2 RROD's this christmas in my close family, making a total of 14 in 5 years. They're terribly unreliable pieces of ****, fixed one with proper thermal paste, but still.
The motherboards have
frikkin' toroids all across the feckers for god sake.
Well its called not leaving it all the time.
People forget that its a machine.
You leave it on a carpet and play it for too long IT WILL OVERHEAT.
The only time I got a RROD was when I first got my console but it was IMMEDIATE response knowing that it was literally a manufacture problem.
Also i underlined your little schism you had there.
Toroid capacitors are a sign of an extremely old motherboard design that needs replacing

Also, those xbox's weren't mistreated, they were well ventilated and, importantly, made sure that the bottom (on the right when lay flat) was clear to make sure airflow to the cpu/gpu heatsink was maximal. The design of the xbox's innards are pretty abysmal, since the heat from the gpu heatsink is trapped, which tends to be the biggest issue with overheating.
The one that properly died seems to be suffering from a fan control issue, since they never really spin up. Going to try to sort that at some point, but i'm busy for a few weeks, hence why i've lent them my 360
