Dear Uncle Tiny: Which Xbox 360 Should I Buy?
Now that we've all spent our hard-earned cash on others, isn't it time to start thinking about how we'll spend our hard-earned cash on ourselves? It does grow on trees, you know!
To that end I had an intelligent series of Xbox 360-buying questions drop into my festive holiday inbox today, which gave me the perfect opportunity to hash out my own feelings about the various 360 bundles and solicit opinions from our delightful readership. Desperately Seeking System asks:
I don't have a tip so much as a request. I'm interesting in purchasing an Xbox 360 soon, and the problem is I haven't shelled out for a console system since the original Playstation. With all the hate I've seen heaped on pretty much every major retailer, I haven't a clue where to go. I'm also unclear on what hardware I need, what's recommended, and what's just useless - I've picked up the general idea from the blogosphere, but I still don't know if (for instance) the 120gig hard drive is overkill or if the 20gig really is useless. So, long story short, had you considered doing a console buyer's guide? There's plenty out there comparing the systems, but once you make the decision of which brand you want, they all seem to leave you in the dark.
On a related note, have you heard any rumors of a post-holiday price drop for the 360? It's probably a stupid question, since you haven't actually blogged said rumors, but I figured since I was writing in anyway ...At any rate, for the record you guys run a fantastic blog; I've been reading you for a good long time now and read all your partner blogs too. Thanks. :)
Why thank you, DSS! You're too kind... The short answer is: buy the $349 system. The long answer is: it depends. Make the jump to see what I recommend and weigh in with advice of your own!
First of all, thanks for your support! I'm glad that you enjoy "The GayGamer Family of Sites" as we've half-jokingly come to call it - that's what we're all about.
A first big console hardware purchase since the PS, eh? That's a big step, but I don't think you'll regret it, and I think I can ease the birth pains for you. There are three basic Xbox 360 systems to choose from - the $279 Arcade, the $349 standard Xbox 360, and the sexy Elite at a steep $449.
If you ask around the GayGamer Castle grounds, even the shirtless mute gardeners will let you know that I am precisely the wrong person to be giving advice about frugality: I'll buy ice for an Eskimo. That said, I don't think the Arcade is a good idea - largely because it only brings a measly 256MB of storage space. Also, while it comes with an HDMI port for fun High-Def viewing, you'll have to buy the HDMI (or component cables, which are also lacking) and network cables separately - along with a headset and the hard drive you'll eventually want for downloading Xbox Live Arcade games. It also comes without solid backward compatibility for original Xbox games, although if this is your first console purchase since the PlayStation I'm betting that issue isn't terribly important.
The Elite system is awesome, but it's also overkill for you. My take on the large hard drive is that it's a great luxury, but unless you plan on taking advantage of the Xbox Live Video Marketplace (or whatever they're calling it now) to download lots of TV episodes and digital movie rentals, 20GB should be more than enough. That's plenty of room for even the most aggressive XBLA game downloader as well as the occasional movie. If you want to store large amounts of music and pictures on your 360 (and if you're uncertain about that, you probably don't), then a larger hard drive might be nice. There's also the possibility that Microsoft will roll out new features or improve their digital download services at some point in the future, but I wouldn't recommend that anyone buy hardware based on that kind of speculative thinking unless they've got plenty of cash to spare.
That leaves us with the standard Xbox 360 system, which in my day used to be called the Premium. For $349 you'll get 20GB of storage, a free network cable and headset, and an AV cable with component connections. That's out of the box internet connectivity and high-def viewage, plus access to the largest collection of Xbox/Xbox 360/XBLA games for your dollar.
Concerning price drops: I wouldn't hold your breath. Maybe there are some post holiday sales or some such, but as far as an official price drop, I wouldn't expect to see another $50 cut anytime soon - especially now that the sub-$300 price point is covered with the Arcade edition.
