I would love for this to happen. This would mean that Microsoft would have to move past the Valhalla chipset (combined 65nm CPU+GPU) and make a 360 running on 45nm chips.

Its quite likely with Natal that they will redesign the hardware. Like Greenmedic said, its all to do with the image. What better way to dispel lingering reliability issues and to dispel preconceptions about what the console is at the same time?

I don't think the HDD is an important consideration, so long as they offer some way for current 360 owners to migrate to a newer console they will be fine. They could easily make the HDD slot loading or non replaceable. Afterall if they fit a 180GB or 240GB HDD next year they will be sure to satisfy 99% of the entire userbases needs.

I don't think the notion of a 'slim' means much for 360. There may be some form of re-design around Natal, but I don't see the whole 'slim' concept mattering much for 360 personally.

Well if they combine the power brick they can use the space saved in the packaging to bundle Natal?

I don't think they need a slim version.

that's a given, the question should be 'When'.

Last time I read something in regards to CPU/GPU shrink was that Microsoft and it's partners wanted to forego simply shrinking both to 45nm, and go directly to merging both CPU and GPU into one chip, if memory serves me correct they wanted to be at 32nm with the new chip, it was either that or 45nm but still merged, this of course would be an excellent move to make a slimed down version.

The question now is, have they modified the road map to also include scaling both CPU and GPU to 45nm in the interim as a way to lower manufacturing cost until they have successfully merged the CPU/GPU into a single chip, because so far merging the 2 processors into one is very tough and time consuming process mainly because the tech is not were it needs to be to make it happen any fast, this is why sony road map has in between stages intill they too are able merge them into one chip, but doing it Sony's way allows them to save money at each stage in the road map till they reach that final goal. Microsoft method means they have to take a hit since there missing out on each stage, but there hope is that they can get it up and running sooner.

Well see soon enough if Microsoft yeilds some fruit from their efforts, because a 360 slim along with natal will do wonders for their sales as it would be a relaunch of the machine, hell they could even have money to spare for a price drop as well...but of course it has yet to be seen what they can do since their not a hardware company like Sony, it should at least be interesting to see what happens in the next 12 months.

Forgot about the brick.  I'd be happy if that got slimmer rather than the 360 itself.

Oh, and didn't I see a little 'banned' notice next to you earlier - what have you been up too?

I thought it was funny that Gears of War 1+2's stated budget was so low and a comparison with all the estimated Killzone 2 budgets in a one line post of joy was percieved as a trolling post (which I understand) and I was banned for a day.

So you want a slimmer power brick? Well it kind of makes sense to integrate it as combining the CPU + GPU will yield a shorter PCB. It really depends on whether they want to keep using the external HDD attachments, though personally I don't think it would be too sacred if they internalised the HDD in some way.

solid state drive is the most likely situation

1 65nm GPU on CPU or 2 45nm chips... doing GPU on CPU at 45nm may be a bit much, but supposedly they have the Valhala running so in a year maybe it'll be 45nm... that would be kind of insane