*UPDATE 2* Geek porn: Xbox 360 Elite stripped down to the bare naked essentials

*UPDATE* Llama decided to do a Part 2 to their little anatomy discussion. The new pics come from the back of the Elite motherboard, but by comparing these with the launch 360 motherboards, they’ve strengthened their suspicions that the Elite isn’t using (yet) 65-nm technology.

The interesting part to most is the area under where the CPU connects we see lots of changes around here but its mostly just smaller components in a tighter space. The Ball Grid Array size has of course not changed so although we see a denser arrangement of smaller components we should not take this to mean that it is necessarily the 65nm core.

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Llama.com takes an Xbox 360 Elite and takes the stuffing out of it. Hey, it’s all in the name of “being able to repair – or mod – the Xbox 360 Elite in the future (no matter what Microsoft‘s EULA may say).” Here are the bare essentials of what they found:

• It uses the Hitachi GDR-3120L FK78 DVD drive, meaning “extracting the drive key and flashing the firmware of this unit won’t be a problem!”
• Llama’s amused at “Microsoft’s most creative measures to minimize the dreaded Xbox 360 3 flashing red lights ‘Ring of Death’ error caused by poor BGA connections of the CPU and GPU“: “”The good ol’ a dab (of glue) will do ya methodology”
• The 120GB HDD uses a Fujitsu MHW2120BH drive. “Our initial attempts at dumping Sector 16 using The Specialist’s hdhacker application was not a success… Without the Sector 16 you will not be able to upgrade your stock 20GB drive to 120GB the cheap way.” Oh well, for now, you have to buy Microsoft.
• The fan header’s been switched from the 4-pin Molex to a standard 3-pin fan header connection. For those who’re using the Talismoon Whisper Fan, Llama’s now offering 3-4 pin adaptors.

More at the Full article.

    

*UPDATE* Llama decided to do a Part 2 to their little anatomy discussion. The new pics come from the back of the Elite motherboard, but by comparing these with the launch 360 motherboards, they’ve strengthened their suspicions that the Elite isn’t using (yet) 65-nm technology.

The interesting part to most is the area under where the CPU connects we see lots of changes around here but its mostly just smaller components in a tighter space. The Ball Grid Array size has of course not changed so although we see a denser arrangement of smaller components we should not take this to mean that it is necessarily the 65nm core.

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Llama.com takes an Xbox 360 Elite and takes the stuffing out of it. Hey, it’s all in the name of “being able to repair – or mod – the Xbox 360 Elite in the future (no matter what Microsoft‘s EULA may say).” Here are the bare essentials of what they found:

• It uses the Hitachi GDR-3120L FK78 DVD drive, meaning “extracting the drive key and flashing the firmware of this unit won’t be a problem!”
• Llama’s amused at “Microsoft’s most creative measures to minimize the dreaded Xbox 360 3 flashing red lights ‘Ring of Death’ error caused by poor BGA connections of the CPU and GPU“: “”The good ol’ a dab (of glue) will do ya methodology”
• The 120GB HDD uses a Fujitsu MHW2120BH drive. “Our initial attempts at dumping Sector 16 using The Specialist’s hdhacker application was not a success… Without the Sector 16 you will not be able to upgrade your stock 20GB drive to 120GB the cheap way.” Oh well, for now, you have to buy Microsoft.
• The fan header’s been switched from the 4-pin Molex to a standard 3-pin fan header connection. For those who’re using the Talismoon Whisper Fan, Llama’s now offering 3-4 pin adaptors.

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Update #2: The Llama’s Adventurers have released part three of their feature on the Xbox 360 Elite. As with the previous parts, their tests continue to reveal interesting comparisons between the original Xbox 360 and the Xbox 360 Elite.

Power: It was revealed that there is a slight drop of power usage in the Elite 360 Hitachi.

Noise: Their tests revealed that that when idle, the Xbox 360 Elite is quieter by a few decibels than the Xbox 360.

Vent Exhaust Temperature: Pretty much same for both consoles. They register at 128F.

Their conclusion? Here it is verbatim: “The Elite is a bit quieter, uses slightly less power but does not sport the 65nm die.  We have come to this conclusion for the following reasons. The power consumption is basically unchanged, the heat output is unchanged if this were the 65nm die it fails to address either of the items it was intended to improve.”