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General discussion

Are 360 Elites all w/ Jasper now?

by make_or_break Aug 29, 2009 8:05AM PDT

I know some Elites were still shipping with Falcon chipsets/mobos earlier this year, but with the latest Elite has MSFT finally gone through all of those 90nm GPUs? My early production 20GB 360 is finally giving up the ghost (but amazingly still no RROD, but a flailing HD along with degrading connector problems @ the back of the unit) and with the latest price drop it's probably time--or, more likely, an excuse--for an update.

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4 Posts
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Impossible to say
by Jimmy Greystone Aug 29, 2009 10:14AM PDT

It's impossible to say, because even if all the units coming out of MS' factories are Jasper models, what really matters is what inventory your local stores have, or wherever you buy it from.

There are a number of articles out there for helping determine whether or not what you're getting is a Jasper or not. Read some of those, and armed with that info, you can start hunting through the stock at different stores. If you buy online, it's luck of the draw. They might have some unit that's been sitting around in a warehouse for over a year, or they might regularly turn over their inventory so that they generally have the latest models pretty quickly.

I don't think it will matter really. Aside from running a little cooler and using maybe 20W less energy on average, the RRoD issue more or less was resolved with the Falcon model. The problem now seems to be with optical drives that stop reading discs reliably. Personally, I've gone through 2 systems with that problem so far (fortunately within the warranty period) and I've seen plenty of other examples of people with the same problems. Which might be a part of why MS has moved to letting people buy games via Xbox Live, and download them directly to their consoles.

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After checking...
by make_or_break Aug 30, 2009 11:09AM PDT

Yeah, I googled and found the tag differences between a Falcon unit and a Jasper mobo. I also found a LOT of people complaining about their Falcon 360s suffering from RROD. And a couple of friends (and their kids) have also fallen prey to their Falcon 360s and RROD. From what I understand the Falcon mobo still uses the old 90nm GPU from the Zephyr era, whose overheating issues is one of the causes of RROD.

On Amazon I saw that the latest 360 Elite now has new packaging, which was what actually prompted my original post. New box = Jasper?

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No
by Jimmy Greystone Aug 30, 2009 12:20PM PDT

No, a new box is just a new box, it doesn't mean anything.

And it was the CPU that was overheating on the early models, so the 65nm CPU in the Falcon (and some reconditioned Zephr's) helped eliminate that problem. There are of course other issues, and fundamentally Microsoft cut a number of corners in order to get the 360 out before anyone else, which is coming back to bite us and them in the ****.

If it's not an overheating CPU RRoD, then it's the E74 issue, or scan lines that won't go away due to an overheating GPU. There's also some disc drives that were scratching discs (hence the "don't move your console while it's on" warnings, and a replacement disc program) and disc drives that just basically crap out on you. Hardware wise, the 360 is a pile of junk, it just so happens to presently have the bulk of the games so like it or not, we're stuck with that pile of junk.

In any case, a new box doesn't mean anything. They could be shipping out of a factory that is still running out the supply of Falcon parts. A new box is just a new box, the info on those sites about identifying a Jasper is going to be infinitely more reliable than a new box design.

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The new units should all be Jasper models
by tleMega Sep 26, 2009 3:06PM PDT

I got my Elite in January, and though I can't recall if it was a Falcon or a Jasper, it's been rocking without problems. Great machine.

I'd think that indeed, if you find Elites in the new packaging, chances are, they will be of the Jasper breed. I remember reading this article Ben Heck did and he mentions on how to determine a Jasper unit. Basically, you can tell by checking the manufacturing date and the power requirements, both of which should be viewable through the box, where you can see the serial number. Good luck.

Or, if you feel like waiting, you could hold out for that 250GB MW2 Elite if you dig the new paint-job and extra storage.

-BMF

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