EVen More XBox 360 Leaked specs

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http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=4844



the site is kinda slow heres the full article

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The controller, the camera, the headset, the camera, and even the console itself...there have been a lot of Xbox 360 leaks so far.

Now, it seems a full list of Xbox 360 specs and Xbox Live details has been leaked. This list comes from a thread on the Team Xbox forums (the thread has since been deleted), and the TXB poster originally got it from another un-named forum.


2 types of Xbox Live:
Xbox Live Silver (no subscription required)
Xbox Live Gold (subscription benefits)

Features for Gold service
(S) Also for Silver
(O) Also for Offline

- Seamless transition to Xbox Live account from Xbox to Xbox 360
- Access to MMOs (additional fees may apply) (S)
- Free Xbox Live weekends (S)
- Multiplayer online gameplay
- Avatar for gamer profile(S)(O)
- Motto for gamer profile (S)(O)
- Personalized look for Xbox System Guide (S)(O)
- Offline achievments (S)(O)
- Online achievements (S)
- Access to other players' Gamer cards via Live (S)
- Cumulative gamer score (S)(O)
- Location/language profile (S)(O)
- Reputation (S)
- Enahnced matchmaking using above
- Skill level matchmaking
- Gameplay style profile (casual, competitive, etc.)
- Recent players list (S)
- Free and premium download game content(S)
- Free and premium downloadable movies, music, tv (S)
- Downloadable demos/trailers (S)
- Microtransactions (S)
- Custom playlist in every game (S)(O)
- Play music from portable devices (S)(O)
- View images from digital camera (S)(O)
- Strem media from Windows XP (S)(O)
- Interactive screen savers (S)(O)
- Track info for CDs (S) (O)
- Communication with voice, video or text (S)

The Hardware:
1. Support for DVD-video, DVD-Rom, DVD-R/RW, CD-DA, CD-Rom, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 cd, JPEG photo CD
2. All games supported at 16:9, 720p and 1080i, anti-aliasing
3. Customizable face plates to change appearance
4. 3 USB 2.0 ports
5. Support for 4 wireless controllers
6. Detachable 20GB drive
7. Wi-Fi ready

Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU
- 3 symmetrical cores at 3.2 GHz each
- 2 hardware threads per core
- 1 VMX-128 vector unit per core
- 1 MB L2 cache

CPU Game Math Performance
- 9 billion dots per second

Custom ATI Graphics Processor
- 500 MNz
- 10 MB embedded DRAM
- 48-way parallel floating-point shader pipelines
- unified shader architecture

Memory
-512 MB GDDR3 RAM
- 700 MNz DDR

Memory Bandwidth
- 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth
- 256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM
- 21.6 GB/s frontside bus

Audio
- Mulitchannel surround sond output
- Supports 48khz 16-bit audio
- 320 independent decompression channels
- 32 bit processing
- 256+ audio channels


To sum up the important stuff regarding XBL:

There will be two versions of Xbox Live. Silver is free (everyone gets it), and Gold is a paid subscription, like the current XBL. It looks like Xbox Live will be free on the weekends for everyone; Gold members will get it all the time, obviously. Current Xbox Live accounts will carry over to the 360 and become Gold Xbox Live accounts. Both Gold and Silver members will be able to download demos, trailers, and other content through XBL.

This info seems pretty legit, and some insiders have confirmed that this is indeed a real leak. At this rate, you have to wonder if Microsoft will have anything left to reveal at the MTV unveiling on May 12. :p
 
It's turning up everywhere, typos and all. I'm fascinated by this new speed measurement designated MNz.

It's also kind of funny that the freebie Xbox Live gives away everything except the core function, multiplayer gaming. Except for the free weekends, that is. Appears to be the heroinware approach. The first dose is always free.
 
- Track info for CDs (S) (O)
Click to expand...

I suggested that a few years ago to a tech support.

"Silver" and "Gold", eh? I hope the prices are the same.. Gold could be year subscribers/monthly subscribers and Silver could be trial users..

Freakin' sweet to everything.
 
[quote name='jam3582']can some one explain free weekends ? huh are they offereing 500 anytime minutes with that[/QUOTE]

That makes no sense..

Free weekends.. everyone plays.. what's so hard to understand?
 
