Just got the full Xbox 360 package and need some help.....

Just one problem at the moment how come it comes with a 20GB hard drive but on my dash board it claims that the hard drive is only 14GB???

It's because a gigabyte isn't 1000 Megabytes, it's 1024, plus the formatting takes some space away.

So 20 Gig is what it's sold as 14 Gig is what it's actual capacity is.

Apparently 4gb is used for game caching and other hard drive-specific operations used by games and 2gb is used to increase system performance and backwards compatibility with original Xbox games (which is why you don't get backwards compatability if you don't have a hard drive).

Thanks good to know......

Thought there might have been a problem with it.....

Its chuffing brilliant by the way....I'm hooked up to X-box live downloading trailers for games, and I've put in a few games to test the backwards compatibility which seems fine ( I need this to play my Xbox games I haven't completed or played as my TV really doesn't like my Xbox, terrible, terrible intereference) ....and I haven't even put in the single 360 game I have yet (Ghost Recon, Advanced Warfighter) and I'm having great fun with it.....and I've noticed Xbox games do look better on the system.....but maybe that just because I don't have any interference!!!!

...only worry I have is the volume of the 12x Speed Disc Drive....apparently people have said it is like a hoover in noise production when in operation.....I'm just hoping that its annoyance has been overstated.....

It is loud but, tbh, once I'm immersed in a game I don't even notice it :shrug:

GR:AW is superb :thumbsup:

What do you think of The backwards compatibilty....I think some games look better on the 360!! Although there are some bugs......

Any other games you can recommend?

Apart from testing Halo on the day I got my 360 I haven't played an original Xbox game since.

If you like FPS's and haven't already played it on pc, Call Of Duty 2 is the dog's bollocks.

Sports games: Fight Night Round 3 and Table Tennis are very good (although my favourite is NHL 2K6, but that's just my ice hockey obsession talking).

Driving: PGR 3 is superb, but so is Burnout Revenge and I'm learning to love MotoGP 06.

If you haven't played it, Tomb Raider Legend is brilliant but very short and easy, a real adventure though. I thought Kameo was great fun, too, providing you like Zelda type games.

And then there's Oblivion. If you like RPGs and providing you're prepared to put in a good few hours w**k to get to the good stuff there's really no better game out there - it's stunning.

Steve has pretty much covered the current state of play there

Any verdict on The Outfit its going cheap on amazon compared to other releases?

I'm getting Call Of Duty 2, PGR3 and Table Tennis

And I'm very tempted at getting Perfect Dark 2......

Dead Rising looks very good, can't wait for that.....

Most of the comments I've seen have slated The Outfit as being crap.

Would explain the price then....I'd rather pay £30-£40 on amazon for a top notch game than £20-£30 for a really crap one.

Not buying any 360 games in the shops....HMV selling them for £49.99!!!! Cheapest place is online! Anyone know anywhere else apart from Amazon where 360 games can be picked up for £25-£40?

Play.com

Perfect Dark Zero looks great but the AI is definitely about 5 years out of date.

Some games can only be played at PAL-60, really whats the point, I have run a PAL-60 game demo (Hitman: Blood Money) and the screen looks less defined, or a lower resolution than that of PAL-50?

Am I correct at saying that PAL-60 means that the games run at a higher frequency i.e. 60 frames a second rather than 50 and that this comprimises on the amount of resolution?

The screen does look different when running at PAL-60.....not sure I like it.....but probably not an issue on LCD HD TV's......

From Wikipedia -

I never noticed any particular difference.

And yes, it's irrelevant ion an HDTV.

Interesting....

I guess it's not that noticeable, and I probably wouldn't have noticed the difference if the 360 automatically switched to PAL-60.

My TV seems to support PAL-60...it comes out in colour and the set was bought this year......but it states in the instructions it is a 50hz set....thats my only problem I had is I'm not sure if my TV was PAL-60 compatible and it does make a very high pitched whine when on PAL-60 and I don't want the TV to explode!!!!

On the games front though what do you think will be the must have 360 title this Christmas and is their any games that you must have coming out this year? IT NEEDS A KILLER APP!!!!

As for the DVD Drive noise, apparently Microsoft have changed the drive in the latest production run from Hitachi to a Samsung drive, you can tell which one you have from the image below.



