The Xbox 360 came in three shapes: the original (2005), the S (2010) and the E (2013). The quickest way to tell them apart is the hard drive. It clips on top of the original, and slides in from the bottom of the S and E behind a small door.
What were the first Xbox 360 packages?
At launch there were two. The one most people bought was just called “Xbox 360”, at US$399 (£279.99), and it’s often called the 20 GB Pro or Premium. The cheaper one was the Core, at US$299 (£209.99). The Elite came later with an HDMI port built in, at US$479. In October 2007 the Core became the Arcade, and on August 1, 2008 a 60 GB version of the Pro went on sale. The Pro was marked down to US$249 and discontinued in August 2009, and the Elite dropped to US$299.
All of those are the original shape: the big white or black case with two 70 mm fans at the back. HDMI only shows up on consoles made after 2007, so an older one has component or composite video only.
How do I tell an S from an E?
The S replaced the Elite and Arcade in 2010. It’s smaller with an angular case, has one fan on the side, a Kinect port built in, and a redesigned motherboard. It also has S/PDIF digital audio on the back. The E came in 2013 with a two-tone rectangular case inspired by the Xbox One, one fewer USB port than the S, and no S/PDIF.
Both use a standard 2.5 inch laptop drive in a custom enclosure with its own firmware, so a loose laptop drive won’t be recognized. They came in 20, 60, 120, 250, 320 and 500 GB sizes over the whole life of the console.
Which Xbox 360s can get the Red Ring of Death?
Any model before the S. Three red segments on the ring around the power button is the “General Hardware Failure”, and Microsoft extended the warranty to three years for it. In April 2009 the extension also covered the E74 error code. Neither covers other kinds of failure, and neither applies to the S or E.
On an S or E the lights mean something different. A power button flashing red is overheating, and one alternating between green and red is a general hardware failure. That’s worth checking before you buy a used one.
What changed inside to fix it?
Per the sources below, Microsoft cut the number and size of components, added epoxy to the corners and edges of the CPU and GPU so they wouldn’t move when the board heated and cooled, and added a second heatsink on the GPU. That’s from the sources, not from opening one up. If you’ve repaired one, tell us what you found.
There’s more on the console on our Xbox 360 page, and the controller and hard drive have pages too.
Sources: Wikipedia, Xbox 360 and Xbox 360 technical specifications, both CC BY-SA 4.0.
Header image: Xbox-360S-Console-Set.jpg by Evan-Amos (Public domain), Wikimedia Commons.
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