My advice: go with the standard $349 SKU unless you know for a fact that Xbox Live Arcade games are not your thing and the other reasons for wanting storage space (video, music, pictures) don't suit your fancy, in which case the Arcade edition might be for you. If you're rolling in dough or just plain OCD about having your console be black and pretty (read: me), you could spring for the Elite - but I wouldn't recommend it in this case.
I hope this is helpful, and thanks for giving me a great excuse to cut and paste an email for today's post-holiday advice column: this is a common set of questions and there's no reason not to post an answer - plus, other folks may have their own input that might be helpful.
Have a Merry one,
-tiny
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, Miscellany on 26 December 2007
· Comments (10)
Other stuff like this: arcade, dear uncle tiny, elite, microsoft, xbox 350
Well said tiny!!!
Thats what I tell everyone who comes into my store more or less when buying a 360. We are a fairly enlightened store for the craptacular company we are owned by.
Well said tiny!!!
Thats what I tell everyone who comes into my store more or less when buying a 360. We are a fairly enlightened store for the craptacular company we are owned by.
Thanks Tiny! I'm considering picking one up around the time my tax refund comes around, and this is great advice. I've been pondering the same question, and many of the points you provided haven't been provided on sites. I was asking stuff like this of GameStop employees, but most of them had no clue what the difference between the systems were.
I got the Pro in December, and I couldn't believe it only had a 20 GB hard drive and no wireless. Obviously Microsoft doesn't print "our system is grossly underfeatured compared to the PS3" on the side of the box, so I just assumed it was at least a 40 gig drive. No wireless ethernet, tiny amount of hard drive space, ridiculously expensive non-standard upgrades for both, no surround sound if you're using HDMI, Live Gold and basic accessories can cost hundreds, and it's almost as expensive as a PS3 with only a regular DVD drive. I've never felt so cheated in a console purchase, and I have the original Game Boy Advance.
Anyway, I returned the thing and I'm getting an Elite in January. 120 is overkill, but 20 is nothing. I always download demos I'm interested in, and the Pro I had briefly was completely full in two days.
Why January? 10% off with a Target credit card when you open it or every time you earn 2000 points. (Two points per dollar spent at Target, one point per dollar anywhere else.) It's the only way to buy a game system. Apart from the occasional doorbuster, they're never on sale.
The 360's hdmi doesn't carry the sound? WHAT?
My mom is giving me one for xmas (and she told me to buy it when I get back to college), and I have been thinking about this for a while. Personally, the Pro with 20 gigs seems to work perfectly well for all my friends who have 360's and I was set on getting that.... but the black is so purty.
... and welcome RRoD into your lives. yay!
But isn't there a new Xbox just around the corner, one with improved chipset and motherboard design? I know some people that are waiting for that, so if you didn't buy Xbox yet, it may be worth it to just wait a bit longer. Am I wrong? The new design should help with the RRoD problems.
if I knew I would be returning to Final Fantasy XI this past summer, I would have bought an Elite instead of the, at the time, Pro bundle. I am currently sitting at under 3gb of hard drive space, with only a handful of Arcade titles, and I diligently delete my downloaded demos.
@Scooby
Like with most poorly-programmed electronics, the 360's HDMI out only sends sound in PCM, not Dolby Digital or DTS, so if you're like me and your surround sound receiver isn't from the future, HDMI=stereo.
The PS3 will send any sound over HDMI, but my TV can't forward DTS audio through its optical out, so that gets me nowhere. If the 360 and my HD DVD player had the sense to be more like the PS3, I'd be good to go. HD DVDs and 360 games only use Dolby.
On top of that, optical out isn't built into the 360; it requires the component multi-cable, and the hdmi and multi-out are specifically designed to interfere with each other so you can't plug in both at once. A smaller third-party component cable or a $50 adapter from Microsoft is required to get around that. The 360 means slightly less sticker shock than the PS3, but they rob you blind on proprietary upgrades and subscriptions.
I must have every game system eventually, and while I find the 360's ecosystem and featureset to be a complete ripoff, at least the Elite won't be obsolete to me in under two days, so that's the way I'm going when I grab one next month.