About the weak points of the Xbox One: we analyze and compare with previous versions. Inside the Xbox One X game console What's inside xbox one

Despite the fact that the main topic of Microsoft's presentation at E3 was the newest Xbox One console, the corporation found time to announce an updated version of the current Xbox 360 console. The device, designated Xbox 360 E, has a redesigned design and a different port arrangement. In addition, the console is said to produce less noise during operation. iFixit specialists have already disassembled the new product into parts and studied its design.

Inside the Xbox 360 E, iFixit found a 250 GB Seagate hard drive with a spindle speed of 5,400 rpm, a GlobalFoundries XCGPU system-on-a-chip (combines a Xenon CPU and a Xenos GPU), a 128 Mbit Hynix flash memory microchip, and GDDR3 SDRAM module manufactured by Samsung.

Fixit notes that thanks to the updated design, removing the case cover is now somewhat easier. Modular design makes it easy to repair and replace failed components such as wifi card, storage and fan. At the same time, using clips instead of screws increases the risk of damage to the console when opening the case.

The maintainability of the Xbox 360 E is rated 8 points out of 10.

As for the motherboard itself, we won’t see anything new, it’s still the same Corona of the latest revision. On board is a 16 MB NAND flash drive, HANA and post_out points are still missing.

It's always interesting to look inside an iconic product. Especially something like Xbox, which is required to operate at 100% load for many hours. And in some cases - even days. We disassembled the new Xbox One console and not only studied its structure, but also compared the new product with previous generations.

Previous versions of Xbox were very popular service centers. In the vast majority of cases, they broke in exactly the same way. For example, the weak point in the first Xbox was the power supply. It was built directly into the body, which, of course, looked more aesthetically pleasing from the outside. However, the lack of active (and passive) cooling under heavy load quickly led the design to failure. This engineering defect could be completely corrected only by installing an additional cooler, which was quite difficult to fit into the case.

The first generation Xbox 360 was famous for its graphics chip losing contact with motherboard. By all indications, the cooling system simply could not cope with the heating of the chip, and the solder stopped holding. The service centers were able to return the fugitive to his place, but the treatment did not help for very long. Also, in the process of leaving their home, the chip often burned out. Now it costs sheer nonsense, about 500 rubles. And five years ago, including labor, a replacement could cost six or seven thousand.

Xbox One is radically different from its predecessor, at least in that it runs on a processor with x86 architecture. Therefore, it is especially interesting - are there any obvious childhood diseases in the first generation that will please the guys from the service?

Disassembling the console is not so easy. The outer casing is held in place solely by latches. Out of habit, we assumed that there was still one screw under the sticker on the back, but there we were only greeted by a technological circle.

The absence of a screw forced the seal to be placed in an unexpected place - on the side, in plain sight. It is difficult to damage it accidentally, but a child can pick it off out of curiosity, or a cat can walk over it with its claws for the same reason.

The latches are very tight; picking them up and unlatching them is not easy, to put it mildly. Looking ahead, I will say that the reverse assembly is not trivial. It is necessary to not only match the latches with the grooves, but also select the correct angle of attack.

Under the plastic casing we are greeted by an all-metal “can”, on which the speaker and radio modules responsible for the operation of the joystick and Wi-Fi are located. Also striking is the cooler of the cooling system. The metal grille on it is not very evenly painted black. By all indications, this is done manually, and it is unlikely that there are two completely identical Xbox One consoles in the world.

Please note that the Wi-Fi module has a connector for connecting antennas, but in practice they are soldered on the board. You shouldn’t wince: the huge “horns” on the router do not at all guarantee a large coverage area, and in smartphones the antenna can be the size of a match head. And nothing, it works. Here the sites are quite impressive in size, like in Apple and D-Link routers.

By the way, in the first two versions of the Xbox 360 there was no Wi-Fi support at all, and in the Slim version the module was attached to a screw somewhere on the side.

In general, from the first minutes you get the feeling that you are not disassembling a gaming gadget, but a normal computer in a Taiwanese-made case. No, you know, grace. Sheer utility.

We unscrew a dozen hex screws - and there they are, the insides of the Xbox One. What catches your eye is the unusually compact Blu-Ray drive, absolutely ordinary HDD WD Blue family and a really hefty cooler.

Models hard drive may vary depending on the batch, but the volume is always the same - 500 gigabytes. This is, in general, a lot. Yes, and no one bothers you to connect external storage. But all the same, we computer geeks are gnawed at - is it possible to replace the internal drive with a more capacious one? Yes, you can. Moreover, the cheap WD Blue with a spindle speed of 5400 rpm does not set performance records. Only by opening the case will you have to say goodbye to the warranty. Also, the new disk must be properly prepared (you can see preparation instructions, for example,). Considering that good game It takes up 30 gigabytes on your hard drive; soon you can expect an Xbox One version with at least a terabyte inside.

By the way, compare the layout of the Xbox One and Xbox 360 Slim.

The arrangement of the components is approximately the same, but the “air” inside the new model is much greater.

