Rumor: Slimmed-down Xbox 360 motherboard images leaked

by Griffin McElroy on Mar 17th 2010 12:24PM

Last week, speculation surrounding a pending announcement of the oft-rumored, slimmed down "Valhalla" model of the Xbox 360 was kicked into high gear, thanks to a Microsoft hiring notice for a motherboard engineer, and Steve Ballmer's reference to "more form factors" for the hardware. Earlier today, a Chinese tech forum purportedly posted a pair of pictures of the newly remodeled motherboard, which has undergone a massive size reduction from the current iteration of Xbox 360 hardware.

A few noteworthy changes in the motherboard (full pictures of which can be found after the jump) are a consolidated GPU/CPU (one of the rumored features of the Valhalla chipset), an extra SATA port, and a much smaller heatsink. Though the design could just be a mock-up from an extraordinarily talented modder, it certainly looks like professional-quality work. We've contacted Microsoft to see if they'll comment on the skinny-fied hardware.

Source

Tags: hardware, microsoft, motherboard, rumor, steve-ballmer, valhalla, xbox-360

Reader Comments (115)

Isn't decreasing the size just going to make the heat management even worse?

smaller size = less electricity = less heat

Depends on how they go with it. If they placed it in the existing case this would mean more air flow and less board to increase heat. If put into a slim model it would nearly be the same as our existing Xboxes, just smaller. Though the idea of a smaller heat sink is just stupid. That's where the problems would stem from.

Wasnt even really just the size of the heatsink so much as it was that the original heatsink used crappy thermal paste and was aluminum, whereas the ones they use now have proper copper piping.

If they fix the overheating problem, I will but the 360 slim or 180 or whatever they call it day one. I'm tired of mines having problems because of heat when I don't play the thing that often to begin with.

A huge problem with those crappy heat sinks were a lot of people caused their own boxes to overheat. Cramming them in tiny entertainment areas, then trying to blame MS entirely for the problem. I won't lie the original constructions of the boxes were horrible, but some cases were user stupidity.

Spike I know people that kept theirs in open areas and STILL got RRoD

Oh no Chris, I know the problem still existed widely with proper airflow. Just saying with all electronics you can't cram them into tight entertainment areas which a lot of users could have done. Not everyone is aware of airflow issues like that. Definitely though I wouldn't defend MS on the matter of their RRODs.

Less Heat..YUP...my 2009-2010 holiday bundle elite hardly blows any heat at all..which is good..

This has to be official board. No one could combine the CPU and GPU into one processor without knowing all the internals of the CPU and GPU. Also, I have a source who told me in 2008 both processors would be combined into one 45-nm chip. Here it is!

oh yea...indeed....the days of sticking game consoles(which are damn near PCs) in closed cabinets are LONG gone....

@JAmerican

At this point they could use a 32-nm chip. They are running 65-nm chips. I just don't see them using 45-nm anytime soon, considering they claimed they were going to start using 45-nm chips back in 2007.

45um new technology, more efficient, less power drawn, less heat.
In one chip = no need for additional external connections (buses).

Now questtion when and how much it will cost?

99$ Arcade Xbox this year?

The smaller size doesn't necessarily mean anything, other than a slimmed down form factor. It's entirely possible the the apparent CPU / GPU combo uses just as much electricity as the current pair of chips. It's also possible that the smaller housing, combined with inadequate cooling could lead to greater heat issues even if the power consumption is lower. In short, there's no way to say for sure whether this will or won't fix the issues plaguing current 360s until it's out in the wild.

@deaftly
lolz, buddy, where did you study engineering?
The original poster puts forward a valid concern. I think, however, their plan is to reduce the die size of the processor which will lower power consumption and reduce the need for intensive cooling.

@Spike Spiegel:

I see your point, but shouldn't MS have anticipated that people would put a home entertainment device in their entertainment centers and designed accordingly.

Stop making excuses for poor design.

@dogmaticatheist

Did you bother reading my posts? I said I wasn't defending MS with their failure rates. I was simply pointing out partial cause to some err of people's systems. Don't try and start crap for no reason. Read posts before coming across as a fool.

If they change the case size, won't they have to change the housing the HDD sits in? Would MS really want to do that? It might cause a lot of confusion for ppl trying to buy new HDDs...

Actually smaller die (chip) size has presented its own heat problem. Smaller chips make less heat, but they make it in a smaller space. So that means overall cooling needs are lowered, but the requirements of the ability to spread the heat out so it can be removed are becoming more and more acute.

Frankly, customers shouldn't have to worry about any of this, a well designed system can manage to get the heat out of the box, so as long as customers don't put it in a confined box itself, it should work.

This device, by being on a smaller process (45nm, 32nm, etc.) should produce less heat and be less sensitive to being put in a confined space which should produce a better overall customer experience. How it is done inside really just shouldn't even be a concern to the customer.

@deaftly

Just because it's smaller doesn't mean it will draw less power. In fact, the biggest problem I'd say with the advancement of computer technology is heat dissipation. The fact that the case is going to be smaller and the heat sink is going to be smaller implies that the heat density of the overall system will go up, regardless of how much less power the processor and GPU draw.

