Inside an Xbox 360 Jasper: Ben Heck dissects the mythical console, then tells you how to find one
By Benjamin Heckendorn 
posted Dec 10th 2008 6:05PM
posted Dec 10th 2008 6:05PM
"Gentlemen! I give you... JASPER!" [lightning crackles, thunder sound FX]
Ace modder Benjamin J Heckendorn (aka "Benheck") has found -- and immediately dissected -- an Xbox 360 Jasper. As widely reported, it was inside an Arcade unit. In the following story, he not only details what he finds inside, but will also clue you in on how you too can find this model on store shelves. Read on for the exclusive Engadget look at the guts and the glory!
This was a FDOU team Xbox 360, manufactured on 10-22-08, lot # 0842X.
For starters the Jasper does indeed have a large amount of on-board memory. With NXE installed, the system shows an "MU" having 214MB free. It'll be interesting to see if the 60GB Pro Jaspers have this... I would bet yes, having NXE on-board would be handy, but as we all know it still runs even with your hard drive removed.
That's all well and good, but enough of this running the Xbox, let's rip it apart! It's a "super unboxing!"
Here are the main internals of the unit. The GPU still has the extended heat pipe installed -- guess they're not taking any chances with this one. Good for them! CPU heatsink has not changed from the Falcon.
Looks like a Phillips drive. I took a picture of this since some people obsess over which DVD drive they use. Moving on...
The motherboard thus far. The amount / locations of toroidal coils and electrolytic capacitors has not changed at all from the Falcon unit. In fact I've come across Falcon units that actually use much smaller caps on the right hand side of the CPU, but as we all know there's scores of hardware revisions.
I would suspect this sticker pretty much confirms what this unit is. In the past this location would have stickers saying things like "RMA Heatsink" -- so apparently they called it a Return Materials Authorization heatsink in-house? Interesting. I like "extended heatpipe" heatsink personally... to each his or her own I guess.
So far so normal...
Whoa! The bottom-mounted memory is back -- who woulda thought? As the world's foremost buyer of Xbox 360's (I pretty much have to be) I've seen this flip-flop a lot... some have bottom memory, some don't, some with bottom memory had pads heat sinking it to the RF shield, again, some don't. Weird.
X-clamps haven't changed, nor has the layout of the circuitry below the GPU. Well, nothing drastically noticeable...
Hello, what's this? Traces for some kind of controller and a memory unit. This is right under the ring of light, wonder what the purpose could be?
OK here's the star of the show -- the new GPU. The main body is the same size as the past GPU's, which I did not expect, but there are a lot less components on the surface and the main heat die is considerably smaller and not centered on the package, either.
Old 90nm GPU for reference.
The CPU hasn't changed much from the Falcon.
I'll do some heat tests with this unit once I inevitably slap it into an Xbox 360 laptop. Now let's move onto how you can spot one of these new units in the store!
The Xbox 360 box has a hole at the top of it where the bar code of the console is visible. Clerks usually scan this when you buy one. What you need to do it look at the lower left corner of this box. If you peer closely you can make out at least half of the voltage/amperage rating of the unit. The # of amps used by the 12 volt rail is the key to determining which console it is. The photos below show this in detail.
14.2 amps equals a Falcon unit (65nm CPU, 90nm GPU). Please keep in mind there's nothing wrong with having one of these, I play mine a lot and it's fine. You might not be able to see the whole voltage listing just through the peep-hole, but you should at least be able to see if a 14.2A or 12.1A is just to the left of the "5V".
12.1 amps equals a Jasper unit (65nm CPU, 65nm GPU). This voltage rating is also listed above the power input, but of course you can't see that when it's in the box.
There has been a lot of discussion about lot #'s, power supply ratings, and things of that nature being used to find Jaspers. I have found those to be unreliable. For instance, this Jasper was lot #0842X. However at Circuit City today I saw a 0843X Arcade unit, but it was 14.2 amps.
