Considering that they only relatively recently more-or-less fixed the overheating problem in the latest hardware revision, somehow I doubt that MS is particularly eager to mess around with their core hardware. That's just me spitballing, though.

Smaller can often mean cheaper to manufacture as they can often combine lots of components into less overall chips and less space as time goes on. In this case, it's the CPU/GPU that they've talked about for awhile, but it might be other things.

So I would think by next year we'll see another form factor. It's going to be cheaper to produce overall. Not saying it's this one (that branded fan looks like a clue this is fake to me), but I think it's coming.

Balmer recently said something about Xboxes being offered in other form factors, too.

It would make sense for a new form-factor to be brought in with a new controller...

Yes, but less space means less air flow and cheaper components can generate more/tolerate less heat. I think that hbi2k is right in that this could exacerbate any remnants of the problems they only just fixed. However, I think MannishBoy is right as well in that Microsoft will probably try it anyway. Maybe they think they've got it down this time and they've learned their lesson. Maybe they're right. Or maybe they're being arrogant.

I guess if we're stuck with these endless hardware revisions it's nice of them to at least make the systems obviously different. When I tried to find a Jasper X360 I felt like I should have brought a sommelier, and I still resent having to know what a Jasper X360 even is.

Every game needs to be playable on every X360 (remember that this was why the lack of a standard hard drive was a huge deal). That means no matter how much RAM and power they throw into THIS version, developers can't develop for that new configuration. You'd get higher framerates on some games but that's all, and I don't know how many extra sales they'd get from that.

Not necessarily if they can also have a die shrink at the same time meaning cooler and more power efficient chips. And I think they know they made some bad design decisions they've been chasing for years, so maybe they learned something about making sure they have proper thermal management.

Of course, if they are combining the CPU and GPUs here, it might end up creating bigger more complicated silicone to produce (see Nvidia's Femi stuff they've had huge problems with).

We Windows Media Center guys all would love this, as Microsoft has kind of let their extender model die outside of the Xbox (where you can watch TV from tuners and DVR content managed on a Windows PC on another device called an extender). So we would love a small, quite, reasonably priced "media" device. If it's quiter and more energy efficient, that would be great, too.

And don't forget MS's recent announcement that Xbox can perform as set top boxes for their "Media Room" IP TV cable service that companies around the world (Including AT&T here) use. A smaller/cooler/quiter box would potentially be marketed for that as well.

Awww it looks so kyu kyu cute.

With that fan you'd think it would almost take off like an R/C Helicopter.

The heatsink/fan looks like a prototype stand-in for whatever would go in the final redesign. Compared to some PC heatsinks the 360 one is stone age in comparison. Who knows how it's going to work though, if they're doing a case redesign they can change all sorts of things (besides how accessories attach, unless MS go mad) that could affect airflow, making fans more or less important.

But it's still a closed platform, and developers can turn graphics features on and off, or lock framerates at different points depending on the Xbox 360 model. It would still be pretty simple compared to the PC situation, and given how graphics-centric the market is, it still seems odd to me.

As one of the only gamers here who doesn't own a 360, a new quieter model would definitely push me over the edge. Until then I'll be playing MW2 with those two other guys on the PS3.

I take your point, cube, but I write code in a 2 million SLOC legacy code base that has to compile and run on 3 different CPUs (MIPS, ARM, x86), 2 different OSes and 3 different graphics APIs, so it's something I personally have to deal with, (though not in a games context, and we control the hardware and the software). In this case I was thinking more of maintaining the same architecture and bus types but just adding higher spec components (so GDDR3 RAM would stay as such, but 512Mb would become 2Gb or whatever). Of course it would be more work, but 5 years of performance improvements in the components would make quite a big difference to the top level performance. I would expect quite a good take-up in the user base if the improvement was big enough and the devs followed suit.

Yeah, the PS3 Slim I have is far from silent. Not that much different. The loudest thing on the 360 is definitely the DVD drive, and that doesn't run all the time.

Things like fan noise don't bother me, and my 360's still bothers me sometimes. It can be absurdly loud.

Part of me says, "A quiter, more reliable, cooler Xbox with a good-sized HDD that won't leave me deleting stuff every time I want to download something new? I'll rebuy, at the right price." Another part of me says, "They should have given me all of those things the first time around. Fool me once ..."

We'll have to wait and see.

I do suspect with the virtualization technologies that Microsoft and chip manufactures have now along with the DirectX foundations and libraries that I understand the Xbox uses, that the next Xbox will run current gen stuff much more cleanly than from Xbox 1 to Xbox 360. So the next step may much less jarring.

Not sure if Sony will just throw more cores and memory at it's next gen, but I don't think we'll have any huge suprises on the 360 side in hardware. Software and functionality, maybe.

I'm still hoping they patch in cloud saves and configuration in current gen. It makes too much sense when you look at what MS's corporate strategy is moving to. If Steam can do it, MS can do it. It would be another Live differtiation point against PSN if they can be first, too. I suspect they'll lose the party chat exclusivity at some point soon.

I'd like a Blu Ray drive please! I would prefer to cut a component out of media center cabinet...