Price Cut coming to 360 again?

[dmendenjr]

Downside is the price of the hard drive... MSRP is like $98 for the 20gb, and over $170 for the 120gb.

Arcade will be a perfect second 360 console for many people too i think.

The price of the HD is what Black Friday is all about.... sure someone like a Best Buy or Circuit City will have one as a door buster special. (got an internal WD 160GB from BB a few years back for about $50 or $60 after the mail-in rebates - $129 up front)

Although, I am still leaning toward just building a new PC gaming rig instead of going 360. More expensive, but would probably get used more...

 

[jwfgeol]

The price of the HD is what Black Friday is all about.... sure someone like a Best Buy or Circuit City will have one as a door buster special. (got an internal WD 160GB from BB a few years back for about $50 or $60 after the mail-in rebates - $129 up front)

Although, I am still leaning toward just building a new PC gaming rig instead of going 360. More expensive, but would probably get used more...

You can't just buy any USB hard drive. It has to be 360 specific.

Amazon.com: Xbox 360 20GB Hard Drive: Video Games

 

[akodoreign]

yes you can...thats whats good about the arcade is if you want to upgrade little by little you can....they have 20 gig, 60 gig, and 120 gig. 20 gigs will go on ebay for about 20-30 when the 60 gig comes out.

I bought an arcade for the soul purpose of backing up my other 2x 360's in case of RRoD.

Just pop the HD of the recently deceased unit on the new one and you are up in running (until your baby comes back from MS that is )

My friend is currently borrowing it. One of his went 2 lights (over heat) and the other one the DVD drive stopped reading.

 

[akodoreign]

You can't just buy any USB hard drive. It has to be 360 specific.


Amazon.com: Xbox 360 20GB Hard Drive: Video Games

Thats pretty high for a 20 gig HD add on. I picked up one locally for $60 (yes the MS one). Amazon FTL on this one.

 

[satjay]

As someone who has not jumped in yet in on purchase of a 360/PS3 How do they graphics measure up. The blue ray is not a big factor. If I did get the arcade version down the road. As far as games, I mainly play EA Sports games.

 

[akodoreign]

As someone who has not jumped in yet in on purchase of a 360/PS3 How do they graphics measure up. The blue ray is not a big factor. If I did get the arcade version down the road. As far as games, I mainly play EA Sports games.

Mostly the same. The cell has more horsepower than the Xenon in the 360, but on the flip The graphics card in the 360 is about 2 generations ahead of the one they put in the PS3.

Now saying that, IGN claims that Bio-shock does look a bit better on the PS3. I though attribute that to having a year + to refine it.

But go look at the demos at the stores and buy what looks best to you.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Would it be worth it to get the Arcade with no hard drive? That means no backward compatibility, right?

True.. but if you never had an Xbox or any games, doesn't really matter.

 

[jwfgeol]

Do you need a hard drive to play the downloadable content from Xbox live? Like the announced GTA IV content?

 

[meStevo]

Do you need a hard drive to play the downloadable content from Xbox live? Like the announced GTA IV content?

In short, no.

You CAN use memory cards, but DLC can get large, while Live Games have file size limits. One of the GRAW packs is like 900mb.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Do you need a hard drive to play the downloadable content from Xbox live? Like the announced GTA IV content?

The Arcade version is basically a starter's pack/poor man's edition of the 360. For someone like my friend, who mainly plays sports games, and will not download demos/XBLA games/XBLM stuff, this is a great option. Also now he'll finally have a DVD player that can play burned DVDs, as opposed to his PS2.

I may have to be a bit of a jerk and just buy him that for his b-day so he can't get out of getting one finally. ;p

 

[IcEWoLF]

Mostly the same. The cell has more horsepower than the Xenon in the 360, but on the flip The graphics card in the 360 is about 2 generations ahead of the one they put in the PS3.

Now saying that, IGN claims that Bio-shock does look a bit better on the PS3. I though attribute that to having a year + to refine it.

But go look at the demos at the stores and buy what looks best to you.

If the graphics card 2 generations older, I wonder why games still look the same, even giving them longer time.
If a graphic card is better, then, there is no way an older card can look better, no matter how much they refine it, its all about how much the graphics card can handle it.

 

[akodoreign]

If the graphics card 2 generations older, I wonder why games still look the same, even giving them longer time.
If a graphic card is better, then, there is no way an older card can look better, no matter how much they refine it, its all about how much the graphics card can handle it.

Wow, and I wasn't dissing on the PS3. But fine.

From anandtech

AnandTech: Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PS3 - A Hardware Discussion

The most likely explanation is attributed to nothing more than clock speed. Remember that the RSX, being built on a 90nm process, is supposed to be running at 550MHz - a 28% increase in core clock speed from the 110nm GeForce 7800 GTX. The clock speed increase alone will account for a good boost in GPU performancewhich would make the RSX “more powerful” than the G70.


You couple that with the SPE's being able to pre-render the graphics before the output and you get the results you are talking about ICE. For the love of god.


And As I said before, go Look feel touch. Whichever you like better buy and play.

 

[IcEWoLF]

Wow, and I wasn't dissing on the PS3. But fine.

From anandtech

AnandTech: Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PS3 - A Hardware Discussion

The most likely explanation is attributed to nothing more than clock speed. Remember that the RSX, being built on a 90nm process, is supposed to be running at 550MHz - a 28% increase in core clock speed from the 110nm GeForce 7800 GTX. The clock speed increase alone will account for a good boost in GPU performancewhich would make the RSX “more powerful” than the G70.


You couple that with the SPE's being able to pre-render the graphics before the output and you get the results you are talking about ICE. For the love of god.


And As I said before, go Look feel touch. Whichever you like better buy and play.

It sounded like you were.
Clock speed can boost the performance, yes, but you will barely ever notice the difference unless you use Futuremark and run some hardcore tests.

 

[yourbeliefs]

It sounded like you were.
Clock speed can boost the performance, yes, but you will barely ever notice the difference unless you use Futuremark and run some hardcore tests.

*SNORE*
It isn't a PS3 vs 360 contest. It is whichever you prefer, or if you are lucky enough to afford both, you get the best of both worlds. I have both systems, and am glad that I do. Just like the PS2 brought me into the world of DVD, the PS3 is bringing me into the world of HD entertainment, and now their exclusive titles are drawing me in, like MGS4 and God of War 3. Still, M$ does have the Gears of War and Halo series, as well as the Achievements system and other nice perks.

In this day and age, the systems are so similar that whichever one you have, you'll probably be satisfied. My friend (who I have reference more times in these posts than Larry King has had wives) is from a low-income family, and the idea that he can get a 360 (arcade) for about the same price that he got a PS2 for a number of years ago is a great thing. M$ is smart to go for that low-income market, and I'm sure that in 18 months when the PS3 gets a major price cut, he'll look into getting that system as well for a next-gen gaming console and HD video player.

 

[meStevo]

Remember guys, the last person who asked this was most amused by the fact that the controllers rumbled.

 

[vinnyv07]

I'm not sure if you guys know this, but the new arcade 360's come with a HDMI output. I bought one as a second machine and I ended up attaching my 20 gig HD to it so I could use the HDMI output my older 360 didn't have.

 

[akodoreign]

It sounded like you were.

No, in fact I had just remarked about my friends 2x 360's failing on him the same day, and having to loan him my spare arcade.

Trust me there is enough venom to go around in this generation.