Also this particular Jasper came with a 175W power supply (like the Falcons used). They are probably trying to use up all the older PSU's and thus it was packed with the unit. Keep in mind that even if this Xbox only needs 150W it's not a issue to power it with a 175W supply, just like people who put 700W PSU's in their PC's for no apparent reason.
Above we see the power port of the Jasper 360. Note how it has a slit in the middle of the top plastic bar. The plugs on the PSU's are designed in a way to be forwards not backwards compatible. That is, an original 203W PSU will fit in any Xbox 360, but because of these 'keying", a new 150W PSU will only fit in an Jasper. Likewise a Falcon PSU will fit in a Jasper but not vice-versa.
So yes, check the amperage rating of the unit at the back -- it's the most sure-fire way to find a Jasper from what I have seen.
OK that's about it for the Jasper autopsy. I look forward to using these in my Xbox 360 laptop-building endeavors!
-Ben Heckendorn
www.benheck.com
Also this particular Jasper came with a 175W power supply (like the Falcons used). They are probably trying to use up all the older PSU's and thus it was packed with the unit. Keep in mind that even if this Xbox only needs 150W it's not a issue to power it with a 175W supply, just like people who put 700W PSU's in their PC's for no apparent reason.
Above we see the power port of the Jasper 360. Note how it has a slit in the middle of the top plastic bar. The plugs on the PSU's are designed in a way to be forwards not backwards compatible. That is, an original 203W PSU will fit in any Xbox 360, but because of these 'keying", a new 150W PSU will only fit in an Jasper. Likewise a Falcon PSU will fit in a Jasper but not vice-versa.
So yes, check the amperage rating of the unit at the back -- it's the most sure-fire way to find a Jasper from what I have seen.
OK that's about it for the Jasper autopsy. I look forward to using these in my Xbox 360 laptop-building endeavors!
-Ben Heckendorn
www.benheck.com
Awesome! 3 months too late for me! Oh well falcon is chugging along pretty well...
First? no way....
"tells how you can find one"
So what, am i supposed to buy ANOTHER Xbox360????
So this is how Xbox360 increases its installed base!
Ah, i see, this time it actually works so all is well!
I love it when people reply with a completely irreverent comment to the first one so their comment shows up second.... lol just dead with the fact that your comment is not any better and doesn't deserves 2nd... as if anyone cares that it is second...
Your Comments are just ghosts in a sea of FAIL. Have a Nice Day!
I'm guess the memory switching sides of the mobo and other oddities could come from having more than one manufacturing outfit in China, which is entirely possible.
I just sent mine for repair. Whats the chance of getting a jasper added after everything being gutted? It weren't RROD though.
Pretty low. I just got mine back. I figured the odds were low they'd still have 1st gen boxes laying around, but they do. Hopefully this one wont rrod till the next gen. {crosses fingers}
"just like people who put 700W PSU's in their PC's for no apparent reason."
Making me feel bad with my 1000W PSU.
haha I have a 180W PSU!
Haha I have a 90 W PSU ... for my laptop - Does a power adapter qualifies as a psu? or is that the battery?
65W! how could ANYBODY top that?!
(how much have eee psus?)
The power adapter is a PSU. All a PSU does is convert AC power to DC power, which is what your power adapter does. That's why you don't need a PSU in your laptop, as everything is already DC.
Heh, 65W laptop PSU here.
60W PSU here, NEXT!
My EEE 1000H has a 36W PSU :) I win!!
Wattage on a power supply does not need to be exactly the power required. You actually get more efficiency by not having the power supply running at full capacity. So in this case, the original poster (1000W) probably gets the best efficiency per wattage used as well as having the best electric bill per Kw used.
I always over-purchase with a power supply. Spending that extra $20 now will probably get close to paying for itself over 5 years, not to mention the lower fluctuation of output voltage going to the rest of your computer equipment.
