Want a new heat sinked 360? Look at the serial [update 1]
Recently, Ben Heck posted a tutorial on how to find out if your Xbox 360 has the new heat sink without voiding the warranty. And if you aren't familiar, the new Microsoft installed heat sinks help with overheating issues and are being installed in all repaired or newly manufactured 360s. So, they are very desirable. Anyway, his tutorial pretty much tells you to take a picture of your 360's innards via the vents on the bottom and look to see if the new heat sink is present. But we think we found an even easier (camera free) way to tell if your Xbox 360 has a new heat sink installed. Look at the serial number.
Update 1: According to your reports, it sounds like our 70000 serial number theory doesn't hold up. Stupid serial numbers and heat sink stuff.
Ben Heck just updated his tutorial page with an image of an Xbox 360 Elite's serial number label that HAS the new heat sink installed. If you notice, the last five digits of the serial are in the 70,000, more specifically 71105. After doing some research we found another fanboy with an Elite that has the new heat sink and the last five digits of its serial number are in the 70,000 too. Coincidence? Possibly, but we do know that 360s without the new heat sink are numbered a lot lower. My personal Xbox 360 does not have the new heat sink and its last five serial digits are in the 60,000s. Our own David Dreger confirmed that his launch console is rocking a 50,000 serial and obviously doesn't have the new hardware installed. Again, this is all speculation until we get a few more confirmed cases, but it just might be possible that Xbox 360 serial numbers could tell whether or not the console has the new heat sink.
If you're willing to help in our little investigative project, complete Ben Heck's "DIY Xbox 360 Endoscopy", find out if it has the new heat sink, write down your 360's serial and share the information with us. It just might be possible that if the last five serial number digits are in the 70,000s, then the console will have a new heat sink setup. We'll keep you updated.
