Cost - 1TB HDD is definitely cheaper than a 1TB SSD. When you want to sell @ $500 USD, then keeping the bill of materials as low as possible just makes your profit bigger.
Which is true, but there's a pretty sharp lower bound on HDD cost, and 1 TB drives are probably at it for 2.5" drives. They won't get any cheaper (though you may be able to get a bigger drive for the same cost). Whereas in 4 years, a 1 TB SSD will almost certainly be much cheaper than it is now.
Not even close. The lower bound for HD cost is around $50 maybe in retail (ie it's not worth it for Best Buy to stock cheaper ones) but maybe, I don't know, $15 if you buying in massive volumes. Whereas a 1TB SSD is going to be maybe $200 if you buy a low-end version.
Now if it were me, I'd ALSO offer an SSD model costing say $750 for people who just don't want to put up with the pain of slow drives. (I expect that would just make
whoops hit button too soon (I expect that would not make playback any more competitive, which seems to be something they care about a lot, it would just make the overall experience nicer for people who are willing to pay for that.)
Plus with the current shortage in flash memory, natural or through collusion, they may not have been able to secure enough to guarantee even the pre-orders, much less for large amount they want to sell at or after launch.
I'd think that SSDs' tendency to eat themselves when severely low on free space (a condition most console users permanently exist in) would be a factor, but I'd mostly guess they know how many people upgrade the HDDs on their own and the % is too low to bother catering to. It's still cheaper (and more reliable) to use a platter-based mechanism.
Can you boot off such an external drive? Or do you still have to suffer slow boots and any time the OS has to load something, even though you can put assets on the fast drive?
Yeah, I'd like confirmation on this. I assumed that it would be an HDMI 2.1-compliant controller that would operate as a 2.0 until it receives a firmware update at a later date.
Interesting stuff. Hypervisor impact all but removed, I wonder if the OS will also be snappier than the base XBO because of that.
Still half the ACEs of the PS4/Pro, but that doesn't mean half the compute performance of course. Just means a bit less efficient scheduling of compute.
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Nentech - Monday, August 21, 2017 - link
Will you attend those conferences ( AMD, NVDIA, Intel ), too?Ian Cutress - Monday, August 21, 2017 - link
The AMD/NVIDIA talks don't seem to have much new. There's an Intel one on Knights Mill that might get a live blog, assuming the WiFi works properlymedi03 - Tuesday, August 22, 2017 - link
Where did you see AMD's presentation?Ian Cutress - Tuesday, August 22, 2017 - link
AMD had a Vega talk in the morning on the first day, and have an EPYC talk almost last thing on the second day.Ian Cutress - Tuesday, August 22, 2017 - link
Attendees get slide decks in advanceLiviuTM - Monday, August 21, 2017 - link
Indeed, no photos excepting the one at 12:12psychobriggsy - Monday, August 21, 2017 - link
Is it Jaguar or is it significantly enhanced?fanofanand - Monday, August 21, 2017 - link
It was reported quite a while ago that they are Jaguar cores. Modified, but still Jaguar, not Zen.anactoraaron - Monday, August 21, 2017 - link
Why have ssds not made their way into these 'next-gen' systems? I'm not asking for nvme, but the gains from sata ssds would be significant.romrunning - Monday, August 21, 2017 - link
Cost - 1TB HDD is definitely cheaper than a 1TB SSD. When you want to sell @ $500 USD, then keeping the bill of materials as low as possible just makes your profit bigger.drothgery - Monday, August 21, 2017 - link
Which is true, but there's a pretty sharp lower bound on HDD cost, and 1 TB drives are probably at it for 2.5" drives. They won't get any cheaper (though you may be able to get a bigger drive for the same cost). Whereas in 4 years, a 1 TB SSD will almost certainly be much cheaper than it is now.mukiex - Monday, August 21, 2017 - link
Right, but it's not "in 4 years" right now. It's right now. SSDs are still ~5x more expensive than HDDs, even at the size.tipoo - Tuesday, August 22, 2017 - link
In four years we're probably in for new hardware.name99 - Tuesday, August 22, 2017 - link
Not even close. The lower bound for HD cost is around $50 maybe in retail (ie it's not worth it for Best Buy to stock cheaper ones) but maybe, I don't know, $15 if you buying in massive volumes.Whereas a 1TB SSD is going to be maybe $200 if you buy a low-end version.
Now if it were me, I'd ALSO offer an SSD model costing say $750 for people who just don't want to put up with the pain of slow drives. (I expect that would just make
name99 - Tuesday, August 22, 2017 - link
whoops hit button too soon(I expect that would not make playback any more competitive, which seems to be something they care about a lot, it would just make the overall experience nicer for people who are willing to pay for that.)
romrunning - Monday, August 21, 2017 - link
Plus with the current shortage in flash memory, natural or through collusion, they may not have been able to secure enough to guarantee even the pre-orders, much less for large amount they want to sell at or after launch.pyrrh0 - Monday, August 21, 2017 - link
I'd think that SSDs' tendency to eat themselves when severely low on free space (a condition most console users permanently exist in) would be a factor, but I'd mostly guess they know how many people upgrade the HDDs on their own and the % is too low to bother catering to. It's still cheaper (and more reliable) to use a platter-based mechanism.Ubercake - Tuesday, August 22, 2017 - link
This. An external USB 3.0 drive plugged into the original Xbox One offered better performance than the internal disk.name99 - Tuesday, August 22, 2017 - link
Can you boot off such an external drive? Or do you still have to suffer slow boots and any time the OS has to load something, even though you can put assets on the fast drive?MTEK - Monday, August 21, 2017 - link
Earlier rumors hinted at HDMI 2.1 support, but it looks like it's not going to happen.nathanddrews - Monday, August 21, 2017 - link
Yeah, I'd like confirmation on this. I assumed that it would be an HDMI 2.1-compliant controller that would operate as a 2.0 until it receives a firmware update at a later date.duckbutter66 - Wednesday, August 23, 2017 - link
From the specs page at: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/d/xbox-one-x...2 HDMI (1 HDMI 2.0b out, 1 HDMI 1.4b in)
zodiacfml - Monday, August 21, 2017 - link
Nice PC. :)RedGreenBlue - Monday, August 21, 2017 - link
It would have been great if Microsoft had told one of the staff to move a circular object in front of the projector in the middle of the presentation.tipoo - Tuesday, August 22, 2017 - link
Interesting stuff. Hypervisor impact all but removed, I wonder if the OS will also be snappier than the base XBO because of that.Still half the ACEs of the PS4/Pro, but that doesn't mean half the compute performance of course. Just means a bit less efficient scheduling of compute.
Manch - Thursday, August 24, 2017 - link
This has DX12 baked into the cmd proc in the GPU.milkod2001 - Tuesday, August 22, 2017 - link
Give me option to officially dual boot it with W10 and i'll get one from day one :)Ian Cutress - Friday, August 25, 2017 - link
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