Xbox Newbie - Advice please
Xbox Newbie - Advice please
Author
Discussion

TheCarpetCleaner

Original Poster:

7,294 posts

230 months

Saturday 24th November 2007
quotequote all
Used to be well into my PS2 stuff a few years back, the work took over and lost interest.

Saw a mate playing on an Xbox 360 the other day and it looked rather cool.

Apparently you can get it with or without hard drive, and from what I understand with is a must.

Any pointers on the best bundle and stuff I need to get?


theboyfold

11,464 posts

254 months

Saturday 24th November 2007
quotequote all
The hard drive is useful for the downloads and game saves, it comes with the premium bundle (the black one is the elite, which has an HDMI output)
The premium bundle also comes with wireless controllers, I'm not 100% sure on these as I've got a battery pack now and a wired charging kit.
As for the game bundles, as you are on PH, it'd be rude not to have Forza 2, as it takes anything that GT on the PS2 has done and takes it to another level.

If I was you, get the premium pack, with the hard drive and wireless controllers. A useful upgrade is the play and charge kit, but not essential (It will save you money in the long run on batteries for the controllers)

HTH

mrmr96

13,736 posts

232 months

Saturday 24th November 2007
quotequote all
I'd agree with that.

The "Core" version is cheap and no HDD or HDMI
The "Premium" version is the one to get and has a 20GB drive and HDMI
The "Elite" is an expensive fanboy ripoff (IMO) which has a 120GB drive and HDMI.

NB, don't belive anyone who says that only the Elite has the HDMI, that's not true. Early Premiums came without it, but when mine broke and I exchanged it I recieved a latest gen Premium which includes HDMI.

You should get one with a HDD so you can download demos and minigames etc, plus you don't need to worry about getting a memory card or anything.

Do get a "Play and Charge" kit, as the standard wireless controllers run off a pair of AA's and you'll cream through the batteries!! The P&C kit comes with a battery pack that replaces the AA's and a lead so that you can play wireless and revert to lead when batt's flat. Best bit is that you can keep playing as when connected by lead it charges batteries and lets you keep playing.

Gameswise,
Forza 2 (obvisouly)
PGR4 (getting more popular)
Halo 3 (massive)

HTH

TheCarpetCleaner

Original Poster:

7,294 posts

230 months

Saturday 24th November 2007
quotequote all
K cool, so I will probably get the premium pack as a 20Gb HDD seems ok for something that does not use it directly for data storage - unless anyone comes up with any good suggestions for a 120gb?

Are there any retailers that are better or worse? All of them seem the same price from looking around on t'web (even PC World are competetative yikeshehe )

theboyfold

11,464 posts

254 months

Saturday 24th November 2007
quotequote all
Just shop around and look for the deals that you like in terms of games, Gamestation, Game, Curry's etc, all have deals on at the moment

Driver Rider

607 posts

225 months

Sunday 25th November 2007
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Dont mean to gatecrash here but would'nt it be better to get more memory than you need at this present moment in time rather than just for the moment and then a few months later find that you're looking for memory for all the things you have accumulated and dont want to delete for one reason or another. its just a thought.

Digby

8,345 posts

274 months

Sunday 25th November 2007
quotequote all
Driver Rider said:
Dont mean to gatecrash here but would'nt it be better to get more memory than you need at this present moment in time rather than just for the moment and then a few months later find that you're looking for memory for all the things you have accumulated and dont want to delete for one reason or another. its just a thought.
Depends what you want to do with the machine i guess, if it's just for gaming and demos it will be fine.I have had approx 10 live demos, tons of saved games (including probably 30 or so Forza 2 replays), 20 or so arcade games and quite afew MP3's on my 20 gig 360 drive and it has never been under 5 gig remaining yet.I always delete the demos after a while anyway so i can't see me ever needing a bigger drive.

theboyfold

11,464 posts

254 months

Sunday 25th November 2007
quotequote all
Digby said:
Driver Rider said:
Dont mean to gatecrash here but would'nt it be better to get more memory than you need at this present moment in time rather than just for the moment and then a few months later find that you're looking for memory for all the things you have accumulated and dont want to delete for one reason or another. its just a thought.
Depends what you want to do with the machine i guess, if it's just for gaming and demos it will be fine.I have had approx 10 live demos, tons of saved games (including probably 30 or so Forza 2 replays), 20 or so arcade games and quite afew MP3's on my 20 gig 360 drive and it has never been under 5 gig remaining yet.I always delete the demos after a while anyway so i can't see me ever needing a bigger drive.
I'd agree with that, once I've played a demo and made my mind up about it I tend to delete it. I don't use it for any MP3 storage so I don't see the need for a larger hard drive. There is a case of it if you are going to use it as a media centre

Dogsey

4,301 posts

258 months

Sunday 25th November 2007
quotequote all
TheCarpetCleaner said:
Used to be well into my PS2 stuff a few years back, the work took over and lost interest.

Saw a mate playing on an Xbox 360 the other day and it looked rather cool.

Apparently you can get it with or without hard drive, and from what I understand with is a must.

