Buying an XBox 360 - Advice please.

Go to a big games retailer and ask them if any of their stores have the limited edition Halo 3 themed 360.

They are the same console, come with a headset, controller recharger and have been discontinued so cheaper than the standard one.

You'd be doing well to find one though. I bought our regions last one last week. :D
 
Wibble said:
How about keep saving and get what you really want later?
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Ahh - a voice of reason. The problem with that option though is that *begins to sob* i want it nooooooow.... :)
 
Brad said:
I faced a similar situation recently mate. My decision was to go for the Arcade, and I think I made the right one

The 256MB memory card is absolutely ample for saving games on, I've discovered. Since I only play relatively few games - I've picked up The Godfather and Forza 2 very cheap, will be paying for Pro Evo when it comes out, and bar maybe another sports game I'll probably not buy again until the next Forza or Pro Evo

The hard drive isn't so important for guys like us. Are you arsed about downloading demos and videos to your hard drive at this stage? No, you just want the console to play games

And you can connect to Xbox Live perfectly fine to play your mates too. You don't get the fancy HDMI cables, but you get what makes it work. So as long as you have an internet connection, you're sorted. You need something to save your gamer tag on, but your memory card is fine for that. You'll have to purchase Xbox Live gold membership to play against your mates, but you only get silver for free on all consoles anyway, to my knowledge

My tactic is to make this last me for a couple or so years, and then migrate to a PS3 when I can afford it, which hopefully by that point will be slimline too. If worst comes to the worst, you can always buy a seperate hard drive, and any fancy cables. But if you can get an Arcade for £100 or so, that's my advice

I've noticed these fanboys can get quite sniffy if you're not buying all the top end gear straight away... just ignore them!
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Excellent advice (and what i wanted to hear). Cheers Brad.

What are HDMI cables by the way? :nervous: If it's just to enable playing in HD it's not an issue as i don't have a HD TV :D
 
Cornell said:
Go to a big games retailer and ask them if any of their stores have the limited edition Halo 3 themed 360.

They are the same console, come with a headset, controller recharger and have been discontinued so cheaper than the standard one.

You'd be doing well to find one though. I bought our regions last one last week. :D
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Cool - will give that a go.
 
If the difference in price is minimal I'd go with a standard one rather than the arcade. If money is really that much of an issue by all means go with the cheapest.
 
BezsMaracas said:
If the difference in price is minimal I'd go with a standard one rather than the arcade. If money is really that much of an issue by all means go with the cheapest.
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The difference is around 50quid or so....

Well - that will work out at 45 quid because you dont get a month's free trial of the gold membership with the arcade version. Plus i will need to buy a router as well :(
 
Probably won't be an issue for you to consider but the November update will allow you to install games to the hard disk, if you have one obviously
 
I know it doesn't help but I have been incredibly impressed with my PS3. Not just as a game console but as home media hub.
 
Wibble said:
I know it doesn't help but I have been incredibly impressed with my PS3. Not just as a game console but as home media hub.
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I agree, I still use my Media Center PC instead for everything else except gaming, I want to get rid of it but feel it does a better job. Its quieter then the PS3 as well which is very important too me.
 
Its a 60GB refurb, my first PS3 had loads of problems so had it replaced by Sony, it used to freeze, the fans were extremity loud and the blu-ray drive failed, it had a "silent" 1st level fan though.

The one I have now is a lot better overall, though the 1st level fan is not silent, it sounds like the level 2 fan on my pervious machine. However it never goes above level 2 which i am pretty happy about. It just that my MCE PC is virtually silent so is much more appropriate when watching a film.
 
starman said:
Its a 60GB refurb, my first PS3 had loads of problems so had it replaced by Sony, it used to freeze, the fans were extremity loud and the blu-ray drive failed, it had a "silent" 1st level fan though.

The one I have now is a lot better overall, though the 1st level fan is not silent, it sounds like the level 2 fan on my pervious machine. However it never goes above level 2 which i am pretty happy about. It just that my MCE PC is virtually silent so is much more appropriate when watching a film.
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This is off topic, but the reason is that your MCE PC probably doesn't have an 8 core CPU hammering on at 3.2Ghz next to a GPU at 550Mhz. The 40GB ones are quieter, and next year we should see the introduction of the 45nm Cell + 65nm RSX which should make those models totally silent. It's interesting how some PS3s are reported to be louder than others (same models). With mine you can just hear humming most of the time in a silent room, and nothing at all with even the TV/Hi-fi on a low volume setting. Sometimes it will go off on one if stressed enough however (but a movie would not do that to it).

How does your MCE PC cope with playing a Blu-ray disc at 1080p and 7.1 lossless audio?
 
here:

Weastey, are those Atom laptop efforts(netbooks?) any good? I want a cheapish laptop that'll play DVDs very well. I was thinking about a portable DVD player, but I've been advised to buy a lappy.
 
Spoonatov said:
anything around 10" is fine. But I'd like to hear your opinions.
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Im not an expert myself, but I have an Asus Eee pc 1000 with a 10inch screen and 80GB hdd and I can confirm that its a great piece of kit. Only set me back £350 too.
 
RedKaos said:
Im not an expert myself, but I have an Asus Eee pc 1000 with a 10inch screen and 80GB hdd and I can confirm that its a great piece of kit. Only set me back £350 too.
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WeasteDevil said:
I gather that you are talking about this Intel Atom CPU? Not really read much about it, but having a quick glance, it should be enough to run DVD.
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Or should I get a portable DVD player?
 
