In-depth, Hands-on Xbox 360 Review

[mr.Curmudgeon]

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/xbox-360/xbox-360-in-the-house-for-reals-137284.php

Pretty interesting stuff...Had no idea about "Xbox Live Arcade"...hmmm...


"When I went into the retro section I was shocked to discover that some of the faithful adaptations of my favorite arcade classics had been jazzed up for multiplayer and online play. Robotron, for instance, now sports both Coop and online play, how friggin sweet is that?"


O...M....G....!!!   





mrC

[mr.Curmudgeon]

Now here's someone that has dismantled the 360, with pictures and writeup:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2610


mrC

[Grasshopper]

One thing I really like is the fact that the wireless controllers can be used as wired controllers whilst they're recharging.

But why oh why didn't they house the power supply in the main unit. That massive (and ugly) separate black power supply is definitely a step backwards and ruins the otherwise tidy look of the console.

[Felsir]

Most probably the power in not in side the console because of cooling. When inside the console extra fans are needed. With the PSU in a seperate unit the heat generated by it does not heat the console itself.

[JoyMonkey]

Those crazy Germans are at it again; it seems they've discovered how to get RGB and VGA out of the 360.
So now we just need to figure out how to get the 360 to output arcade monitor friendly resolutions and we're all set 

[GGKoul]

Its only a matter of time before a 360 mod chip is out.

[shmokes]

Probably if you incorporated that enormous power supply inside the box it would be as big as the original Xbox which is pretty much universally hated in every territory, especially Japan, from an aesthetic point of view.  MS has pretty much publicly apologized about the Xbox being so enormous and have said from the beginning that their next system would be significantly smaller.

[Scott84]

Hopefully Microsoft will make an active effort in this generation to continually try and make the system smaller then it is now. As well as the power supply.

[mr.Curmudgeon]

From what I understand, in one of the articles, they talked about the cooling fans INSIDE the power supply being very, very loud when they kick in. So much so, that he thought it was part of the game!   

He also went on the mention that it may be because his version of the 360 wasn't production level, but I imagine it'd be something to look into.


mrC

[Nannuu]

Has anyone seen an adapter yet to use Xbox controls with the 360?  No way can I buy another 3 controllers too!

[Grasshopper]

I don't doubt that Microsoft decided on a separate power supply to improve the aesthetics of the main unit. But it's a bit of a dodge.

My suspicion is that they spent a lot of time and effort making the main housing look nice and then at a late stage of the design process realised they wouldn't be able to fit everything in. So they were forced to go with a separate power brick. That's just speculation of course. But it's the only explanation that makes sense to me. The PSU looks like an afterthought. It doesn't match the style of the main box and it isn't even the same colour.