Which X360 is for me?


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Well, surprising as it sounds. Looks like it is time for me to jump on the Microsoft bandwagon and buy a 360. I've been a long time Sony only guy, but thats going to change.

This decision is primarily thanks to the better racing game selection I've continued to be impressed by on the 360 platform. I've always wanted to play games like PGR4, Forza 1/2, and now Forza 3 has forced me into buying a 360.

However, I have a few questions before buying:

1. Is the Arcade worth the $100 less than the Pro? What features are you really missing out on? Is it just the hard-drive?

2. I've heard the mod scene is quite big on the 360, does this work on all X360 models or is this limited to a few? I have a few friends who have their 360's modded and they swear by them.

3. Should I wait until Forza 3 actually comes out? Then perhaps by a bundle or something?

Thanks guys!

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don't know about modding being big, it's not allowed by MS and may be illegal depending on where you live. when i say it's not allowed i mean as in warranty and being blocked from going online. and get the mid range version, you need that hard drive, esp if you want to be a pirate, i mean modder.

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Well, surprising as it sounds. Looks like it is time for me to jump on the Microsoft bandwagon and buy a 360. I've been a long time Sony only guy, but thats going to change.

This decision is primarily thanks to the better racing game selection I've continued to be impressed by on the 360 platform. I've always wanted to play games like PGR4, Forza 1/2, and now Forza 3 has forced me into buying a 360.

However, I have a few questions before buying:

1. Is the Arcade worth the $100 less than the Pro? What features are you really missing out on? Is it just the hard-drive?

2. I've heard the mod scene is quite big on the 360, does this work on all X360 models or is this limited to a few? I have a few friends who have their 360's modded and they swear by them.

3. Should I wait until Forza 3 actually comes out? Then perhaps by a bundle or something?

Thanks guys!

1. No. Going with the Arcade you miss out of a hard drive, Ethernet cable (if that matters), Xbox 360 Headset (Xbox isn't too fun without Live), HD Cables (All Xbox 360 consoles have HDMI on the back, but only the Elite comes with a HDMI cable), and finally you wont be able to play old Xbox 1 games with an Arcade.

2. Yes the mod scene is quite large on the Xbox 360, though as to exactly what your referring to is unclear to me. If you mean being able to "mod" your Xbox 360 to allow you to play backup games, then yes their is a huge community in that and if you wanted to do that it works on any Xbox 360. Though this requires you to open your Xbox 360 voiding your warranty (unless you can remove that sticker like a pro).

If you mean modding games to "cheat" or to just make the games way more exciting and fun, there is also a big community in that too. Though with this route you don't need to open your Xbox 360 and don't void the Xbox 360's warranty; but if the mods are taken online then you could break the ToS of XBL.

3. I highly doubt any of the HOT new games coming out are going to be bundled, they usually put old games in them. Usually 1 old, put still popular game and 1 random game.

Also; every Xbox 360 says it comes with Silver Membership (worthless), but when you first create an account if you choose not to buy a membership you will be given 1 month of gold free.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you only get a wired controller and a plain AV cable with the arcade package, right?

No to the wired controller, also consoles come with a wireless controller now and yes to the AV cable you just get a plain one.

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Yeah, by modding I am referring to backups. Can you do this with all X360 models? Or does it have to be of a certain DVD-drive or something?

The Arcade doesn't sound bad. I won't be using the cables in the box regardless because I will go with HDMI. Backwards compatibility is a non-issue for me as I have no Xbox games. The only thing I'm wondering is whether that $100 bucks is worth it for that 20GB HDD. I don't need the headset either. I've got tons of ethernet cables, but I will probably have to buy a wireless adapter.

Thanks for the quick responses :)

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Comparison between the 3 models. (Bestbuy)

Used to own an elite when it first came out. If I were to choose a model, it'd be the pro or elite. Probably elite. Larger Hard Drive and HDMI will "future-proof" it with new games coming out which will require a Hard Drive as well as being able to hook it up to a nice display if you have one.

Depends, do you want to play any of the great games on this console? I waited until forza 2 came out when I bought the elite.

Anyone know if there's a price drop happening soon? There were a few sites in Jan '09 saying that around E3, they would slash prices.

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From what I've read up, all the X360 models support HDMI so that is not a problem. I will need the hard-drive though, but I don't think thats worth the extra $100 for the Pro model.

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Just a point to consider if you're planning to get the Arcade and are looking forward to Forza 3:

Forza 3 will soon ship on two 360 discs, with one holding the core product and another hosting additional content. However, news site Joystiq reports that, because of the two-disc set-up, not all 360 owners will be able to access all the game's content.

At the same time, questions are being placed on whether Metal Gear Rising will be able to fit on a single dual-layer DVD; Kojima once infamously stated that Sony's Blu-ray format wasn't big enough to fit in everything MGS4 had to offer.

Forza 3 developers Turn 10 has confirmed how the full Forza 3 experience will work. The additional content on disc two will be downloaded and stored on the Xbox 360's hard drive. The game itself will run from the core content on disc one and, as the game is being played, data from the hard drive will be accessed to provide the additional content.

But the 360's basic Arcade SKU, of course, doesn't come with a hard drive; a near-certain indication that 360 Arcade owners will not be able to play the full game.

