The tale of the monstrous Xbox power supply

Does it really matter? its going to be hidden out-of-sight by most people anyway.

Well, there are a couple of downsides and a couple of upsides.

Pro:
-The Power Supply isn't inside the case. Making for a quieter and less noisy (slower fans) Xbox case.
-Passive cooling, no fan required.
-Smaller Xbox 360 case. With an internal PSU the 360 would likely be about the same size as the original Xbox.

Con:
-If you wanna move your Xbox 360 (bring it to a mates house, change TV) it'll be a right pain.
-You'll need to find somewhere to put the PSU behind your TV that it'll be out of view and out of contact with cables. PSUs get hot...
-It looks horrible!

Geez, no wonder why these companies get away with charging so much for everything, people are idiots. I can't believe the press the PSU is getting?!?!

It's a power supply, who cares how big it is. Get a life please.

Indeed, who cares. Really. If anyone is thinking to themselves "Well, I was going to get an Xbox360, BUT the power supply is too big and ugly" then maybe you should kill yourself. Clearly it is not ideal in some people's eyes but it will have 0 effect on sales of the system. The case itself is already a big ugly PC case, a step up from the 80s style VCR design of the Xbox1. Some people may be turned off by that. Maybe. But not the damn power supply. They will say "holy crap, its huge", put it behind the TV, and that will be it.

That one in the picture is not bigger than a normal laptop PSU. And besides who cares as long as the console itself is small.

I have been hearing that this is not the power supply, this is suposedly somthing that lets you play on a non hd screen. as this box DOES plug into the T.V

The 360 is a PC. So it has a PC size power supply.

My PC power supply is square (cube) and this is long and smaller so it's about the same.

Think of all the power the CPU and Graphics card needs.

And here's me thinking it was a games console.

:oP

OH NOES THE POWER SUPPLY IS HUGE!!!

Who the hell cares?

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=452686&st=0&p=2998042&#entry2998042

oh well i supose it is the p.s.u
but is it just a teaser from ms to make us alll soooo happy when we get a much smaller one on november 22nd :-)
only an idea

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=452686&st=0&p=2998042&#entry2998042

oh well i supose it is the p.s.u
but is it just a teaser from ms to make us alll soooo happy when we get a much smaller one on november 22nd :-)
only an idea

@#8
It is a game console, but it is more powerful than any Pc's around, so why wouldnt it's PSU be just as pig as any Pc's?

Ok calm down - it was just a throwaway remark.

What I don't get is that even with the huge external power supply the 360 is almost as large as the original xbox.

The 360 is 309mm wide - compared to the 325mm XBox. ie the 360 is only half-an-inch smaller than the original XBox but now sports a huge external power supply.

http://www.simplygames.com/product.asp?id=5975

Put it this way....you probably have an extension (at least I do) connecting all your other stuff to the power, it's just like another one of those. It's not a problem. Nor is it big news.

what i find most interesting about this entire thing isn't so much the size of the PSU, but rather the size of the actual connector into the 360. that looks even slightly larger than the average PC connector, and even still, the PCs generally have internal power supplies. it looks as if there are several cell blocks in the connector, which i'm curious what they're all for.

and honestly, the size of the console only looks smaller, but from the pictures i've seen, it's not so much smaller than the xbox is, so what's the extra space for? is there some massive air duct system in their for cooling the CPUs?

what is the 360 doing that it requirse such a complex power supply? does it pull in all this extra power to power all of the USB ports? does the PSU seperately supply power to the harddrive from the rest of the system? is this some bit of safety mechanism because of the external harddrive, to prevent people from getting shocked?

what's the deal? can someone write someone at microsoft and ask about it?

I hate the new psu. I liked xbox 1 more then anything actually because IT had an internal PSU. When I moved the system about, I only needed the system. Now I gotta move the system and some extra wires with a brick. I dont see why home consoles have to be small. Their just sitting their on your stand. I think they should just of made the system bigger and included an internal power supply

I was going to get a laptop because I thought it was a once-piece unit that I could pick up and bring around. I was shocked to find that the powersupply was external and separate! What were they thinking? I'm only human and only have two hands to work with. I can't juggle all this extra stuff! And now the xbox 360 is the same! And don't forget that the controllers and the video cables are external as well!!!!111 This is suck! Why can't they make the video cable contract into the case like my vacuum cleaner? And didn't they learn from the atari 5200 or vectrex? The controller should snap into the console as well. I'm going back to my atari pong console where it operates on batteries and has the controls right on it.
-mr. only-got-two-arms-darnit

Something to keep warm with in the winter?

This isn't the issue you're looking for, move along.

Move along.

Seriously, have you seen the thread pitch in the screws they're using on the case?

The size and nature of the power supply is a NON-ISSUE.

