So yeah, finding an
Xbox 360 Jasper in Arcade form isn't all that difficult these days, but we certainly haven't seen a glut of Pro models shipping out with the supposedly cooler, smoother and altogether more melancholy Jasper hardware within. A lucky soul over at
PDAToday has acquired one such unit, and while he may just be incredibly fortunate, we'd say it's about time you to-be Pro owners start looking out for a few telltale signs. As you can see in the closeups in the read link, there here FDOU team Pro -- which was ordered from Amazon on December 22nd -- boasts a 12.1 amp rating and the unmistakable Jasper power port. Of note, it
did come bundled with a Falcon revision (175-watt) power supply just like
Ben Heck's Jasper Arcade, though we suspect Microsoft is just clearing out excess inventory given that the older PSU won't damage the Jasper machines. Any others out there run into any holiday luck? Let us know!
[Thanks, Bill]
posted December 29th 2008 2:34AM
I believe I have one (UK) though I will have to check.
Any word on Elite Jaspers yet?
My local FutureShop still had 360s from before the Lego Indiana Jones / Kungfu Panda bundle (the games are in a pouch stuck to the outside of the box, not inside the box) left over after Christmas. So, I doubt I'll see a Jasper in a store for months.
I enjoyed it so much it seems I double posted. :)
It's disgusting that people even have to think about this, that it's news. You shouldn't have to hope for some new design to make a console suddenly reliable enough to own.
I know a lot of people have problems with their 360, but both myself and a friend both have one from the very first day they were released, and have had no problems with them whatsoever. They are both very heavily used, and I have been through a couple of control pads but that is it. No flashing red lights, no crashing, no overheating - not a single problem.
I've got an Elite (Falcon) and the new Jasper and when I put my hand on them or on the exhaust they both seem to be pretty equally hot - doesn't say much and the die shrink helps, but still there's pretty much same heat levels in both consoles.
I'd say it's nothing special in the end, I'd be more happy if they'd introduce a size reduction of the whole console, looking at the mobo and all the setup in there, one would imagine, this package could & should be smaller 2 years ago.
In the last picture, anyone else notice under the Hard Drive, it lists HD-DVD with 174 megs free.... WTF?
yeah, whats up with that?
HD DVD must be in the drive
He probably has the external HD-DVD drive.
I have an HD-DVD drive also... I was referring to why it was showing free space.
Ordered my Pro for Dell on 22rd, it is a Jasper, the DVD drive is still noisy as well as the fans. There was a sticker on the disc drive saying not to turn it on it's side while running, don't know when that started guess it's part of the lawsuit.
I received a Falcon Arcade Xbox 360 (had the 14.2A rating) for x-mas that was purchased from the Delafield, WI Best Buy on 12/20, but I exchanged it on 12/26 at the Grafton, WI Best Buy for a 12.1A Jasper Pro. I haven't had a chance to open the box yet, so I don't know which power supply I got.
Yea i got one of these for my nephew and hes one lucky sob lol he has the hdmi and built in 256mb but 128 was used for the avatar..... microsoft sent me an older replacement and its loud as a wind tunnel and the light is messed up vertically im calling right now!
Now if they can only give it a slot loader or something so it's quiet. I love my 360, but it's like a plane taking off compared to my PS3, which I can't hear at all. Thankfully I end up tuning the noise of the console out after a bit. The ability to install the games to the HD helped quite a bit in this regard.
Now all that's left is to wait another year or so for Valhalla.. 65nm single chip...
And just to rain on the fanboy parade.. no.... the reason I can't hear the PS3 is not because it's never on.. been playing MGS4 and LittleBigPlanet.. :)
I don't think the issue is that it's not slot loading (I don't like slot loading, encourages fingerprints).
It's because it spins the discs at a very high rate. That's why they haven't been able to just "fix it". That high a spin rate results in noise.
PS3 is much quieter (at least disc wise), but the disk access is slower. This is why many PS3 games require HD installs, or at least benefit from them to a greater degree than 360 (speed wise).
