New Pictures of 2nd GPU HeatSink on Xbox 360 - Update: Video
>> =Ikari= sent us these pictures of his Xbox360 he just got back from repair (after RoD problem) ... another confirmation of the new 2nd heatsink/pipe technology we talked about yesterday that Microsoft installs to provide additional cooling for the Xenos GPU.
Context & Ripple Effects
The Xbox 360's thermal troubles have been documented since launch week in November 2005, when early units began overheating and owners swapped DIY fixes within a day. What is new here is that the fix is coming from Microsoft itself: a console returned from a Red Ring of Death repair arrived wearing an additional heatsink and pipe on the Xenos GPU.
The photos are the first physical confirmation of the extra-cooling modification reported on Maxconsole the day before, moving the story from rumor to verified practice — Microsoft is quietly revising hardware through the repair channel rather than announcing it.
First-order effects
- Consoles sent back under warranty for Red Ring of Death failures now return with added GPU cooling, directly addressing the failure mode that triggered the repair.
- Microsoft bears the per-unit cost of the second heatsink/pipe on every reworked console, an unannounced bill of materials change flowing through its service depots.
Second-order effects
- If repaired units prove more reliable than original stock, owners of unmodified consoles face a two-tier installed base, raising pressure on Microsoft to extend the revised cooling to new manufacturing runs.
- Retail extended-warranty sellers and third-party cooling accessory makers now price against a machine whose failure profile Microsoft is actively changing under the hood.
Third-order effects
- Reliability problems becoming invisible mid-cycle hardware revisions points to a console business where post-launch engineering changes — not just spec sheets at launch — determine a platform's cost and reputation.
- Sustained thermal failures on a graphics chip push toward eventual integration of CPU and GPU to cut heat at the source, a direction Microsoft would have to weigh for future hardware.
The trend: Console makers are shifting reliability fixes out of press announcements and into silent running hardware changes made through repair and production lines.