Ghen is proving that half a clue is no better than no clue.
30W for my Acer Aspire One power brick. I win.
minor flaw in my math, electric bill statement is dumb :P sorry
Haha, I have a 700W ToughPower, guess I got called out by BenHeck.
Even though I know I'm not gonna come close to using all that power (C2D 65nm @ 3.46, 4GB RAM, 8800 GT, DVD+RW, 2 7200RPM HDDs) the reason I bought such a powerful PSU is because the higher-end ToughPowers are extremely well built and very well reviewed. So I didn't have a problem paying a bit more for power I wasn't going to use if I knew that the quality of the overall unit was very high.
Most power supplies have worst efficiency at the lowest and highest utilization. So it really depends on your supply and your load. It's usually best to be in the middle.
hahaha,
this makes me feel terrible.
my computer has a 1200w psu.
Turns out I got a Jasper Arcade box right after they lowered the price to $199 two months ago.
Another possible way to tell the difference is the DVD-tray. On my older 360 it's chrome, and on the new one it's the same white plastic finish as the rest of the body.
I thought that only meant the difference between a pro and an arcade.
I could be wrong, but the silver tray indicates a premium Xbox package, and the normal white plastic tray is the basic/arcade/whatever version. At least that's how it used to be.
Yup, White for Arcade/whatever that older entry level one was called units.
I really hope you are just being sarcastic Kevin.
Ben Heck and Engadget do it again! They make a big to-do about Ben Heck finding all this amazing Xbox info when there have already been posts about this, even with multiple links to established guides.
My proverbial hat goes off to you guys, really though, job well done.
[/sarcasm]
Maybe you could support the greater Xbox community a bit for Engadget. But no, you just want the "exclusive" Jasper guide from your idiol Ben Heck. Good job my ass...
Why so serious?
Because this has happened before with Mr. Heck...
When you can make a "laptop" out of a game console, then come back and talk trash. Until then, you can shut the fuck up.
Esteban that has nothing to do with the topic. There's a large Xbox scene which isn't built by Ben Heck, you know. Not saying Ben Heck isn't doing good work or anything, but MRCUR is right in saying that Engadget only seems to publish what he does, even if it's rehashing relatively "old" information.
You name me one non-Microsoft employee who knows more about the 360 than Ben and you'll have a valid point. Otherwise, kindly shut the fuck up.
@Zorque
powerslave from xbox360-hacks.com will put ben to shame. and most M$ employees
What would you like to know? I'm pretty sure my guide is pretty damn close to what Mr. Heck has written here, probably a bit more concrete at that. And you can find everything he said in the ensuing discussion of my guide if I don't already have it there.
It's interesting to see how the comments which aren't in 100% support of Ben get low ranked...
Maybe they feature Ben Heckendorn more than other modding enthusiasts because he is a GUEST COLUMNIST ON ENGADGET. Did you see who wrote the article?
This guy knows his stuff, and he mods a lot more than just 360's, any tech blog would love to have a guy like Ben Heck writing columns for them. You can talk about the 360 modding scene all you want, but Ben's been doing it for years on multiple platforms, and very few mods ever come close across the board to his quality. You are getting down ranked for attacking a guy who is just a great modder, you act as if he is doing a disservice to all of us for posting these pictorials.
You call yourself an Ace modder? I mean, you're good, but calling YOURSELF that? I can understand if I say it or someone else says it.
Her didn't write the intro, the people here at Engadget said that. Pretty easy to tell from rerading comprehension though I suppose they should have placed a : after the Read On line to more easily differentiate the writers.
I think someone else helped write this. That said prepare to be low ranked.
@ kris
Seems like that kinda backfired on you, didn't it?
I'll put a few monopoly bucks down on betting someone else wrote the lead-in.
Oh I forgot to say I love you Heckendorn.
In fact I love you so much I may turn gay. You give me nerdgasms with the things you do.
