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So I got one of them new Xbox 360 thingys.
Dodge Aspen
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My loving wife bought me an Xbox 360 for Christmas. Bless her soul. I am ready to enjoy the awesome of HD now-gen glory. Thing is she got me the Arcade pack because it was the first one she saw at the store.
So, questions...
1. I know I'll have to get a hard drive. Is it imperative to get the big 120 gigs? Shit be expensive!
2. I have an HDTV. What kind of cables do I need in order to get the full HD quality signal? My TV is too old to have and HDMI port, so is component the way to go?
3. I also might need a wireless option, since I'm currently in the middle of moving, and I haven't scoped out the hookup options at the new place, yet. Is there any solution to that other than that damn pricey first party option?
4. I guess I'll have to shell out for an XBL Gold Membership. What are the differences between that and the basic Silver?
That's all the questions I have so far. This current whirlwind of switching, cities, jobs, and homes means I haven't really been able to delve into the system other than a couple rounds of Pac Man: CE and The (totally awesome) Boom Boom Rocket. I do know what games I want, so there is no need to list those. I can check the GOTY threads for game suggestions.
Thanks for the help!
So, questions...
1. I know I'll have to get a hard drive. Is it imperative to get the big 120 gigs? Shit be expensive!
2. I have an HDTV. What kind of cables do I need in order to get the full HD quality signal? My TV is too old to have and HDMI port, so is component the way to go?
3. I also might need a wireless option, since I'm currently in the middle of moving, and I haven't scoped out the hookup options at the new place, yet. Is there any solution to that other than that damn pricey first party option?
4. I guess I'll have to shell out for an XBL Gold Membership. What are the differences between that and the basic Silver?
That's all the questions I have so far. This current whirlwind of switching, cities, jobs, and homes means I haven't really been able to delve into the system other than a couple rounds of Pac Man: CE and The (totally awesome) Boom Boom Rocket. I do know what games I want, so there is no need to list those. I can check the GOTY threads for game suggestions.
Thanks for the help!
Xbox - Dodge Mega
Switch - SW-3699-5063-5018
Switch - SW-3699-5063-5018
Dodge Aspen on
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2) Component or VGA (if your TV has it) are probably your best bets. Some people prefer VGA, others component though, so your mileage may vary.
3) AFAIK Microsoft's official peripheral is the only way, which is pretty crappy. But then I use a cable for internets.
4) Gold lets you play games online (pretty much a must) and gets you access to demos a week before Silver members. That's pretty much it, I think. It sucks, but playing games online is what makes the 360 great, so it's worth it.
Awesome. Good to know. So component it is. I may be able to hide a few meters of cable if I need to instead of going wireless.
I really won't be downloading much video, if any. I am worried about more and more games becoming available only on XBLA, like the Street Fighter II HD remix. How big are the larger games?
Switch - SW-3699-5063-5018
Also, I'm using a cable for my Live as well, just bought a little carpet to go over it.
How do you connect it online? Do I need anything special besides an internet connection? I really have no clue :P
Broadband and typically a router. It comes with an ethernet cable. You can connect it directly to your modem, but most modems will only have one ethernet port, so you couldn't have both the 360 and PC online.
That's why you buy a $20 switch, plug that into the modem and then plug the PC / Xbox in at the same time.
Or do my (rather bizarre) configuration of modem -> wireless switch -> wireless bridge -> switch -> PC + XBox to get internets from one side of the house to the other.
Switch - SW-3699-5063-5018
The point is some people just share a connection through their PC to their 360 without getting a router. No idea how it would work with a Mac.
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Holy shit. I like the sound of that. I'm going to investigate.
Switch - SW-3699-5063-5018
whoa, whoa. This is tits. Does it work as good as they say it does.
edit, oh sweet it's got a trial
B.net: Kusanku
On the other hand, the new XBox Originals are a few gigs apiece, and they have Psychonauts. I think that's where a lot of space would probably get eaten up.
I suggest this in every thread but you can use the apple airport with airtunes instead of the official adapter. Its the same price but has about 10x the features. PM for more info I've blabbed on about its greatness to peeps before :P
There's so many of them..
Theres 3, 4 if you count the discontinued Core and the primary differences now have to do (almost?)entirely with the harddrive or lack thereof.
Arcade - Comes with a small(256mb?) memory card instead of a harddrive.
Pro - Comes with a 20gig harddrive.
Elite - Comes with a 120gig harddrive.
I'm pretty sure they're now all being released with the HDMI ports, which was the other major difference when the elite was first released.
XBL : lJesse Custerl | MWO: Jesse Custer | Best vid ever. | 2nd best vid ever.
