It’s pretty much a given, what with the RRoD (Red Ring of Death) and all, but just in case you weren’t aware of it, the Microsoft Xbox 360 is officially the “least reliable” console, according to SquareTrade, an electronics warranty firm.

According to their numbers on 16,000 failed consoles, in the first two years of ownership the Xbox 360s have a whopping 23.7% fatal failure rate.  (As in my box is now a brick.)  Where as Sony’s PS3 has only a 10.0% failure rate.  And the Nintendo Wii rocks them all with a mere 2.7% dead boxes in the first two years.

It really doesn’t get much clearer than that, does it?  It is however surprising as other studies have found much worse results for the Microsoft Xbox 360, some as high as 54.2%.

And of the Xbox 360′s whopping failure rate, of course, the RRoD accounts for about half of those deadly sins.

Ignoring the RRoD failures, Microsoft’s Xbox 360′s second biggest problem was disk read errors.  Not surprisingly this also turns out to be the Sony PS3′s biggest problem.  Given the way people treat their disks (Just how do you get gum on a disk anyway?) this is practically a given.  However, the Nintendo Wii (Champion of goofy downloaded games perhaps?) is more prone to having power issues than disk read problems.  It is enough however to make one long for the old days of carts.

Also of interest however is that SquareTrade’s data, though certainly not a definitive fact, does strongly suggest that the Jasper chipset in newer Xbox 360s has a much lower failure rate than earlier models.  Of course, this really isn’t a surprise.

I commented before on how the new Jasper Xbox 360 uses less power thusly generates less heat, and therefore is theoretically less prone to the infamous Red Ring of Death that so many Xbox 360 owners have suffered.  (It’s also been said to have a quieter DVD drive.)  But the big question is, how do you know which one on the shelf is a Jasper?

According to scuttlebutt there are a couple of ways:

Way 1: The last five digits of the serial number indicate the release date.  The serial number format is xxxxxxxYWWLL where Y is the year, WW is the week of that year, and LL is the lot number.  You don’t need to worry the numbers before the last five of the serial, or about the lot number, but you do want to make sure that the year is 2008 (which would be an 8 ) and the week would be a 33 … or higher, obviously.  Anything newer than that release date should, theoretically, be a Jasper.  I’ve seen pictures of year 8, week 44 and that was definitely a Jasper.

Way 2: A lot more definitive is simply to check the power ratings.  It uses less power, which makes it super-easy to spot!  On the box itself is a clear window where you can see the serial number on the actual Xbox 360.    If you look to the very leftmost in that clear window you’ll also see the 12V power rating of the power supply that the Xbox 360 has installed, followed by the 5V rating.  (Note, you can’t actually see the 12V … part of it, but you can see the amperage for the 12V.)  An amperage rating of 12,1A means you’ve got a Jasper.  (Consequently, an amperage of 14,2A is a Falcon … which is almost as good.  And an amperage of 16,5A is a Zephyr which you really just want to skip.)

So as you happily hunt for a new Xbox 360 this Christmas, remember one important thing: Look at the back before you pull it off the shelf!  If you can get it, you want a Jasper and its theoretically fewer RRoDs.  And with these two simple tips, you can make sure you get one!

Owners of a Microsoft Xbox 360 know all too well about the dreaded Red Ring of Death, the phenomenally bad sign that your precious and expensive video game system is dead.  Microsoft, not content with just having given us the BSOD, had to of course make a much more dramatic sounding epic failure, the RRoD.  While other video game consoles may fail, none fail so well, or as definitively, as the Microsoft Xbox 360.

Well there’s good news … sort of.  It appears that a lower-power lower-temperature Xbox 360 has made it to the streets.  What does this mean?

Unfortunately, not really all that much.

In theory this should reduce the number of RRoDs … for these new Xbox 360s anyway.  It’s thought that overheating is one of the major causes of RRoDs.  (Though I’ve heard that everything under the sun, from walking around while a game is playing to plugging an Xbox 360 into a power strip – which is what you’re supposed to do with your precious electronics – has also been known to cause RRoDs.)  So improving the design is a good thing.  And if Microsoft had done this say, back before basically everyone who wanted one already owned one, it might have even made an actual difference.

But hey, maybe you’ll be the lucky one who gets a shiny new one of these when you send back your RRoDed Xbox 360.  And maybe it really will mean you’re less likely to get a RRoD … again.

So, if, by some odd chance, you somehow haven’t gotten an Xbox 360 yet and actually want one, then it looks like the Jasper version is the one to look for.  Happy hunting!