XBOX360: CORE's function limited by MS!

the Xbox360 console was sold as two bundles: Core and Premium. We can see on the manual Micosoft gave that the only difference between those two packages is the number of components inside. a few days ago a player named Darkmoon opened up his Core and Premiun, and with a close comparison, he found out that they have different chipsets!

on the Core, there's a RSOP chip, but on the Premium console, there isnt any chip at the same place. Darkmoon removed the RSOP chip and find his Core ABLE to access Xbox Live. but removing the chip results a series of errors in game booting and dvd playing.

Plus, the EEPROM used by those two consoles are different as well, Core uses X800475-008, and Premium uses X800475-009. whether this number will result a difference in the performance is still unknown.

Obviously, Microsoft is trying to limit the functions of Core consoles by adding the RSOP chip, although there is no restrictions right now, it might be added in with the automatic update with Xbox Live. for those of you who has 500 bucks burning a hole in your pocket, i highly suggest getting a Premiun.

I thought some Premiums actually had these chips as well? And it was fairly random which consoles had the chip and which didn't. Perhaps I'm thinking about another chip, though I remember reading about something very similar on Xbox-Scene, but taking the chip off had no effect.

no, in this case, taking the chip off actually enables core to access xbox live.

The core can access Xbox Live anyways

Unless you meant can't

core cannot access live. it's blocked.

I thought the core had free weekends and nonpeak time hours... :)

oh really? dont know much about that... im a xbox360less person...but i think what Darkmoon meant is that the core can access peak time hours with that chip off.

The Core functions excatly the same as the Premium for Live. Function wise the Core is exactly the same, just lacking the extra components. I know because I get to laugh at the people I know who bought Core's on Live and still can't get a hard drive.

well...there must be something else... coz if you add all the extra component together and plus a core, which is 399, you its gonna cost around 460, but premium is 499. so nobody's gonna buy premiun if its all the same. they'll just buy the core and buy the components, and they save 40 bucks

The hard drive alone is about $120. Not to mention the HDTV cables (that work with SDTV as well) wireless controller and media remote (CDN offer only I think.) You're saving roughly $120 by buying the premium. You're saving $20 if you only plan on buying the HDD extra (which is required to play original games.) And considering you'll have to buy a memory card ($50-$60) if you don't buy the Premium or the HDD and want to save games... Mind you all prices are CDN. So if you add the Core + Components you get a price upwards of $600. Also note you can't even buy the HDD yet.