Jasper Is Here: A Look at the New Xbox 360
by Anand Lal Shimpi on December 10, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
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Confirming Your Jasper
If you can physically open the box, there's another way of confirming that you have a Jasper without even opening the plastic bag that the console comes in: look at the power connector on the Xbox 360 itself. Each Xbox 360 generation has a power connector that's keyed differently so you can't use a lower powered power supply on a console that requires more power. Now all Xbox 360 power supplies will work on newer consoles, but you can't use newer power supplies on older consoles. Make sense? Let me explain:
The first Xbox 360 (Xenon) needs a 203W power supply. Falcon needs a 175W power supply but can also work with the 203W unit (it just doesn't need to draw that much power so the 203W unit is overkill, but it'll work). Jasper needs 150W but can work with a 203W and a 175W. In other words, the Xbox 360 power supplies are forwards but not backwards compatible.
If you get a Jasper it's not guaranteed that you'll get a 150W power supply, Microsoft still has a lot of Falcons and Falcon-parts in its distribution system so some Jaspers have been sighted with 175W power supplies. If you end up with a 175W unit it's not a big deal, it's going to be slightly less efficient than the 150W unit and your system may end up drawing an extra few watts but it's not a big deal at all - you'll still be far cooler/more power efficient than a Falcon (and possibly be red-ring-free).
To prevent an under powered power supply from being used in the wrong Xbox, Microsoft keyed each of the three Xbox 360 generations differently. The chart below explains it all:
If you see one flat bar on top and a square peg in the middle of the power connector on the console itself you've got a 1st generation Xenon or Zephyr board, these machines use 90nm CPUs and GPUs. If you've just got a flat bar on top with no square peg in the middle, you've got a 2nd generation Opus or Falcon board, these things use 65nm CPUs and 80nm GPUs. Finally if you've got a flat bar split in two on top with no square peg you've got a Jasper, that's a board with a 65nm CPU and a 65nm GPU.
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divinevette - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
So after ordering an Elite from Dell, and receiving a Falcon!, I returned it and ordered a bundle from a store that guarantees their Xbox 360 Elites have Jasper http://roycedirect.ecrater.com/p/8345580/jasper-xb...Happy Hunting! Oh, and they also threw in an extra controller just because I asked nicely.
Cougar21 - Sunday, April 24, 2016 - link
Your link is dead...joeymather191272 - Thursday, June 16, 2011 - link
hi i have a console came with 150watt power supply.but the pins on back of xbox360 are not the same it looks very much alike but the jasper one has 2 plastic peices on the top, mine has 2 metal peices. on top and has no internal memory.
jp007 - Friday, November 4, 2022 - link
I have a Zephyr (2009) Xbox 360 that still runs perfectly fine to this day. I never enshroud it and keep it in an open area and do my best to keep it dust-free without getting too uptight about it. Also, I keep it in a room with an air conditioner on during the summer months when it gets really hot out. So I wonder if Zephyr models would have a higher life rate if people just tried to take better care of their stuff. The overlooked flaw that Microsoft announced about these systems getting hot, then cooling off causing hardware expansion and the ring-red-of-death really sucks, but they were quick to put out the billion and a half dollars to fix the problem... still, I don't like having to worry about if I will get the "red ring of death" because I decided to binge-play my (Zephyr) Xbox 360 for a few days straight without many breaks. But so far, so good. He keeps going... I guess I could be lucky? (*knocks on wood)