Chris Kohler
Culture

Inside the Elite: Motherboard Comparisons

Presented for your voyeuristic pleasure, the motherboards of the original Xbox 360 and the redesigned Elite. There’s no word yet on whether the CPU is the rumored 65nm revision, mostly because I don’t think you can tell the difference just by eyeballing the chip. ("Say, Bob, would you say that’s more like sixty nanometers, or […]

360eliteanimated

Presented for your voyeuristic pleasure, the motherboards of the original Xbox 360 and the redesigned Elite. There's no word yet on whether the CPU is the rumored 65nm revision, mostly because I don't think you can tell the difference just by eyeballing the chip. ("Say, Bob, would you say that's more like sixty nanometers, or ninety?")

The gang at Llamma.com, who obtained and tore up the Elite in question, were apparently very excited at some of their findings:

One [sic] a side note, we all had a good belly laugh here at the shop when we saw Microsoft's most creative measures to minimize the dreaded Xbox 360 3 flashing red lights "ring of death"
error caused by poor BGA connections of the CPU and GPU. It seems that that the good ol' a dab will do ya methodology applies here. Take a look at the epoxy surrounding the CPU and GPU which is intended to prevent the BGA connection from popping as the board warps.

Inside the Xbox 360 Elite [Llamma.com, thanks Charlie]