Let's look at the cooling system again. Thanks to the size and thoughtful aerodynamics of the blades, it is virtually silent even under maximum load.

At the back we see a massive radiator and copper heat pipes. Everything is also very computer-like.

The motherboard resembles its server counterparts.

All the chips are located on the front, there is nothing on the back.

Please note that the board is divided into sectors on both sides, like a chessboard. This is done to facilitate the work of servicemen. Also in the lower left corner of the front part you can find several unused contact pads. They are here for a reason. The fact is that special versions of the Xbox One are released for developers, and they have the same board, but are only equipped with additional connectors and modules.

In the descriptions of the Xbox One on the Internet you can find out what's inside AMD processor with a frequency of 1.75 GHz. Uses 2 quad-core modules with Jaguar architecture. The graphics are handled by the Radeon GCN GPU with a frequency of 853 MHz and 768 computing cores. From this description it can be assumed that there are two chips, but there is only one. Yes, in the field of traditional processors, AMD is far behind Intel, but their graphics are noticeably better than Intel Core. After the release of IRIS graphics, the gap is narrowing, but AMD is still on top.

On the sides you can see 16 modules random access memory DDR3 manufactured by Samsung, 512 MB each.

By the way, it’s funny to compare the entire computing part of the new console with just the Xbox 360 graphics chip. Progress clearly does not stand still.

Or maybe the whole thing motherboards compare.

It’s impossible not to notice how much more freely the components are located on the Xbox One board. No one bothers anyone, and even with much greater heating than what an AMD processor can provide, it is almost impossible to overheat the neighbors on the board. So you can play for a long time and with pleasure.

The south bridge on the board, according to Xbox tradition, is proprietary, so it will not be possible to identify its manufacturer and developer.

Sasha Levchenko also found the very first Xbox in his inventory, which also ran on x86 architecture. Of course, it was immediately dismantled.

Inside we were greeted by a large 3.5-inch Seagate hard drive and a Philips CD-ROM. Younger people no longer remember that Philips once produced optical drives.

A special version is hidden under the radiator Intel processor Pentium III model 2001.

The manufacturer is indicated on the radiator - this is a reputable company Cooler Master

And to the right of the processor is the main source of problems of the first Xbox - the built-in power supply.

As it turned out, one cooler for the processor, graphics chip and power supply unit was not enough.

Total

The autopsy revealed no obvious weaknesses in the design of the Xbox One. The combination of a fairly cold filling with a powerful cooling system and a loose arrangement of components on the board allows overheating to be eliminated as a source of problems. This console can be used for its intended purpose almost around the clock, and in addition to its gaming functions, it also works well as a home media server.

All final Xbox (Xbox, Xbox 360 Lite and Xbox One) and the second generation Xbox 360 that joined them.

The console is not particularly elegant in design. And in general it looks more like a compact PC. I find myself thinking that it would probably be nice to install Windows on it and use it both for games and for work. But for now, roll the normal one onto the console Windows version No one has succeeded yet, and is unlikely to succeed in the future. However, original analogues can be found in the ASUS ROG line.

The use of AMD chips in the new generation of consoles allowed the latter to increase its share of the x86 processor market by 2.6%, and now the company accounts for 16.9%. True, we have to thank not only Microsoft for this, but also Sony, because the Playstation 4 uses almost the same chip, and it still sells twice as well (by the way, Taiwanese VIA still proudly controls 0.2% of the market).

Using x86 architecture will make life easier for game developers, and in particular, porting products from consoles to PCs. It will also be easier for manufacturers of game engines and development environments. Already seemingly written off, the architecture is gradually taking up the positions it left behind, and has not yet achieved success only in the market mobile devices. But, by all indications, this is a matter of time.

We look at what kind of hardware the Xbox One X has inside, plus a video report

• Release date: November 7, 2017 in Europe and the USA, pre-order available

More and more details are being revealed about the most powerful gaming console at the moment - the Xbox One X. The technical parameters of the console have been known for a long time, but now Microsoft has allowed a wider circle of people to look inside new version of its line of Xbox consoles and, moreover, capture all the features on video.

In short, the new Xbox One X is very different in hardware from its predecessor, undoubtedly for the better. Only very similar appearance, which is also made in a minimalist body without any special design revelations.

• Central chip: Scorpion Engine Soc, which includes an 8-core processor. at 2.3 GHz and a 6 teraflops graphics system (for example, GTX 980 5.5 teraflops, 980 Ti 6.5 teraflops) at 1.72 GHz (This is a specially designed chip for the Xbox One X console);
• RAM: 12 GB;
• HDD: 1 TB (as well as 8 GB of additional flash memory);
• Disc drive: 4K UHD Blu-Ray;
• Cooling system: 2 coolers - chamber cooler for cooling the processor and for general airflow of the console.

What is inside the Xbox One X

So far, the game console is positioned as the most powerful device of its kind in the world, with full output of real 4K resolution. Microsoft said despite this big release, this is not a new generation of consoles at all, it is still ahead.

