XBox 360S power supply

[rbrian]

It's gigantic, noisy, and fragile. Why is it so big? Why so noisy? Why so fragile? I have never had any other power brick fail, and the ones that come with new equipment are all much smaller - even the one for my giant 6KG Toughbook is half the size, and that's twice the size of the one that comes with my Air. Does the 360S really draw enough power to dim the lights in the neighbourhood?

It doesn't make sense. A laptop with equal or better specs has a smaller, cooler, more reliable power brick, and includes a screen too! There must be something about it though, all the third party replacements on Amazon have terrible reviews, even worse than the official one.

[Orange Furball]

Originally Posted by rbrian

It's gigantic, noisy, and fragile. Why is it so big? Why so noisy? Why so fragile? I have never had any other power brick fail, and the ones that come with new equipment are all much smaller - even the one for my giant 6KG Toughbook is half the size, and that's twice the size of the one that comes with my Air. Does the 360S really draw enough power to dim the lights in the neighbourhood?

It doesn't make sense. A laptop with equal or better specs has a smaller, cooler, more reliable power brick, and includes a screen too! There must be something about it though, all the third party replacements on Amazon have terrible reviews, even worse than the official one.

An Xbox uses custom parts. Not like a laptop that uses low power portable components. A laptop is designed to run on a battery for as long as possible. An Xbox isn't. The Xbox is very power hungry because it uses powerful components. The power brick is smaller than a normal ATX computer power supply

[rbrian]

135W is only 10W more than my horrible Toughbook, which is certainly not powerful. It makes do with a power supply half the size, which hasn't gone wrong, ever. That may be because the power supply has a transformer, and nothing else - no red light, no fan, nothing to go wrong.

Anyway, isn't the XBox basically a mid-spec PC? It's not custom like the PS3 is.

None of this explains why it's so fragile. I have never had a power brick fail. Never - except for this one, and it seems to be a common problem.

[Orange Furball]

Originally Posted by rbrian

135W is only 10W more than my horrible Toughbook, which is certainly not powerful. It makes do with a power supply half the size, which hasn't gone wrong, ever. That may be because the power supply has a transformer, and nothing else - no red light, no fan, nothing to go wrong.

Anyway, isn't the XBox basically a mid-spec PC? It's not custom like the PS3 is.

None of this explains why it's so fragile. I have never had a power brick fail. Never - except for this one, and it seems to be a common problem.

Your toughbook is basically just charging a battery while running the computer. The maximum is 125W, but that doesn't mean it uses all of that. The Xbox may use all of that.

Why did it fail? Who knows. I have lost 2 power supplies in my lifetime so far, electronics fail. It happens all the time. Just remember that a PC and an Xbox are different, its like comparing a carrot to a cucumber. They both are in the same family, but they taste different, are made differently, and behave differently.

[Miharu]

One thing I don't understand is why it has to have a fan inside. The console itself is already loud (yes even the Slim model) and then you have a loud power supply as well. I have never seen external power supplies that include a fan, like my older Mac mini, Wii etc. just have a silent brick.

[Orange Furball]

Originally Posted by Miharu

One thing I don't understand is why it has to have a fan inside. The console itself is already loud (yes even the Slim model) and then you have a loud power supply as well. I have never seen external power supplies that include a fan, like my older Mac mini, Wii etc. just have a silent brick.

Your Mac mini uses low power laptop components too. Your Wii is not as powerful as your Xbox. It needs fans because it gets hot. I had a laptop that didn't have fans in the power brick and it scorched my rug!