Quieter Xbox360 Rumour Options

[Xbox-Scene]

Quieter Xbox360 Rumour Posted by Syrus | February 22 12:38 EST

From Kotaku. [QUOTE] That's what German site Cynamite claims, anyways, and I don't have the technical know-how to call them on it. They say that journalists packing debug units already have the update, which noticeably reduces the amount of noice the 360 makes when it kicks into high gear. Good for them. 'Bout time German gamers caught a break. No doubt this means the rest of us should (well...could, if this is true and you can even do such a thing through a software update) be seeing a similar update soon. I might even be able to play Gears now without having to crank the sound up so loud it sets cats ears on fire. [/QUOTE] Source: Kotaku. Original source (German): Cynamite.

[col_klink]

Haha, sounds like a firmware flash through an update to reduce the drives speed. Say goodbye to your modded firmware 360s.

This post has been edited by col_klink: Feb 22 2007, 05:54 PM

[anttimonty]

^^Changing drive read speed doesn't need to be done by a firmware update.

This post has been edited by anttimonty: Feb 22 2007, 05:59 PM

[Gmc]

Haha, sounds like a firmware flash through an update to reduce the drives speed. Say goodbye to your modded firmware 360s.

LOL ok.

[KAGE360]

this doesnt make any sense. microsoft started producing 360's with the quiet drive in it, so why this rumor?

im not willing to trade loading time for a quieter system when the sound isnt noticeable to begin with. the only way i see this not being an issue at all is if the developers choose to use this feature only when data is streamed or loaded in the background during gameplay. if they make it seamless without extending our wait times to play then i wont have a problem with it.

then again this may not even be true.

[mlapaglia]

nono you have it all wrong. the software update tells the little minions on the inside of the xbox to go through and re calibrate the dvd drive, and instead of the fan they all blow air across the heat sinks.

[DaShiZNiT]

pretty sure they are referring to the updated BenQ drive

xblive can get away with updating the kernel and dash, since they are backed up and recoverable, I dont think they would risk a massive bricking epidemic. It wouldn't just be modded 360's taking a dive...

just my .02

This post has been edited by DaShiZNiT: Feb 22 2007, 06:22 PM

[0794]

pretty sure they are referring to the updated BenQ drive

i agree. the news source sounds clueless as to what they are even reporting on. more than likely there is no software patch or update for quieter drives but just the newer dvd drives already seen in newer production units.

[jdsony]

I would trade some loading speed for less noise. I can't see how anyone can say the 360 isn't loud or to turn it up so you can't hear the 360. If you haven't noticed, movies and some game soundtracks have a large dynamic range. There are really quiet parts mixed with really loud parts. Most of the time you don't notice the noise but I hate having to adjust the volume up for the quiet parts and down for the loud. There is such a thing as having the sound cranked too loud. Playing late at night I like to keep the levels low and then it becomes a little difficult to hear things.

[EnVious]

[KAGE360]

I would trade some loading speed for less noise. I can't see how anyone can say the 360 isn't loud or to turn it up so you can't hear the 360. If you haven't noticed, movies and some game soundtracks have a large dynamic range. There are really quiet parts mixed with really loud parts. Most of the time you don't notice the noise but I hate having to adjust the volume up for the quiet parts and down for the loud. There is such a thing as having the sound cranked too loud. Playing late at night I like to keep the levels low and then it becomes a little difficult to hear things.

no one is doubting that the 360 makes noise, but many would argue that it isnt a "loud" system like some state. not to mention that microsoft is on their 6th revision (i believe) for the 360, each one improving over the last. systems produced even months after launch were quieter then the launch batch of systems.

my buddy just got a 360 2 weeks ago and i could barely hear it even though i was trying to. with the newest drive in systems built after 11/06, there shouldnt be any complaints about the noise, unless you are trying to go out of your way to bash the system

[TexT]

Nevertheless, the loading times can be a bit longer as they are now because of slowing down the speed of the drive and decreasing it's noise.

Not an acceptable trade off IMO.

[anonim1979]

NO FIRMWARE UPDATE NESSESARY - ONLY SMALL SYSTEM UPDATE: SLOW DOWN/SPEED UP ON DEMAND

For every PC user - ther is a FREE tool
"Nero Drive Speed" with every Nero instaled in Nero Toolkit. Also a free download.

http://www.cdspeed2000.com/nerodrivespeed.html

You can slow down nearly any PC drive as you want.
NO FIRMWARE manipulation /drivers /etc. or anything like that.

Simple , small program.

It's the same method as will be used in X360.

"Nero DriveSpeed is a utility to set the reading speed of a CD-ROM drive.
It works under Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000 and is freeware.

The ability for limiting the reading speed of a CD-ROM drive is a must have feature for high speed drives.
Although a high speed drive allows you to transfer data in less time, there are some disadvantages of using such a drive:

Noise

A drive faster than 24x can be very noisy which is not surprising as the spindle speed can be as high as 12000 RPM which is much faster than for example a harddisk.
If the drive only needs to access the CD for a short period of time, for example software installation, then this is not such a big problem.
But it can get irritating when you're using the drive to play MP3 files. In many cases the noise from the drive is louder than the sound from the audio file.
The data rate of a MP3 file is usually about 16 KB/sec (@128 kbps) which equals to approximately 0.1X! So a reading speed of 4X is more then adequate for playing MP3's.

Spin-up/down times

Another disadvantage of high speed drives is that the spin-up/spin-down times are high too.
After a few seconds of inactivity the drive slows down and eventually stops. When the application needs more data from the CD, the drive spins up again. The spin-up time can be as high as 10 seconds. In this time the application freezes because it has to wait for the data.
This is especially irritating when playing games."

Download link for those without Nero
http://www.cdspeed2000.com/download.html
Nero DriveSpeed 3.00

[sandmanza]

Ok

Well since the console CANT flash the drive (ms28 at least) and even if not, trying to flash it would be a absolute disaster, person switches off console, drive bricked.

Slowing down the drive would create huge harm towards the 360 since it would be known for games loading slowly.


I vote rumor

[Legendary Badass]

Mine's in for service right now and I sent my contact an email demanding a BenQ. I'll let you guys know how that works out.