No 65 nm cpu for xbox360 elite?

I don't care about HDMI (as was mentioned earlier, the 360 looks awesome through component), but I will eventually need a larger hard drive. $179.99 for the 120 HDD is outrageous.

If MS gave a crap about their existing customers, they would throw us a bone like a $50 off coupon on the purchase of a new Elite system or hard drive. I won't be holding my breath waiting for something like this to happen though...

the only thing that delayed me from buying the 360 in the first place was all of the problems that plagued their launch. Mainly, overheating and the infamous "red circle of death" (or whatever it is called) At the time I had researched this there were many a unhappy buyer in the xbox forums who were furious about their 360s dying on them and the lack of support from microsoft.

so when word of this new 65nm chip started to circulate last year, I thought that was how MS was going to address overheating in their consoles. I had assumed that it would be included in the new version of the xbox360 and don't want to buy a bigger and badder updated console that's gonna overheat on me and give that red circle.

As far as its other features:

hdmi vs component....I have not seen 360 on HDMI but have seen it on component and would not be worried as it does look awesome via component;

120GB HD...ok can someone explain to me what might be the reason why we need such a big HD for a gaming console? Other than the possibility of IPTV (which I don't know if I would ever use), what all are y'all saving on your HD's that go over 20GB? I'm sorry if that sounds like an ignorant question, I'm just trying to understand how people are filling their HDs. Are game saves really getting that much bigger? Or is this some other type of media being saved?

SO I'm thinking these new features might not be a big deal to me. What was a big deal was being comfortable in buying a 360 w/o worry of overheating (i.e. the new 65 nm chip??) I suppose my next questions would be to current 360 owners....how long have you had your 360 and have you had any problems??

I have to agree with you, bloodyR, I don't see MS working with current xbox360 owners on this. They're like everyone else...out to make $$$. But unless I am missing something about the importance of the bigger 120 GB HD, I don't see the appeal of the Elite.

I guess we'll know more at the end of next month when the elites are released and someone can review it.

Again, thanks for any feedback (especially on question of overheating)....James

Here's why it is so easy to fill up the 20 GB HDD. First of all, '20 GB' is really only 19.5 GB. The O/S and other system files take up about 6 GB (they must be running the Vista kernel in this thing lol), so you're only left with about 13 GB of usable space. Game demos are about 1 GB each, movies are anywhwere from 1.5 GB to 4 GB, so it doesn't take long to fill up the space.

I currently only have about 4 GB of free space, and I don't have much on there. Probably 6 or 7 demos, a few XBLA games, and a few trailer videos. I don't need 120 GB (I'd be perfectly content with 40 or 60), but 20 (13) just doesn't cut it.

One more question if I may. Have you owned the 360 for long? And if so, any problems with overheating and the red circle? (ok that's 2 questions, 3 if you count the the red circle thing)

I'm hoping that overheating is not as bad a problem for the xbox360 as it once was. So any insights from xbox 360 owners concerning whether you're having overheating problems or not will be greatly appreciated...James

The overheating issues weren't exactly rampant, they only affected a small percentage of consoles in the first few months. If it does overheat and break it will more than likely be covered under the one year warranty.

I've had the 360 for about 6 months, and I haven't had any problems with overheating or anything else. As I understand it, the first batch of consoles had a lot more issues than the current ones (as is always the case with new consoles).

If you're thinking about getting one, I'd probably go for the Elite. You get a lot more value for only $80 more than the current 'Pro' system.

My understanding also was that the 1st batch of xbox360s were buggy. So much so that MS finally agreed to extend the warranty on all models manufactured before 1/1/06. Hopefully I won't be kicking myself in a year or less with my PS3

I will probably go with Elite. Now if I can decide on a HDTV to go w/my PS3 and future Xbox360 Elite. (a whole other can of worms that I have been researching and posting on this forum about for what seems forever)

Thanks to all who responded and who may still resepond...James

what seems like forever (not on games and gear forum)

After a long discussion with my wife, I decided to trade my 360 for a PS3 someone had pre-ordered and could not come up with the cash before Christmas.

As I turned it on, one more time, the Red Ring of death came on and the microsoft emblem froze in place as it made it's turn around.

Lucky at that time, I had purchased the 1 year warranty (before MS announced a 1 year warranty) at Game Crazy, so I got it replaced and traded at the same time. My warranty was 1 week away from expiring. Almost in time to get screwed by MS.

Microsoft has a long way to go to produce a product that will last as long as a Playstation one or two. The PS3 has been great, quiet, awesome graphics in HD and plays all the games I love.

I can't wait until PS3 developers start using all the power available in this CELL machine and know it will last a long time beyond it's warranty!

Never again MS!!!

Unfortunately, I have been reading more of the same this past w/e. Makes me think I just may wait after all. I still think I'll evetually get the 360, but not for a while. In the meantime, I am loving my PS3...James

I had my 2nd 360 die on me last week (had been working for 9 months) so the issues still exist and the one that broke down on me was manufactured in May 2006.

MS also has gotten better at their shipping boxes. Now they give you some nice foam end-serts to put on your console to prevent more damage during shipping.