Tango Mike India
*Nerdgasm*
Share the goodness.
i'm sad. bought mine 3 days ago and if id known this id have waited longer. oh well my ps3 will always work
You should be able to return it unless you got it from eBay or something similar.
What`s so special about this xbox version?
You must have not read the post my friend.
I will not do your job for you. READ !
it has a smaller GPU, less likely to melt or RROD.
RTFM !
RTFA, not, RTFM.
PebKac
I've lost the bubble... do all 360's have HDMI nowadays? Even the premium's and Arcades? Or is it still just an Elite feature?
I'll answer my own question... yes, all 360's now have HDMI ports... but in the Elite they are 'generous' enough to give you a cable.
Thanks Eskimo. Great minds think alike...and around the same time.
I just lost the game.
Do Arcades have HDMI ports now?
Look up. :)
you RTFM too !
They still make XBox'es?
Booo! I did not pay for this.
Actually, the modders are manufacturing XBoxes nowadays...
Well, at least, since Microsoft files for bankrupcy, several months ago, following Sony and Nintendo...
As you may have noticed, when money comes out the front door, fun runs through the back door.
Which planet have you had been lately, dude?
is there any difference using hdmi instead of the components.. i have an older 360 that doesnt have the hdmi port but wouldnt mind knowing if there was a major difference or not
it still does HD, you can do 1080p on both, so the only real difference is that the single HDMI cable carries the sound as well as the video at the same time, and is a digital signal.
Its like the difference between VGA and DVI. Have you used VGA to hook up a new digital LCD display? Looked a little fuzzier right? Well, the same here. Probably won't be as noticable given that there's usually motion and all, but still...
Plus what he said.
Since when have you been able to do 1080P over component? And even if the Xbox will do it TVs max out at 1080i over component. Not that many people would notice the difference since the TV will just deinterlace the signal anyway, but still......
boo, that just plain isn't true. whilst there is no official spec or support for 1080p over component, one most certainly CAN do 1080p over component. the 'tv maxing out at 1080i' comment is just plain rubbish.
that being said, the 1080P over hdmi sure does look crisper :)
The other reply's above are correct, but the real question is the fundamental difference between HDMI and component.
-HDMI keeps the digital signal from your XBox and carries it to your TV.
-Component is analog. Your XBox converts its digital signal to analog, then it's carried via component, and then your TV converts it back to digital. This convert-then-convert-back procedure (or any conversion) introduces noise, though not much. It may not even be noticeable
I just sent my xbox back in for repairs, it RRODed on me for the second time, and it has yet to arrive back yet. I know they generally just swap it with a referb unit, but what are the odds that i will get a Jasper, or even one with an HDMI port? (mine had no HDMI port, but is a pro system)
i got a 1080p tv but the best i get with components is 1080i which looks really nice.. i didnt think it was possible to get 1080p with components... is there some type of settings i need to change
Odds? 14 to 1, but you still need to beat the spread. Report back and let us know which one you got when your saga reaches an end.
Will do, it should be back soon, it is marked as repair completed. I cant wait to get back to gears of war 2.
@bigsal
my old xbox was component, and my TV is 1080i, however i saw the option for 1080p under graphics settings and resolution. It is possible, as far as i know, to get 1080p with component just as easy as with HDMI.
Component cannot do 1080P, on anything.
@bigsal
your tv has to support 1080p over component
@Boo Radley
YES, YES it can. your tv has to support 1080p over component.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/20/xbox-360-adds-1080p-hd-dvd-drive-for-november-17th-in-japan/
I've got the money to get this, but not the justification since I've got a backlog of Wii games to play (I know, I'm probably the only one).
Well it sounds like the power supply might get a teensy bit smaller, I suppose I'll get that when I finally take the plunge. Oh, sorry, 'jump in.'
good work ATi
Who cares about the XBOX, I want more pictures of Heck's work area. Anyone who has a box for heatsink X clamps has got to have SOMETHING interesting laying around.
