Ben Heck ponders Xbox 360 Slim: Motherboard, Memory Unit support, internal hard drive

[tpex]

In light of recent Xbox 360 hardware news, like pictures revealing an alleged Xbox 360 Slim motherboard and documentation of USB storage in a future update, we decided to see if the two stories tied together in some technical way. Surprisingly, they just might. Modding artist, hardware sculptor and warranty wrecker, Ben Heck, told us that if the leaked Slim motherboard is legitimate, not only does he see no place for memory cards (lending even more credence to USB storage for data transfer), but he dropped on us the idea that it may also have an internal hard drive. To emphasize, this conversation is speculation based on potential evidence that has not been confirmed by Microsoft.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/18/be...-unit-support/

some interesting stuff

[phoenix]

What do you think the benefits would be of a hypothetical 360 Lite having an internal hard drive?
Would it improve performance or reliability in some way or is this about aesthetics?

[larch]

What do you think the benefits would be of a hypothetical 360 Lite having an internal hard drive?
Would it improve performance or reliability in some way or is this about aesthetics?

There are absolutely not speed difference with the current Xbox hardrive sitting outside it still interfaces with the system board directly. Only real upside to it being outside is that the inside of the console runs less hot since the drive gets hot from paging files and date.

[Strifehart]

There are absolutely not speed difference with the current Xbox hardrive sitting outside it still interfaces with the system board directly. Only real upside to it being outside is that the inside of the console runs less hot since the drive gets hot from paging files and date.

100% correct.

Anyone who's opened their HDD casing will tell you that it's just an extended SATA connector, so there shouldn't be any speed impact.

[tpex]

I have no idea, whats the point of the xbox phat having a HDD?

[phoenix]

The current Xbox 360 uses its hard drive to store downloaded games, music, videos and of course gamer profiles and saved games, but I'm sure you know that. What I was curious about was why Ben Heck that that moving the HDD inside the hypothetical new Xbox was worth mentioning.

[phoenix]

What is an HHD?

[tpex]

Oops Fixed

[phoenix]

In other words, placing the HDD inside the casing of this hypothetical Box would not be a good thing.

[Strifehart]

In other words, placing the HDD inside the casing of this hypothetical Box would not be a good thing.

Well it works fine for the PS3, so I don't see why it would be an issue with the 360.