After considerately committing suicide a week before the warranty expired, Microsoft sent me a new (at least to me), Xbox 360 Elite as a replacement. The total turnaround time was a week, partially because UPS took a few extra days trying to deliver my busted console to Microsoft’s repair center in Texas.

My replacement unit was built in June of 2008, which I am pretty sure is still a Falcon motherboard. The Falcon is the second-generation motherboard for the 360 Elite. It features smaller chipsets that may increase reliability by reducing heat within the console. Looks like I missed the Jasper revision by a few months, but my 360 Core replacement will probably shit itself in time to pick up either a Jasper or even Opus revision.

Here’s to another year of gaming!

My birthday present to myself last year was an Xbox 360 Elite. I wanted a 360 for awhile, especially after Catan and Carcassonne were announced for Xbox Live!, but I had heard a lot about reliability issues. After almost a year of trouble-free service, my 360 started crashing on Thursday.
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Well, not quite. But I did purchase an Xbox 360 Elite for myself for my birthday this weekend. The Elite differs from the other Xbox 360s for three reasons: it has a bigger hard drive (120GB vs 20GB), has an HDMI video output, and is black. Lady Jaye, my buddy Roclar and I went out to find one. I had hoped to get a unit from Costco, as they offer an extra year’s warranty on the system. Costco didn’t have any Elites in stock, and the warehouse near us didn’t have any 360s at all. I have a feeling that they are withholding stock until the price drop, rumored for the 8th or the 12th of this month. My plan was simple: buy an Elite and wait for the price drop. I would get a price match and get $30 back, to apply towards a game or buy some stuff from the Xbox Live Arcade.
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