Something about the current generation of Consoles has been bugging me

[Easton Dark]

That's a bit like saying "cars are so unreliable these days, I don't remember the Model T breaking down!" They only overheat and crash because we expect much more of them than we used to.

My Nintendo Entertainment system went through 2 floods and it still works fine.

Edit: Unless by "expect", you mean wanting better graphics. In that case I guess you have a point.

 

[Saelune]

Its kind of a general technology thing. We get power at the cost of durabillity. My N64 still works, and HAS to be beat before it works. Also I dont have to worry about the cartritgdes being ruined from scratches, but it has alot less capacity than any DVD.
Also the PS2 is an amazing gaming device. How that spawned that movie player sequal I will never understand.

 

[burningdragoon]

As I recall, the classic RRoD happens because the continued heating and cooling (causing the mobo to expand and contract) causes the heatsink to come unstuck and thus fry the CPU. I mean... thats crazy. What kind of designer makes a product where the core frikkin components are physically deforming due to heat :S.

Almost. The solder holding the CPU and GPU is not lead-based (AKA not as good) and it get's hot and they separate from the motherboard after the heatsink/paste wears out. The reason that they use the worse solder is simple. The lead-based solder is illegal to use in manufacturing all those lovely, fragile computer parts.

Basic OT answer: It's pretty much just how growing technology works. The old ones are sturdier cuz there just wasn't as much to them.

 

[KissofKetchup]

snip

I believe that it has to do with the fact that because consoles nowadays do so many more computations per second which generate heat that the designers can't really deal with without making really costly upgraded cooling which would be impractical. This heat generated causes parts to malfunction and fail. Compounding this fact is that today's consoles are so much more sophisticated and complex that there is more to go wrong than before.

Another thing is that consoles like the Gameboy, NES, etc, were built like tanks....literally

Spoiler: If you don't believe me look at this pic

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

But they also ran on much simpler tech. =P The less components you have in your machine, the less likely it is to stop functioning. But it'll also never do what your DS or 360 can.