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The Valhalla Xbox 360 is not going to be a smaller "Xbox 540"
TG Daily wrote an article today that stated that they think that the Valhalla Xbox 360 motherboard is going to be integrated into a new case design and form factor. They threw around the slang term "the Xbox 540".
I do not see how this is going to be the case and here are my reasons why :
1. Microsoft has never redesigned the case of an Xbox product. I have never heard anything about them changing the form-factor in the middle of a platform's generation.
2. Their entire idea is to put out a better cheaper Xbox 360 each year and they are not going to make a cheaper system by developing a new case. Their hardware strategy for Xbox is about building a better and cheaper Xbox on the inside that will reduce the significant manufacturing costs.
3. Microsoft is selling plenty of accessories that use the current design : The wireless adapter, the external movie drives (HD-DVD and probably Blu-ray), the memory units, face plates and the 20-Gig Hard Drive, 60-Gig Hard Drive (it is coming soon) and the 120-Gig Hard Drive.
4. They sacrificed the stability and reliability of the Xbox 360 in favor of a smaller sexier form factor launching in fall of 2005 that was established before the Xenon motherboard was designed. The current Xbox 360 had enough airflow heating problems and they are not going to make it harder for them by shrinking the form factor.
5. Sony had planned on keeping the thin PSTwo around while they sold the PlayStation 3 on a ten year life cycle. I doubt that Microsoft is going to keep selling the Xbox 360 once their third generation Xbox is on the market. A new Xbox 360 case would be overkill if they are going to have a third Xbox platform in a few years after the Valhalla motherboard.
6. They are putting all their effort into making an Xbox 360 that was reliable and cost effective to produce.
7. Just combining the CPU and GPU into a new unified chip set with a new cooling system is going to require a total redesign of the motherboard, to build that chip set and make it work reliably is not going going to be easy.
Update : I think a more realistic goal for the Valhalla Xbox 360 team would be to integrate that ginormious power supply brick into inside 360 form factor. That would shave off a few bucks in manufacturing costs but I don’t see it being very likely.
Jake at May 12, 2008 
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Comments
fair arguments, jake.
i still think it would be a good idea though... would be a good way to stimulate some renewed interest in the 360.
Posted by: rambo at May 13, 2008 5:24 AM
Some good points Jake, although I would have to disagree with you that MS wouldn't want to keep selling the 360 when the next generation product comes out. From the looks of it, the 360 is going to end up being this generation's equivalent to the PS2; it's going to get cheap and have a massive library of great games, the latter of which was not possible with the Xbox 1.
It's also in their best interest to keep selling the system as long as possible because they'll be able to profit even more from the lower manufacturing costs.
It also wouldn't take much work to design a smaller case for the system, but I agree that it's definitely not a priority.
Moving power into the case is an eventual thought, but honestly I'd rather have them make a smaller, but still external, power cord. The last thing we need is another massive heat element in the system.
Posted by: Devindra Hardawar at May 14, 2008 10:38 AM
Yeah, shame:(. Looks like its not comming!
Source: http://counterstrikesource.precision-media.net/extrememodding/?p=104
Posted by: Ray Barron at May 14, 2008 10:18 PM
The Valhalla Xbox IS coming. It is just going to look just like an existing Xbox 360.
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at May 15, 2008 12:19 AM
