The DVD Drive & Motherboard

I pulled all 12 screws out but left the four heatsink screws in place since I wanted access to the motherboard. With all four removed I could pull off the bottom cover leaving me with this:

The DVD drive lifts right out and you can disconnect the power and SATA cables from the unit easily just like on the older models.

This is a newer version of the Lite-On drive found in the newer Jasper Xbox 360s. They use the DG-16D2S while the Valhalla uses the new DG16-D4S.

Microsoft also outfitted the drive with a strip of rubber to help dampen vibration:

You can also remove the CGPU heatsink fan shroud at this point, it is a snug fit but it should lift straight off:

The piece of aluminum shielding in the lower left of the picture above lifts straight out, you can remove that if you want to pull out the motherboard.

The black piece of plastic in the upper right hand corner of the picture above is the HDD carrier. It’s actually mounted on a flexible mount to allow for some vibration dampening and shock resistance. There’s a single large T8 screw holding it in place, remove this screw.

The drive tray isn’t completely free yet, there’s one more T8 screw at the back of the Xbox 360 that has to be removed. It was hidden by the casing but with that off you can now access it. Remove that screw and the drive tray is free:

Lifting The Covers The Motherboard
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  • kratos4u - Saturday, July 3, 2010 - link

    xbox 360 console sells high = pirated copies

    if MS take measures to stops piracy 100% = sales down

    torrent = xbox 360 sales.

    any 1 agree

    sorry xbox 360 fanboys
  • evilowner - Tuesday, August 17, 2010 - link

    ur logic is flawed big time any type of data is torrent..... before u target 1 thing plz do alittle research PS3 GAMEES ? also ? 0_o moives? music? programs etc do i need to keeping typing dump little kid.... torrents is to lower prices so ur not paying 150 for ur low quality data.... torrents keep prices in check... period.
  • viocosi - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link

    In the new xbox 360 slim is possible to use the iXtreme firmware?
  • fiftey - Monday, July 12, 2010 - link

    As the article shows, there are minor improvements in power consumption and noise levels with the larger single fan, but I don't care about noise levels. The issue I have is does this fan provide sufficient cooling? With lots of people complaining on amazon.com that their brand new Xbox 360 S is already red-lighting and breaking down, I wonder whether microsoft have messed up again by focusing too hard on lowering noise levels by using a larger fan and lowering fan speeds and not providing sufficient cooling for the singular, larger heatsink.

    I'd like to see some comparison data on the operating temperatures of the valhalla and jasper and if the new xbox is indeed still running hot, a step by step tutorial of how users can simply mod their new 360s so that the fan is always at max speed
  • tipoo - Thursday, July 14, 2011 - link

    AFAIK the failure rates of the new slims are below 1% (don't remember the source) vs above 30 for the original. All electronics have a certain failure rate, below 1% is good enough for me.
  • draco2210 - Saturday, July 17, 2010 - link

    anyone heard any news or updates about flashing the new DG-16D4S drives yet?
  • pfeifer220 - Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - link

    I lost the connector and power brick to my new 360 slim, does anybody know where or how I can purchase just these 2 items alone?
  • butanebob - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link

    "Needless to say, I wasn’t terribly happy about purchasing a sixth Xbox 360, but here it is:"

    People like you are the reason the RROD was even an issue. No wonder microsoft didn't bother sorting it out 5 years ago....
  • walkerfsu18 - Monday, August 2, 2010 - link

    i have the 360 slim but on it i hate how its the same as ps3,there are these white spots i just cant get off,i tried everything,any ideas?
  • evilowner - Tuesday, August 17, 2010 - link

    1st off why argue over a shitie disk? dvd n blue-ray both fucking suck peroid. MY HARD DRIVE..... yea i said it..... the hard drive loads and stores way more than both of those n are both garbage. my hard drive loads a million times fast than both of them : P so any type of dvd isnt the future its ur hard drive......... 1 it loads a million times faster. 2 . it holds way more... uhhh terabyte hard drives.... come on.... why would i want a dvd or a blue ray disk?? yup i wouldnt..... they shouldnt even make disks anymore..... when u can dl the game to the hard drive n be done with it n never ever have to buy the game again..... or movie or even music..... enought is said, if u dont get it...sigh.... than u will never know how close to the future u truely are, n should go back into ur cave. ty. peace !

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