Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming: Cooler Xbox 360 chips in the wild

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Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming (Subscribe)

Monday, October 01, 2007

Cooler Xbox 360 chips in the wild

Looks like the new Xbox 360 65nm "Falcon" CPUs are out in the wild, at least on the Halo 3 version of the console.

For those missing the significance, the 360 has an abnormally high failure rate. There are arguably multiple endemic problems, but part of the issue includes the original, larger /hotter 90nm chipset, and inefficient heatsinks. Some consoles returned from repair recently have included a secondary heat dissipation pipe added to the board.

But many in the industry have been waiting for these new chips. They're smaller, and they cost half as much to make (this may lead to further price cuts to the console this holiday to counter Sony's allegedly pending price reduction). Theoretically, the chips are also more economic with heat output. Consoles with the new chips also have simplified heatsinks.

How to tell if a console has the new chipset before buying it (and without the messiness of cracking it open and invalidating the warranty)?