[quote name='epobirs']It's turning up everywhere, typos and all. I'm fascinated by this new speed measurement designated MNz.

It's also kind of funny that the freebie Xbox Live gives away everything except the core function, multiplayer gaming. Except for the free weekends, that is. Appears to be the heroinware approach. The first dose is always free.[/QUOTE]


:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
[quote name='Scorch']That makes no sense..

Free weekends.. everyone plays.. what's so hard to understand?[/QUOTE]


ok I just put 2 and 2 together that sounds interesting I wonder what happens with current accounts
 
[quote name='jam3582']ok I just put 2 and 2 together that sounds interesting I wonder what happens with current accounts[/QUOTE]

Paying customers would presumably become Gold level users automatically.
 
jesus kid, do you even read?

I just saw that this was already posted, so this will be merged/locked soon, but seriously, you ask about XBL accounts.. it even says in the summary..

There will be two versions of Xbox Live. Silver is free (everyone gets it), and Gold is a paid subscription, like the current XBL. It looks like Xbox Live will be free on the weekends for everyone; Gold members will get it all the time, obviously. Current Xbox Live accounts will carry over to the 360 and become Gold Xbox Live accounts. Both Gold and Silver members will be able to download demos, trailers, and other content through XBL.
Click to expand...

It's pretty funny that you didn't even read what you posted..
 
[quote name='jam3582']- Access to MMOs (additional fees may apply) (S) [/QUOTE]
does that mean that the people with a silver account will have to pay, or will both silver, and gold have to pay for MMO access?
 
[quote name='Scorch']I suggested that a few years ago to a tech support.

"Silver" and "Gold", eh? I hope the prices are the same.. Gold could be year subscribers/monthly subscribers and Silver could be trial users..

Freakin' sweet to everything.[/QUOTE]


DOOD TEHY StOLESORZ YOUR IDEA!!!1!!!!
 
[quote name='smalien1']DOOD TEHY StOLESORZ YOUR IDEA!!!1!!!![/QUOTE]

..uhh.. I was saying that I mentioned it and maybe it was passed on, what the hell are you on about "stealing my idea".. i'm sure thousands of other people had the same idea.
 
[quote name='Ozzkev55']does that mean that the people with a silver account will have to pay, or will both silver, and gold have to pay for MMO access?[/QUOTE]

I think this is for situations like Phantasy Star Online where the publisher charges a monthly fee of their own separate from Xbox Live. MMORPGs like EverQuest or World of Warcraft are a lot more expensive to operate than just offering a lobby for Halo 2 shootouts. So they're going to require subscriptions regardless of whther you're also paying for XBL.

Potentially, they could go the Guild Wars route and offer some free access but the text is just to make it clear that Microsoft doesn't control that end unless it is their own game.
 
[quote name='Monsta Mack']The memory unit storage is sad, besides that the system looks tight (spec wise)[/QUOTE]
The memory is MORE then enough! We are not talking Multi Task PC here we are talking about 512 MB just to run one game on. Rember that PS2 only has 32 MB! That is 16x more memory then PS2.
 
[quote name='spoo']The memory is MORE then enough! We are not talking Multi Task PC here we are talking about 512 MB just to run one game on. Rember that PS2 only has 32 MB! That is 16x more memory then PS2.[/QUOTE]

This man speaks the truth - with a console you aren't running Windows and a virus scanner and a bunch of other crap that eats up your memory...all of it goes toward the game. 512 is plenty.

If most or all of that info is accurate, it looks pretty impressive. Not impressive enough to buy at launch (still waiting for more PS3 and Revolution details to see what I want to go with out of the three), but enough to at least lean me towards their side at the moment.
 
[quote name='spoo']The memory is MORE then enough! We are not talking Multi Task PC here we are talking about 512 MB just to run one game on. Rember that PS2 only has 32 MB! That is 16x more memory then PS2.[/QUOTE]

This man speaks the truth - with a console you aren't running Windows and a virus scanner and a bunch of other crap that eats up your memory...all of it goes toward the game. 512 is plenty.

If most or all of that info is accurate, it looks pretty impressive. Not impressive enough to buy at launch (still waiting for more PS3 and Revolution details to see what I want to go with out of the three), but enough to at least lean me towards their side at the moment.
 
