Lots more.

http://benheck.com/07-12-2007/inside-the-xbox-360-elite

 This is the famous "Xbox 360 Laptop guy". He's taken a few Xbox 360's apart to build into portable laptops. He knows his way around an Xbox 360.

He decided to build a new one off of an Xbox 360 Elite, and does a component-by-component analysis of the Elite X360s to show the design model differences.

The X360 elite has (that old models don't have):

HDMI (duh), and all the standard X360 Elite-stuff

2nd Heatsink (like the newer refurbished X360s)

New BenQ DVD Drive that's quieter

New thermal glue/paste for the CPU/GPU combo.

Basically, the rundown is that since the Elite launched (as his is a basic elite), that MS has implemented, as of then, the major changes to heatsinks to fix the RROD issues. Obviously, the 65nm will do even more. But for those really wanting an X360: The Elite seems to be the most reliable until the premiums are sold out. If you can get a new(er) X360 Premium (April 2007+), you should be fine. However, All the elites are made past this date, so it's automatic.

Just a few words to those considering an X360. Now, with the price drop, the older units should make their way into consumers hands, so I'd say in 1-2 months, the real old stock should be gone, and the new better ones (pre-Falcon, post-RROD issues).

good to know even if i'm one of the lucky but not so lucky one lol.... i never had a heat problem and my XB is almost always running sometime during more than 48 hours without being turned down..... but it appears that i'm one of the rare one to have a dvd firmware problem as all my DVD video are working well but it takes sometime more than 30 minutes of opening and closing the rack to make a game work... and i'm not covered for that as the extension is just for the circle of death... so sometime I wish mine would burn so I can send it back lol

weren't there reports of the Elite RRODing up too?

@ omgwtfbbq

Yes, but the Elite userbase is tiny compared to the Core, Premium and other consoles, but the percentage rate at which they crap out may well be lower, some quotes from NeoGAF XBox elite users:



- "I've only had it for 5 weeks now. :( I only play it for 2-3 hours per day and I always turn it off when not in use. It red-ringed while I was playing 3rd Strike for about 10 minutes (I haven't turned it at all yesterday)."

http://aycu20.webshots.com/image/20339/2002982552409414214_rs.jpg

This picture was from another NeoGAF user:

- "Like this thread has been saying. POS!"

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/3240/dsc00016yj6py2.jpg


- "I want to take my 360 Elite back to Futureshop, but 3rd Strike is still inside the machine. Does anyone know how to eject the disc tray while in red ring mode? :p"


- "My launch ELITE died today. ****! ****! ****!
I got it at Costco so I do not have to pay anything for a replacement, but still, this is ####!.

So far I have had a launch premium die on me, and a launch ELITE do the same."


- "My friends Elite also died on day one so I would say there no better also."



- "My second elite is dead. I have an in-store warranty, but they won’t have any elites in for 3 to 4 more weeks. Should I just send it in?

When is this all going to end? I just want to play some damn games."

Media reports:

Microsoft National Broadcast Channel (MSNBC, 25 May 2007)

Quote:
All of the problems that have plagued the Xbox 360 since its first iteration are still an issue with the Elite. The console still has the occasional overheating incident – and the noisy fan that attempts to cool things off. And the Elite version of the Xbox 360 still has that godawful, mammoth power supply that's more than a third the size of the console itself.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18854247/

Xbox 360 Elite Prone to Same Problems as Others

"We’ve had numerous reports coming in of users getting 3 red lights on their brand new Elite consoles this morning. While this is a daily occurrence with 360 Premium and Core systems, we thought Microsoft would have had a better handle on the situation with the Elite."

Probably, it's not just the heat thing that causes it - I'm sure there's several types of hardware failure with similar symptoms.

all of them have the same problem . design problem

yeah well if people didn't bitch about the size of the first XB... they might have choose a bigger casing...... who the hell put a 3 core CPU a GPU like that etc in a tiny casing like that ?????? console should be bigger and we wouldn't talk about heating problem or giant external power supply....

The 360 does have a design flaw and I'm not confidant that the heat-sink patch up will solve all of the RROD problems, but then again Microsoft is betting almost a billion dollars that it is so I could be wrong.

Not a fan of the 360 anyways, but it's good to see Microsoft trying to take the initiative to fix the problem instead of ignore it like they were doing in the beginning. they are at least taking steps in trying to fix the problem, but as many users are starting to point out it may not just be the heatsink that is the problem.

Many people have built cooling casings around their 360's to try and solve the issue and they still RROD and get shipped back in their coffins. I personally think that it's an overclocking problem mixed with the power supply. I don't think the system itself can handle what it's being put through and eventually bogs down and crashes.

I could be wrong, and my assumptions are within a pile of thousands, but right now its as good a culprit as any.

Well I think a lot of people have agreed that the main problem is the poor soldering that allows the motherboard to warp overtime.

Thanks for posting the photo. I was thinking about upgrading my premium to an elite so I could have the HDMI on both 360 and PS3. I was going to use my trade-in value to make it cheaper. What worries me is when the "Falcon" comes out, will Game Crazy even take my premium let alone give me the $230 dollars in credit I could get right now?