Hardware Analyst Breaks Down Cost Of Xbox 360

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

I really think some mods need to come down hard on a few people around here ! Why so much hate ?

QFT, so much for placing restrictions on members in the GH. Mods have done sod all since December about that.

As for the HDD price, it is too expensive and they should lower it, but don't expect it to compete with an ordinary OEM drive you can find online. As someone has already explained, peripherals are where MS, Sony and Nintendo make a lot of their money back.

[Boz]

you do know you can delete the installed data? :p the 5 games i've got installed take up 10gb (gt5:p being 6gb, gta4 being 3gb and 3 others taking <100mb each), so i've got another 15 games to get before i need to even think about uninstalling one and buy the time i reach 20 games i'll unlikely be playing most of the earlier titles. then again, i thought there wasn't any games for the PS3 so 40gb is overkill :p

I guess you are lucky cause my 60gb drive gets packed pretty damn fast. I had to buy a 250 2.5" hdd at $130-$150 can't remember exactly, because I have about 15 games for my PS3 and on average my installs are at about 1,2-5gb per game. Download a few trailers and demos here and there and it becomes a problem. So if I want to play games, I have install/delete them everytime. That's absolutely retarded.

MS hard drive is overpriced no doubt, but in essence that 120gb is more then enough for ANYTHING because you don't have the game problem. In essence if you have 10 games you will play on regular basis you'll at least have 30-50gb taken my game data alone. That's total waste. So an investement of $130-$150 over your $400 you paid for the PS3 is inevitable.

This is a very much well know problem that pretty much everyone points out as pretty concerning (read Game Informer - can't remember what issue but it's fairly recent one 1 or 2 issues ago). That's poor planning overall. Installing a game or a demo (at whopping 1.8gb +) is ridiculous to say the least.

Microsoft has a different problem with the whole hard drive thing. I actually filed a complaint yesterday as they post misleading informatin on their Xbox.com site that suggests that you can copy files off of your Xbox 360 HDD to another external USB device or a PC.

This is FALSE and their site is incredibly misleading. In fact so much that you could buy the add-on thinking you can indeed copy stuff but in essence you can't.

Just so you know what I'm talking about:

http://www.xbox.com/en-us/support/systemse...s/harddrive.htm

if you scroll down on that page to this:

Copy, Move, and Delete Items from Your Hard Drive

You can copy items on your hard drive to a memory unit, a connected PC, or a connected USB device. You can also free space on your hard drive by deleting items.

To copy or move an item from your hard drive to a connected device:

1. With the hard drive attached to the Xbox 360 console, turn the console on.
   
2. Go to the System area of the Xbox Dashboard and select Memory.
   
3. Select your hard drive.
   
4. Select the category of the item you want to copy or move.
   • To copy or move videos, trailers, and demos, select either Videos and Trailers or Demos, then select the item.
     
   • To copy or move gamer profiles, gamer pictures, and themes, select either Gamer Profiles, Gamer Pictures, or Themes, select the owner of the item, then select the item.
     
   • To copy or move all content associated with a game, select Games, select the owner of the content, choose the game, select Game Options (Y), then select the item.
     
   • To copy or move just one item for a game (such as a single saved game), select Games, select the owner of the content, select the game, then select the item.
     

[*]Select Copy or Move.Note

Gamer profiles can only be moved or deleted, not copied. Certain items, like music files, cannot be copied or moved, only deleted.

[*]Select the connected device to which you want to copy or move your item.

Of course, you can't copy videos nor trailer nor demos to any external USB device attached to Xbox 360 or your connected PC.

As I said, this is a bigger problem for Xbox 360 then anything else really. It's extremely misleading and poor approach by Microsoft and they are very much aware of it.

This is why I filed an official complaint with them yesterday with specific respect to remove this from the site or remove it as it is NOT possible to do.

The major issue with this is that you can't copy your legally bought TV shows or downloaded trailers or anything really to external unit freeing the main hard drive space. That's more concerning then a little bit higher price of the hard drive.

This only becomes possible to bypass by modding the Xbox and I'm sure many of us simply doesn't want to do anything like that.

Edited May 13, 2008 by Boz

[Ricardo Gil]

Boz, I think it's possible, but only with memory cards, not USB mass storage.

[Frank]

Thread Cleaned

Why is it every time I come into GH I have to clean out 30+ posts of offtopic garbage?! Doesn't this get old to you guys after a while?

Stay on topic. Don't feed the trolls and report the trolling posts. Why can't people do this?

[Boz]

Boz, I think it's possible, but only with memory cards, not USB mass storage.

Ricardo I spent some time yesterday with them on the phone. It's not possible. In the end they gave me the "it's in the EULA" excuse, despite the fact it's very clear what the site says. It's horribly misleading.

[Ricardo Gil]

Well then, that's misleading for sure. I always had the idea I could copy content to memory cards.