Wife wants an Xbox

[TheGreatSatan]

My wife wants an Xbox, she thinks the Kinect will be good exercise for the kids during the winter. I never used an Xbox and know nothing about it. My questions are:

Is the 4GB model enough? We will be buying disks and using the Kinect mostly. I will not game on it, that's why I have a $3K PC. We will absolutely not use it for Netflix or whatever else it does.

Is Xbox live worth the price? Are the games cheaper to download (then I'll have to have the 250GB version) vs buy in a store?

[xr4man]

what hard drive does it use and can you replace it?

an old roommate had a ps3 and we found out it just used a laptop sata hard drive, so we got a cheap 160g drive and replaced it. then the os on the internal rom formatted it and everything. maybe the xbox is similar?


hmm, i wonder if you could just replace the hdd with a ssd and make it quick quick quick?

[Fuganater]

I only buy discs. I like having the media since my internet sucks.

[Stonerboy779]

I have found the 4gb to be fine and just use discs and would say you would more easily find a disc on sale before you find it on sale in the Xbox marketplace.

It is also possible to chip and use your own external harddrive otherwise you'll need official. Not as nice to mod as the orriginal Xbox which was damn friendly with mods.

[AmEv]

If you need extra storage space, the Slim 360 has a laptop SATA connector. Sure, it requires special firmware on the drives, but it's there.

[Luke122]

I have the 4gb model, and it's constantly out of space. Even the free demos on Xbox live are upwards of 700mb, most are over 1gb.

If you get the 4gb model, you can purchase the drive separately later on to upgrade.

I got mine with the Kinect, and the kids love it. My wife and I both use the fitness and dance games too, plus it's soooo much better for FPS games than a Wii.

[Cale_Hagan]

to answer your questions. no, 4 gb will not be enough. you can use a sata caddy with your own hard drive after flashing it with the xbox firmware. another option is get a 16gb or 32gb flash drive and format it. thats what i did for a while. :whistler:

[billygoat333]

Can't you use USB drives with the xbox 360 now for storage? I have an old 20gb 360 and never filled the HDD. get a 16gb USB drive and you will be golden.

[Cale_Hagan]

another option is get a 16gb or 32gb flash drive and format it. thats what i did for a while. :whistler:


Can't you use USB drives with the xbox 360 now for storage? I have an old 20gb 360 and never filled the HDD. get a 16gb USB drive and you will be golden.

yes. like i said, i did that for a while :whistler:

[CrazyTeaPot]

The games are not typically cheaper to download than to buy in store. They're very nearly the same price if there's any difference at all.

Occasionally you can catch a sale and maybe even on a game you want, but that's only if you check the sale section often enough.

Plus, you're paying for the Live subscription fee, which is about $50 a year.

So are you going to save by buying games online? Likely not, in my opinion. Maybe if you were a heavy user, but that doesn't sound like it's going to be the case for you.

Is the 4GB model enough? I'm honestly not sure, so I can't comment on that. But your cheapest option, where buying new is concerned, is to get the 4GB w/Kinect model for $250 and then buy the HDD (for 360 slim model) for about $50, bringing the total to around $300. Whereas if you buy the all-included pack, you'll be paying more around $400. To buy each piece separately you'll pay about $370 total.

You could always buy from Craigslist, of course. Also keep in mind that if you're not going to use the wireless function, you could buy an older 360 model (they don't have wifi built-in) and then buy the kinect equipment for about $100. Altogether, that should run you no more than $250 at most. You'll probably pay around $200 on average, though. Unless you get lucky.

TL;DR - No, Live is not worth the price in your situation. The 4GB will likely be enough for the time being, but you may need to buy an HDD sometime down the road. Take that with a grain of rice, as I've never had less than 160GB on my XBOX's.

[billygoat333]

yes. like i said, i did that for a while :whistler:

Ahh yeah. lol Just reiterating that. :P

[Bopher]

I have the old arcade version and have a 20gb drive on it now. I am looking to upgrade but I do a lot of gaming. I have the kinect, I think if its just that then 4gb will be good. If you're looking to do more, i.e. more gaming, download or rent movies then you'll need a bigger drive but like its been said before, I believe it can support up to a 16gb usb drive. The motion capture is nice on the kinect. I use the excersie game (need to use it more then I do) and my daughter loves the Kinect Adventures game and her Elmo game. I don't feel the $60 a year for live is a big deal. For some stuff you will need it. But most games can be played without being on Live. You just can't send/receive messages I think.

[mittelmeier]

The only way 4gb won't be enough is if you plan on saving the game to the hard drive. I would only recommend that if you have issues with skipping/freezing when people are exercising or dancing. It doesn't sound like it will be used enough that the eye burning out should be an issue.

[TheGreatSatan]

I got the 4GB

[Twigsoffury]

Don't forget modifying your hard drive earns that console a one way ticket to the black list for XboxLive, which means no more online, no more content and no more multiplayer.

well at least it did way back when, not sure if its still that way?

[TheGreatSatan]

from what I've heard so far, XBox live seems to be the biggest waste

[CrazyTeaPot]

It should be free. It's a giant scam that it's not.

[Bopher]

The only thing that it is good for is playing against other people or in the case of workout games to track progress online with some games. I've never checked my wifes account to see what you can do logged into an account that is not gold. The only reason she had one for a year was to play Halo:Reach with me online.