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A long long post about buying a 360, if you please.
Jakeratboy
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Take a seat, in a chair or cross-legged on the ground, grab some popcorn. This is gonna be a long post.
I've finally decided that I want a 360, as opposed to a PS3, and I'm looking to all ya'll for some basic newb questions.
1) Should I wait for this "rumored" price cut in Sept.? I mean, I can keep myself busy 'til then, but, at this point, has anyone heard that it's anything more than a rumor?
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/08/04/rumorang-360-arcade-dropping-to-199-on-sept-7/
2) I'm concerned about external hard drives. If I'm going to be fully downloading the games to my hard drive (which I am), I'm gonna need quite a bit of space. Is it true that external hard drives (non-xbox hard drives) can only store music or pics, not game saves or downloadable games, or possibly even the full install games that Microsoft will be implementing in the Fall?
3) Speaking of which, any idea when the ability to do full installs is even gonna come? Not that it's necessary to play the games... But I want it....
4) Which model is the one that is supposed to be more stable (I.e. less "red-ringy")? I think you're supposed to be able to check the barcode at the bottom to tell which it is, but I'm not sure what I should be looking for.
Okay, that's all I got right now. Thanks for any help ya'll can give.
Yours,
Jakeratboy.
I've finally decided that I want a 360, as opposed to a PS3, and I'm looking to all ya'll for some basic newb questions.
1) Should I wait for this "rumored" price cut in Sept.? I mean, I can keep myself busy 'til then, but, at this point, has anyone heard that it's anything more than a rumor?
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/08/04/rumorang-360-arcade-dropping-to-199-on-sept-7/
2) I'm concerned about external hard drives. If I'm going to be fully downloading the games to my hard drive (which I am), I'm gonna need quite a bit of space. Is it true that external hard drives (non-xbox hard drives) can only store music or pics, not game saves or downloadable games, or possibly even the full install games that Microsoft will be implementing in the Fall?
3) Speaking of which, any idea when the ability to do full installs is even gonna come? Not that it's necessary to play the games... But I want it....
4) Which model is the one that is supposed to be more stable (I.e. less "red-ringy")? I think you're supposed to be able to check the barcode at the bottom to tell which it is, but I'm not sure what I should be looking for.
Okay, that's all I got right now. Thanks for any help ya'll can give.
Yours,
Jakeratboy.
Some people get pictures... All I've got are words. Letters and numbers and exclamation points!
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2. You can't connect external hard drives at all unless you're seriously into teh hackery, so don't worry about that.
3. This fall, supposedly.
4. All new ones are stable. For used ones, don't buy anything over a year old.
5. Don't sign your posts.
This post wasn't too long. I'm disappointed, I expected a major mental struggle but between reading your post and typing four sentences I only got a minor migraine.
1. It's a pretty good price now, but consoles always come down in price over time, if there is no games you need to play now, you will only save money by waiting til both hardware and software come down.
2. Now that you will be able to do game installs I think the Elite is worth it (if you can get a good deal).
3. Next major update, not sure when.
4. as far as I am aware they are all far less prone to it these days, some one else can probably tell you more.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Also, those 60 gigs are supposed to be coming down, so I'd wait.
No.
If you're at all concerned about price, wait for the 60 gig model. Beats paying for the hard drive later.
There's no proven way to avoid red-ringy-ness, but the early models had the worst reputation. Buy the 60 gig, keep it ventilated and in a dust-free area.
The new 60GB pro models have a slightly different configuration to the 20GB pro model they're replacing. It still has the same CPU/GPU and heatsinks, but has moved the on-system memory to a different place on the system, which is supposed to make cooling easier.
here's a linky on that
There's a new chipset coming probably at the end of the year, but I don't think any information has been released as to whether it'll actually improve cooling or just decrease microsoft's costs.
edit: as per the OP's question: Wait for the price drop, or if you're really impatient buy sometime in late August with a vendor that's usually good about retroactively granting price drops, like Amazon.
You can connect an external hard drive to it, I have a usb hdd that Is full of movies I use when I cba to go grab the dvds off my shelf, it can also hold music and pictures, but as the Op stated, no saves/dlc/game installs etc. Mine is a 120gb ide laptop hdd in a usb caddy, you can format it in fat32 of HFS if you want to be able to read filles over 4gb, no NTFS tho!