We're at Microsoft's headquarters in Washington, D.C., about to take a look inside the company's latest gaming console, the Xbox One X. Microsoft has invited us here primarily to show us how they developed the most powerful gaming console ever released. The company also wants to answer an important question: why? Why did she make a 4K gaming console just four years after the launch of the original Xbox One console at a time when not everyone has 4K TVs.

Let's start with the components that provide this performance, namely the Scorpio engine. A custom 8-core AMD Jaguar processor and 12 GB of GDDR5 memory are used, resulting in a system capable of delivering 6 TFLOPS performance. What does it mean? A more powerful computing device that loads games faster and looks better even on Full HD TVs. If game developers want, the Xbox One X will run games at 4K resolution at 60 frames per second thanks to some processing techniques.

This console is more powerful than any previously on sale. But the big question still remains: will this be a sufficient basis for successful sales of an expensive device? Will 4K gaming be widely used? Microsoft thinks so. They want to prove that the high processing power and thin, affordable gaming console body will propel console games and help them compete with PC games.

There were quite a few prototypes of the new Xbox console, but in the end, the familiar design of the Xbox One S version was chosen, with some important changes. The new console has to dissipate almost twice as much heat as the Xbox One S. Since the power supply is placed inside the case, there is more heat that needs to be managed and released outside. Microsoft solved this problem by using a vapor chamber heatsink. This design is more often used in expensive servers and video cards.

To make sure they could get rid of the hot air, the developers included holes in the case, like the Xbox One S, to allow heat to escape around the edges, and used extremely thin metal. As for color, Microsoft took care to differentiate the more powerful Xbox One X from last year's Xbox One S. A special matte black color was created, which was called “infinity black”.

The result is an extremely impressive device with a level of performance that cannot be achieved in a computer at the same price. This is exactly what Microsoft has strived for and will not be enough gaming problems problems that the most powerful console in history will not be able to solve. Microsoft still has to catch up with Sony, the PlayStation 4 has been selling twice as much for many years. The Japanese company has its own powerful new PlayStation 4 PRO console. It's not as powerful as the Xbox One X, but we don't know if buyers care or if they'll notice the difference.

There are other problems too. If you don't have a 4K TV, you probably won't want an Xbox One X unless you plan to buy one in the near future. if you have powerful computer, there is also no need for an Xbox One X since all of Microsoft's exclusive games will be available on Windows 10.

Finally, Microsoft and Sony are taking a big leap forward. The 4K format is a pretty good marketing hook and changes the usual approach to console refresh rates.

We all know what will inevitably be released new model Xbox, PlayStation 5 will also appear in the future. Some buyers may decide to wait for them. All this creates difficulties; It’s not entirely clear who the Xbox One X is intended for. Microsoft is banking on enthusiast gamers who want access to the best experience possible and are willing to pay for it. Even if they already have a computer or don't have a 4K TV. But it is unknown how big such a market is.

Microsoft has one big advantage: unlike Sony, the company has invested in backward compatibility. This means new consoles can run older games. This may be the reason for the future accelerated release cycle of new models. This appealing idea makes consoles more like computers, which can be upgraded on a component-by-component basis, and more like smartphones. Whether 4K will allow this to happen and whether the Xbox One X will catch up with Sony depends on the availability of quality games for it that can effectively take advantage of affordable performance. Microsoft promises more than 130 games at launch and their number will grow. The console will go on sale for $499.

It's safe to say that the most powerful gaming console will only be as good as the games it comes with. Because of this, Microsoft has a lot of work left to do, both on its own games and with third-party developers. For now, the company is asking users to believe in its strategy and join it.

Created a console that was similar PC. It used standard PC components: including a processor from Intel(something between Pentium 3 And Celero n), video card from NVIDIA, hard drive from Western Digital and a standard DVD drive. Some people bought the original one Xbox in order to disassemble it and use its components to create an inexpensive PC.

Microsoft had to work hard to ensure that its console didn't have so many obvious parallels with the PC. For example, the software prohibited the use of a keyboard and mouse, although the Xbox had a standard USB interface built into it. In general, Microsoft's pioneer in the console market turned out to be quite successful. And although the battle with PlayStation 2 was lost, the Xbox went down in history as a great gaming system. Thereby, Xbox 360 Surely even greater success awaits. Plus, based on polls, the Xbox 360 is no longer viewed as a "Gaming PC."

To be honest, when creating the Xbox 360, Microsoft could have simply gone ahead and made a regular upgrade to its first system, replacing the processor with a more powerful one, the video card with a more modern one, and so on. And believe me, it would work. But this time Microsoft pursued completely different goals - growth (in the eyes of consumers and developers) and, in fact, victory over Sony. Now that the Xbox brand has a name and a loyal following, Microsoft can legitimately claim victory in the console wars. And instead of a kind of black box PC, release a stylish and advanced system.

So, the Xbox 360 is smaller than the Xbox and its wireless nature makes it a pretty nice addition to, say, your bedroom. But, despite the fact that the system looks like an illegitimate child of an iPod and a DVD player, internally the Xbox 360 is still very similar to a PC and there’s no getting around it...