The Xbox One goes on sale today, and it’s already been cracked open to reveal what’s going on inside. The answer: something big.
Microsoft experience all manner of problems during the life of the Xbox 360 thanks to insufficient cooling. It led to the infamous 'Red Ring of Death' issue and millions of pounds worth of fixes and replacements for the company.
It’s not making the same mistake twice, judging from a recent teardown of the Xbox One by repair specialist iFixit.
Among the assorted PC-grade components, the teardown revealed an absolutely huge cooling fan which, in conjunction with a heatsink, should prove the right amount of heat dissipation for the device’s CPU - and then some.
At 112mm in diameter, the Xbox One’s cooling fan is bigger than its off-the-shelf 2.5-inch 500GB hard drive, and dwarfs the PS4 equivalent by 27mm. Considering the PS4 is accepted to be the more powerful device, this either seems like overkill on Microsoft’s part or foolhardiness on Sony’s.
Other points of note gleaned from the teardown - the Xbox One is extremely easy to get into and repairable, with many off-the-shelf PC components and standard screws, resulting in an 8 out of 10 repairability score.
There’s also a speaker hidden within the unit itself, which is rather odd.
It’s worth noting that the PlayStation 4 also received an 8 out of 10 repairability score from the same site, so smaller and more technical doesn’t necessarily have to mean more awkward when it comes to your next generation console.
Read More: Xbox One vs PS4
