whoa! That's the first time I've seen it. Its HUGE!!! . Can't believe they couldn't fit it in the system (as big as the 360 is by itself). Who knew that you'd get a free mini furnace with a purchase of a new 360 . There'll probably be some sort of redesign in the near future.

At least it'll warm you up during the winter, just throw one of those fireplace DVDs into the 360 and curl up to the brick with a cup of hot chocolate.

I'll wait until the Revolution and the PS3 are on the way. I'm no Nintendo fanboy, but the Revolution, debuting at under $200, is looking mighty appealing.

= J

From the slashdot comments:
Another good one:

I'd say making it external was wising up in several ways. If as many people have suggested the original Xbox problem was indeed the power supply rather than the power cord and they some how managed to band aid it with a new better cord, then it makes perfect sense to make this one external. Also, if this thing does have heat issues then getting it out of the box with all the actual expensive components that could get cooked also makes sense.

I'd say making it external was a good move. Much like the good move Nintendo made by making it external on the cube.

Keep that heat out of the box and make it easy to replace if necessary.

Sounds like a decent plan to me...

Well there are a lot of reasons I won't be getting a 360 right now, but here are the biggies.

$400 is just too expensive for me to buy a system and really that isn't the final cost. Once you add in games and tax you could be pressing $600. It would be a stretch but I can swing it, but all of that for 2-3 games at the end of the day? Just too steep for me. Plus it doesn't seem like any of the games are "great".

I'm also not into online gaming and X-Box live is a huge component and selling point to the system. I think it's a cool service that is done well, but I'm just a single player kind of guy. I also don't need nor care about the media center aspect of the system which is also another area where a lot of the system's worth lies right now.

My main reason for not getting one though is that I'm perfectly happy with the current gen's graphics. Games look great now and though the 360 is a step up, it isn't as drastic as atari to nes to snes/genesis or psx/n64 to dreamcast/ps2/xbox/gamecube. I honestly believe we could have stayed in this current gen for another 2 years easy. The wealth of great games (both buried treasures and widely known AAA titles) out there that I haven't played yet is insanely large. And that's not to mention the fact that many of those games can be had for $20 new. So I'm in no rush to upgrade.

I will get a 360 down the line for sure, but for now I'm staying put with what I have. These same exact points will probably apply to the PS3 as well and the Revolution if it's more than $200.

You are missing the point. The previous xbox had over heating problems. The 360 has over heating problems. There is no excuse, really. Just because they tried to correct the problem does not mean they succeded.

Just a quick note:

From what I've experienced so far with my 360, online multiplayer is a small part of what Xbox Live has evolved into now. If anything, Xbox Live is geared at the single player gamer this time around. That's the whole point of the free silver membership; to bring the single player into the online world with achievement comparisons, downloadable arcade games & regular game demos, customization of gamertags, voice & text messenging, etc.

I agree. The new live service is actually impressive (when cheating is not going on.) I wish all the consoles supported such features. I expect they will in time, it took LIVE a while to evolve into what was envisioned 5 years ago.

man I love hot chocolate, I'm drinking it now. Actually I like the external power sources, it makes the systems much smaller. I think every system I own has one now (minus portables for obvious reasons).

Not only that, but it's a lot cheaper to replace a broken or faulty power supply than an entire system. This is really a non-factor to me.

actually the power supply is just a computer supply in a strange box, i'm wondering why there aren't any fans in the unit. getting hot just sucks, bad bad hot psu. attention anyone in a warm weather area please send your 360 to beandip because it gets cold here.

I think its a bit early to proclaim overheating problems with the 360, and I've never head a heat issue with my Xbox. I'm not saying over heating is not an issue with the 360, I just think its a bit early to make a blanket statement that it does. It very well may have issues. With a 3 core CPU, etc it would be kind of amazing not to in that small of a case. I did read that they are using liquid/condensation cooling

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x...360theguts.htm



The bottom line is they want to make consoles as small as possible (especially since form factor was something the original Xbox kind of took a hit on, especially in other countries), and to do that an easy and fairly smart way to do it is to make the power supply external. It also makes it easily replaceable should there be issues. Same with the hard drive...

To me its just a very practical move. Nintendo did it last gen with the cube, and of course their form factor was much better, but then again they weren't cramming in a 3 core CPU either.

Ugh. I don't care if the thing is a frickin' craig super computer, it shouldn't be sold unless it is designed to hanle the environments it is expected to be in. Just becuase it is powerful doesn't excuse them from designing something properly.

I'm not saying the 360 is junk, I'm not saying that there is a massive problem, what I am saying is that the reason I'm hesitant to buy one is that MS has clearly demonstrated they care more about getting something to market as specified time then to design it properly.

Come On!! External power supplies are are very common with the design of mini desktop computers. The Dell SX 270 is the size of a dictionary, but the power is larger than the 360, When I got my first one in the office I was like what the hell??? But after I got use to it I found quite portable for moving around the offfice, The next line SX 280 also had the same config.

Agreed... we'll just have to see how it stands the test of time. I'll also be interested in how the PS3 handles heat as well. I haven't read much on how hot the cell processors run.

Let's keep this thread on-topic. It's a fair reason to avoid the 360 because of glitchy early models, on the other hand MS has always done a good job taking care of early adopters with problems (I can testify firsthand to this) so that's a fair retort.

Seriously though, we don't want to see this thread get too sidetracked, I'll start deleted posts again if it does. Thanks.

I think people are overblowing any heating issues, I have had mine for over a week now, got it last saturday and it stays very cool.

GP, perhaps you can help me understand what you are saying. To me, a thread is not sidetracked if the discussion is directly related to the thread topic. ???

Jeff - I think small offshoots are fine within this thread, but long drawn out discussions about the heating of the new 360 would be better suited for the tech thread I started. It seems to me you guys aren't seeing eye-to-eye on the power brick and whether it's a POS or not. Like I said that's a valid reason not to get an Xbox 360. But if I understand the OP, he wants this thread to be about why people aren't getting one and not indepth facets on 360 launch problems.

Sorry if this is confusing, it's confusing to me too. I guess what I'm trying to say is that listing why you are getting one is fine, replying to someone who is not getting one with some facts that may change their mind is fine, but getting into a long tech discussion on something in particular seems better suited for other threads.

Really as long as you keep it civil, it shouldn't be a huge deal. I'd say just try and steer it towards why you aren't getting one.

Jeff - you're the one that won the original Xbox then sold it then rebought it right? I know you didn't really game on it that much. Can I guess that is the main reason you aren't buying it, similar to JoshHinkle, you are more of a Nintendo guy and Xbox lineup doesn't appeal to you?

To me that would be a much bigger factor than the power brick.

FWIW, my Xbox 360 barely gets warm, and I never had any heat problems with either of my two original Xboxen. Maybe I am just lucky.

Bumped to add another reason to my list, it's just not needed as the X-box still kicks as tech wise.

I finally started Halo 2, and that game looks and sounds phenomenal. What I've played of COD2 at the demo kiosks only looked slightly better, certainly not $400+ better.

You are right, presently the 360 offers very little in terms of gameplay I am interested in. I constintly consider many options for my gaming "needs" as I have little capital to invest. Once the 360 has been out for a while and better games arrive I will consider getting one. the reason I harp on the psu is the fact that I'm an electrical engineer and stuff like that pisses me off to no end. Engineers curse, you want everything to be perfect. (Directly conflicts with business needs and goals though)

That's cool! I heard the PS3 is going to have a huge brick too, so we'll see Heck I'm surprised the Revo looks so big. I figured it'd be the size of a pencil or something.