The folks over in Microsoft marketing land really do earn their money. At first, their “Believe” campaign was having little effect on me. I was fairly confident that I would be skipping the Halo 3 hype. But nooooooo… the word had spread too far. The mass media buzz began to infect my friends and co-workers. They were telling me to get Halo 3.
I thought I was safe. The ‘Red Ring of Death’ was an impenetrable deterrent. That was my excuse for not buying an XBOX 360, until I was informed about this thread…
http://forums.xbox.com/15804553/ShowPost.aspx
Apparently, some versions of the Halo 3 Special Edition XBOX 360 have the new 65nm CPU. That means an XBOX that consumes less power and runs cooler than the 90nm counterpart. There’s a widely accepted theory that a cooler running XBOX would help to avoid the RRoD. Plus, a 65nm XBOX 360 would save money on the monthly electric bill. Whether you’re an environmentalist or an economist, you’d likely prefer the 65nm chip over the 90nm chip. That’s assuming you can find one.
I wasn’t quite sure what to look for. Not all of the Halo 3 Special Edition systems have the new CPU. After reading through pages and pages of forum conversation, there seems to be an obvious sign to look for – Lot 734. If you look at the label on the side of an XBOX 360 box, you can read the manufacturing information for that particular unit. Not all of the 734’s have the 65nm CPU, but it was a start. I wandered over to Best Buy and I took a look at the boxes on the shelf… 733… 731… nope… no 734’s. I figure I can just hang out for a couple of weeks and see what other information develops. It seems very likely that lots 735 and beyond will have the new hardware.
I may not have my XBOX 360 yet, but now I’m excited about getting one. It’s grown into a scavenger hunt. 
Check out the walmarts, EB games, gamestop, and anywhere else that has XBOX 360’s!
Well, I have been doing the same except I bought my 360 on Monday, October 8th 2007. I looked at the manafacture date and it says 2007-08-11 and is lot number 0735, so I’m guessing I got the new heatsink and chip right? It was a premium/pro model.
I don’t know! I was reading the XBOX forum and it’s all so confusing!
I was read the forum and it looked like bad news for the Pro/Elite versions of the XBOX 360… EVEN LOT 735. That surprised me. I’m just going to keep waiting. It’s too risky right now. Since I’ve waited this long, I’m going to wait and see if the new “Arcade” version of the XBOX 360 has the new chips. Although, I’m probably going to want HDMI. I’m not sure if the “Arcade” model has that.
Ugh… why can’t Microsoft just release ONE MODEL THAT WORKS?!
Well guys, I bought 4 Halo 3 edition 360’s, returned the first 3 because I’m not gonna pay $400.00 for a non 65nm chip. The first 3 ran very hot, the sides got hot and vent fans blew very hot air. My lot #734 Halo 3 edition built on 7-22-07 finally has the Falcon chip. It runs cool for hours, you can actually touch the outside of the unit and it’s cool, and the vents blow a little warm, big difference from the others which had the copper tubing. This one has the all aluminum heatsink. Don’t give up, the Faclons are out there, I felt like I won the lottery when I got mine. Now I feel I got my $’s worth.