[quote name='guyver2077']I Hate To Ask...

So Is Backwaed Compatability Out Of The Question 4 Sure?[/QUOTE]

Well considering ALOT of XBox games use the black and white buttons (where are they?), and no further mention of being backwards compatable...

Guess we still have to wait for E3 for the final answer.
 
[quote name='Monsta Mack']Well considering ALOT of XBox games use the black and white buttons (where are they?), and no further mention of being backwards compatable...

Guess we still have to wait for E3 for the final answer.[/QUOTE]

I am not sure if this is 100% right but I have heard that the black and white buttons have moved up top to form a second set shoulder button
 
[quote name='guyver2077']I Hate To Ask...

So Is Backwaed Compatability Out Of The Question 4 Sure?[/QUOTE]
Rumors are if you buy the HDD it will have an emulator to run Xbox games. Cross your fingers.
 
[quote name='Ikohn4ever']I am not sure if this is 100% right but I have heard that the black and white buttons have moved up top to form a second set shoulder button[/QUOTE]

Tight.
 
[quote name='Monsta Mack']The memory unit storage is sad, besides that the system looks tight (spec wise)[/QUOTE]

64 Mb is quite substantial, allowing for quite a lot beyond game saves such as user created levels or downloaded content additions. Keep in mind this is just entry level. Much larger cards should be available.
 
[quote name='Dr Mario Kart']Is there a confirmed launch price? Thats quite a hefty sum of hardware for what? $299?[/QUOTE]

They take a loss on the units, just like the previous model. The difference is that this design should allow them to scale it down better over time. They'll do what they have to do to make it viable. I'd be very surprised if the entry level was greater than $299.
 
right...taking hits on hardware is not unheard of. But their competitors have actually been able to turn around and make a profit, something that the MS game division isnt quite familiar with yet.

As previously analoged: If I pay half the cost to put a DrMarioKart brand fork in every household in America, I've bought marketshare out of my own pockets. I make no money and incur massive losses. It is a success?
 
[quote name='Dr Mario Kart']right...taking hits on hardware is not unheard of. But their competitors have actually been able to turn around and make a profit, something that the MS game division isnt quite familiar with yet.

As previously analoged: If I pay half the cost to put a DrMarioKart brand fork in every household in America, I've bought marketshare out of my own pockets. I make no money and incur massive losses. It is a success?[/QUOTE]
Depends on whether you sell food that can only be used with your fork, charge other companies money to make food for your fork, and charge customers money to use their forks online. This is not a valid analogy. Realistically, they don't take a 50% loss up front, they take a small loss up front, and make up for it later. And later revisions of the hardware can be made cheaper and eventually sold for a profit. The correct analogy here would be Gillette. Give away the handle, and sell the hell out of the blades.

Xbox had a disadvantage because its components were "off the shelf", or licensed, and couldn't be redesigned/combined very well to cheapen it. The hard drive was the worst example of this, they got a sweetheart deal for 8GB drives on launch, but they never got cheaper. An 8GB drive costs the same to make as an 80GB drive.

The Xbox division turned a profit in Q4 04. Its only happened once, but it happened.
 
[quote name='dafoomie']Depends on whether you sell food that can only be used with your fork, charge other companies money to make food for your fork, and charge customers money to use their forks online. This is not a valid analogy. Realistically, they don't take a 50% loss up front, they take a small loss up front, and make up for it later. And later revisions of the hardware can be made cheaper and eventually sold for a profit. The correct analogy here would be Gillette. Give away the handle, and sell the hell out of the blades.

Xbox had a disadvantage because its components were "off the shelf", or licensed, and couldn't be redesigned/combined very well to cheapen it. The hard drive was the worst example of this, they got a sweetheart deal for 8GB drives on launch, but they never got cheaper. An 8GB drive costs the same to make as an 80GB drive.

The Xbox division turned a profit in Q4 04. Its only happened once, but it happened.[/QUOTE]

Yep. Exactly right.

