For today's video, I bought an official Microsoft refurbished Xbox Series X. Which is the worst
named console ever. They should have called it something cool like the Thunder Tornado.
Which actually would work quite well, because then you could call the little one the Thunder
Ghost. But anyway, what we're gonna do in today's video is, I'm gonna unbox the console. I'm gonna
invade its personal space and then spend some time gaming on it. So that, by the end of the video,
I can let you know if this refurb will give you botulism. But before we get into that,
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Now I'm assuming that this first littler box is the controller,
so let's open it up and have a look.
Oh yes we have our Carbon Black Xbox controller. Now instead, you can get the Elite controller
if you want some more controller EP, but I went with this just to keep the price down.
In here we actually just have what looks like an Xbox box
and there we have our refurbished Series X X series Xbox X Series X - uh -
which is exciting. I'm curious to see what kind of condition it's gonna be in.
Interestingly from the box, it does seem to come with a controller, So it seems like
they make you buy a second one. I didn't realize that that's how this was gonna work.
It's nice and protected. We have our our X Series X X over here. I think this joke is
going to become very labored very quickly. I feel like it immediately has been labored. We've got an
HDMI cable which says Ultra high speed on it and I think this actually can handle 4K 120. And then we
do have a controller that comes with the console so they are forcing you to buy a second one.
For this refurb bundle I quite like the Xbox controller. The only thing that really
bothers me about it is that it doesn't come with a rechargeable battery pack. That's really stupid.
And then finally we have our X Series Xbox Series X. So let's take that out. Oh it's quite heavy.
Oh cool. There is the top, with what looks like a
very industrial fan under there. That is a dope looking fan.
Wow it is a fingerprint magnet. Now on first impressions, this refurbished Thunder Tornado
is in pretty good condition. Although there is some slight discoloration on the plastics around
buttons and stuff like that but it's not too bad. I think if they were to sell this
in Japan they would refer to it as "having a slight feeling of use". Another good sign
is the fact that there are no obvious scratches around any of the ports on the back. Which means
this was a pretty well looked after console. Anyway, with that let's dig a bit deeper.
Now before we tear the console down, there's just one quick note i need to make.
I've been using this for the last week and while transporting it between the office and my home
I was carrying it in a bag that was hanging a little bit lower than I realized and
I may have knocked it against the curb slightly... Um, so there is some cosmetic damage on the
console which is very much my fault and not Microsoft's. Okay! So with that, let's do a quick
tear-down of the model X because I can't not break everything I buy and have a closer look
at the insides. Now if you look at the sticker it does actually show you the service date.
There we go.
That's one down.
Pry it out, oh okay we are safe. So that's been removed and then here we have the inside of our... uh...
of our terribly named Xbox. Now in having a look here, it looks pretty good. You can see there's a
little bit of dust buildup over there. Now I've only been using the console for about a week
so I don't know how much of that is gonna be due to my use but yeah we'll have a closer
look in there and then we'll see how clean it is. Other than that though, it does look like it's in
very good condition in here. Wow, everything is really really tightened down in here.
Oh there's a little master chief helmet on the fan which is some good fan service.
Oh yeah, there we go, that came out very nicely and then here we've got a pretty serious looking fan.
Which as you can see there is basically no resistance in that motor, that's awesome! And
in practice it has been very quiet. In terms of dust it seems pretty clean. All of the connectors
do seem to be in very good condition so that's a nice sign. There we go, and it's off!
Oh, there are some ribbon cables. Though, that is, we
all know ribbon cables are my favorite thing in the universe.
and I am pretty sure I just broke that connector... I really hope it's something pointless.
It seems like the actual pins in the connector or on the top plastic bit that i just broke.
Yeah that's not ideal. Okay that one opens much more easily...
kind of lift that out. Oh no! That is in fact the ribbon cable that connects the entire front I.O.
to the motherboard yeah so I am really hoping that this connector still works because
otherwise I'm not going to be able to power it on anymore. Although none of that is Microsoft's
fault. Well it's not the refurbisher's fault. That is a combination of ribbon cables being awful and
me being stupid. So anyway, let's put the case aside on that very depressing note. So over here
we have our power supply with this kind of rubber gasket around it to reduce vibration.
We have our Blu-ray player on this side and then if we flip the whole assembly around,
we have a massive heat sink, which I'd say there's still a little bit of dust.
Again, all of this is in very good condition. It does look essentially like a new console inside.
