Xbox 360 Console

Introduction

The Xbox was originally produced and released by the Microsoft Corporation in 2001. The Xbox 360 is it's successor, and was released in 2005. The Xbox 360 forms a part of the supposed 'seventh generation' of video game consoles. It had the advantage of being released before it's two main competitors, the Nintendo Wii and Sony PS3. It's also become the cheapest of all the consoles, and has therefore enjoyed a larger percentage of the console market, in comparison to it's predecessor. The total worldwide sales are believed to be around 28 million (end of 2008), the majority being in the US and Europe. The UK accounts for nearly half of all European sales.

Configurations

When the Xbox 360 was first launched in the UK, it was released in two configurations. They were named simply the 'Xbox 360', priced at £280 , and the 'Xbox 360 Core', priced at £199. The advantage of the 'Xbox 360' was that it shipped with a 20GB hard drive and a hybrid composite and component cable. Whereas the Core only came with a composite video cable and a wired controller.

Presently the Xb0x 360 comes in three versions;

Xbox 360 Elite
Finished in matte black, the Elite is the most expensive version of all the 360 consoles. Released at £299, in comes with a matching head set and wireless controller. A 1.2 HDMI cable is also included. The Elite was first installed with a motherboard from Zephyr. It was then replaced by a motherboard from Falcon. The power supply is capable of running beyond one hundred and seventy watts. The Elite has the largest hard drive of any 360, at 120 GB.

XBox 360
The standard 360 has seen a few changes over the years. Such as an upgrade from a 20GB to a 60GB hard drive. It's also been upgraded with a Zephyr and Falcon motherboard, just like with the Elite. This means the modern versions of the 360 run at a lower temperature, and produce less sound than previous versions.

Xbox 360 Arcade
The Arcade is the entry level version of the 360. It was originally called the 'Core', but was repackaged as the 'Arcade' in 2007. It's capable of a 1.2 HDMI output, and comes with a wireless, unlike a wired controller with the Core. The Arcade still does not come with a hard drive, which is the primary reason wy the price is lower than the standard 360. Instead of a hard drive, the Arcade come with 256 MB of flash memory. The Arcade still does not come with either a ethernet or component cable or a headset.

Hardware

The original Xbox was the first console to ever integrate a hard drive into it's design. Currently you can attach either a 20, 60 or 120 GB hard drive to an Xbox 360. These are all removable. The main memory for each XBox 360 is currently sized at 512 MB. You can also use either a 64, 256 or 512 MB memory card, for additional storage, or to insert into another Xbox.

Every Xbox 360 uses the same CPU and graphics processing GPU. The CPU is a triple-core design from IBM, running at 3.2 GHz, with a PowerPC Xenon architecture. The GPU is a ATI Xenos chipset, running at 500 MHz, and has 10 MB of eDRAM. Both the CPU and GPU have heatsinks.

There are four controller inputs, three USB ports and one ethernet port. The media drive can play both DVD's and CD's.

Technical issues

Microsoft has received a fair amount of press attention over the failure rate of it's console. Microsoft claim the failure rate is within 3-5%, which is typical of the electronics industry. Notably however, Microsoft refuse to release the exact number of failures. Due to the negative press response, Microsoft issued a new three years warranty to all Xbox 360's. But, this warranty only applies to consoles which display a "General Hardware Failure", or "Red Ring of Death", shown below,

Microsoft have obviously recognised problems with the 360, and have modified the components and layout of them . This had led to a reduction in the total number of failures. But, over 40% of failures are still not covered by the warranty, these include disc read, video card, hard drive, power and disc tray errors. Some of the largest retailers (GameStop) claim the 360 failure is not 3 to 5%, but is around 30 - 35%. A German magazine has claimed the problems are largely due to Microsoft manufacturing the 360 with the wrong lead-free solder. And this results in problems that are irreparable. If you are unfortunate enough to buy a defective Xbox, and it gets repaired under warranty, then Microsoft will compensate you with a one month Xbox Live gold subscription card.