Holy crap for asking a question I was severely downvoted lol.

@why not the LS2LS7?
"This device, by being on a smaller process (45nm, 32nm, etc.) should produce less heat and be less sensitive to being put in a confined space which should produce a better overall customer experience. How it is done inside really just shouldn't even be a concern to the customer."

I beg to differ. If you shove any electronic device inside a small, poorly ventilated space it will overheat given enough time.

The company I work for does a lot of work with solid state power amplification. No matter how efficient you get there is ALWAYS heat when energy is dispersed, on this planet at least.

@ytilanigiroon: Um, there are plenty of electronic devices that won't overheat when put in a confined place with limited (or no) airflow.

For example, I doubt a Nintendo DS would; it uses about 1W of power. Unless your confined place is miniscule and vacuum-sealed there's likely to be the potential to lose well over 1W of heat to the surroundings with a minimal rise in temperature. Even if for some reason it's so confined and so sealed a space that it would, there are electronic devices that run on 0.1W, or 0.01, or 0.001...

Or for a full game system - if you made a system equivalently powerful to Wii (which uses a bit under 20W) but using the most modern, energy-efficient technology available five years on, maybe also changing out the disc drive for something solid-state, you could probably also get it into the 'confined space, left on for ever, still won't overheat' range.

@sam

You're right, I shouldn't have been so absolute with my statement.

My point was that there is always heat when there is power involved, and the consoles that are in use today draw a lot of power and in doing so generate a lot of heat. Every one of the current-gen systems will overheat if not properly ventilated and maintained; but to say that it's the fault of one company or another because you can't just take console XYZ and throw it in a closed cabinet with only the hole cut for the wires for the heat to exhaust through -- or that they should be charged with engineering their products so you can do as such, or similar -- is foolish.

If the new skinny model means a significant price drop and more reliable hardware, I'm all for it.

This could = slim model, and a slim model may = my sale... on the fat one, of course, since it will inevitably be discontinued.

On second thought, I take that back.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_technical_problems

Not the fact that I might get one, just my getting the fat model.

"and a much smaller heatsink"

I would strongly advise against this.

The biggest problem with the original mobo was that the GPU was tucked under the DVD drive and only had passive cooling. This solution will both shrink die size, decrease power consumption and heat AND provide active cooling for the GPU.

They won't need a ginormous heat sink.

If that's true then there go a good portion of Microsofts profits on repairing burned out 360s. I have a friend who's on his 5th 360 and he's convinced the units are designed to fail.

I don't believe they we're designed to fail but I think MS is taking advantage of the situation to turn a profit.

I'm on my 3rd 360 myself.

Microsoft's Master Plan:

Step 1: Burn out 360s and repair them for free, repeatedly.
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit!

You cracked the case, Shagittarius.

I thought all RROD related errors were fixed free of charge (just, you know, with an ever-changing policy on whether or not you have to provide the coffin).

Case solved, you only need to ignore that pesky free 3 years guarantee...

yea Sonic if they were still under warranty....which is 3 years....its been 360 that are out of that 3 year range for a while now

Dudes, that warranty ran out a long time ago, and it is not renewed each time you get it repaired.

Oh, I thought they either honored the original warranty on the new unit (so if it red lights the first year you own it, then it would still have 2 years of warranty left after being repaired) or that each repaired/refurbished unit had it's own small warranty (like say 3 months).

Warranties on launch model units are expired now. Anyone who tells you otherwise is confused. The warranty was 3 years from the time you purchased the unit.

Warranty or not, MS will still fix RRoD and E74 errors for free.

My 360 is comfortable with her size. I don't know why we have to get her all worked up with this imagery. You'll give her a complex.

Mine is proud of her hour-glass shape and I routinely whisper in her ear that her PS3 neighbor is having weight-gain issues and the Wii below her hasn't been eating properly for months...

...anything to prevent another RRoD debacle.

You guys are lucky. Mine just got a nose job and I can't stop staring at it. That's not a nose, IT'S A LIE.

Pictures or it didn't hap'n Cap'n.

My 360 Elite is a strong black woman. she don't need no pancake azz.

wheres the hard rive gonna go?!?!?

Yo mama wasn't calling it a "rive" last night!

ZING!!

I think the shrink will come in width and depth, not thickness (or height- depending how your 360's orientation)- kinda like the PS3 slim. Therefore the HDDs would still mount where they currently do.

They are going to make it internal from the looks of it.

not to mention they could just make them thinner and mount the hard drive to the top, have like a slot below the surface it slides into to keep things pretty.

This would help to explain why MS is dumping Arcades in Canada at $130... make room for a new bottom end sku with natal and a price drop at E3.

Now before these comments get out of hand.

Remember, with the 'Jasper' chipset, Microsoft has completely eradicated the 'RROD' problem, so it is no longer an issue whatsoever.

So don't even bother bringing it up. Seriously.

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Rumor: Slimmed-down Xbox 360 motherboard images leaked

Reader Comments (115)

Posted: Mar 17th 2010 12:27PM Raiki said

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