Some people think Microsoft is jumping the gun on bringing out the new system this year but then will wonder when the next big price drop on the current systems will come and fail to appreciate the difficulty of Microsft's position. At $149 the Xbox price is as low as it can get without taking an unacceptably high loss on the sale. Neither of the primary chip vendors involved, Intel and Nvidia, feels any great motivation to create new lower cost versions of their products when their business now revolves around different architectures. A .13 micron version of the XGPU would very inexpensive and have minor cooling needs but the cost entailed before the first chips could go into a redesigned Xbox would be at least $5 million, based on the reported costs of similar projects in trade publications. Even then the Xbox would be perpetually more expensive to produce than the competiton while expected to maintain price parity. At this point there is no hope of achieving better than a last minute surge of sales as the most member of its generation still must fade out with its contemporaries.

The money can be better spent on the design and production of the new system. Getting off to a strong start and sustaining that offer a much better hope of taking and holding a much larger market share. This in turn changes the revenue picture for software. Selling to a mere 5% of the installed base is a hit game but not necessarily profitable if that percentage is taken from too small of a base.

Consider 5% of the PS2's 80 million vs. 5% of the Xbox's 20 million units. This is what keeps publishers producing PS2 software in spite of the greater quality potential offered on the other consoles. Just hitting the point of breaking even on the project is much easier with 4 times the potential customers. To make their console business a consistent money maker Microsoft needs to shift efforts to a platform better suited to the requirements of the console business.
 
[quote name='epobirs']Yep. Exactly right.

Some people think Microsoft is jumping the gun on bringing out the new system this year but then will wonder when the next big price drop on the current systems will come and fail to appreciate the difficulty of Microsft's position. At $149 the Xbox price is as low as it can get without taking an unacceptably high loss on the sale. Neither of the primary chip vendors involved, Intel and Nvidia, feels any great motivation to create new lower cost versions of their products when their business now revolves around different architectures. A .13 micron version of the XGPU would very inexpensive and have minor cooling needs but the cost entailed before the first chips could go into a redesigned Xbox would be at least $5 million, based on the reported costs of similar projects in trade publications. Even then the Xbox would be perpetually more expensive to produce than the competiton while expected to maintain price parity. At this point there is no hope of achieving better than a last minute surge of sales as the most member of its generation still must fade out with its contemporaries.

The money can be better spent on the design and production of the new system. Getting off to a strong start and sustaining that offer a much better hope of taking and holding a much larger market share. This in turn changes the revenue picture for software. Selling to a mere 5% of the installed base is a hit game but not necessarily profitable if that percentage is taken from too small of a base.

Consider 5% of the PS2's 80 million vs. 5% of the Xbox's 20 million units. This is what keeps publishers producing PS2 software in spite of the greater quality potential offered on the other consoles. Just hitting the point of breaking even on the project is much easier with 4 times the potential customers. To make their console business a consistent money maker Microsoft needs to shift efforts to a platform better suited to the requirements of the console business.[/QUOTE]
Thats basically it, its in their best interest to end this generation ASAP because the current platform wasn't even designed to be profitable, the CPU, GPU, and hard drive are giant expensive albatrosses. The new Xbox will be cheaper to make faster than the current Xbox could. If you're MS, why wouldn't you? Plus they'll have 6 months to a year to gain marketshare before any competition is available.

Another thing working in Xbox's advantage is that it will release here first, PS3 will release in Japan first and come here at least 6 to 8 months later. The technology gap will not be very much, it was the opposite that also gave Xbox an advantage here the first time, since PS2 launched a lot earlier in Japan, the time between their launches is bigger than people think.
 
to sum it all up.. we are relieved about the XBL accounts but what about BWC.. it'd be a shame that we can only realistically play all these cool XBL games for another year-2 years without players jumping to other systems. Halo 2 is still fun (while the people get a little egotistical about their precious rankings) I hope that isn't how the next version of XBL is going to be like.. also..do you think that XBL gold will allow for surfing of the internet without heavy mod? that would be a selling point for me. gets rid of my computer..
 