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Yeah, I posted that :p

I know I need the hard-drive. Can't I purchase the hard drive separately, like from a store? I don't think its worth $100 bucks, because I don't need anything else the Pro model offers over the Arcade.

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You could always use a modified hard drive that would by 1/2 the cost. Didn't somebody post a guide in this section a while back on how to do it?

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Snoopie I would recommend you to get pro model, modding the HDD for 360 is more hassle then its worth.

It's not that I am discouraging you to mod the 360 but it's not worth the hassle. The main reason behind me not recommending you to mod the 360 is because MS eventually will ban your 360 from Live (I'm not taking about HDD).

Also why don't you wait for forza 3 to come out and I'm pretty sure they'll come up with a bundle.

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I just want to confirm that all models of the X360 can be modded or not. I don't want to buy a X360 and find out that you can't mod that patch of them as I did with my original PSP at that time :p

I understand that if you are going to mod it, then you shouldn't be allowed to play Live, I'm fine with that if I do mod it. I just want to leave that option open. Right now I am swaying towards the Pro model.

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Yeah, by modding I am referring to backups. Can you do this with all X360 models? Or does it have to be of a certain DVD-drive or something?

The Arcade doesn't sound bad. I won't be using the cables in the box regardless because I will go with HDMI. Backwards compatibility is a non-issue for me as I have no Xbox games. The only thing I'm wondering is whether that $100 bucks is worth it for that 20GB HDD. I don't need the headset either. I've got tons of ethernet cables, but I will probably have to buy a wireless adapter.

Thanks for the quick responses :)

The Pro comes with a 60GB hard drive not a 20GB. You can buy a 60Gb in stores fro $100 and maybe a 20GB for a bit less; so in the end it's best to just get the Pro.

It's not that I am discouraging you to mod the 360 but it's not worth the hassle. The main reason behind me not recommending you to mod the 360 is because MS eventually will ban your 360 from Live (I'm not taking about HDD).

Also why don't you wait for forza 3 to come out and I'm pretty sure they'll come up with a bundle.

There hardly any hassle at all in modding your drive to play "backups" and it is quite worth it; expecially that it has been proven that drives that were modded have actually shown better performance in reading games (retail too) and being not as loud.

The insides of the units are identical

Umm, no. There are different chip sets, with Jasper being the best right now (unless there is some new one I have not read about yet).

All Xbox 360's can be modded. Not all of them have the same DVD drive, but all can be modded. Note though; some are a pain to mod ie. Hitatchi and LiteOn.

For more on modding your dvd drive (flashing firmware) visit http://xbox-scene.com/

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I had 360 with 20 gig hdd; after the NXE update I wanted install the games that I'm playing I bought 120g drive off of eBay for like $60.00 and now I have like 3 games installed and still sh*t load of space left.

I just want to make that clear I don?t like modding my stuff that I pay high amount for, I fear if I did something wrong and all the hard earn wasted and my 360 would be expensive paperweight.

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definitely get the pro. you NEED a hard disk for the xbox and imo I would get make sure it's the 60GB one. I wasn't sure I would even need a hard disk when i bought mine but you do and I'm sure you'll want to install games to the hard disk so 60GB is the way to go.

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Ok, guys I am convinced on the Pro model for $299 now. If it will cost me $100 to buy a hard-drive then its the same thing in the long-term, its just I get more from the Pro model.

All Xbox 360's can be modded. Not all of them have the same DVD drive, but all can be modded. Note though; some are a pain to mod ie. Hitatchi and LiteOn.

For more on modding your dvd drive (flashing firmware) visit http://xbox-scene.com/

Does having the hard-drive make any difference if you are playing backups?

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Ok, guys I am convinced on the Pro model for $299 now. If it will cost me $100 to buy a hard-drive then its the same thing in the long-term, its just I get more from the Pro model.

Does having the hard-drive make any difference if you are playing backups?

Yes it does, you'll not hear the dvd drive noice constantly.

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So with the backups you throw them onto the hard-drive itself? Not physical discs?

Sorry I'm new to all this :(

you can install any 360 game to the xbox hard disk.

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As mad onion said, you can install any game on the Hard Drive but you'll still need the disk in the tray to verify that you have the game before you start playing.

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Yeah, I posted that :p

I know I need the hard-drive. Can't I purchase the hard drive separately, like from a store? I don't think its worth $100 bucks, because I don't need anything else the Pro model offers over the Arcade.

You can get a 20GB drive from Microsoft for $19.99 if you own a Arcade Xbox 360.

Any Xbox can be modded to play burned games. Newer Xboxs(startin around March-April 2008) have a Phillips/Lite-On drive in them, which is a bit more difficult(but still VERY possible) to flash the firmware to the drive.

The burned games MUST be burned onto a dual-layer DVD(DVD+R DL). They also MUST have a layerbreak setting(which can be done by using ABGX360 to create a .dvd file)

ALSO, the arcade units are using the NEWEST HARDWARE(yes, newer than the pro and elite models). Most arcade 360s come with 256MB of built-in storage(so you can still save, as you wait for your hard drive to come). REALLY NEW(and maybe not even released in the USA yet, i'm not 100% sure on that yet) arcade consoles have 512MB of built-in memory, as well as new heatpipes and heatsinks.

I'd say go for the Arcade and get the 20GB hard drive from Microsoft.

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