Cool, cool, cool: Screwdriver-wielders delve into the guts of an Xbox Series X

As excited players fired up Microsoft's latest take on gaming, terrors of the torx screw, iFixit, were busy pulling theirs to pieces. Today's victim, the Xbox Series X, was considerably chunkier than the also released Series S, but also apparently packs more power and an optical drive in the squat, black case. xbox ifixit …

[Anonymous Coward]

Zen 2?

In past consoles they used the latest tech at launch to avoid getting too far behind PCs over the expected 7+ year lifespan.

According to Wikipedia, current gen Zen 3 is “19% faster clock for clock than Zen 2”. That’s quite a performance gap already.

[Duncan Macdonald]

Re: Zen 2?

The Zen 3 range was too late for this round of consoles. For the XBox X to be on sale now required that the components were purchased many months ago - before the Zen 3 range was available.

[John Riddoch]

Re: Zen 2?

Not to mention that they need to test, evaluate, sign off the design and order the components before they start building the kit for consumers. That's without considering test rigs needed to be available to the games developers to code against (although I'm assuming they could be a bit less refined).

There's always a line to be drawn to determine how new the kit can be. Newer generation ones will hopefully be able to run a bit cooler as CPU/GPU tech advances and desktop/living room footprint will shrink.

[RM Myers]

Re: Zen 2?

It's interesting that AMD used last gen CPU technology (Zen2) for the consoles but current gen (RDNA2 - coming shortly) GPU technology, even though the PC parts came out in the reverse order. I assume this was done because gaming consoles are, doh, used for gaming which stresses the GPU more than the CPU, whereas most PC's are not gaming machines and thus don't need high powered GPU's, which have lower sales volume as a result.

[Phil Kingston]

Re: Zen 2?

I'm thinking the "Series" in the name hints at several updated models to follow that may be able to utilise components not available for this model's launch.

[NeilPost]

Re: Zen 2?

What XBox Series XX, X Box Series XXX (in partnership with Vin Diesel), X Box Series X2, X Box Series Y? X Box Surface Series??

None trips off the tongue.

[NeilPost]

Air Conditioner ??

That’s a pretty crap analogy...

Like a Dyson ‘Cool’ it won’t cool or condition the air. Indeed it will actually warm the air. So it’s more portable oil-filled radiator - with graphics card - than air conditioner.

[Nick Ryan]

Re: Air Conditioner ??

More vacuum cleaner then?

[Peter Clarke 1]

Gratuitous TV Reference

Zen chips inside- does it respond with 'Confirmed ' in a deep voice when asked to start a game??

You may need to ask you dad to explain this.

Coat, now, the one with the transporter bracelet in the pocket

[Dr. G. Freeman]

Re: Gratuitous TV Reference

Wonder if they have a portable version called ORAC ?

[markjb]

But can it run Windows 10?