Xbox-Scene's Xantium has collected a wealth of visual evidence, which appears to show a new heatsink placed just above the 360's DVD drive. The system's Xenos GPU is located underneath the drive. The secondary heatsink is apparently connected to the GPU array with a long heatpipe.

Overheating has been the primary suspect in the case of dying Xbox 360s. While competitor Sony has had its share of PlayStation 3 lemons, the infamous indication of Xbox 360 system failure--the "red ring of death"-- has plagued Microsoft since the console's inception. To date, the company has mainly reacted to the problem by focusing on customer service, including an extension of the system's warranty and the institution of improvements to the repair process. Microsoft corporate VP Peter Moore responded to the issue last month, countering a consumer's complaint with continued support.

"Y'know, things break, and if we've treated him well and fixed his problem, that's something that we're focused on right now," he stated in an interview with the Mercury News. "I'm not going to comment on individual failure rates because I'm shipping in 36 countries and it's a complex business."

If a new heatsink is indeed being added to the console, it is unknown whether the upgrades will be made to all future manufactured Xbox 360s. Shacknews has contacted Microsoft for comment on the issue, but has not yet received a reply.