I thought I lucked out at my local best buy when I found a Elite with a 10/25/2008 manufacturer date. but it was just a falcon.
I bet it still has heat issues, my Falcon Elite died recently, I'm sure this will too
Why do we care? I bought my xbox about a month after release and is still working as well as it did when I bought it
You're plain lucky
If you have a decent sound system then the drive noise isn't a problem
Not every game has a wall of sound constantly, and not everyone can crank their system all the time. I have a good 5.1 setup. The 360 drive is just ridiculously loud and annoying. That's all there is to it.
All I care is if this will make the Xbox 360 quieter.
If not, this is a non-event.
What is important to me are actual changes that affect us users. I could care less if they put a solar panel on it and wheels so I can also drive it if it still sounds like a jet engine in my room.
The PS3 has no issues with noise like the Xbox 360. Why couldn't the Xbox 360 do the same?
What horrible design and lack of insight to release a product with this issue.
Like any computer or other device with a fan in it, the PS3 gets pretty loud if it doesn't have enough ventilation.
Although, that may just be because I have a 60GB version with hardware that is now starting to break.
Regardless, if this new Xbox is better (more reliable) than the old, I think I might get one.
12.1A with 175 PSU here, bought at Futureshop in Montreal. (Kung-fu Panda Bundle)
I got the Kung-Fu Panda and Lego Indiana Jones Pro bundle for X-Mas here in Canada. It's got a 14.2A rating so I guess it's not a Jasper. Now I'm trying to decide if I should bother returning it or not...
Yeah I ctually got one a week or two ago....the kid at best buy was cool about it too he let me check all x box's they had until I found one with the aforementioned 12.1 on it ......It wasn't until the last xbox pro i checked until i found one with 12.1 on it....so i guess I got lucky and haven't had one single problem yet.
Picked one up at my local Best Buy. Wasn't hard at all, I think there were bunches of them.
Forget Jasper, what I wanna know is how the one I got for Christmas isn't even a Falcon. I thought the Zephyrs would be long gone by now, and yet somehow I get stuck with the one stock that let them slip through.
We purchased the holiday bundle Pro unit from Costco just this past weekend and it was has the same hookups and looks the same. Prior to Christmas they had an XBOX360 wall that was 10-15 feet wide, at least 30 feet tall, and about 5-10 feet deep. It was the craziest thing I have ever seen ... hundreds of these crazy things.
Happy gaming! :)
Believe it or not, I found a Jasper aswell, like the Doc. says, some of the new jasper systems are comming with the power supply from the falcon with the 175w, however the other day I was at best buy, brough my little "cheat sheet" with me, and started looking at the power rating when you can see the manufaturing date and model number. I started looking and kept on running into Falcons like crazy, till I found more 360s on the other side of the shelf, started looking at the power rating and BAM! found a jasper, I was kinda curious at first if it was real, I talked to the guy at the store and he said I could return it if it wasent exacally what I was looking for. Got home, hooked it all up and started it up, right away you could tell it was different, I've seen and played all the "new" falcons and older models, it's quieter and when I checked the memory it showed 216mb (on the system itself) left after I set up my user name, not to mention the hefty 60GB hard drive that came with it. The Pro Jaspers are out people, and you wont be dissapointed.
My new 360 looks very similar to the one in the pic, so I think I may have gotten the new model too. I got the Gears of War bundle from Game.
I just bought a Pro package today to replace a dead RRoD Xenon box that my friend gave me, tired of having to fix the stupid thing every week. Went to Best Buy and looked at each one they had, pulling the console forward through the little window where the serial is trying to read the amps, but since I couldn't read the amps I ended up judging by dates. The console I got was the newest one in their stock, dated 2008-11-06(?) (it was definitely 2008-11, not sure which day exactly). Got home and opened it up, it is definitely a Jasper, has 12.1A rating and runs very quietly. It came with the 175W brick though. It had the original Dashboard firmware and I don't see any "internal memory" anywhere (just a 60GB hard drive) but it is 12.1A and runs quiet.