Jasper Motherboard in the Wild: 256MB Internal 'MU', 150W PSU


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I'm pretty sure they will add that storage to all models when the other models get the same board. I imagine the cost of adding that 256M of memory to every board and only having to maintain one board run at the factory will less than it would be to remove the memory chip from the other units. It would also allow them to ship the console with NXE pre-loaded as I doubt they will want to continue shipping the old dashboard and requiring users to then do an update when they get the system.

I mean given the console has several years left in it's life I don't think they will want to be shipping Non NXE systems for too much longer.

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I don't really see why they'd put it on 60Gb and elite consoles, there's absolutely no need for it since you've got the hard drive.

Chances are, someone at Microsoft has worked out that the extra profit generated from memory card sales will be greater than the additional cost to having two different (yet very similar) motherboards.

Plus, the way it's designed, it's probably a case where 1/3 of the motherboards get sent to an extra step on the production line to have the flash chips soldered on, so it wouldn't really be that big a cost increase.

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I'm pretty sure they will add that storage to all models when the other models get the same board. I imagine the cost of adding that 256M of memory to every board and only having to maintain one board run at the factory will less than it would be to remove the memory chip from the other units. It would also allow them to ship the console with NXE pre-loaded as I doubt they will want to continue shipping the old dashboard and requiring users to then do an update when they get the system.

I mean given the console has several years left in it's life I don't think they will want to be shipping Non NXE systems for too much longer.

I very seriously doubt it given the complexity and efficiency of manufacturing lines today. It'd probably cost far more to add it to each console. The NXE would certainly be pre-loaded onto the Premium and Elite's HDD, too

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Yeah, with how cheap memory is today, I won't be surprised if they are all on the board, just the pro and elite has it disabled somehow.

In terms of manufacturing process, it would be easier to just have it all done the same. I can't imagine the 256MB adds even an additional dollar to the production cost.

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I can't imagine adding them to a specific version of the console adds less money than adding them to every single one. Why even bother? There's absolutely no point. The NXE will be in the HDD of the Premiums and Elite, and really the sole reason for this is to have the NXE on the Arcade consoles by default.

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Well, and I must stress this is pure speculation on my part, currently there has to be 3 separate production lines.

They'll all share the same path at first, the motherboard assembly is going to be identical (obviously), but at some point it does have to branch off as I believe the Arcade, Pro and Elite all use different outer casings (Doesn't the Pro have a shiny disk drive while the Arcade has only a matt white one, or some such?).

So surely it's possible that when the production line branches off, the arcade line has an extra step where memory modules are soldered onto the motherboard? I mean the Pro/Elite has an extra step where hard drives are attached to the outer shell, so it's not really a huge deal.

The difference there is that only extra steps are involved, no real different steps. When Microsoft had two different motherboard designs, you pretty much had to have two separate production queues since they were very different designs. I reckon that's how it's working now, which is why we wont see this memory on Pro/Elite consoles (Especially as it makes no sense to have it).

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Just an FYI, I was at my local Best Buy yesterday and none of the displayed 360s were from the lot the OP posted. I checked Arcades, Pros, and Elites. Most were still from August.

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