And then under here we have our south bridge which has clearly been recycled from an Xbox one.
Although I am no expert, this is just a fine looking PCB to me. If you know more about the
stuff than I do, let me know in the comment section down below what you think of of this bad boy!
It does look pretty decent to me though and then under that we've got a pretty thick
piece of aluminum. If I'm not mistaken i think that under here, this copper plate is actually a vapor
chamber with the heatsink attached to it. Which is good. Vapor chambers are very effective at cooling.
Oh hold on just a second, I think I may have skipped a step here, because the whole base
just disassembled. Uh and then under here we have the back of the... just all of it... we have our
SSD, which I wonder if that was what they had to replace because the actual, this little
tin lid, did seem quite deformed. It did seem like they they had removed it before so I don't
know, maybe they had to replace the storage for this Series X - uh - other than that though
the thermal pads or thermal putty seems fine. That is an interesting solution. The kind of like
really thin bit of metal that they like stick over it like that. I wonder what
the thinking is behind that because it's actually the same here with this.
I really do not like this thing because
you have to kind of wedge things in between like mosfets and stuff and I just don't want to have
to get a prying tool this close to like power delivery components. Yeah this is a stupid thing.
That has actually worked really... there we go... finally that process really sucks. I do not like
this little thin bastard at all! There's nothing really that makes you think that there's been
some serious surgery that's gone into fixing this thing. Although what is clear was that this
console was reassembled by the hulk because all the screws are so difficult to undo, ugh!
Oh we should just be able to separate.. oh okay, that was more of a pop than a gentle separation
but that's fine. Now this is an aluminum plate with some thermal putty on it, for
what i'm assuming is more power delivery under here, and then this is the base of the the vapor
chamber which as you can see has a bunch of thermal putty and then thermal paste for the APU.
Now the thermal paste is actually surprisingly dry and I actually think that that may mean that
when the hulk was refurbishing this thing, they didn't actually remove the the heatsink
from the APU which is here. That is quite a beefcake APU we've got going there but again
that thermal paste is very dry. I don't like that. Uh other than that though this is a a very sexy
PCB, like I am at pretty much full mast at this point. Again, on this side like just look at that!
Oh yeah! Just look at that! Nice! But I mean, again for a refurb, everything looks like it's in very good
condition. Again aside from the the thermal paste it seems a little bit dry. We also have another
master chief helmet on here so yeah i'd say good job hulk, uh you did a reasonable job refurbing
this thing. Um so now comes the especially difficult part which is having an idiot like me
try and reassemble this thing without it breaking. Although I am worried about that little connector
and after being aroused by a PCB, I decided to reassemble the refurbished Thunder Tornado
which I accomplished with only a couple slight snags. Oh I'm so stupid I forgot that plate and
i'm gonna have to remove the little ashtray from hell thing. Oh I needed to screw that down. Come on!
Oh... what is this screw? So aside from the very suspicious leftover screw,
I think I have very professionally reassembled the terribly named Xbox.
I've even covered up the little screw holes so that nobody would know that I opened it up.
Uh, but the final test is gonna be if this thing still works after my little... uh... little
ribbon cable catastrophe. So let's try and power it up... A few moments later... okay Um,
Yay! Power buttons worked. Yay, it works.
So after having my botulism free tear down of the Thunder Tornado, what was my week like gaming on it?
Well it was really good. I only had a couple of small technical problems with it. The first
one was almost every time I plugged a different display into it, the resolution would revert to
640 x 480 for some reason. Although it was really easily fixed. I just had to restart the console.
And then the other problem that I had with it, was that Ori crashed like three times in a row.
Uh but it never did that again so I don't know. All of this stuff could be pretty Xbox specific
problems... Let me know in the comment section down below if you've had similar issues with your Xbox
but other than that, it ran very well. Uh, my main problem with this official refurb though is that
it basically costs the same as just buying a new one. It's barely any cheaper which means that there
are only a couple of reasons why I think you'd get it. Either a new one isn't in stock, which
is very plausible, or you just prefer buying refurbs. You know it's just kind of better saving
a dumpster console, as opposed to having them make a new one for you. It's kind of like getting a used
pound puppy as opposed to buying a new brand name puppy from like a puppy mill. You know the one is
just kind of a bit better than the other one. So if you really, really want a Series X, this may be
a great way to get one. Anyway with that, Thank- you very much for watching. If you enjoyed the
video, like and subscribe to the channel for more videos like this one, and until the next one, bye!