In this gen we learn that high prices, HD, and a gazillion SKUs are bad while low prices and waggle are good.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
On the other hand, if you plan on downloading a bunch of XBox Original games (1-4 gigs a piece) and buy a bunch of TV series on the Marketplace, you'll probably want the Elite with its 120 gig hard drive.
As for the XBox Live Membership question, if you want to play online with other people, get Gold. Otherwise stay with the free Silver membership.
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire,
The majority of RROD's are heat related issues. Microsoft has recently switched to a 65nm process for producing their chipsets and mobos, this setup is codenamed Falcon.
Falcon based systems started coming off the production lines back in October. If you're shopping around for a new 360, you can check the manufacturer's sticker on the box and look for anything with a lot number over 739 and/or a power rating of 175W (the Falcons use less power, hence a smaller power supply. The original 360's and the first redesign (codename Zephyr) both ran on 203W).
I recently switched to a Falcon based Elite, and I haven't had a single problem with it. It runs very cool to the touch (have to play for more than 5-6 hours at a strech to start feeling any heat on the outside of the unit) and I lucked out and got one of the new Ben-Q DVD drives, so it also runs a lot quieter than my old Premium.
I still need to pick up a transfer kit to move all my saves and XBLA games from the 20GB to the 120GB though.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Please repost here. I'm considering getting an XBox. I have a wired PC but an aiport for my wife's laptop.
Speaking of considering getting an XBox, are there ever deals to be had, or do I just have to bite the bullet and buy it at full price. For some reason I'm having trouble reconciling spending apppx. $400 for a console (to say nothing of $60 per game...)
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B.net: Kusanku
(As an aside, everyone looking to buy a 360 -- or, hell, anything -- should be refreshing cheapassgamer.com hourly.)
Re: the wireless adapter:
There is another way to to this without buying the official expensive adapter. You can use an old router (specific models supported) and flash it with firmware called DD-WRT. I don't have time right now to get links prepared, but if you google DD-WRT you will find it. It basically turns a wireless router (eg. Linksys WRT54G) into a wireless bridge which connects from your XBOX to your already existing wireless network.
handy.
PSN: BuckySuperJew
Spoiler'd GamerCards
I went for the 120g drive, as I'll probably want the space- for instance, whatever downloaded onto it already is taking up 16 gigs of space. I've got to go through it and remove some of the crap.
XBLive finally let me register my gamertag on Monday. It took 3 days to complete it.
From what I understood, all XBoxes that have the HDMI port on them have the new hardware. Is that correct? My XBOX starts to warm after a couple hours, but it's never hot. I'm terrified of having a hardware failure. $400 is a lot to me. :P
As far as games go, Halo 3 is okay, although it's not worth $60, imo. It, and Kameo, came free with my XBox (Thank you Best Buy!) so I enjoyed it, but I would've been upset if I'd paid full price for it. Viva Pinata is a hell of a lot of fun if you like sandbox games, so long as the cutesy animals don't challenge your manhood.
PS. The 360 looks and sounds BADASS on a full HDTV setup with digital surround.
Remember that it follows the industry standard way of confusing people and the 120 GB drive only has 116 GB space. (The calculations being based on 1000 MB per GB not 1024 or whatever).
Also the 360 keeps some space reserved for a Swap file IIRC... my mate has a 20GB drive that even when clean only shows 16GB, and my 120 only ever shows a max of 112GB.
Amen!
Now go play Call of Duty 4 and go like this: :shock: :^:
Switch - SW-3699-5063-5018
I really hope this is one of the "new" models becuase if this thing craps out on me Im probably going to hurl it out of the window thus voiding any warranty it might have.
The 20 gig costs $texas whereas the 120 is $unitedstates
(MSRP is $90 and $180, respectively, but if you hunt around you can probably get the 20gb for ~$50)
Easiest way to tell is look at your power supply for it. If it list's its output as 175W and the connector between the brick and the console is plastic, then you have a Flacon. The older architechture requires a peak of 203W, and a different power supply.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Side question for all of you that have the 360...should I get the quick charge kit or the play and charge kit for the the controllers/rechargable batteries?
Hope that helps someone.
Just get rechargable AAs, they're cheaper and will work with other, non-360-controller devices.
Here is a great quality & inexpensive one from Mono price: http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10830&cs_id=1083005&p_id=4011&seq=1&format=2
In regards to the HDD you can find used 20gigs cheap on ebay from people upgrading to the 120gig.
As for RRoD and DRE issues, keep your 360 horizontal when you're using it. This helps air flow and prevents other issues. If you bought it from Best Buy its worth it to go back and buy a 3 year warranty.
And I also vote for rechargeable batteries, you'll need at least 4 though. That way you can swap them out during play.