Any pointers on the best bundle and stuff I need to get?
Do some work instead ya slacker! hehe

TheCarpetCleaner

Original Poster:

7,294 posts

230 months

Sunday 25th November 2007
quotequote all
Dogsey said:
TheCarpetCleaner said:
Used to be well into my PS2 stuff a few years back, the work took over and lost interest.

Saw a mate playing on an Xbox 360 the other day and it looked rather cool.

Apparently you can get it with or without hard drive, and from what I understand with is a must.

Any pointers on the best bundle and stuff I need to get?
Do some work instead ya slacker! hehe
Never!

TorchDCi

25 posts

227 months

Sunday 25th November 2007
quotequote all
mrmr96 said:
I'd agree with that.

The "Core" version is cheap and no HDD or HDMI
The "Premium" version is the one to get and has a 20GB drive and HDMI
The "Elite" is an expensive fanboy ripoff (IMO) which has a 120GB drive and HDMI.

NB, don't belive anyone who says that only the Elite has the HDMI, that's not true. Early Premiums came without it, but when mine broke and I exchanged it I recieved a latest gen Premium which includes HDMI.

You should get one with a HDD so you can download demos and minigames etc, plus you don't need to worry about getting a memory card or anything.

Do get a "Play and Charge" kit, as the standard wireless controllers run off a pair of AA's and you'll cream through the batteries!! The P&C kit comes with a battery pack that replaces the AA's and a lead so that you can play wireless and revert to lead when batt's flat. Best bit is that you can keep playing as when connected by lead it charges batteries and lets you keep playing.

Gameswise,
Forza 2 (obvisouly)
PGR4 (getting more popular)
Halo 3 (massive)

HTH
agreed biggrin altho the core has now been replaced with what they're calling 'arcade' which is essentially the same thing except it now also has HDMi and comes with a 256Mb memory card so in theory u could get onto xbox live but u wouldnt be able to do much so as above the premium which is now called 'pro' would be the bundle to get imho as it has the HD which i would say is essential for gaming full stop whether it be online or offline smile
as above the elite was just a party trick to try and one up sony but it was also to demonstrate that they were willing to keep up with trends hence the bigger HD and also the HDMi port, iirc u only get the hmdi cable with the elite pack?
if u so wish at a later date u could always purchase the 120gb separate altho i doubt very much that you'd need it certainly for gaming, maybe if u decided to partake in the new IPTv (streaming tv) thats supposed to be coming

theboyfold

11,464 posts

254 months

Monday 26th November 2007
quotequote all
TorchDCi said:
as above the elite was just a party trick to try and one up sony but it was also to demonstrate that they were willing to keep up with trends hence the bigger HD and also the HDMi port, iirc u only get the hmdi cable with the elite pack?
if u so wish at a later date u could always purchase the 120gb separate altho i doubt very much that you'd need it certainly for gaming, maybe if u decided to partake in the new IPTv (streaming tv) thats supposed to be coming
I'm not sure you'd need the Elite even when the IPTV function comes along, as by it's very nature, streaming TV doesn't require any storage at the client (xbox user) end, unless it has PVR functionality. I suppose the larger HDD could be useful if they are going to over HD content for download...

Borris-Bear

818 posts

273 months

Monday 26th November 2007
quotequote all
In the US you can download movies and TV programmes in SD or HD from Live marketplace they are planing on doing this here. If you plan on using this it might be worth spending the extra £50 for an Elite rather than spending £150 on a new 120GB HDD in 6 months time?

Bungleaio

6,576 posts

230 months

Monday 26th November 2007
quotequote all
I went for the elite a few months ago, £360 inc forza, halo 3 and an extra controler.

The elite only offers an extra 100gb storage and is a different colour but when I got mine they were supposed to be using different chips than the premium so I thought the elite would be more reliable. So far its only showed the ring of death once, I reset it and all has been well.

My mate was so impressed with the 360 that he bought one a couple of days after me, he hasn't used his ps3 since.

Silverbullet767

11,183 posts

234 months

Monday 26th November 2007
quotequote all
Bungleaio said:
I went for the elite a few months ago, £360 inc forza, halo 3 and an extra controler.

The elite only offers an extra 100gb storage and is a different colour but when I got mine they were supposed to be using different chips than the premium so I thought the elite would be more reliable. So far its only showed the ring of death once, I reset it and all has been well.

My mate was so impressed with the 360 that he bought one a couple of days after me, he hasn't used his ps3 since.
I'm going to make you feel bad.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deal/55912/xbox360-elite...

Xbox elite (black one) Halo 3, Forza 2, Extra Wireless controller for £262.70

Alternatively you could have the white Premium (new HDMI version) console for £214.99 with Crackdown Free + Free Next Day Delivery from here...

http://www.shopto.net/page.php?page=dettagli&c...

Happy shopping. smile


TorchDCi

25 posts

227 months

Monday 26th November 2007
quotequote all
sorry m8 i meant to say if anyone wanted to save the streaming content in HD format smile
very few elites have been seen with the newer chips altho i believer they are starting to surface
damn those prices are starting to make me regret getting my 'arcade' model frown altho i already had the HD from my older 360 which is starting to show signs of giving up