Another one of my 'useless' articles.
We all know about the RRoD by now but wouldn't it be great if you could predict which Xbox would suffer this horrible fate? You can, by looking at some key attributes of your 360.
Let's go over the types first.
(Copied straight from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_hardware)
"The initial motherboard version was known as "Xenon" and used a 203 W power supply. The "Zephyr" revision was largely the same aside from the addition of an HDMI port. "Falcon" incorporated a 65 nm CPU, new 80 nm GPU, and came packaged with a 175 W power supply. "Jasper" (released late August or early September 2008[21][22]) used both a 65 nm CPU and GPU, as well as 256 MB of flash memory on-board (this was to help run a then-recent Dashboard update. Without this internal memory, a hard drive or memory card was required). The power supply was also reduced to 150W in the "Jasper" revision. The power connector on the back of the system incorporated a "keying" system that will prevent plugging a lower-rated power supply into an older system.[23] Some stores used to exclusively carry units with the Jasper motherboard. A new motherboard version called "Vejle" has also been released into public in the form of the slim Xbox 360 S with a 45 nm integrated CPU, GPU, and eDRAM (i.e. all in the same chip package).[24]"
The RRoD started to seriously stop with the Falcon and up and the new Vejle makes it pretty much non-existent now but the Vejle's are only mounted on the new Slim black models. So, if you want to get a good, cheap 360. The Falcon and the Jasper motherboards are the way to go with Jasper being better as it has some internal memory on it.
So, how can you tell which 360 has which motherboard? The simplest and best way is to simply look at it's needed power supply. You can also go by manufacturing dates. Any manufacturing date on or after 8/24/2007 is a pretty safe bet as it most likely has the falcon motherboard or above.
You can also see quickly by the power connection socket. Here's a great diagram:
And that's about it. Just remember to keep your Xbox cool at all times even if you do have the falcon motherboard or up just in case.
We all know about the RRoD by now but wouldn't it be great if you could predict which Xbox would suffer this horrible fate? You can, by looking at some key attributes of your 360.
Let's go over the types first.
(Copied straight from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_hardware)
"The initial motherboard version was known as "Xenon" and used a 203 W power supply. The "Zephyr" revision was largely the same aside from the addition of an HDMI port. "Falcon" incorporated a 65 nm CPU, new 80 nm GPU, and came packaged with a 175 W power supply. "Jasper" (released late August or early September 2008[21][22]) used both a 65 nm CPU and GPU, as well as 256 MB of flash memory on-board (this was to help run a then-recent Dashboard update. Without this internal memory, a hard drive or memory card was required). The power supply was also reduced to 150W in the "Jasper" revision. The power connector on the back of the system incorporated a "keying" system that will prevent plugging a lower-rated power supply into an older system.[23] Some stores used to exclusively carry units with the Jasper motherboard. A new motherboard version called "Vejle" has also been released into public in the form of the slim Xbox 360 S with a 45 nm integrated CPU, GPU, and eDRAM (i.e. all in the same chip package).[24]"
The RRoD started to seriously stop with the Falcon and up and the new Vejle makes it pretty much non-existent now but the Vejle's are only mounted on the new Slim black models. So, if you want to get a good, cheap 360. The Falcon and the Jasper motherboards are the way to go with Jasper being better as it has some internal memory on it.
So, how can you tell which 360 has which motherboard? The simplest and best way is to simply look at it's needed power supply. You can also go by manufacturing dates. Any manufacturing date on or after 8/24/2007 is a pretty safe bet as it most likely has the falcon motherboard or above.
You can also see quickly by the power connection socket. Here's a great diagram:
And that's about it. Just remember to keep your Xbox cool at all times even if you do have the falcon motherboard or up just in case.
How on earth are there any pre-2008 models being sold new? Yeah, there are non-S version xboxes being sold, but those are of the Jasper variety, so you're as good as gold, really. There is no real worry of overheating.
