
Got a huge bag of salt handy? We're going to need it for this one. Early this morning a Chinese message board posted, and then quickly yanked, images of what is purportedly a new revision of the Xbox 360's innards. More specifically, what would appear to be a much smaller, redesigned version of the hardware, should this be legit. One that has the Xenon GPU and CPU together on a tinier chipset, no less. That was a feature said to be being worked on for the 360's newest "Valhalla" motherboard a long while back, which would follow the current, much improved Jasper models into stores.
According to the original source, what you're seeing up there is a prototype revision of the console allegedly being tested in places that are not the United States. Naturally the web is blowing up with speculation that this could very well be a sneak peek at the oft-rumored, and long-overdue, Xbox 360 Slim, possibly due out later this year alongside Project Natal.
Most everything seems to be in order, with necessary adjustments to component placement and the like for a total design overhaul. Though, people are reporting some red flags here and there, but it's mostly due to misunderstandings. This is the internet, so it goes without saying that there's roughly a fifty-percent chance this is a very, very well-done fake. However, China has been notorious over the last year for leaking new hardware (see: PlayStation 3 Slim) well before it's officially announced, so there's also a fifty-percent chance it could be the real deal. In that case, someone might just up and disappear this week.
As always, don't take this too seriously for the time being. But even if it was real, it's unlikely Microsoft would confirm it. Ok, they wouldn't.
[Update]: New developments! Microsoft have issued the called-for "rumor and speculation" response, for starters. Having spent the better part of yesterday checking on this motherboard, it turns out that the likelihood of it being fake is quite slim (no pun intended). Moreover, new discoveries are being reported after in-depth examinations. Digital Foundry noticed that "the board has doubled the number of SATA connections to two over on the top-left of the first picture. In current 360 hardware, only one is used for connecting up the internal DVD-ROM drive," which could indicate a possible internal HDD, or a wholly redesigned enclosure.
"Another curious change appears to be the complete omission of any mounting holes for the DVD drive, which clearly sits to the left of the fan. Either a variant of the existing DVD drive attaches to the case in a different way, or else an entirely different assembly is used. Assuming the costs work out, we could even be getting a thin, slot-loading drive similar to the PlayStation 3."
Also of note is that Memory Units ports have been cut down to just one, there's still no onboard WiFi, and a Toslink SPDIF optical output appears "directly above the fan to the left," next to AV and HDMI outputs.