There's a serious warranty-voiding trick to installing a 120GB laptop hard drive in the 20GB shell. I'm considering giving it a shot but there really isn't much of a point to a 120GB drive anyway, so I probably won't.
Limed. I came in here looking for an excuse to make a tl;dr remark and was disappointed.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
Too short; didn't bitch.
I
Guess it was a medium-post, at best. All apologies.
Thanks again for the info, I'll see if I can wait.
Let me tell you about Demon's Souls....
On an aside, I really wish the 360s recognized networked DLNA Media Servers like the PS3 does.
wut
The Wii has a shitton of downloadable Virtual Console games, and even the OXbox had DLC.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
Warranty voiding aside, the suggestion that there isn't a point to a larger drive capacity kind of ignores the possibility that Rock Band + DLC might be a factor. Or an assload of XBLA. For some it is a hassle when the smaller drives approach max capacity.
60 GB is an improvement to this, however.
Do not engage the Watermelons.
Ok, yes the Wii has the Vconsole dlc but I was more so referring to the apparently abundant available demos, etc that you can get for the 360.
If any of this interests you, a bigger HD is a good idea. 60 GB is probably enough.
Current characters done: Ryu, Dan, C. Viper
Xbox Live: Infilament
For consoles manufactured before 2008, you may also want to check the Lot Number and Team.
Premium models you want Lot 738 or higher. Halo 3 models you want Lot 734 or higher.
The Team you want is FDOU, not CSON or JREY.
All this data should be visible on the barcode.
AFAIK, all models manufactured in 2008 are Falcons.
It's just streaming the Netflix Watch Now movies. This is not the best selection of movies.
I develop games with XNA, so I'd want to be able to test those on it.
I'd probably get a few XBL games.
I probably wouldn't ever do any online gaming.
I definitely wouldn't store pics, music, or movies on it.
Mainly single-player gaming would be all I do.
I have a wired USB controller I'd prefer to use (what?).
My TV isn't high def (or even particularly nice) and I'd be using plain old AV cables.
I don't need backwards compatibility since I don't own any Xbox games.
Any advice on what to look for? According to the wikipedia entry for the 360, it sounds like the Arcade should be just fine, but I'm not sure. What's the likelihood of them discontinuing the 20gb once the 60 is released?
You might need some storage to be able to do stuff with XNA and XBLA -- I don't know if memory cards alone will cut it. The 20gb model is no longer in production, the current $300 price they're listed at is just them selling out all remaining stock.
Alternatively, you could wait to see if that rumored price drop comes along (supposed to hit early September) and buy a discounted Arcade for $200. Microsoft "rumors" get confirmed as fact like 95% of the time, so it's a pretty safe bet. You can then see if you need a HD or not, and if you do need one purchase used. That should set you back maybe $50-60 for a 20GB HD. This is probably your best bet for features/price.
As far as I know, the 60GB is supposed to replace the 20GB.
The USB controller you'd prefer to use? Is it a 360 controller? Because if it isn't, you may find it difficult to use with the 360.
Do not engage the Watermelons.
Also, yeah, I'd probably want a hard drive because the game assets (music especially) can take up more than 256 MB easily. So I guess it's 20GB asap or 60GB in November...
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/console/datamigration.htm
Right here is what you're looking for.
Also, Bioshock is 19.98 on clearance - not sure if that's nationwide, but it's a pretty good deal if so.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Where did you find Bioshock for 19.98? I just got a 360 last week, and I still haven't played Bioshock.
Target's website shows $30 for the PC and $40 for the 360 version still though.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Has anyone here done it? I'm curious as to how difficult it actually is. I want more storage so I can buy more DLC but I'll be damned if I'm paying what MS is asking for 120gb HDD. Of course, at the same time maybe I don't want to risk screwing everything up and having either a dead Xbox or get booted off of Live because some new update makes MS think I have a hacked 360. ...so, anyone have a link to the step by step?
I will say, as I just got a 360 last week, it is very easy to delete things from your hard drive. I got the 20GB model since they're phasing it out and it was cheap, and I don't foresee myself needing more space even once we can download games to the HD.
Yeah, it was Target (in Ames, IA).