Microsoft's Xbox 360 goes 65nm: Falcon Dissection and Power Consumption
by Anand Lal Shimpi on November 15, 2007 11:55 PM EST- Posted in
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Cutting Power
The power savings of the new Xbox are dramatic:
Playing Halo 3 on the new Falcon consumes less power than the old Xbox 360 just sitting idle at the dashboard.
With the system shut off, the new Falcon does use a little more power than the old Xbox but the difference is hardly significant.
Despite the power reduction, the console is still noisy thanks to a loud DVD drive. The major benefit to the smaller chips is power savings for you, and cost savings for Microsoft. Gotta help the boys in Redmond keep profits up.
The power savings won't translate into better gameplay, so there's no reason to upgrade. The energy savings would amount to dollars per month, definitely not making up for the cost of buying a whole new console, but our inner geek just had to open one of these Falcons and see what made them tick - and how big of a power reduction we could expect.
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Locutus465 - Friday, November 16, 2007 - link
I too was wondering about heat durring operation... Is there no way to gage this? I know it won't be totally accurate at the core level, but still relitive heat off the heat sink has got to tell you something.jamesbond007 - Friday, November 16, 2007 - link
Does the same techniques for identifying a Falcon-based 360 work on the Elite and Halo Edition consoles?Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, November 16, 2007 - link
Yes the same flashlight techniques work, although the lot numbers may not correspond. The Halo 3 edition consoles seem to have to be lot 734 or later *and* be built after 8/24. I had the best luck getting a Premium console with a lot 738 or later.Take care,
Anand
Voidberg - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link
I know i some how fucked this up but i have a falcon mptherboard with a heatpipetipoo - Monday, December 12, 2011 - link
Falcons have a heatpipe connecting the two GPU heatsinks, just not in the CPU heatsink anymore.Voidberg - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link
Google it the power supplys are diff and man up and open the xbox