Alright...so I don't have any money yet, but I will soon (hopefully) with the sale of my two camera lenses that I will be selling. But I have been looking up info on the XBOXs and I'd be lying if I said I had any idea what the difference between models are.

There is a substantial price difference between the Arcade, Elite and LE (Limited Edition), but what is the actual difference? I'm not a hardcore gamer, and don't play 24/7 and don't really own many games for the systems I currently own. I'm mainly interested in just getting Forza 3 right now and maybe a couple other games down the road, but really...that's it for my plan. So 120gigs seems like a bit too much for my needs, but 256mb seems WAY WAY WAY too small to install even one game (for the PS3 it would be anyway). Are there any performance gains, losses between models? And how does one prevent the RROD? I've heard that's a BIG and common issue with this system and this is the absolute last thing I would ever want to see especially considering the cost of all of this nonsense.

So...

gimme all of the info I need to make an informed decision. And tell me about proper maintenance to avoid the RROD and other errors.

 

Well, I've been out of the xbox loop for about a year now so I don't know the answer to your first question.

However, the best way to avoid the ring of death is proper ventilation and cooling. Don't put your xbox on a carpet floor, keep it away from other things that get hot, and leave some air space around it. If you really want to be on the safe side, they sell cooling fans specifically for the xbox 360. I've heard good things about those. The biggest cause for the ring of death is overheating.

 

the cause of the RROD is actually not overheating. its the rapid heating/cooling of bad solder joints from the first/second generation motherboards. once the solder cooled, the joints would break and the motherboard would end up flexing instead of being flat, compounding the problem. this is where the "towel trick" of overheating the console for extended periods in an effort to melt the solder back to where it should be came into place.

the newer hardware revisions are much better, i've had no problems with my newer 360. forza 3 is gonna require you to install the 2nd disc if you want like, 75% of the content. if you dont feel like dropping the money for the 120gb, the 20gb should do just fine. the only gave ive got installed right now is forza 2 and a few demos and i still have ~5gb free.

 

My son went through 3 x-box 360's within 1 year. Warranty replaced them all, free from Best Buy. Even with it elevated and cooling fans. The last one he got is going on 2 years now, so I guess it's figured out. Plus I don't think he even turns the dam thing off anymore.. We bought the new extended warranty last time but haven't needed it. ,

 

If you're wanting to save money I would definitely say go by game stop and get everything used. I would have saved over $200 but they didn't have any used 360's at the time or hardrives either.

Anyway I got the Arcade and bought a 60gig hard drive to go along with it. The hard drive pack also came with 3 months free of Xbox live Gold and a mic too. I bought a black rechargeable controller too. Haven't had any problems with anything and it's been almost a year

 

So is the arcade the 20gig version? The xbox site says the Arcade has only 256mb of internal memory.

 

My Xbox has 10+ GB of free memory and I'm pretty sure it's the base version. But I don't know man. My girlfriend just dropped mine off at my house one day and said "here, you can have this" so I don't know anything about the Elite or how much they cost/worth. Free Xbox 360 FTW. I do know that the Xbox is the best game system I have ever played on, but that's compared to the Nintendo 64 I had when I was a kid.

 

20 gigs is fine if you're not going to mod it or anything like that.

DO NOT get any of the "cooling devices" they do nothing, some of them even make the problem worse. Most of the RROD's were in the original couple of shipments and Microsoft did a pretty good job of repairing/replacing most of them for free/little cost.

I have my Xbox on top of my entertainment console with tons of free air and nothing stacked beside/around/on top of it and, knock on wood, have had no problems for a couple of years.

 

I almost forgot to ask what the size these games are? Because if 20gigs is only big enough for one game and a couple demos, I'd feel somewhat cheated. My PS3 has 7 games and tons of demos on it and still has space. And do you have to buy a certain brand of memory for it? Or would my 500gig external work for it?

 

Most games don't actually get "installed" on the Xbox, it just saves data. Forza does have some content that needs to be installed, but it wasn't a ton of space. If you plan on modding it and actually saving games on the HD, I'd probably go for the 120gb version. I'm not gonna lie, I would probably buy an Elite anyway if I had the money for it.. Why not just buy one used from Gamestop or something and get their warranty on it? That's what I would do.

 

I don't know...I'm not a big fan of used electronics because I figure somebody got rid of it for a reason. But our local gamestop is pretty cool about that sort of stuff, so I'll stop by later and see what their prices are.

EDIT:

How do you "mod" an XBOX?

 

For a casual gamer, you will be fine with a 20 gig harddrive. I'm a little more than a casual gamer, have had the 360 since the day it launched and I still have a little memory left. Hell I have an extra 20 gig harddrive I could sell you if you went with the arcade model. Walmart is having a deal on the aracde model I think saturday. If you buy the aracde edition, you get a $100 gift card.

Or you can buy the elite, and I'll trade my 20 gig for your 120gig and maybe a little cash. haha

Oh, and don't worry about reburbished systems. My original Xbox was reburbished and never had a problem. They usually have a warranty anyways that if they crap out, they replace it with a new one.

 

Is that a local sale only? I haven't heard of such a thing around here.

 

Nope, should be all Walmarts. In store only.

http://gear.ign.com/articles/104/1042384p1.html

 

Neat. But there again I saw that 512mb thing for the Arcade edition. So is the Arcade version not the 20gig version?

