TheBigFatJ said:
The new heatsinks don't seem to have fixed anything. People need to realize that failure rates take a while to pan out, so if Microsoft makes a change, we won't know the true failure rate for that change for some time. People are just hoping that the 360 is fixed so they can justify buying one themselves. I'd love to buy one if they didn't have continued quality problems. This will be apparent in 12 months when people are still getting failures on relatively new units at that time and we have an influx of failed units that will have been sold during the '07 holidays. This will bite Microsoft in the ass because it will have been the second time they claimed they fixed the Xbox 360 without actually fixing it and, as stated above, the Japanese will not forget about it. The 360 has a fantastic library so far this generation. Its hardware just sucks, and continues to suck. |
I think most people "think" the new heat-sinks are helping because they actually are helping. If you realize that a LOT more hot air is being pushed out of the console then the previous versions, then you'll understand that the newer consoles are not running as hot as the older ones (sans new heat-sink). Knowing that the main culprit of all red ring errors is due to overheating and consequential warping of the motherboard (causing the chips to pop off), it's obvious that this new heat-sink will make a very positive impact on the reliability. The new DVD drives are MUCH better than the older drives as well, both in sound output when running at full speed and in disk-read errors (that is to say, they don’t happen; at least to me).
While I can't comment on whether these improvements eradicate the errors (I don't think anyone can at this point), I do know that since purchasing my July-made Elite in early August, I've probably used it more than the average (that is, casual gamer I suppose you could call him/her) uses their console in an entire year. It’s on every single day, often for 6-8 hours at a time. I even recently left my Elite on running a game (accidentally) for an entire weekend, and it worked perfectly fine upon my return. I have no doubts in the new hardware; and although this based on nothing scientific, I consider the majority of the reliability issues handled.
I'm not sure if the better reliable consoles apply to those getting returns/refurbished consoles. though. I get the feeling that something about those refurbished/”new” consoles isn't up to the quality of the brand new consoles sold in stores. I wonder if the “new” consoles are actually new…or if they just slapped some new component in an old/failed console that had been returned and put a new manufactured date on it…which I wouldn’t put past MS to do. I do feel awful for people that have been afflicted by multiple system failures...and if that happened to me, I doubt I'd be happy with the MS nor would I probably still support the 360 as much as I do now.
However, all that being said I do feel so long as you purchase a console that was made post-April, you should be confident that the console will be much more reliable than the previous versions. From my point of view, it’s pretty obvious that the new consoles are much more solid. Of course hardware failures will happen (no piece of hardware in CE is immune to failures), but I think that the rate is down to a much more reasonable level with the new hardware (probably close to the industry standard rate for failures, which is where the PS3 and Wii are at). You'll still hear about the failures on the internet because there are millions of people with old hardware out there; but I doubt you'll hear much, if anything, about the new consoles failing.
I suppose my point is, then: people who in the past have really wanted a 360, but were waiting for more reliable consoles, should at least consider the 360 now. I won’t say “buy it now!” because, well, it’s your choice of how to spend your money…but if you’ve wanted a 360 for a while, now is a great time to get one as you’ll get a more reliable console along with a great lineup of games. I know my friends who’ve finally gotten a 360 since the newer configuration has come out have been very pleased with the reliability and the new DVD drives (which are so much more quiet than the annoyingly loud ass launch drives (which is one reason I gave my launch console to my brother)). This is just my opinion, however; so please don't take it as fact (then again, most everything stated on here is opinion).
