Welcome to Valhalla: Inside the New 250GB Xbox 360 Slim
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 18, 2010 1:59 AM ESTThe 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This is a newer version of the Lite-On drive found in the newer Jasper Xbox 360s.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:
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Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, June 18, 2010 - link
I'm guessing cost more than anything else, this thing has to be as cheap as possible in order to turn a profit.Take care,
Anand
landerf - Friday, June 18, 2010 - link
Slim DVD drive's cost more and are slower to read discs. Having engineered a HTPC that fits into a 360 case with a full size drive, psu, and real gfx card (90 degree pci-e riser) I can tell you it's all about engineering smartly. If there's plenty of room for something bigger but cheaper then that's just what makes sense to use.Guspaz - Friday, June 18, 2010 - link
The 360 uses a 12x DVD drive, so at least the rotational speed of the drive isn't hard to match (slim drives also go up to 12x). I'm not sure if the average seek time would be fast enough in a slim drive, though.Another consideration is that a slim drive would have required Microsoft to switch to a slot loading system like Nintendo and Sony use; a slim tray would be too flimsy for a console, and requiring the user to snap the disk onto the central spindle might have been a bit awkward.
To be honest, though, I'd rather have had the new xbox use a slot-loading slim drive and an internal power supply.
adam92682 - Friday, June 18, 2010 - link
The Saturn, Playstation, and Gamecube required the user to snap the disc onto the central spindle.nubie - Friday, June 18, 2010 - link
Ha, you forgot the Dreamcast and Sega CD.Seriously, that doesn't look like a full-size drive to me (I could be wrong). Not a slmiline drive, but doesn't seem full-size to me. Since they are using custom drives all they need be concerned with is the size of the actual electro-mechanical bits and circuit boards.
I like the HS design, looks like an OEM bundled PC HS/Fan, maybe we will see some heatpipe versions.
I like the HDD tray, looks like with a simple plastic carrier you can slot in any laptop style HDD. (Or just stuff newspapers around it if you don't care about fire.)
sprockkets - Friday, June 18, 2010 - link
Limited to 8x. Unless you can show me a 12x drive. They've been stuck on 8x for years.NaMcOJR - Saturday, June 19, 2010 - link
It's the only thing that's missing there, yeah...rorrim180 - Sunday, November 28, 2010 - link
I would guess that they could not implement a mechanism to close the tray if they used a slim drive.arnavvdesai - Friday, June 18, 2010 - link
While power has increased considerably for the PC counterparts, I still dont see any better cooling methods introduced. Even if were to assume that Microsoft would stick a 5870 into their box I dont see how they can cool such a beast in a small form factor. We would need to move to a lower die size in order to be able to adequately cool the device. Also, we need to remember that TVs have a hit the 1080p mark and will not move to a higher resolution anytime soon, so console makers will have to push technology in different area of improvements. Also, what about buffers for the GPU? While CPUs can make do with 12 MB of L3 cache what about GPUs. With higher textures we need the ability to feed the beast and consoles will need to somehow figure that out.Also game developers have not really demanded higher capabilities from the consoles. I have a 5870 in my PC and having played the same games on PC and my 360 I dont see much difference in fidelity .
We must also remember that software for this generation cost a lot more to develop for. This means that if a new technology was introduced they would have to optimize for it at an even higher cost and most devs are not ready for it.
The only reason I see in the future which would demand more power from consoles is 3D. If significant market penetration is achieved (which is a long way IMHO) then and only then will we demand more from our consoles. Also, Microsoft will have a tough choice when it comes to the media they want their games to be on. Blu-Ray seems to be the only alternative at the moment and I am sure Microsoft would prefer something more( them getting that is a different thing altogether)
Earthmonger - Friday, June 18, 2010 - link
I'll state here what I stated elsewhere: This thing looks like a fat woman sat on a DVD player. What were they thinking? I don't want it anywhere near my EC.Hopefully someone will put out some decent-looking aftermarket cases. And at just $300, warranty isn't really a concern.