Gadgetory

in the last round of the console wars we put the controllers head-to-head and the Xbox 360 controller came out on top by a slight edge while both controllers were deemed excellent the 360 controller proved to be a better fit in the hand and the overall design was superior compared to the DualShock 3 after the first round the Xbox 360 leads by a single point and in the next five rounds we'll be taking a close look at the hardware everything from design input and outputs to central processing units and GPU it's all going to be covered in depth so get ready for 12 rounds of heavyweight game console action it's LP from TechnoBuffalo and welcome to the console war showdown now this is a topic that has to be tied in with price and value I bought the PlayStation 3 on the European launch date back in the spring of 206 man was I excited but man oh man did I die just a little inside when six hundred and fifty euros left my wallet that's about nine hundred US dollars with the introduction of the ps3 slim in September to a nine the price has dipped significantly down to approximately three hundred bucks both US dollars and euros the two consoles are now on the same price point but I think Microsoft still has levers to pull so I would not be surprised if the elites price comes down to 250 if the ps3 starts gaining some ground so I'm going to be looking at this hardware comparison from the perspective of where we are right now in fall 209 and the notion of both consoles being and an equal price point round two SKU wars to make these series of videos a bit more complex both manufacturers have come out with multiple SKUs of their hardware not many gamers knew or cared what asked us before Microsoft came out with two different versions of their Xbox 360 hardware the term was adopted by the gaming community basically overnight SKU stands for stock keeping unit it's a term merchants used to identify unique products in inventory obviously in this case it refers to unique system configurations the multiple SKU strategy has brought with it more choices it's not only a matter of which console to buy a consumer must now choose between the different variations of the same console when I bought the ps3 I had two SKUs to choose from the 60 gigabyte SKU and the 20 gigabytes SKU the 20 gig SKU was a hundred euros cheaper but it lacked backwards compatibility flash card readers and Wi-Fi since the launch of the ps3 there's been seven different SKUs on the market some with ps2 backwards compatibility and some lacking two of the SKUs have had flash memory card readers and the rest have not suffice is to say that it's all a bit confusing for the average consumer but there are benefits of multiple SKUs during the PlayStation 3 SKU cycle the size of the processors have been shrunk down from the original 19 animators to first 60 nanometers and now with the slim to 45 nanometers the point of shrinking down the size of the CPUs and GP is fairly simple smaller size equates less power consumption and heat dissipation that is also cheaper to manufacture so if you like me and you've gone and bought the original 60 gigabyte ps3 back in the day with considerable expense it will be consuming 1/3 more power and running considerably hotter and noisier than the newer and cheaper SKUs the Xbox 360 has also had several SKUs over the past years when I bought the Xbox 360 there were four different SKUs on the market five if you include the butt-ugly Halo SKU I mean come on it looks like something you'd find in a ditch anyways four SKUs when I bought the Xbox 360 the arcade the pro and the elite and there were also some 20 gigabyte promiscuous still on the market and looking at Microsoft long list of SKUs really makes me miss the olden days where there was only a single system and everyone pretty much had the same device I'm really not sure if the multi school strategy is the right one because for the average consumer things can get a bit confusing I remember a lot of people were quite pissed off two years back when having just bought the version of the Xbox 360 that lacked the HDMI output only to find out that the HDMI version was on sale a few weeks later but there's also been quite a lot of confusion about which versions of the ps3 had backwards compatibility and which did not in my opinion the whole Scooba this has harmed both brands in the long run but I kind of do understand the business aspect of multiple SKUs adding an HDMI output post-launch will sell more units shaving off a hundred bucks with the expense of backwards compatibility will sell more units to certain demographics but it definitely would be nice if the console I buy at a high expense on the launch date would be at least equally as good as the SKU that comes three years later with half the price now this pisses me off and I know for a fact that I'm not alone with this what do you guys think luckily Microsoft and Sony have both tried to cut down on the SKUs Sony first got rid of the SKUs - lacked Wi-Fi and Microsoft only recently revealed that it would be losing the Xbox 360 Pro see you leaving only two SKUs on the market the arcade and the elite I'm awarding no points in this round because the multiple screw approach really doesn't serve anyone's interest I am perfectly fine with shrinking down the components but adding and subtracting features confuses the average consumer and frustrates the Loyalists of fans of both manufacturers hopefully come next generation of consoles both manufacturers will develop their concept and hardware long enough not to have to make ten versions within the consoles product cycle a single SKU approach seems to be working fairly well for a certain other Japanese console namely the Nintendo Wii round three design and external features the design of game consoles have always been interesting to say at least no game console is alike and the xbox360 and ps3 are very different looking devices the original PlayStation 3 is a bit bulkier than the Xbox 360 but obviously the slim has turned the tables and the slim is about the third smaller than its big brother and significantly smaller than the Xbox 360 I'm pretty sure Microsoft isn't planning on an Xbox 360 slim but if you're watching this in 200 10 with an Xbox 360 slim in your living room I take my previous statement back the ps3 is an expensive looking device it has sleek curves and a lot of thought has been put into its unique style some may say that it looks like a UFO and some say that it resembles a sandwich grill but I think the ps3 looks sleek from almost any angle the Xbox 360 is a sweet and simple design very minimalistic but classy in its own way the front of the Xbox 360 has a very distinct look about it and it has some customizability to it as well you can buy custom faceplate to suit your personality a bit of a novelty feature