XBOX 360 version differences?

Serendipity

Hi,

I was looking at the 360 today and I noticed that it comes in Arcade, Premium, and Elite versions. What are the differences between the three versions, and which one do you guys recommend?

Thanks!

Sherardp

Any of them, the new Arcade version offers HDMI now also. I bought one to have as a backup so I can confirm this. The elite comes in black, the rest is just cables, controllers, etc. The most common thing they share is the RED RING of Death, but I suggest you still get one.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/compare101.htm?WT.svl=nav

lanion

The arcade doesn't come with a hard drive though. You really need one if you plan on downloading anything.

Shizelbs

Get the premium. FWIW, there is a rumored price drop just around the corner.

mutelight

Arcade: No HDD, no component cables, wired controller
Premium: 20GB HDD, component cables, wireless controller
Elits: 120GB HDD, component cables, HDMI cable, wireless controller and it is black

Serendipity

Do you need a hard drive to play games? Meaning is it absolutely necessary or just an add-on? Also, the Arcade comes with a memory card - is that enough for games?

Shizelbs

A hard drive is not totally necessary. You can still play games and save your games to the memory card. However, it will fill up fast if you save many games, or download any arcade games. Also, just a memory card would prevent you from downloading pretty much any expansion pack or other downloadable content for the most part.

Serendipity

Thanks, so you're saying that if one were just to play a few games and not download any online content, the 256MB memory card is enough?

mutelight

appadv wrote: »

Thanks, so you're saying that if one were just to play a few games and not download any online content, the 256MB memory card is enough?

It would be but it also doesn't allow you backwards compatibility with original Xbox games.

The HDD is also worth it because you can download demos for games and try before you buy. Also there are a bunch of great arcade games which can fill up your memory card pretty quick. Also it seems this generation many games are patched with updates so those consume space as well.

Shizelbs

Yes. But, you're going to want that hard drive when you find a game that you simply must have the expansion packs for.

Face

It's a waste without the HDD.

Serendipity

Can't you buy the HDD separately if you need it later and then add it on to your Arcade system?

Serendipity

Shizelbs wrote: »

FWIW, there is a rumored price drop just around the corner.

Do you know if the price drop applies to all three editions or just the Premium?

mutelight

You can but they are ridiculously over-priced if you buy them separately.

$100 for the 20GB and $180 for the 120GB.

Also are you going to be running the system in HD? Because you will have to add onto the Arcade's price for the component cable.

Serendipity

mutelight wrote: »

Also are you going to be running the system in HD?

Yes, with an Epson 1080UB projector. But because I already have a 50' HDMI cable run to the projector through the ceiling, I can plug that directly into the XBOX without the need for a component cable.

Serendipity

Shizelbs wrote: »

Yes. But, you're going to want that hard drive when you find a game that you simply must have the expansion packs for.

Can you give me an example of such a game?

Most of my friends play Guitar Hero so that's probably what it will be used for most of the time. And as a non-gamer (rarely play), I'm mostly interested in "classic" games such as Pac-Man, Tetris, Pong, etc. so I'm not planning on downloading anything that takes up a lot of space anyways.

Shizelbs

Guitar Hero and Rock Band all have songs that you can download and play on the game. While I'm sure you could download some onto the memory card, I doubt its very many.

Even if you don't go with one with a hard drive, you can always buy one later.

Serendipity

Shizelbs wrote: »

Guitar Hero and Rock Band all have songs that you can download and play on the game. While I'm sure you could download some onto the memory card, I doubt its very many.

Even if you don't go with one with a hard drive, you can always buy one later.

Yeah, I was looking through eBay and a used 20gig HD can be picked up for $40, so even if you add that to the Arcade ($279.99) the final cost is $320, less than that of the Premium.

Now do you need to pay to download additional songs or is it included with the game purchase?

BeRad

Most downloadable content for games costs money.

kuntasensei

I say just spring for the Premium. By the time you add the hard drive and a wireless controller to an Arcade, there'd be no point. And trust me - the wireless controller is worth it. The wired one with the Arcade only has one plus, and that's that you can use it on your PC if you want. But let's face it... If you're gaming on a projector like I am (and like you are gonna be), wireless controller = NECESSARY.

