I don't think using 500 consoles for the sample is enough.

And they were looking for the RRoD alone, they should have taken into consideration the E74 too, because both are just as bad.

EDIT: Ah, didn't see Dallinor's post. Ditto.

good news? I. am. confused...

How do we take this?

finally someone saying something positive about the 360 on this site.

My 360 is 2 years old. Never had any overheating or hardware related problems. :)

My brother, two of my friends, and myself all waited until Falcon chipsets were in the wild before buying our 360s. 3 of us bought regular Pro models and one of us (not me, unfortunately) bought the Halo 3 edition. The only one left that hasn't failed has been the Halo 3 one. My console got the E74; my brother and one of my friends got the RRoD. The Halo 3 one is still alive, but probably only because it's the one that gets played the least out of the group of 4. So in my experience, the Falcon chipset was not the solution. Mine was broken in less than a year after buying it, and my brother's broke within 6 months.

When I got my replacement, I starting doing a little research and found out through some YouTube videos and some well written articles that the most dangerous time in a 360's life is after you've been running it at full load, aka gaming on it, and then you shut it off right away. The CPU/GPU are very hot at that point, and when you turn the machine off, there are no fans running to cool them off. They just sit there and bake in their own heat, the motherboard slowly warps, and the next time you turn the thing on, it's RRoD.

The best way to be proactive about this is to let the 360 idle on the dashboard for 10-20 minutes after playing. I am the only person I know who actually does this. Can I say that it for sure works? No. If this Falcon model lasts until the end of the gen, I will consider myself successful. But I saw some pretty convincing video showing that the 360's temperature actually goes UP after playing and then immediately turning the machine off, while it stays stable and then slowly cools back down to proper idling temperatures after letting it sit with the fans running for a few minutes.

Just a little advice....

You forgot to put E73 in there cause thats what my 360 displayed on screen..  I looked it up and read E73= faulty ethernet port. WTF? ..that was false, I find out the hard way by gutting out my 360 just to find it was a toasted GPU .. 

Did the X-CLAMP mod and a year later is still running like new.

Well I am glad to hear that the Jasper chip set has helped :). Unfortunately I won't be able to buy one until tax return season 2010. By the way, does anyone know when the Valhalla chip set is due out for the 360?

LOL...this will never end...

I agree, but actually the problem arrises when turning the system ON and off after a priod time, believe it or not, its like a time bomb; When the 360 is ON the inside components heats up, what heat does to anything that gets hot it expands it, especially metal and contracts when cold.

  The solder (connectors) that connects the chip to the mobo together heats up and expands, Now this is when the damage happens, when the system is turned ON the solders (connectors) are getting very hot and expands; so, when turning the system off is doing is cutting the cool airflow drastically and not letting the solder (connectors) that connects the chip to the mobo cool and contract gradually that ends up warping or cracking..(rrod)

Remember this happens after frequent use in a long period time of turning the system ON and off and from bad solders (connectors) getting hot and cold, expanding and than contracting drastically by lack of proper cooling making it weak and from being in such extreme exposure it warps or crack.

Theory, when red hot metal is dipped into cold icey water it tends to warp or crack because of the drastic drop in temperture.

So what your doing is a good way to let the chip cool down gradually before turning it off and I agree, others that I've seen do is add an extra pc fan that it's powered separately with a 12v ac adapter.  So while the 360 is turned off the extra fan is still running thus making the system cool down gradually.

The new 360 models come with a better qualilty solder (connectors) and with smaller and cooler chips making them less prone to rrod.

bout time huh