Thermal Expert Examines Xbox 360

I am liking Gizmodo more and more everyday. This time they have a story from Nikkei about a thermal design expert looking inside of two Xbox 360′s. One of the 360′s is from Nikkei’s IT Pro editorial office that was purchased at the end of 2005. The other belongs to a reporter in the IT Pro editorial office and was repaired in May 2007. Here is some of the things he found.

The cooler fan’s maximum wind speed was 1.1 m/s, only 1/2 to 1/3 compared with general desktop PCs. It may be partly because the fan rotation was reduced to lower noise. According to an expert’s analysis, “The amount of switched air is slightly in short considering the chassis’ size (309 x 258 x 83 mm3).”

“The heat sink on the graphics LSI is so small, I wonder if it can really cool down the board,” our expert said.

Microsoft apparently had no choice but to downsize the graphics LSI heat sink in order to locate a DVD drive above it. The DVD drive’s bottom surface covers the top of the heat sink and forms an air channel.

In only five minutes since we started playing the game, the temperature of the heat sink on the graphics LSI rose to 70°C (158°F). The thermal gradient was about 10°C/min (50°F).

In 15 minutes, the microprocessor heat sink temperature stabilized at 58°C (136.4°F), but the heat sink on the graphics LSI rose to 80°C (176°F), 57°C (134.6°F) above the room temperature.

You should go to there site and read it but in short the design sucks. But I am still playing with it.

Checking for the Red Rings

Over at Gizmodo they have a post on how you can check if you have the new heatsink in your Xbox 360 with out opening it. You just take your camera and put the lens on the vent on the power side. Turn on your flash and take a few pictures. If you end up with a picture like the one below from my new system then you don’t have the new heatsink and might be a getting the Red Rings sooner then you think.

Waiting for the Red Rings

Now that I have my Xbox 360 back I thought I would share my thoughts on the whole ordeal. First thing is that this never should of happen in the first place. Paul Thurrott has said may times on Windows Weekly that he saw when Microsoft was working in the 360 before it was a console and ask them “How are you going to get all this hardware into a console?”. Guess it fit but now runs hot.

Another thing is that they didn’t fix my system. They just gave me a new one. How does that work? I would understand if the manufacturer’s date on the one I got back was a month old or something around there but it wasn’t. It was four months older then the one I sent in. So there not fixing the problem, there just replacing systems with new system that could still give you the red rings. And if your just going to replace them why should the old one be sent in and wait a month to get a new one? Why not work a deal with a store so people could just bring there broke one in and get a new one.

Overall they are not fixing the problem. There trying to control bad P.R. and if I get another set of red rings I might just break down a go with a PS3. Which is sad because up to this point I really liked my 360. Now it fells like I am just waiting for it to break.