Spoonatov said:
Or should I get a portable DVD player?
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Well if its solely for playing DVDs, then yes I would imagine a portable DVD player will be the more economically sound option.

However i'm not familiar with those around 10inches, most P-DVD players tend to fit in the 6 - 8.5 " bracket.
 
WeasteDevil said:
This is off topic, but the reason is that your MCE PC probably doesn't have an 8 core CPU hammering on at 3.2Ghz next to a GPU at 550Mhz. The 40GB ones are quieter, and next year we should see the introduction of the 45nm Cell + 65nm RSX which should make those models totally silent. It's interesting how some PS3s are reported to be louder than others (same models). With mine you can just hear humming most of the time in a silent room, and nothing at all with even the TV/Hi-fi on a low volume setting. Sometimes it will go off on one if stressed enough however (but a movie would not do that to it).

How does your MCE PC cope with playing a Blu-ray disc at 1080p and 7.1 lossless audio?
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It has 6 fans running inside so more then the PS3, there is a CPU, GPU, 2 for the Chassis, HD and PSU fan, but I chose them specifically with quiet operation being the priority. All the fans except the PSU's speed can be adjusted. I have them all running in silent mode.

It runs 1080p fine but I have don't have a 1080p telly so do not need it to operate at that output.
I have not dabble with the audio much so don't if it could cope with lossless audio, plus I only have a 5.1 setup.

But like I said I would like to get rid of it and use solely the PS3 which is far from loud, I can't even heard it when playing a game, it just a little irritating when there is a quiet scene in a film and can hear the high pitched whirling noise.

I guess it's just down to luck really whether you get a quiet one or not, but also I am thinking because its a refurb maybe it may have not been treated well and is full of dust, I obviously can't take it apart and clean it out but the low powered vacuum suggested in the manual to clean the vents doesn't really help.
Compressed air seems another option, but can not see it being effective if you can't open the machine up.

I have also come across this video which shows how to clean the 20/60/80GB model, though I am not keen on turning the thing upside down!:eek::wenger:

 
Spoonatov said:
anything around 10" is fine. But I'd like to hear your opinions.
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Problem is Netbooks do not have DVD drives, you won't find many laptops with a screen of less then 13" that come with a DVD drive and if you do they will be quite expensive.
I would suggest looking at something like PC worlds refurb section and get a 13" laptop, you can probably get something under £250.
 
Thanks for your advice everyone.

Yesterday i took the plunge and bought the arcade model with Fifa.

I was a bit miffed when i got it home and it didn't come with the Ethernet cable (:mad:) so I'll have to wait that bit longer before i can go online but its a good thing really because a 10m cable wouldn't have been long enough for me to wire it all the way up stairs.

Anyway - thanks for the advice all. It was much appreciated and hopefully i'll be able to play some of you 'tards online next week :D
 
cw1984 said:
Thanks for your advice everyone.

Yesterday i took the plunge and bought the arcade model with Fifa.

I was a bit miffed when i got it home and it didn't come with the Ethernet cable (:mad:) so I'll have to wait that bit longer before i can go online but its a good thing really because a 10m cable wouldn't have been long enough for me to wire it all the way up stairs.

Anyway - thanks for the advice all. It was much appreciated and hopefully i'll be able to play some of you 'tards online next week :D
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You do know you have to pay for Live right?
 
RedDevil#26655 said:
You do know you have to pay for Live right?
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You get your first month of Gold subscription free. I'm waiting til Pro Evo comes out before I cash it in

No you don't get an ethernet cable, but wouldn't you have one anyway for your normal internet connection? Or are you wireless or summat. I just plugged the cable to my PC into the Xbox
 
cw1984 said:
Thanks for your advice everyone.

Yesterday i took the plunge and bought the arcade model with Fifa.

I was a bit miffed when i got it home and it didn't come with the Ethernet cable (:mad:) so I'll have to wait that bit longer before i can go online but its a good thing really because a 10m cable wouldn't have been long enough for me to wire it all the way up stairs.

Anyway - thanks for the advice all. It was much appreciated and hopefully i'll be able to play some of you 'tards online next week :D
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:lol: I told you to go for the Standard bundle.

Either way well done and enjoy yourself,

Also when you have the time and money make sure you pick up Mass Effect, BioShock, Gears of War and The Orange Box. :)
 
RedDevil#26655 said:
I know, but thats just a month :D
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But he'd have been able to go online straight away and play his mates, which is what he said!

Explain this to me RD. I looked at the purchase options for Gold membership. The best value is obviously the year membership. You can also do it 3 months at a time, for £15, or £5 a month. So what's the difference between those last two options? Why would you tie yourself to 3 months, when for the same per month price, you can end it at any point on a rolling month to month contract?
 
Just tried to connect if up as i've nothing better too do.

What i did:

Took the usb connection out of my PC that comes from my modem and i plugged that into my XBox.

It didnt work.

Any ideas why?

Is USB not a suitable connection method?
 
Ahh never mind.

Have since found it it won't work this way... :-(
 
Oops sorry, my mistake. From my internet point, I have an ethernet cable with connects to my PC, thus giving me internet. I just take that out, and plug it into the Xbox instead

Is your situation different? You can't do the same?
 
cw1984 said:
Just tried to connect if up as i've nothing better too do.

What i did:

Took the usb connection out of my PC that comes from my modem and i plugged that into my XBox.

It didnt work.

Any ideas why?

Is USB not a suitable connection method?
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So your PC is using a USB DSL modem to dial out to the internet?

If that's the case then you will need to have an ethernet card on your PC & you will need an ethernet crossover cable, you will also need to enable internet connection sharing on your PC.
 
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