[quote name='urzishra14']to sum it all up.. we are relieved about the XBL accounts but what about BWC.. it'd be a shame that we can only realistically play all these cool XBL games for another year-2 years without players jumping to other systems. Halo 2 is still fun (while the people get a little egotistical about their precious rankings) I hope that isn't how the next version of XBL is going to be like.. also..do you think that XBL gold will allow for surfing of the internet without heavy mod? that would be a selling point for me. gets rid of my computer..[/QUOTE]

Keep in mind Microsoft wants you to keep your computer and eventually buy another, preferably a Media Center system that will interact with the Xbox 360. While it is rumored that MS may offer some web access on the new machine it will always be very limited compared to a decent PC. An Xbox isn't going to have the hundreds of megabytes in APIs and other material that is part of Windows and a web browser will need to get by solely with what it can bring or download. Limted fonts, no printing, limited availability of third party plug-ins (I'd really miss the Google toolbar), and lots more. Think of it as WebTV with a decent display rather than the misery of web browsing on an NTSC/PAL screen. By no means a PC replacement but functional as an extension of gaming.

As for ongoing support of XBL games, that is really up to the players. If a game stays busy their going to keep that server going. If it goes weeks at a time without a match breaking out, ten no one is going to misss it.
 
[quote name='epobirs']64 Mb is quite substantial, allowing for quite a lot beyond game saves such as user created levels or downloaded content additions. Keep in mind this is just entry level. Much larger cards should be available.[/QUOTE]

Hmm, 64 Mb equals how many blocks of memory?...
 
[quote name='SEGA128DC']Hmm, 64 Mb equals how many blocks of memory?...[/QUOTE]
didn't it mention the detatchable 20 gig harddrive? why not just save your money and get that.
 
I was under the impression that the HDD would be 40GB; in particular, if what dafoomie said is correct (about a moderately standardized cost for producing HDDs of any size), why not include 40GB? It seems counterproductive to include one that is 2.5 times the size of the Xbox HDD, but 1/2 the size of the PS2 HDD. *Especially* if they plan on making this box a media center, that HDD space will be eaten up much faster.

myke.
...although, to be fair, I've not met anyone who has filled their Xbox HDD (with the exception of modders).
 
About my hard drive comment... They're going with Seagate LD25's, which are 2.5 inch laptop sized drives with either a regular IDE or SATA interface, designed for consoles and consumer electronics. 5400RPM, runs quiet and comparatively cool. Pretty much explains why they went with 20GB, its smaller, uses less power, doesn't run as hot, and those were some major design issues that outweigh the benefit of extra space.
 
[quote name='dafoomie']About my hard drive comment... They're going with Seagate LD25's, which are 2.5 inch laptop sized drives with either a regular IDE or SATA interface, designed for consoles and consumer electronics. 5400RPM, runs quiet and comparatively cool. Pretty much explains why they went with 20GB, its smaller, uses less power, doesn't run as hot, and those were some major design issues that outweigh the benefit of extra space.[/QUOTE]


are laptop drives more expensive? Just curious, I wanna know if upgrading this thing will be a ton of cash, like the PSP.
 
[quote name='Apossum']are laptop drives more expensive? Just curious, I wanna know if upgrading this thing will be a ton of cash, like the PSP.[/QUOTE]

They used to be but that was when laptop sales were only a fraction of the market. Today they often are the largest market segment in quarterly reports and that combined with other applications for smaller drives have erased most of the cost premium.

Smaller sizes, 1.8" and 1.0" are still carrying a big premium and lesser performance but the applications where size and weight are critical make them viable products. It took a while. Toshiba was selling the 1.8" drive in PCMCIA Type II cards for supplemental storage on laptops for a few years before Apple made the big bet on the iPOD.
 
[quote name='dafoomie']About my hard drive comment... They're going with Seagate LD25's, which are 2.5 inch laptop sized drives with either a regular IDE or SATA interface, designed for consoles and consumer electronics. 5400RPM, runs quiet and comparatively cool. Pretty much explains why they went with 20GB, its smaller, uses less power, doesn't run as hot, and those were some major design issues that outweigh the benefit of extra space.[/QUOTE]

Correct, and since drive capacity is very much a moving target it's best to go with the lowest cost for the bundled srive and allow people to buy any upgrade they want later. If it takes them a year to feel the need they get either a much better price or better capacity than if they were forced to make the pruchase in advance of need.

On the Xbox 360 changing out the drive should be pretty simple. But I've always sought to apply the same logic everywhere. When I was shopping for my curren tlaptop I settled for a lower capacity drive because I knew I could install a bigger one later for low cost if the need was felt. There were other features, such as having two Type II slots rather than one, that couldn't be altered later and I felt were important, so I favored those permanent elements over better non-permanent elements.
 
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