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Despite what you may have heard, advertising isn't just about telling outrageous lies about a product itself. No, it also involves inventing a non-existant fear that can only be quelled by using the product. A particularly bad example of this is an advert by, BT. It had some little girl getting extremely upset while speaking to her dad because.. wait for it.. he was on a mobile. Yes, the whole advert was a pretty poor attempt to persuade people that using a mobile phone rather than a land line means they don't love their children. Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNS0fHGPNM4. Yes, it really is that bad.
Also playing on invented fears are the cooling fans that have been release for every current gen console. Admittedly, the 360 used to have problems that may or may have not been related to overheating, but the PS3 and Wii? They have a pretty damn small failure rate as is. And yet these cooling fans purport to fix a problem that doesn't exist. Worst still is that they don't really work. Typically you stick the fan on the back of your console, over the existing fans - which itself is next to useless. The 'cooling fans' don't go inside the console - so they aren't able to remove any extra heat that isn't already being handled by the fans. Ask any PC owner - if you want extra cooling, you slap an extra fan on or buy a better more powerful fan. You certainly don't shove an extra fan over the existing one at the back of your PC case, which is all this is doing. Of course, since you can't open your console without invalidating the warranty, that's a no go too.
And then there's the noise - the PS3 is fairly quiet, as is the Wii - and the 360's fairly noisy. Do you really want to have to put up with the extra noise that another fan produces? The fact of the matter is, if your console is overheating, it's either faulty or you've shoved it in a cabinet where the air flow is restricted. And if it's the latter, you probably don't have room to stick an extra fan on anyway. You don't need these, you shouldn't buy them and the manufacturers should be ashamed for cashing in on a probem they've pretty much invented.
Also playing on invented fears are the cooling fans that have been release for every current gen console. Admittedly, the 360 used to have problems that may or may have not been related to overheating, but the PS3 and Wii? They have a pretty damn small failure rate as is. And yet these cooling fans purport to fix a problem that doesn't exist. Worst still is that they don't really work. Typically you stick the fan on the back of your console, over the existing fans - which itself is next to useless. The 'cooling fans' don't go inside the console - so they aren't able to remove any extra heat that isn't already being handled by the fans. Ask any PC owner - if you want extra cooling, you slap an extra fan on or buy a better more powerful fan. You certainly don't shove an extra fan over the existing one at the back of your PC case, which is all this is doing. Of course, since you can't open your console without invalidating the warranty, that's a no go too.
And then there's the noise - the PS3 is fairly quiet, as is the Wii - and the 360's fairly noisy. Do you really want to have to put up with the extra noise that another fan produces? The fact of the matter is, if your console is overheating, it's either faulty or you've shoved it in a cabinet where the air flow is restricted. And if it's the latter, you probably don't have room to stick an extra fan on anyway. You don't need these, you shouldn't buy them and the manufacturers should be ashamed for cashing in on a probem they've pretty much invented.
After my 3rd RROD I had a local electronics engineer carry out a couple of cooling mods on my (X-Clamp) repaired Xbox 360 console (launch model).One was having the power supply to the exhaust fans wired to a 12V source (they are 12V fans but run on a lower voltage by default,think it was 5V ?).I also had a 2nd internal CPU fan installed at the same time.The guy that did the mods reckoned he has done hundreds of 360's in this way and said he has never had one RROD once these mods have been done ?.Mine has been fine since as has my friends which was done 6 months prior and his gets much more use.He did say that those external 'intercooler' things which clip on the back of the console were more likely to make your console overheat than anything else and should be avoided at all costs.My console is slightly louder than it was before (about the same as a PC) but when you're playing on it you really don't notice.My console is mounted on one of those 'floating shelf' brackets,the type which make your console,DVD player etc. look like they are floating on the wall.These offer the best possible amount of air circulation around the console yet mine still RROD'd (when it was standard) twice even when mounted on one of these.Could be nothing more than total coincidence that both of the mentioned consoles which had the cooling mods done have been fine since but there may be something to be said for having these mods done ?.Providing of course your console is out of manufacturers warranty and the person carrying out the work knows what they're doing.
Despite what you may have heard, advertising isn't just about telling outrageous lies about a product itself. No, it also involves inventing a non-existant fear that can only be quelled by using the product. A particularly bad example of this is an advert by, BT. It had some little girl getting extremely upset while speaking to her dad because.. wait for it.. he was on a mobile. Yes, the whole advert was a pretty poor attempt to persuade people that using a mobile phone rather than a land line means they don't love their children. Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNS0fHGPNM4. Yes, it really is that bad.
Also playing on invented fears are the cooling fans that have been release for every current gen console. Admittedly, the 360 used to have problems that may or may have not been related to overheating, but the PS3 and Wii? They have a pretty damn small failure rate as is. And yet these cooling fans purport to fix a problem that doesn't exist. Worst still is that they don't really work. Typically you stick the fan on the back of your console, over the existing fans - which itself is next to useless. The 'cooling fans' don't go inside the console - so they aren't able to remove any extra heat that isn't already being handled by the fans. Ask any PC owner - if you want extra cooling, you slap an extra fan on or buy a better more powerful fan. You certainly don't shove an extra fan over the existing one at the back of your PC case, which is all this is doing. Of course, since you can't open your console without invalidating the warranty, that's a no go too.
And then there's the noise - the PS3 is fairly quiet, as is the Wii - and the 360's fairly noisy. Do you really want to have to put up with the extra noise that another fan produces? The fact of the matter is, if your console is overheating, it's either faulty or you've shoved it in a cabinet where the air flow is restricted. And if it's the latter, you probably don't have room to stick an extra fan on anyway. You don't need these, you shouldn't buy them and the manufacturers should be ashamed for cashing in on a probem they've pretty much invented.
Also playing on invented fears are the cooling fans that have been release for every current gen console. Admittedly, the 360 used to have problems that may or may have not been related to overheating, but the PS3 and Wii? They have a pretty damn small failure rate as is. And yet these cooling fans purport to fix a problem that doesn't exist. Worst still is that they don't really work. Typically you stick the fan on the back of your console, over the existing fans - which itself is next to useless. The 'cooling fans' don't go inside the console - so they aren't able to remove any extra heat that isn't already being handled by the fans. Ask any PC owner - if you want extra cooling, you slap an extra fan on or buy a better more powerful fan. You certainly don't shove an extra fan over the existing one at the back of your PC case, which is all this is doing. Of course, since you can't open your console without invalidating the warranty, that's a no go too.
And then there's the noise - the PS3 is fairly quiet, as is the Wii - and the 360's fairly noisy. Do you really want to have to put up with the extra noise that another fan produces? The fact of the matter is, if your console is overheating, it's either faulty or you've shoved it in a cabinet where the air flow is restricted. And if it's the latter, you probably don't have room to stick an extra fan on anyway. You don't need these, you shouldn't buy them and the manufacturers should be ashamed for cashing in on a probem they've pretty much invented.