Possibly getting a 360?

[Con]

I might buy a 360 for Halo 3. I'd like a bit more info and personal opinions than what's provided on the MS website. How are your experiences with them? Is an elite all that special? Technical precautions when using it? I'm scared of getting the RROD's.

[FRain]

Elites are FTW. Someone said that if your 360 elite is built later than july than it has a bigger fan to keep from overheating. I have a 360 elite and I've had it for about a month now, ran for 3 days straight and didnt overheat. For halo 3, it's worth it.

[Con]

What makes the elite so good though? I doubt they'd only put a bigger fan in the elites. Are the elites really worth more money?

[FRain]

Well, like all 360s it is one noisy sombitch. But it's black, so its auto 400x better.

[Con]

I don't really give a shit what colour it is. White is fine. Are they really that noisy guys?

[leorimolo]

If it says HDMI in small letters in the box it probably wont RROD

for a while.....

[Dr Nick]

Elite doesn't get the 3rlod nearly as much, it's got a HDMI port on the back(afaik), and it doesn't overheat, You can get the 120GB HD for any 360, but if you want a solid xbox, get the Elite, since the best ones were already sold during the release over a year and a half ago it seems.

[Xetsuei]

Elites are FTW. Someone said that if your 360 elite is built later than july than it has a bigger fan to keep from overheating. I have a 360 elite and I've had it for about a month now, ran for 3 days straight and didnt overheat. For halo 3, it's worth it.


No, it does not have bigger fans, it just has the better heat sinks. I'd go with the elite Connor, you fill up that 20gig really fast. I'm going to get one, and the 120gb and HDMI will be nice.

[Emmzee]

I might buy a 360 for Halo 3. I'd like a bit more info and personal opinions than what's provided on the MS website. How are your experiences with them? Is an elite all that special? Technical precautions when using it? I'm scared of getting the RROD's.
I've had my Xbox since my birthday 5 months ago, and it's been fine.

[Mr Buckshot]

Xetsuei™;166648']No, it does not have bigger fans, it just has the better heat sinks. I'd go with the elite Connor, you fill up that 20gig really fast. I'm going to get one, and the 120gb and HDMI will be nice.

dang you beat me to the part about heatsinks. And you only fill up the 20 GB if you avidly download content from xbl (heck, I don't even have XBL despite having a 360).

Go with the Elite if you need the space - it also comes with the headset and the charger kit :). It's too bad that MS charges waaaaaay too much for the hard drives - it's like $100 for a brand new 20 GB hard drive when you can buy a 160 GB 2.5" notebook hard drive (the type used in the PS3) for the same price.

I plan to buy a second 360 (Core version since I have the first-wave Premium) once the GPU (not just the CPU) gets its 65nm makeover, and transfer my hard drive over.

By the way, you don't HAVE to buy a 360 for Halo 3. You can always wait at least 2 years for a poorly ported PC version...

[Warsaw]

If you want the benefits of HDMI, headset, charger, and updated heatsinks without paying extra for a larger Hard Drive, then the Halo 3 version is a god option (I have one). However, if you are an avid XBOX Live! user and download a lot ot content, the Elite is probably better.

[Mr Buckshot]

If you want the benefits of HDMI, headset, charger, and updated heatsinks without paying extra for a larger Hard Drive, then the Halo 3 version is a god option (I have one). However, if you are an avid XBOX Live! user and download a lot ot content, the Elite is probably better.

The regular 360 Premium and Core (those shipped after June) also has the new heatsinks and the HDMI port. Several were even reported to feature the cooler (temperature-wise) 65nm CPUs, although it'll be a few months before the 65nm CPUs appear everywhere. Both are missing the HDMI cable (a la PS3), headset, and charger, though.

Personally, I don't need the charger since I always turn off force feedback (my hands feel uncomfortable with the vibration). I might buy a headset when I get H3, which includes a 48-hour xbl free trial.

I have mixed opinions about the Elite, since game saves are basically the only things I keep on my hard drive. I guess if you love saving films and screenshots and downloading those Arcade games, the Elite is the way to go. Just be wary that you're paying a LOT of money per gigabyte of hard drive space (for $100 more, Microsoft could have given us 200 GB or more...)

[Warsaw]

I wouldn't ever dream of playing without force-feedback.

Also, how does one know if his/her XBOX360 has the 65nm or not?

[Con]

rock + ruler :awesome:

so what's all this HDMI jazz? It says on the MS site that the premium comes with an HD AV cable... whats so good about HDMI

[Mr Buckshot]

I wouldn't ever dream of playing without force-feedback.

Also, how does one know if his/her XBOX360 has the 65nm or not?

He/she was brave enough to risk voiding the 3-year warranty, that's all. The 65nm CPU prototype pics were already leaked.

Heh, Warsaw, I guess I'm weird and the odd one out for disliking rumble, but that's just me. Rumble tends to hamper my playing experience.

Conscars, HDMI does a better job at giving the upscaled 1080p res than the component HD cable does. The cable is not necessary to gain hi-def widescreen, but it does make things look a bit better.

[Con]

I was hoping to use it with my computer monitor...too bad it doesn't have HDMI or AV :( Just your typical monitor cable and an RBG in.

[Sec]

As far as ive seen the xbox 360 elite is pretty darn good a friend of mine has got one but from what i've seen most problems with the red rings are actualy just problems with the thermal paste, a friend of mine brought a faulty xbox off ebay changed the thermal paste and it started to work again no troubles.

[Mr Buckshot]

I was hoping to use it with my computer monitor...too bad it doesn't have HDMI or AV :( Just your typical monitor cable and an RBG in.

There is a first-party accessory that lets you connect the 360 to a VGA port, which can go up to 1360x768 (widescreen) or 1280x1024 (fullscreen). And if you get a 360 with a HDMI port, then you can use a HDMI-to-DVI adapter I think (but it won't carry sound).

Sec's right, the RRoDs are caused by overheating of the GPU (which will be changed to 65nm only in 2008). If you know your stuff you can add extra thermal paste or even mod your own liquid cooling system in there (look at Ben Heck's xbox 360 laptop). Or you could place the 360 in the fridge while playing, but then water vapor would condense inside. Although the CPU has already been changed to 65nm, it produces less than a quarter of the heat that the GPU produces, so it won't help much.