New BenQ DVD drive spotted in Xbox 360
If you buy an Xbox 360 today that hasn’t been on the shelves for eternity, chances are you’ll be getting another DVD unit inside than the previously used Toshiba-Samsung and Hitachi-LG drives. First reports and pictures are starting to appear of BenQ’s VAD6038 model in Xbox 360s manufactured in November 2006 or later.
An Xbox-Scene reader found out his new 360 contains the drive, pictured above, and reports that it runs ultra-quiet compared to the old drives, and even seems to load its data faster and smoother. Although the last claim is not quite likely, the sound level of the DVD drive was definitely the main source of complaints about 360s sounding like spaceships taking off. In general the noise level of the DVD was negligible anyway compared to the sound your 5.1 surround system should be producing while gaming, but it’s still a welcome improvement.
A side effect of the new drive, actually produced by the recently merged Philips, LiteOn and BenQ optical drive divisions, is that its firmware has not fallen prey to hackers yet, thus disallowing modding to play backups for the time being on the new machines. Early investigation does not indicate a structural mechanism against modding, such as firmware signing at hardware level, has been installed on the new drives.
my 360 clicks whenever a match on gears starts or finishes n it really pisses me off cuz im pretty sure its on its way out.
humm…I wonder if its possible to open up an ‘old’ X360 and swap the hard drives with a BenQ one…..
Surely not because then you would be swapping a DVD drive with a Hard drive and I would think that would be a silly thing to do.
cool, maybe I’ll get one of those when I send in my 360, ‘cos I’m sure it’ll stop working some time soon, it freezes every now and then, the drive is always making grinding sounds too (2005 model, so “infinite” guarantee ;P)
2005 model? infinite guarantee? Unless you bought the lifetime guarantee, your warranty has expired. A friends launch console recently broke, and he’s being charged ÂŁ85 for repairs.
I still don’t see what all the fuss is about the 360 being loud. Ok so it doesn’t run silent but its not that loud, my lights on the dimmer switch make more noise.
The sound of my 360 turns me on, so I’m not really into a new drive.
i wouldnt say the sound turns me on
but i really couldnt care less, with or without my surround sound on 
I’m curious if I have one of these drives. I got my 360 back last Wednesday from a 3 red light fix. I did not get my old one back, but it has a July 2006 manufacture date. I know this says after November 2006. Mine is probably a refurb that they threw this new drive in.
My new 360 is substantially quieter. I mean like 10 times quieter. I don’t even mind that I had to send it in anymore. I got a much better 360 back.
How can you tell when your 360 was made.
Ask it.
lol
It is on the back of the 360…on a sticker…US style date (so first month/day/year).
register the serial number on the back before you send the XBOX. If it returns, check if it’s the same serial…. Simple as that
Can you tell on the box when it was manufactured?
Yes, in the back
i just swapped my 360 and the first thing i noticed was how quete it was.