If only their hardware engineers designed the cooling system as well as their packaging engineers designed their shipping containers.

it seems like there is a heated (no pun intended ) debate on what is causing the problem (overheating from chipset, DVD drive, external power supply brick, etc) and whether or not the 65nm chip will be of benefit. And apparently, this red ring of death is more prevalent than I thought...just "google" red ring of death on xbox360 and you'll see what I'm talking about. Or peruse the many xbox360 forums (that's where I found most of the discussions on the new chipset and what might be causing the problems). Some of the links you will find are as recent as 3/07. As far as when this 65 nm chipset may come out, I have found nothing other than specualtion and rumor but no real substantial data. Wow, I hope I don't have this to look forward to with my PS3!! So far, so good.

By this time in the 360's life span I had heard numerous reports of the red ring of death. The only PS3's I've heard of overheating are the ones in store displays crammed in those well-insulated and poor-ventilated plastic cases. I'll probably be labeled a fanboy for saying that and get flamed to hell and back but before anyone trolls me you may want to note that I have owned or at least played and enjoyed every console since the NES and that includes the X-Box (I'm a bit of a Halo nut in fact).

I was among the people who thought that I was out of the woods as far as a defective 360 goes, but no such luck. After 13 months with relatively no problems, my machine started freezing up last night while playing Guitar Hero 2 and then died. Sadly, I'm just past the 1 year warranty, so I'm probably about to get screwed over. The icing on the cake was that I just managed to track down what seems like the only copy of Guitar Hero 2 and controller in my city, and dropped a bunch of coin to rent it for the next 3 weeks, only to have it die an hour later (doh!).

I'm worried I may regret my purchase, depending on how microsoft deals with me.

It's just like how the original PS2's started getting all those DRE's right after the one year warranty expired, only as least you could open the PS2 up and do a quick simple fix to remedy this, 360 owners are just getting shafted. I'm definately waiting for the 65nm CPU's before I buy my 360 now, unless they don't come out in time for Halo 3.

sorry to hear about that. It's amazing how many of these things are breaking down after the warranty expires. I thought this would be a thing of the past by now. Good luck in dealing with microsoft...James

I've talked with MS support, and they are sending me out a coffin (postage paid box) for my 360. They charge $140 US for repairs. That's almost half the cost of a new unit, and it will probably mean a month of downtime.

I'm not a very happy customer, but as I said to the guy on the support line...what choice do I have? They've got me over a barrel, and I feel they are taking full advantage of it. All I can do is vote with my wallet on the next generation of consoles.

Microsoft just doesn't make reliable consoles. To further prove this point, my buddy bought one on the weekend in order to take advantage of my now available copy of Guitar Hero 2. Fresh out of the box, he powers it on and gets the red ring of death with an error message on the screen! I couldn't believe my eyes. We turned it off and on, and it started up this time. So we start playing and I notice that something looks really wrong with the game. There's no red or green color! He fiddles with his tv settings, checks all the connections into his tv, tries a different input...no help. We finally figured out that if you fiddled with the A/V output connector on the back of the 360, the color flashed on and off. So he propped it up and taped it and we had full color for the evening. (He's familiar with this issue as he's had to re-solder his power connection three times on his old X-Box. Apparently these connectors are extremely flimsy.) I've advised him to take it back and get a new one ASAP.

One other thing that annoyed me was that once we got his new 360 running, it ran the game a lot smoother than mine had. None of the slight glitches and pauses that I'd witnessed playing this game and thought were just due to a damaged disc. I've taken good care of my 360, and would not have expected it to be noticeably worse than a brand new one after just one year.

but this did not seem too promising:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/26/xbox-360-elite-vs-classic-the-test/

For me, I'm going to wait it out, again. Sorry to hear about your experiences with MS.

James

My 360 died in early February after only 3 months of use (bought it in late November), and no, my 360 wasn't part of the first generation shipment. Either way, I was pretty shocked when my 360 died because I've owned systems as far back as the commodore 64 and the Atari 2600 and I've never had any break down because I literally baby all my consoles. To date, I still have a flawlessly working NES, Genesis, 64, PS2, Xbox, etc, and it just amazes how quickly my 360 died. The good news is my dealing with MS customer service in getting my 360 repaired and shipped back was exceptional and prompt, but as others have already expressed, I think I'll pass on the elite for now considering my past experience with the 360, not to mention how MS is obviously being greedy by not offering incentives to people who already own a 360 (especially for people who have had to deal with a broken one).

Good luck on your repair, and I can only hope it was as quick and as uneventful as my experience.

Well I guess my best advice is to keep gaming as long as you can on your current 360 before you get the red ring of death and make sure you have the 1 or 2 year extended service plan so that eventually they will send you back a 65nm version once they roll them out.

It may have been resolved by this time, but not too long ago a lot of xbox360 users were finding their consoles destroyed by this intercooler. Just google xbox360 +nyko intercooler if interested. Sounds like Nykko did the right thing and helped with replacement costs of consoles their product destroyed. But I'd be very cautious.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=intercooler+xbox360+problem

James

in the 360s sometime this fall, how will we be able to know what we're buying does in fact have the 65nm chipset? Will it say on the specs on the box? I have a sneaky suspicion that MS will sell the newer ones alongside the older until the ones w/o 65nm chipsets are gone.

James