As far as whether you need the hard drive, there are a lot of features that are essentially hamstrung without it. Even if you don't think you'll use their movie download service (I never have), the free HD movie trailers, game videos, demos of upcoming games, videos from E3, etc. all require the hard drive. And for the casual gamer, the sheer amount of trial versions of arcade games will fill up memory cards in a snap. Right now, you could get a 360 with a hard drive and there are so many game demos and trial versions that you could just about not even buy a game for months and still have a ton of fun with it. Plus, just the free downloads for Guitar Hero III right now would pretty much fill up a memory card.

Shizel's right though... If money is an issue and you're in no rush, WAIT. There's a rumored price drop to coincide with E3 that will make most of this moot.

zx_toth

Definately AVOID the Arcade version. I own the Elite and am I glad I did. I dont download full games but I do download demos to play, which are free, each on is between 0.5-1.5 gigs, additionally expansion packs for games can be large too .4-1 gig or so. And these expansions eventually become free ... I downloaded 4-5 expansions for GRAW 2 which added up to over 2 gigs as well the Heroic pack for Halo 3 became free a couple of months ago, Im just waiting for the Lengendary pack to become free (maybe in 4 months). Additionally I noticed that some games have mandatory updates, stating 'a new update is required to play this game online', whether it be fixes to bugs or updating information to balance the game play post-release. Considering a premium is 20 gigs with 4-5 gigs already eaten up software I would go the Elite. Consider you download the free herioc pack for Halo, an expansion for Gears of War, a couple of demos that you are playing online with your buddies, a couple of cds worth of songs to play while playing a racing game in-game and you are starting to fill up that hard drive uncomfortably fast.

My buddy who has a premium has 2-3 gigs on his hard drive left and before he downloads much of anything he has to delete stuff to accomodate it, he has indicated to me taht he will be selling his premium and getting an Elite.

My vote an Elite ... keep in mind you will want updates, free expansion packs, song packs for games like Guitar hero, the occassional demo. If you plan on keeping your Xbox for a long time all the expansion packs for lets say 10-20 games will add up and willl eventually fill up a 15 gig hard drive and unlike the PS3 you cant use an external hard drive.

Zsolt

Serendipity

Thanks, I guess I'll wait for the price drop on the Premium and then go with that then.

avelanchefan

I am almost positive that the arcade version does have the HDMI out.

Sherardp

avelanchefan wrote: »

I am almost positive that the arcade version does have the HDMI out.

It does have HDMI out, why wait. Go ahead and pick one up, and grab a copy of Call of Duty 4 while youre at it. We're all on Live waiting for you.

Serendipity

Sherardp wrote: »

It does have HDMI out, why wait. Go ahead and pick one up, and grab a copy of Call of Duty 4 while youre at it. We're all on Live waiting for you.

To be honest with you, I'm quite a non-gamer. Sure I play once in a while, but I don't really play that often. The reason I'm thinking about the 360 is because my friends always bring their systems over to play and it's a huge inconvenience to setup/disconnect especially with a FP setup.

So I'm still on the "contemplating" side...

avelanchefan

Well the other great thing about the 360 is it being a great media server. Especially if you like to watch .avi movies. And it streams music very well. I have never thought the 360 sounded like crap with my mp3's. It does a great job streaming them in 5 channel stereo. I personally use the media server part of it more than the gaming part of it as of late.

kuntasensei

...and if you know where to look, you can get 1080p rips of Blu-Ray movies in WMV-HD format that stream nicely to the 360 across a home network.

Uhm... just saying. Not advocating it.

Serendipity

eh? Blu-Ray on the XBOX 360? How does that work?

mutelight

appadv wrote: »

eh? Blu-Ray on the XBOX 360? How does that work?

People rip Blu-ray movies and then compress them way down to make them about about 10GB a movie in WMV format. They also take the vanilla AC3 stream and include that.

As far as music on the 360 it is alright I suppose. But it does transcode any music you are streaming (at least from the dashboard) to AC3 which is too bad. One of the reason I stream all my media to my PS3.

Serendipity

Cool. I'm waiting for the price drop, do you guys think the Arcade and Elite will be included?

mutelight

They are saying that they are dropping the price of the Premium $50 so it will be $299.

Scan from a K-mart ad.