Rumour: Xbox 360 Slim mobo images leaked
These images are rumoured to be of a new, slimmer Xbox 360 SKU that Microsoft is yet to announce.
Microsoft hasn't yet announced a new Xbox 360 SKU, but rumours of a new 'Valhalla' model have long been circulating, Joystiq reports.
The rumours are strengthened by Microsoft's tentative steps towards new form factors, as hinted by Steve Ballmer, and recent job adverts.
The images come from a Chinese tech forum which says these new motherboard designs are for the rumoured Valhalla project.
If true, the new Xbox 360 would be getting a massive size reduction. Other changes would be a consolidated CPU/GPU, an extra SATA port and a much smaller heatsink.
Microsoft has yet to comment on the images, which we've included below, but you can tell us your thoughts in the forums.
Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyHope they also introduce the option to use standard HDD's like the PS3, rather then having to buy the grossly over priced xbox HDD.
There's no GPU in the picture. The little open thing is NOT the X360's GPU, and it's got no cooler mounting holes. The current '360 GPU generates a boatload of heat and NEEDS a cooler.
Way too many motherboard headers as well...
All those could, of course be written off to "engineering sample", i suppose... but I shall remain sceptical.
Well the pics above are not of a standard clarkdale as the IHS is not a 1156 socket cpu's IHS, plus the small chip to the left of the heatsink/fan on the top picture clearly has microsoft xbox360 branding printed on it. I wouldn't be suprised if microsoft did a revision of the 360 - it would bundle well with natal and would get people replacing some of the original systems (like me, who is interested in replacing my original, but can't justify the cost for a hdmi port and a bigger hard drive - a smaller form factor may swing it for me though).
I doubt it.
Maybe they're trying to save money on UPS collections by making it slim enough to post back to MS in an A4 envelope!? ;)
LMFAO
keep dreaming mate, MS will take any opportunity to sell you an overpriced peripheral
Now there gonna put it in a smaller case with less cooling?
I think we have a overpriced heater now.
I'm calling BS on THAT being anything to do with a 360 for reasons mentioned in my post and others - Namely the lack of a GPU - but I'm not so willing to shun the idea that there could be a slimmer 360 in the works.
Read the article?
i.e. on the same chip.
Just give me a larger, quieter, cooler Xbox 360 with a huge capacity 3.5" HDD and no external power brick. Basically a HD version of the original Xbox.
While, like Liratheal, I am entertaining the idea of a smaller X360, consolidating the CPU/GPU into one thing would mean a pretty major platform change... i don't see that happening, judging by the lifecycle that the 360 is in.
To a certain extent you're correct but as soon as you have a hard drive you can install EVERY game on the xbox to the hard drive leaving the disc drive no longer spinning. The fans aren't loud but they have an annoying pitch which gets right on my tits, it's a more annoying pitch than even my GPU T_T
You mean the only 360 looking parts, apart from the chip which has "Microsoft Xbox 360" printed on it?
Not really. Integrating them onto the same package - not within the same die - is something Intel has already done with its current generation of Core processors (that may be why Clarkdale was referenced above). AMD is looking to do the same as well. Also, if memory serves, doing exactly that is what allowed Sony to make the PS2 slim - by putting the GS and EE onto the same package.
The 360's CPU and GPU have been through several manufacturing process revisions already; ~4 years into its lifecycle (or is it 5 now?) it seems to me to be very likely that they can do this without much of a headache.
If the dies have been shrunk to a smaller manufacturing process - say, 45nm - they could be placed on the same package, while consuming less power than the two parts currently. It isn't a "platform change", it's just that where once they needed to put two parts on a motherboard they can now put one.
Whether it will actually happen is anyone's guess. But I don't doubt for a minute that they can do it if they want to do it.
The amount of effort that would need to go into a change like that would have been hinted at long before now. Job postings, changes in part orders, people notice and leak - I've not heard/read/seen anything along those lines until this board cropped up.
Like I say, I don't think MS wouldn't entertain the idea of a "slim" 360, but I do doubt that that image is actually a test sample.
Though, for the sake of argument:
For those of you saying there are too many headers - Looking more carefully, they look a lot like test points. If you're familiar with the existing Xbox 360 motherboard, you'll be aware of a number of test points existing without headers.
Rather unsubtly borrowed image:
http://i.imgur.com/iIpqL.jpg
Red circled items are test points - Most even have a silkscreening for the correct orientation of the actual header. So it is plausible that this is a test sample, with the test headers on for, well, logging and testing.
Haha, I hadn't spotted that at first!
I'm curious, why don't all the console makers make a switch to SD cards? (excluding Blu-ray) SDXC has the capacity...not sure bout the speed, but regular SD's have enough. And it's not like the Nintendo Wii is using that dvd-drive for anything else but games (originally). /offtopic
Kthnxbye
Silent, reliable, not resembling something from the Early Learning Centre, generic hard drives and some games that aren't better on the PC...that would be a start.
But if you already have a 360, unless they are going to be issuing them as replacement for the inevitable RROD or E74 error, what is the point?
Lir - you're right - they could be test points.
The ports don't seem to match up, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
I know where your comming from with that 1 m8. Is that a decent looking fan in the aswell, with a bit of luck it wont sound like the space shuttle trying to break out of earths orbit anymore
That's the DVD drive that makes all the noise, if you rip a game to the HDD it's not too noisy.
HS might be smaller on this but at least it actually has a fan on it this time. I think the main problem with the original is that the HS fan is actually the case fans with a air scoopy thing over the HS