but it definitely appeals to a certain crowd while I do like the piano black finish on the ps3 man does it collect some serious dust and fingerprints but if you don't like the glossy finish the slim features a matte finish which may not be as flashy as the original PlayStation 3 but it gets the job done and looks good in its non dust collecting and smudging way I have said it before the chroming is definitely better suited for rims of cars than entertainment devices but the chroming on the ps3 looks ok I'll though take note that the chroming is gone from the cheaper SKUs including the ps3 slim the Xbox 360 has a very uncool feature which is the huge power supply that can be tricky to hide depending on the placement of your device I mean this thing basically looks like a game console in its own accord both consoles have a very cool and distinct look about them and I really can't decide which I prefer more you know some days I prefer coffee and other days I prefer cocoa that's just the way goes but let's check out the external inputs and outputs which are also connected to the design the inputs and outputs on both devices have changed between all the different SKUs so it's impossible to make an entirely accurate comparison between the two systems but what we have here side-by-side are the most common models in use today and most essential features are the same beside the disk tray we find a couple of memory unit slots and underneath them we find a wireless sync button when I first got the Xbox I was wondering where the USB ports were but they're actually down here under the hatch and the USB ports are a bit tricky to get to because they're quite deep inside there and having the USB cable attached to the 360 it really breaks the clean lines of the device the 360 features a mechanical button for the DVD tray which pops up with good hates when you press the button the tray seems to work nicely even though the Xbox is placed vertically but the most prominent feature on the front of the Xbox 360 is the power button which has acquired some notoriety in its own accord in a slightly negative way over the past few years it's also a subject that we'll be covering in upcoming rounds on the front of the ps3 we have four USB ports well if you have the newer models you'll only get two but I really haven't to use more than two USB devices simultaneously so two is probably enough under the lid here we have memory card readers for several types of memory cards it's also a feature that I do not use too often but it's a decent feature to have if you for example store your pictures on the ps3 unfortunately this is also a feature excluded from the newer models including the slim under the optical drive we find to touch sensitive buttons one for the optical drive itself and one for the power while the touch sensitive buttons may be cool I have a feeling that they've added to the high price tag of the platform but the slim has excluded the touch sensitive buttons and replaced them with simpler and probably cheaper mechanical buttons on the back of the ps3 we find several inputs and outputs and starting from the right we find the power cord input which connects to the internal power supply there's also a main power button if you don't want to keep your device on standby for some reason next we find the analog output if you're for example using a scart or component cables and we also have an optical output for connecting with your amplifier here we find the LAN connection and here we find the HDMI out the ps3 supports 21.3 HDMI profile which has double a bandwidth of earlier HDMI standards it adds deep color support and include support for the new HDMI audio standards dolby digital plus and DTS true HD of course most people don't have the higher-end amplifiers and TVs to support these formats but it's good to be future proof more about this stuff in the upcoming round that will be covering media playback all rightie on the back of the 360 we find a power cable input that connects to the massive power supply I showed you earlier and here we find a USB port which is a nice feature to have on the back because you may have some devices that you want kept out of sight and we also find your standard local area network port while the first SKUs of the Xbox 360 did not have an HDMI output all of the current models do the HDMI on the Xbox 360 only support HDMI profile 1.2 there is no optical audio output on the xbox360 but there is an optical audio output from the analog cable that's included with the device which is fine but a very annoying thing with the xbox360 is that you cannot connect the analog cable and the HDMI cable at the same time which means that if you connect the device with an HDMI cable to your display you won't be able to connect the optical cable to your amplifier this sucks quite a bit all right you the next two features were a bit tricky to categorize as they're external for the Xbox 360 and internal for the ps3 the hard drive on the Xbox 360 lies on top of the console it's very easy to remove and replace so if you have one of the older Xbox 360 skills you can upgrade to for example at 120 gigabyte hard drive the only thing holding you back from upgrading will be the 150 bucks price tag you can also swap out the ps3 hard drive but you'll need a screw driver to do it luckily the process is very simple and you can swap out the ps3 hard drive for any 2.5 inch serial ata disc so if you store a lot of games and media content on your hard drive you can get a 320 gigabyte hard drive for under a hundred bucks and you can actually speed up your ps3 loading times a bit by installing a 7200 rpm hard drive as you can see the hard drive included in my trusty old ps3 is a pretty standard Seagate Barracuda disc all-righty the next feature is internal for the ps3 but is an external add-on for the Xbox 360 put simply the ps3 has built-in Wi-Fi and the Xbox 360 does not a wireless network adapter is sold separately for around 80 bucks and in my opinion Wi-Fi is a feature that one expects to be built in these days so it's a definite negative for the Xbox 360 heck even my toaster has a built-in Wi-Fi it probably comes as no surprise that the ps3 will be taking this round both the original ps3 and the slim are sleek looking devices that include all the necessary input and outputs although some of the features have been excluded from the slim it still managed to be the better all rounded advice when it comes down to input and outputs the round for design and external features go to the ps3 hands down the match is now tied up with a point for each platform in the next two rounds is time to peek under the external covers and analyze the internal hardware CPU and GPU are up next it's time to break these babies open catch you later in the next round of the console wars LP signing up