I don't see why people are defending and sticking up for that ugly piece of crap. It's bad design and engineering all around, not to mention that it clutters up the area behind the television and doesn't look safe at all. I hope it isn't that big when the console launches next month. Maybe Microsoft will release a special redesigned "Power Adapter S" a few months later. :-p

19.: lol now thats a comment lol nice idea tho

People are not defending anything. Its a goddamn powersupply. Are you gonna be looking at it all the time? No. Will it affect your gameplay? No. Who the hell cares. Serious if anybody complains over something as stupid as this. 3 words - Get a Life.

The powersupply must be a big deal.

I mean,i'm going to be playing DOA4 and having a great time and then look at the powersupply and realize i'm not having fun anymore and turn off my 360.

"...i'm going to be playing DOA4 and having a great time" #23 - OTAM

Oooh-aye! Say no more!!

/nudge nudge wink wink

:op

Killian-- Spend a lot of time behind your television, do you?

Just one question, is it true that the 360 will be water cooled? if it is could this not be the resevoir tank for it?

Looks like it has enough surface area to grill a hotdog or two, or some bacon.

Unfortunately, nowhere near the grilling area of the PS3grill. This is definitely one advantage the PS3grill has over the XBox360.

Let's look at some facts, shall we?

-Hardware like the Xbox360 needs a lot of power.
-The components inside the unit most likely require CLEAN power, so the PSU needs to have lots of nifty things like regulators and capacitors to provide a steady stream of clean 5/12VDC (assuming the X360 uses the same sorts of voltage that most PCs use)
-Things like regulators and capacitors take space, generate lots of nasty bleedoff frequencies and tend to get pretty hot

People bitching about "poor engineering" should talk to some engineers about trying to cram bulky, potentially harmful components right next to millions of microscopic transistors.

Lots of electronics are shipping with external PSUs nowadays. The PSUs for my printer and my DTT3500 are each about 5 lbs. and 6 inches long.

Yeah, um...I really don't care.

This whole thing is like putting up articles everywhere that say "EXCLUSIVE!! Next-gen game manuals to be printed on recycled paper!! Bad news for all of us who love and frame our colorful manuals!"

Who the hell cares? I CARE.

The Xbox was a great deal, a full PC with good video card for 299, even have 2 free games, and then halo.
I mean, If someone sell me a full PC with good video card and Unreal Tournament for 299, buy it in a second.

BUT the Xbox 360, its a lame laptop, without battery and lcd screen, but with u huge PSU, i just hate the design, i actually see it this weekend in the EGS of my country, the guy that say that where the PSU conect to the console is weird, its truth, has 4 pairs of pins, and its 3 size than a regular one.

All that idiots that says, who cares, now microsoft in the 2 console, make external the PSU and the HardDrive, i think you idiots will be happy when the 3 microsoft console, smaller, but you must atach it the DVD, HD, PSU, Graphic Card (you know, they will say its for upgrade in time, and the idiots will think, wow , what a great idea)

This IS the Xbox 360 power supply. It is separate from the console, primarily because of keeping weight down. Think about the size of the power supply that's inside your desktop PC, or the external one for your laptop - that's what you've got here.

Yes, it's got a weird pin connection - I didn't design it, I just install 'em.

You have something that is more powerful than most high end PC's in a case a fraction the size of a PC. That thing is probably a 200+watt power supply and those just don't get smaller. So you get a choice - design a big honking case that has the power supply in it -- and make it even bigger to allow the heat from the PS to dissipate, or put it outside the case, make the case smaller, allow the brick to cool naturally, and make it so the Xbox isn't dead totally dead if the PS goes out. Physics is physics guys - you want big powerful chips, you need a lot of power and a lot of cooling. If you also want a smaller case, there is really only one choice. And anyone here really think the PS for PS3 will be smaller?

That is the power supply, but its only for the retail demos. It is not, I REPEAT, it IS NOT the final power supply for the system. I asked our Xbox rep about this, and she said that the final design wouldn't be that big. She also said that the systems themselves weren't the final 360 units, either.

First poster -- you think the Xbox360 uses passive cooling just because the power supply is external? It has a smoking ATI video card (who's fan would take up an entire slot if it was in a PC) and THREE PowerPC processors! It definately has LOTS of internal fans.

Powering all these chips might mean why the PSU is so honkin.
I'm sure there are also some safety features considering the last Xbox power supply wanted to set fire and melt. But it is rather engineer designed and ugly.

jajajajaja

Thats bigger than my slim PS2

I think is for the wave of retro things, remember the size of the atari power thing.

sure, the xbox 360 is next generation, to bad the PSU is a few generation behind.

@ #13 look buddy compare whats inside the 360 case and whats inside the xbox case thats why the 360 is almost the same size as the xbox. just imagine how big the 360 would be if the PSU was inside the case