New Xbox 360 on the way?

360 Rumour | Codenamed Zephyr.

Now that Sony has announced that the HD era has begun with the release of the technological monster that is the PS3, it's time for Microsoft to pull out the big guns. A little while ago, there were murmurings of the possibility of HDMI being added to the 360 via 'leaked' pictures of a 360 motherboard with some extra bits and pieces. Now, according to technology blog Engadget, they've received pictures of Microsoft's first revision to their console, which is apparently codenamed Zephyr.

Recently there was talk of the 65nm processors, which were going to allow both lower production costs and cooler CPUs, being delayed. It appears that this new addition to the Xbox family tree may sport these processors, and also include the aforementioned HDMI port, allowing for full 1080p output. Engadget speculates that the console may also come with a 120GB drive.

No firm news is available on pricing, release dates or even if this model is ever going to see the light of day (although we certainly hope it will), but with CES just around the corner, the release of a new model may be enough to keep the console's name on everyone's lips long enough to continue its march toward world domination. We cannot help but think that although many would be incredibly happy to have a beefier Xbox 360, those that have already laid down some fat wads of cash for the older models may be a little irritated if, or when, the Zephyr blows in.

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56 Comments

renegadesx

5 years ago

UmbrellaCEO wrote

renegadesx wrote

Ha, I am glad i have not bought a 360, I knew Microsoft would pull something like this

Zephyr is a name for a few protocols and applications used in Linux (Windows main competitor) as well as a town in Canada and a rock band

Oh and for the record, Gates has nothing to do with Xbox now

Yes he does, its his company.

He's serving as chairman but really doesnt do anything, Steve Ballmer runs things now.

Gates no longer writes software, Vista is pretty bad but the betas were not even alpha quality until gates stepped down from his developing duties

NeoSanity

5 years ago

renegadesx wrote

UmbrellaCEO wrote

renegadesx wrote

Yes he does, its his company.

At the moment all he is, is the leading shareholder, ie the CEO of the company. Though he hasn't made any realy decisions for Mircosoft for the last few years.

InfernalEternal

5 years ago

renegadesx wrote

Gates no longer writes software, Vista is pretty bad but the betas were not even alpha quality until gates stepped down from his developing duties

Im pretty sure you'll find that Bill Gates hasn't actually written any of the code in Vista, and if he has its probably legacy code which was written a decade ago. Therefore his duties have nothing to do with the quality of Vista.

Spanca

5 years ago

lol, Bill Gates hasn't coded in years!

NeoSanity

5 years ago

Spanca wrote

lol, Bill Gates hasn't coded in years!

Hell he could pay for someone to code for him, and then pay someone else to code for his coder.

Jellyfish

5 years ago

Wikipedia wrote

"William Henry Gates III ... the co-founder, chairman, former chief software architect, and former chief executive officer of Microsoft..."

And I don't know what you're talking about, Vista Beta 2 leaves XP 6ft under. (Yay I found drivers tonight!)

Ellegarden

5 years ago

renegadesx wrote

UmbrellaCEO wrote

renegadesx wrote

Yes he does, its his company.

Gates hasnt written software since the windowss 95 days. Vista? whats that got to do with anything? Look I get you love nintendo and whatever but I dont care about Vista or Microsoft's fiscal. I care about my bloody xbox and lesser extent Bill is doing charity work. Anyway I figured out his address, BigDaddyBill@microsoft.com

Klawrence

5 years ago

Who wants to see it in action? Youtubed here.

Im pretty sure its real, I cbf looking for things that give it away as fake nothing obvious stands out, You can See the HDMI converter plug go into a DVI cable and then that into the back of the TV. I dont know the 360 interface very well but id be pretty sure you have to select 1080p as an output method, maybe a firmware update is required.

NeoSanity

5 years ago

Klawrence wrote

Definatly looks real, at this stage I'm going to say it'sm more than rumor. I think if they keep the Core System (Lets say $300-400) , Then the Premium ($600) and then have this as the platium edition and have it go for $700-$800 then Mircosoft have instanly got the edge on it's competition.

Its a win win situation really.

Kaboth

5 years ago

I just bought a 360 yesterday so this kinda annoys me but then Zephyr is just a rumour and it might be a while before we see it yet anyway.

Besides I'm only playing my 360 on a SD TV, I own very few games so I don't need the larger hardrive nor probably ever will. The machine is noisy but I mostly ignore it and I have enough ventilation that the machine doesn't heat up much.

All up its not a big deal for me.

Ellegarden

5 years ago

Kaboth wrote

Unless your downloading demos and putting video you want, you wont need a bigger HDD or even a memory card probably do. By the way, on SDTV games tend to look crap worse than ps2, if you have the option go with VGA you'll notice a world's difference.

Frozencry

5 years ago

^What are you on about? The games look great on SDTV. Clearly not as crisp as HD, but still good nonetheless.

NeoSanity

5 years ago

I ordered a VGA cable for both the Plasma and my computer screen, is that a worthwhile purcash?

Frozencry

5 years ago

^Definitely, it looks superb with VGA cables, the colours come out much more strongly so you definitely won't be disappointed.

Kaboth

5 years ago

Yeh I found the 360 looked great on an SDTV. Far better than even RE4 on Gamecube which is pretty much the best looking game last-gen.

Certainly not PS2 quality.

NeoSanity

5 years ago

Frozencry wrote

^Definitely, it looks superb with VGA cables, the colours come out much more strongly so you definitely won't be disappointed.

Yay another worthwhile purchase.

Jim Dash

5 years ago

Look crap on SD? Is something clouding your vision?

Frozencry

5 years ago

Jim Dash wrote

Look crap on SD? Is something clouding your vision?

An umbrella.

Crestfallen

5 years ago

NeoSanity wrote

Klawrence wrote

i'm not sure if microsoft will keep the 3 versions, its too intimidating for people who don't know what they're doing.

if they did, what kind of edge do you think they would have?

NeoSanity

5 years ago

crestfallen12 wrote

NeoSanity wrote

Klawrence wrote

i'm not sure if microsoft will keep the 3 versions, its too intimidating for people who don't know what they're doing.

if they did, what kind of edge do you think they would have?

They'd have the low-end market pinned down with a each verison of the console to rival the sale price of the Wii. They'd have their standard verison which would appeal to the general population and the premium verison which would appeal to the would-be Playstation 3 fans.

Crestfallen

5 years ago

^ can you imagine Jimmy and his mum going to Kmart and seeing three different 360s plus the different bundles?

Klawrence

5 years ago

crestfallen12 wrote

^ can you imagine Jimmy and his mum going to Kmart and seeing three different 360s plus the different bundles?

Yes..?

NeoSanity

5 years ago

crestfallen12 wrote

^ can you imagine Jimmy and his mum going to Kmart and seeing three different 360s plus the different bundles?

It would then be up to Mircosoft on how to makret it, if they amrket it so that there's a distincive difference between the three of them then for little Jimmy should know which one to get.

Kaboth

5 years ago

Not to mention its a horror for retailers to have to stock 3 different machines. You're bound to get 1 or 2 models that don't sell well and take up space.

Ellegarden

5 years ago

Frozencry wrote

Jim Dash wrote

Look crap on SD? Is something clouding your vision?

An umbrella.