I'm on my second 360, well.. they both work, because I got a guy that fixes them for me, and he explained the whole RROD problem to me, and what exactly causes it.

Its the video card that causes it. If there isn't enough thermal paste on the video card to help keep the video card in place while keeping it safe from extreme heat, it could overheat, and have a slight (rare) disconnect causing the RROD.

I got the RROD on my first 360, 3 times, and he fixed it until it completely broke, then he switched the board for me. My second 360 got the RROD recently, couple weeks ago, he added more thermal paste, and its working fine... for now, and hopefully for the next year of so.

that's not the only cause of the RRoD. there's also the fact that the videocard uses some stupid X shaped clamp that holds it in place. problem is that the card is held in place by forcing it there instead of holding it with screws. when the card becomes hot, it starts to warp and stress, forcing it to jump out of the clamp, breaking the connection to the motherboard... and there's also the issue of solder-joints breaking apart due to excessive heat... this is not due to lack of thermal paste, it's due to lack of airflow in the console...

In my previous post I stated that the card can disconnect, but yes, everything you said is also true.

true, tis a ballache when they go. but unfortunately, like me, a lot of ppl have spent a lot of dosh on their 360 to just drop it and spend another small fortune starting again with another console from scratch.

and unlike previous generations of console, there just arent enough AAA exclusive titles on the ps3 to really make it worth shelling out for another console. thats my take anyway.