Identifying your console type & motherboard version

Where to start?

We can tell quite a bit of information about what type of console and motherboard we have from the outside housing of the console.
There are 3 major revisions of the Xbox 360 console:









Did you know there are 8 different Xbox 360 motherboard verisons??? These are (in launch order) the Xenon, Opus, Zephyr, Falcon, Jasper, Trinity, Corona and Winchester motherboards.

Now you know if you have a Phat, Slim, or Slim E - how to figure out motherboard version?

Phats:

The nice thing about identifying motherboard types on a Phat Xbox 360 is that we can 100% do it externally, without the need to open up the case at all. In order to determine the motherboard type of any phat console, there are just two items to check:

  • Does the console have an HDMI port?
  • What is the power usage of the console? (Determined by examining the power socket on the back of the console)

    • It's trivial to inspect the back of the Phat Xbox 360 to see if it has an HDMI port or not. Here is an image of a Xbox 360 Phat that does have an HDMI port and it's labeled:


    Now that you know if your console has HDMI, we can look at the power socket on the console and compare to this image:

    So, essentially what you want to see is the precense of a HDMI port, plus either of the two power sockets to the right side of the image above which would mean that you have a Falcon or Jasper console, which are essentially the only Phats worth modding.

    Once you've confirmed you've got a Falcon or Jasper console you can visit our RGH Falcon or Jasper Guide for detailed instructions on how to mod your console.



    Slim S:

    The nice thing about the Slim series is that there are only 2 possible motherboards within them:

  • Trinity (Most consoles with a MFR date of 07-2011 and BEFORE)
  • Corona (Most consoles with a MFR date of 8-2011 and AFTER)

    • Both Trinity and Corona motherboard consoles are all 100% RGH'able. You do need to determine your specific motherboard type so that you can get the correct supplies. The dates mentioned above are about 90% accurate as far as determining your motherboard version but I have seen some consoles that were Trinities with a much later MFR date, and I've seen a few Coronas in consoles with earlier MFR dates.

    To be 100% certain you'll need to open up the console and inspect the motherboard.
    The quickest check to tell a Trinity from a Corona is to examine the J2C1 and J2C3 headers (JTAG header).

    In a Trinity motherboard the headers are vertical and paralell to each other like this:

    If you have a Trinity console, there is no need to check anything further. All Trinities, even the ones that have the 4gb add-on, have a 16mb nand and are modded in the same way. One trinity is the same as any other. You can now go follow the guide for Trinity consoles.


    In a Corona motherboard one header is vertical and the other is rotated 90 degress to be horizontal like this:


    If you have a Corona console, you'll still need to determine if you have a 4gb Nand or a 16mb Nand. This is easily determined by simply powering up the console, visiting the storage menu, and looking for a ~4gb onboard storage unit. If an onboard storage appears then you have a 4gb Corona and should use our 4gb Corona Guide and if you don't show an onboard storage then you have a 16mb Corona nand and should use our 16mb Corona Guide.

    If for some reason you're unsure about checking the storage menu on the console, or want to be really-extra-double-sure that you have either a 4gb or a 16mb Corona you can visually identify them by inspecting the nand chip on the console:



    Slim E:

    The Slim E series console has two motherboard possibilities, and it is important to determine which one is in the console you want to modify:

  • Corona (just like in the Slim S series all are mod-able)
  • Winchester (as of 2018 no current method exists to mod this console) :-(

    • As with the Slim S series console the MFR date can be a good indicator, but it is not 100% reliable. As a rule of thumb:

  • Consoles with a MFR date of 06-2014 and BEFORE are likely to be Corona
  • Consoles with a MFR date of 07-2014 and AFTER are likely to be the non-modable Winchester motherboard.

    • The only way to know for absolutely 100% certain is to open up the console and remove the heatsink and take a look at the XCGPU. In the Corona consoles they stil have an IHS (integrated heat sink) an on the Winchester motherboards they do not.

    Here is an example Corona XCGPU:


    Here is an example of a Winchester XCGPU:

    The bad news here is if you have a Winchester, you're just out of luck. As of today in 2018 there is still no method to do any hardware modificaitons to the Winchester console.

    If you have a Corona console, you'll still need to determine if you have a 4gb Nand or a 16mb Nand. This is easily determined by simply powering up the console, visiting the storage menu, and looking for a ~4gb onboard storage unit. If an onboard storage appears then you have a 4gb Corona and should use our 4gb Corona Guide and if you don't show an onboard storage then you have a 16mb Corona nand and should use our 16mb Corona Guide. There is no difference in the modding process for a Corona that was in an E series slim vs one that was in an S series slim.

    If for some reason you're unsure about checking the storage menu on the console, or want to be really-extra-double-sure that you have either a 4gb or a 16mb Corona you can visually identify them by inspecting the nand chip on the console:

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