkOdin
March 19, 2010 at 9:55 AM
how would the hdd fit in a slimmer unit?
Report PermalinkBruce Abdul-Raouf
March 19, 2010 at 1:17 PM
My first thought too. Not a huge issue. On the top (when laid flat) I would guess.
Report PermalinkDaniel
March 20, 2010 at 5:10 PM
The 2 ways that I can see this working would be a cartridge style insertion into the front or the back of the unit (the 360 HDD inside a sealed cartridge type thing that slots in and sits flush), or perhaps they’ll forego HDD space entirely for USB enabled hard drives? Plug in your own 500GB drive and off you go. Sure, they’d be shooting themselves in the foot for the whole “make the consumer pay $200 for a $50 hard drive because we encased it in grey plastic”, but it’s a new, slimmer console, maybe they’d take a new approach?
Report PermalinkPeter Richards
March 23, 2010 at 11:38 AM
I doubt it, they have a lot of their security tied to their own hard drive setup. I don’t see a problem with where you would put a drive on a slimmer 360 anyway, it could go anywhere.
I’m not sure we would see a new case design, or if we did it may not be any smaller, you still have to fit the DVD drive in the case, and the heatsink, so it can’t be much smaller than the current model. I think it will be the same size case, perhaps a bit smaller, just that the board will take up less space inside it. This would be more a cost-cut measure than anything, no memory card slots, one chip and one heatsink, smaller board, less components all equals cheaper to manufacture and ship.
Report PermalinkMichael Barnes
March 21, 2010 at 6:38 PM
Who says its a 360 board? Maybe its Microsoft’s NEXT gen console prototype board.
Report Permalinkdude87
March 22, 2010 at 8:13 PM
it looks very similar to the motherboards that are in present xbox360. Looks like they only included one port for the memory sticks and one front USB(bottom right)- that is, unless they have 2 of each stacked on top of each other to save space. The top portion of the pic… I recognize almost everything: Power-out, Video-out, USB… but what is at the top right? Maybe this system will have wireless N capabilities?
Report PermalinkPeter Richards
March 23, 2010 at 11:33 AM
Top right would be the power connector. The latest dash update allows you to use USB sticks for gamesaves etc. so they can do away with memory card slots altogether really. Saves them a dollar on the connectors and board real-estate.
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