 

They no longer offer the 20GB and 60GB xbox pro's any more. just the Arcade (base) and the Elites
Arcade (base Model) = 512mb on board chip (no harddrive)
120 Elite = 120 GB harddrive
250 Elite = 250 GB harddrive.

i suggest the 120 GB Elite. i am almost out of room on my 20 gb (bought 3 years ago) due to all of my downloaded content for Rock Band, a few arcade games (games downloaded from XBL), and forza. i think i have something like 1 GB left.

 

No. When the Xbox 360s first came out there was no Arcade just a base version that had the 20gb hard drive and you could buy a 60(?) or 120gb seperately. The only plus to the Arcade is HDMI versus component of the older versions, but you need a hard drive.

One of my buddies did what someone else said. Buy a used Arcade and a used hard drive, or buy a new Arcade and buy a hard drive from Ebay or somewhere.

There are a lot of people that bought the regular version and needed more space so they sell their old hard drive (usually 60 or 20gb) to replace it with a bigger one.

I know one of my buddies that is wanting to sell his Elite for around $200 or I know a guy from work that has a few spare hard drives you could buy. I could get a 120gb HD for about 40-50 bucks.

 

The 250gb only comes with the Modern Warfare special edition xbox. They aren't selling a 250gb harddrive separately or making (at this time) a normal 250gb xbox.

If you can really get a 120gig harddrive for that cheap, I'm interested. Let me know. I would need a transfer kit though.

Hell Nick, if you went with that aracde version, I'll give you a 20 gig harddrive. I have no use for it. You would just need to pay shipping.

 

Yea. It's no problem at all. I don't have the transfer kit, but I could see if I could find one and I'll just throw it in there.

 

Sweet man. Just let me know if you find a transfer kit and then we'll be in business.

 

in my opinion when you get a game system, just get the most expensive version. If i had gotten the money i had now earlier, i wouldve bought the PS3 60gb when it first came out, since then the ps3 has been stripped down a little. As for 360 i think they are going to update them to change some settings on removable storage, i remember reading somewhere that other companies were taking too much money away from microsoft because their memory sticks held more and were cheaper. BUT then again, i dont know much on 360's. Id spend the extra and get an ELITE. Much sexier, and 120 gig drive from the start. Spend more money now, be out none later. OR spend 200 on arcade and find a 120 drive. Its all up to your spending.

 

He already said he didn't need that much memory. 20 gigs will work fine for him since he's an occasional gamer. My 20 gig is just now getting to the full point after however many years the 360 has been out.

Like I said, if you want, go with the aracde, get your $100 gift card, and I'll send you a 20gig hdd for the price of shipping.

 

I dont know if everything I talk about here has been covered or not cause I didnt bother reading EVERY post.

First thing is you WILL need a hard drive if you wish to ever get online with the Xbox, and the other thing is this. . . IF you ever do run out of hard drive space dont sweat it. . . for many reasons. . . Like the other guy said before, they are interchangeable. You could just buy a larger one and have a spare for back up. You can also buy a kit (Like 20 bucks I think) that enables you to fully connect your Xbox into your home network and you can use a PC hard drive the same as you could as if it were the regular Xbox hard drive. Now I have heard of a couple minor kinks that comes with using the PC hard drive but from what I know its nothing that cant be gotten used to.

 

Do this



http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...ct_id=13044371

Trade the $100 Walmart gift card to your parents (I know they buy groceries there, don't lie to me). Then use the $100 to buy this

http://cgi.ebay.com/120GB-120G-HDD-H...item414a329969

And this

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-PREMIUM-HDMI...item4837ca11c8

Then use the rest of the money towards Forza 3.

And there you go, a 120gb 360 with an HDMI cable for under $200, new.

 

I haven't been online much today, so I missed 90% of this...sounds stupid since it's my own thread about helping me. But I got one. I found a 60gig XBOX Pro at Target and picked up Forza 3. Not bad. The system I'm already used to for the most part, I had a first gen XBOX so it's not hard to adjust to...but the game...that'll take a bit more getting used to. I have GT5 Prologue for my PS3, so that training is coming in handy...but FM3 is definitely a new breed of animal.

I appreciate everybody's input today, it is much appreciated. Sorry about not being online much to get a lot of the info y'all shared. But I've been researching this system for a while now and felt comfortable enough this afternoon to make a trip to the nearest Target to give it a shot.

I do have to note, however, that I am not currently a Live member. I want to get good at this game before I go face the infamous gremlins of the interweb and get my *** handed to me by a 500lb man named Bubba who hasn't seen the light of day in 19 months.

 

If you choose a profile name and it doesnt work in Live you will have to start over with a new profile. When I played Forza 2 with my non-live name my **** didnt transfer over to my new profile which was on live. I was a level 30 and i didnt feel like starting over.

 

I think the majority of players online are 10 to 12 yr olds who cry when they get beat at something. My son is always cursing at someone, when he plays online, usually because they fcked up during halo 3 or something.. . My wife is astonished about how well he can use profane language, lol. He learned it from me.

 

But if you install them to the hard drive they run so much faster, and the load times are almost gone which is the number 1 thing that annoys me. I usually just wanna sit down and play for 30-40 mins and waiting 5 mins to boot the system up and load the game pisses me off.

 

Well congrats man. Once you get use to the driving on Forza, you'll love it. You have to break out of the GT mold cause it drives way better. You don't have to come to an almost complete stop in a high powered car to take a turn like in GT.