I second this. Ben? Like a nerdy version of cribs.
microsoft needs to burn and leave the gaming to sony. if they would use their tiny a@! brains maybe they could figure out how to put together a gaming system that is worth the $. i will never trust/buy another microsoft product again. its off to Apple/sony/wii for me. screw the wondering when my system will melt down. i got the rrod and fixed it finally... i unplugged all the cables wiped it down with a nice soft cloth then took out a phillips screwdriver set the screwdriver down and threw that b@#ch against the wall. Took the pieces outside and threw them in the bon fire and threw a couple back. PZ OUT MICROSOFT
You threw a screwdriver at a wall? And set it on fire? What did it ever do to you?
You know, you gotta turn it in the other direction to undo those screws don't you? And whatever happened to the xbox?
Worst. Story. Ever.
continuity fail
Syntax and grammar are weeping right now, and it's all your fault.
I have an Xbox 360 elite and on the back it says its a 16.5A but the power supply says 175w? I thought that didn't match up as only the Xenon/Zephyr's were 16.5A? Manufactured in October 2007.
I wouldn't read a whole lot on the amps figure on the sticker. I've got a September '07 Arcade with 16.5A for the 12V rail and a 203W power brick. It's still a Falcon though, it has 2 flat inductor coils and no heatpipe on the CPU heatsink
He explains in the article that the higher-watt power supplies are probably just old stock being cleared out, and that they won't affect performance at all.
No, they have internal revisions for repairs. For example, RROD consoles were recieving the 'Opus' motherboard, which had 'Falcon' chips but no HDMI, because the console doesnt have a slot. Now, if they just give you a new console, then yes, but they rarely do that. If you sent in your power supply, you're getting an Opus or better.
So i presume even although they should now run a bit cooler they're probably just as horrendously noisy?
I don't have a 360, but they should be significantly quieter compared to original models which had both CPU and GPU on the older processes) because the fan can run at a lower speed. The cooling requirement is directly proportional to energy use, so going by the max current requirements quoted above, the fan in this should be about 1/7 quieter than the previous model when the system is running full tilt. It's probably not that simple but still...
You can also copy games to HD now, which seems a bit silly, but means you can reduce noise from the DVD drive, the other noise-generating component. (It's 12x, so spins *really* fast.) Different drives had different noise characteristics, thus the obsession with DVD drive manufacturer noted above.
The noise is caused by the drive so yes it will still be noisy. You can always just cache the game now though.
Thanks, Ben. You ROCK!
So no Jaspers seen in Pros or Elites yet?
If I understand right, Jaspers are exclusively Arcade units and were created to supply the space to install the NXE. Pros and Elites have hard disks, so they don't need onboard memory.
Sucks, got sent a replacement unit 2 weeks ago and it seems it is neither a Jasper nor a Falcon, but some power hungry energy sucking artifact from a world that once was (16.5 A). Cheap asses.
Oy. sorry to hear that, hope that doesnt happen to many more people... more power more heat more likely to melt and RROD. gotta love microsoft...
I rearry hope that Ben didn't write that first paragraph.
HAHA love it didn't even take the sticker off the dvd drive, just got it and ripped it apart hey lol, something i have done before as well
First of all, why? Why go through all this trouble for 360s? They all end up being the same thing anyways. This Ben guy sounds like a super xbox fan but even then dude. I never heard of some one buying xboxs like this just to see the slightest difference INSIDE the console itself. I mean I am not trying to be a dick, I really would like to know why.
Also isn't this illegal to change a product with out consumer knowledge?
I'm sure selling those laptops more than make up for the cost of buying a 360.
Component can and will do 1080P, doesn't mean if your TV doesn't support 1080P over component, everyone else doesn't either. Xbox wont pass HD-DVD media over component at 1080P, it'll do 1080i over component.