Topic: More Shops Sell Elite Early: Llamma Exposes New Motherboard (Read 821 times)

Xbox-Scene · « **on:** April 19, 2007, 09:43:00 PM »

More Shops Sell Elite Early: Llamma Exposes New Motherboard
Posted by XanTium | April 19 23:43 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From llamma.com:

Quote

We were fortunate enough to find one at our local Wal-Mart here in Minneapolis. We have had a chance to crack it open and document some of the differences between the Elite and the original Xbox 360.

* Our first pleasant surprise is a Hitachi GDR-3120L FK78 DVD drive inside.

* Both the CPU and GPU both sport different revision information on the chips but its hard to say whether or not 65nm has been implemented. One of the more interesting observations that seems to point to lower power consumption implying a possible 65nm core is the fact that there are some capacitors and VRMU's that have been removed on this revision of board.

* One a side note, we all had a good belly laugh here at the shop when we saw 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. Take a look at the epoxy surrounding the CPU and GPU which is intended prevent the BGA connection from popping as the board warps. This has to be one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

* We disassembled the HDD and found a Fujitsu MHW2120BH drive inside. Our initial attempts at dumping sector 16 using The Specialist's hddhacker application was not a success. It appears that the tool does not yet support the new 120GB drive.

* Another difference you will find is the fan header. It has been switched from a 4-pin Molex Mini-Fit connector to a standard good old three pin fan header style connector.

* There has been a million pictures of the HDMI port and HANA HDMI scaler chip but here's a couple more for good measure.

Full Story: llamma.com (incl. more details and pictures and an animated gif comparing old and new motherboard!)

RiPpN-N-TrIppN · « **Reply #1 on:** April 19, 2007, 09:08:00 PM »

awesome
and its good to see that M$ is trying to fix the 3ROL even tho its a shitty fix at least they acknowledge the fact that its shit in the old boxes
hopefully it has the 65nm chip in it if so i want one
when are these bad boys getting released in Aus
Rip

mylakerye · « **Reply #2 on:** April 19, 2007, 09:09:00 PM »

very interesting

and yes finally microsoft is starting to address the three red lights

poisonousjuice · « **Reply #3 on:** April 19, 2007, 09:10:00 PM »

nice to see the hitachi in there as well.

WAB · « **Reply #4 on:** April 19, 2007, 09:23:00 PM »

i'm glad to see that there maybe the 65 nm chip

pablot · « **Reply #5 on:** April 19, 2007, 09:31:00 PM »

doesn't look 65nm, the die sizes are too big. They removed some unnecessary components and changed some minor parts, so they basically went ahead and optimized the mobo and made it a bit cheaper (except for the HANA of course)

a-ramsey · « **Reply #6 on:** April 19, 2007, 09:33:00 PM »

Yeah,... thats cool. Someday maybe I will live Llama as I live near Mpls.

Nytemunkey · « **Reply #7 on:** April 19, 2007, 09:35:00 PM »

Lookin good

sicknasty413 · « **Reply #8 on:** April 19, 2007, 09:57:00 PM »

Very nice.

I want an Elite so bad!! Gahhhh

So..would this (Elite) 360 motherboard be a v1.1? Pretty substantial changes, I'd say.. Or..does it just not fall in the same category

fahrenheit · « **Reply #9 on:** April 19, 2007, 09:57:00 PM »

We really need to know if this PCB is of better quality than the old boards. The fact that the epoxy is there on the corners of the chips seems to suggest its not.

This is a damning testimony to the poor design of these boards. The Epoxy is little more than a bandage that does not cure the disease. Its inclusion says every word that MS themselves refuse to say because if there wasn't a problem, it wouldn't be there. This was their chance to do a real fix and use better quality PCB, but they've opted for the cheaper dab of glue 'fix'.

I'm thankful to those that are prepared to expose these types of shortcomings and inform the general populous who have no idea of what is happening under the hood.

0794 · « **Reply #10 on:** April 19, 2007, 09:58:00 PM »

QUOTE(mylakerye @ Apr 19 2007, 10:16 PM)

very interesting

and yes finally microsoft is starting to address the three red lights

just as in the original xbox, we will see the 360 continue to evolve and improve with cooler temperatures, quieter operation, and better durability - as well as improved functionality and features...way to go MS!

Tiuk · « **Reply #11 on:** April 19, 2007, 09:59:00 PM »

Cool stuff. Here's hoping a new version of hddhacker does the trick.

MadEx · « **Reply #12 on:** April 19, 2007, 10:08:00 PM »

I'm more interested in how quiet this Hitachi drive is. Is it quieter than the BenQ?

RoboChicken · « **Reply #13 on:** April 19, 2007, 10:08:00 PM »

That is too funny

One of my customers have reported Elites here in one of the SD WalMarts. I'm about to go see for myself

protomind · « **Reply #14 on:** April 19, 2007, 10:20:00 PM »

So am I going to be the first to ask....can we flash the firmware on this puppy ?

Author Topic: More Shops Sell Elite Early: Llamma Exposes New Motherboard (Read 821 times)