XBox 360

[Clippy]

Well, finally bought a gaming setup consisting of:

XBox 360 Professional
Halo 3
Gears of War
Samsung SM2032MW LCD

All for about £400.

Just waiting for my HDMI cable to arrive and I'll be joing the true 21st century gaming experience.

BTW, Gears of War seriously rocks.

[Moscow Mule]

I've got one of the older ones - can't remember what they called it, but it wan't the premium.

Bought it from ebay with 4 controllers, a hard disk (you can buy them seperately - it plugs into the side) and about 10 games for close to what they were retailing for at the time.

I mostly use it for watching films /recorded TV - it's a media centre extender so with a bit of jiggery pokery you can get it to look at your itunes library - and for playing old school games downloaded from xbox live.

Bioshock and Halo 3 look lovely on it.

Yes, it is a bit loud - an increase in volume or a nice set of headphones solve that for me.

[PAH]

I traded my XBox 360 in for a PS3 over the weekend, for the following reasons:

a. don't play many games and got the 360 mainly for the HD-DVD potential, but now Blu-ray has kicked HD-DVDs arse, it makes sense to move over to the PS3.

b. the only game I'm really looking forward to (GTA IV) is out on PS3 as well as the 360, so nothing lost there.

c. the noise of the 360 was ridiculously intrusive and makes it a bit of a joke for watching movies on. The PS3 is much much quieter.

d. the PS3 is currently (afaik) the only blu-ray player that can be updated as the blu-ray standard evolves, and compared to stand-alone players it looks a bit of a bargain if you're into games as well.

So if you get a 360 and decide the PS3 may be a better option, have a look at Cex.co.uk for typical trade-in values! It cost me 100 quid on top of the 360 for the trade in, which is about the same difference as you pay for the two consoles brand new. Comes with 12 months guarantee too. If there isn't a Cex near you, Game/Gamestation will apparently price match their trade in prices.

[Cowboy Bob]

I'm thinking of doing a similar setup myself now.

Any tips on what I need to look for in a suitable LCD display?

Fast refresh rate - the faster the better.

I've got one of these - http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...html?HYD-N19WS

[Clippy]

I've got an original 20Gb model. IMO you need that to be able to playtest the demos as they come up on X-Box Live. You don't need any more than that though as it's pointless bothering with it as a media centre, it's far too loud.

BTW, I have mine connected to a 20" widescreen LCD monitor as I have mine on my desk.

I'm thinking of doing a similar setup myself now.

Any tips on what I need to look for in a suitable LCD display?

[Cowboy Bob]

I've got an original 20Gb model. IMO you need that to be able to playtest the demos as they come up on X-Box Live. You don't need any more than that though as it's pointless bothering with it as a media centre, it's far too loud.

BTW, I have mine connected to a 20" widescreen LCD monitor as I have mine on my desk.

[DiscoStu]

Sensible World Of Soccer too, I've played that more than any proper game I've bought, hours of fun!

[r0bly0ns]

As Mr Robin says, they all are HD, and originally only the Elite had HDMI, but the later model Profesionals also have HDMI now. Beofre that they were just component HD connections.

I've got one with a 20 GB HD (one of the original ones that had the RROD problem, but that's sorted now), which was originally hooked up to a non HD TV.

To be honest, it was the XBOX that prompted me to get a HD telly as some of the games didn't display properly on a non HD TV.


I wouldn't class myself as a serious gamer by any stretch, however I'd still get a hard drive as I have started downloading old school games from XBOX Live. I downloaded the updated Speedball 2 the other day - Brilliant!

[Chugnut]

I've got the Premium (20GB HD and HDMI port). Halo 3 and Bioshock look great on the 40" Sony LCD.

Be aware however, that the racket from the fan & DVD drive is very intrusive. Late night gaming when the rest of the house is asleep means the volume has to creep up more than it should in order to hear it over the fan.

That's the only downside for me.

[DiscoStu]

Buy mine, I'll chuck in a state of the art HD-DVD drive for free

[51st State]

I'm seriously thinking of getting one of these but am a little un-certain on which model to go for.

TBH, I am not an avid gamer and I probably won't use the console after a few months but I do quite enjoy Halo, Gears of War type games.

So with that in mind, I was contemplating the cheapest variant, the Arcade.

However, upon further research, it seems that it is important to have an external hdd to save game data which then pushes you into choosing either the Professional or the Elite.

However, as a less than part-time gamer, think it doesn't make sense to go above an Arcade model.

What do the XBoxers on here think?

I did consider buying one from eBay but as I understand it, if I buy new, they should be the new batch which address the RROD issue.

Also, I don't have a HD display at home, so this is not so important - but am I right in saying only the Professional and Elite support HD, but not upto full 1080p scaling?

I've got the professional, and use it for PGA Tour, Medal of Honour and Gears of war.

I run it via component video rather than HDMI into my Sony Bravia and it's brilliant! Much better than getting a high-spec gaming PC in my opinion.

[MrRobin]

You don't need an HDD to save games, you can save them on a memory card that you connect to the machine, just like the good old days. The HDD would be needed if you download lots of content from Xbox Live like game add-ons etc.

Yes I would buy a new console rather than one from ebay due to the RROD.

IIRC, all Xbox models support HD, but only the Elite one has HDMI connections

HOWEVER. If you like to play first person shooters like Halo etc, just get a decent graphics card for your PC and buy Bioshock, Hellgate & OrangeBox. Much better than playing on a console

[Clippy]

I'm seriously thinking of getting one of these but am a little un-certain on which model to go for.

TBH, I am not an avid gamer and I probably won't use the console after a few months but I do quite enjoy Halo, Gears of War type games.

So with that in mind, I was contemplating the cheapest variant, the Arcade.

However, upon further research, it seems that it is important to have an external hdd to save game data which then pushes you into choosing either the Professional or the Elite.

However, as a less than part-time gamer, think it doesn't make sense to go above an Arcade model.

What do the XBoxers on here think?

I did consider buying one from eBay but as I understand it, if I buy new, they should be the new batch which address the RROD issue.

Also, I don't have a HD display at home, so this is not so important - but am I right in saying only the Professional and Elite support HD, but not upto full 1080p scaling?