Apparently according to some sources (Clicky) the Samsung drive runs quieter than the Hitachi, but some sources claim there is no difference, with others claiming some drives are noisier than others due to the manufacturing process!!! Also its made clear that the laser assembly is still the same so performance should not be different.

I think Microsoft made a mistake with the whole Core and Premium bundles.....Hard Drive came standard with Xbox anyway, and releasing a model without one means no caching occurs when playing the game, therefore the drive has to run at 12x speed constantly...to keep the data flow up....this creates alot of heat, so the 360 is more likely to overheat, the drive makes alot of noise when spinning and the overall lifespan of the console is decreased as this puts incredible strain on the drive, which shouldn't have to run at full speed constantly....Whew!

I got my 360 on Friday, and it has the Hitachi drive anyway!!!! D'oh!!! I'd rather have a samsung drive , not just because it *may* run quieter, but because I have had Hitachi products in the past and they have always been cr*p.

Oh well....haven't had any problems yet but I haven't really played on GR: AW yet, I've put it in though and yes the drive is loud, but sorry its not as loud as stated on some websites, I was expecting Dyson whirlwinds when I turned it on but its not as bad people have made it out to be...hopefully Microsoft will indeed see the light and release a patch allowing Xbox 360s with a Hard Drive to cache game data... :shrug: I shudder to think, what later games which will push the 360 to its full capacity will do to the drive noise and lifespan....

And Microsoft an official way to upload you game saves from Xbox to Xbox 360 would be nice as well....Thanks....

I have to say there is alot of scaremongering going on about the Xbox 360....

So has anyone here got or had a 360 replaced that.....

1. Has crashed/frozen once or mutiple times?
2. Overheated?
3. Scratched discs?
4. Just won't turn on?

Alot of it I think is bull, made up by Playstation fanboys......

Only problems I can name are the noise issue, and the fact that Caching should occur when playing a game not just for the reason of noise but it will give more stability to the game being played, the noise is not a problem just turn the volume up, or wear headphones!

And after play the 360 seems quite hot at the back, has anyone else noticed this? Just wondering because if yours doesn't get hot then I'll have to try and get more ventillation for it.....

Very good console, need to get some games though, can't wait for payday this month.....

Call of Duty 2 is £29.99 at Woolworths at the moment but I see that they are releasing A Game Of The Year version, is it worth the extra £10.00?

Re all the scaremongering.

Those with problems are the most likely to be the most vocal - the 99.9% of people with no problems at all stay quiet and just keep on playing :)

Mine died after about 3 months. If I was you I'd get your money back.

Well I've had a few game lock ups, but that's probably bad progamming.

Nothings gone bang... yet :fear:

Do I detect a hint of sarcasm there?

I'll show you my phone bill so you can see all the calls to Microsoft.

OK, sorry, thought you were just telling me what I wanted to hear, or just trying to imitate those who are overacting the problems...

You have it sorted now though? Is the after sales support that bad that you had to call Microsoft numerous times? Was it really that bad that you would suggest to me to return mine to the store?

If anything happens with mine within the year I'm taking it back to the store I bought it from they are legally required to deal with the problem...not going to bother with Microsoft support at all.....

Good luck with that. Most places will refer you back to Microsoft after 28 days, apparently on Microsoft's instructions (or so I was told). Mine was collected on a Thursday and the replacement arrived the following Tuesday, which was impressive in spite of the fact that it took from the previous Sunday to actually get through to someone at MS who knew what they were doing enough to arrange for the collection in the first place <_<

Well I hope I don't have any problems but if I do, I will be defending my corner in the shop, legally it must be dealt with by the shop you bought it from you shouldn't as a customer even have to deal with the manufacturer, within a year of purchase. Trust me I w.ork in a retail outlet and have to deal with mad customers returning items, and it would be a real pleasure for me to be able to dish out some of the pain I endure in other shops.

Am I right you bought on launch, if thats the case it may just be the case of what I've heard that some of the launch machines had problems and by now these should have been ironed out, yours works perfectly fine now though?

Top Spin 2?????

Anyone played this....It's got good reviews and I liked the first one but I read on Amazon, that when you change sides of the court (in normal 1 player mode), you have to play from the top i.e. the camera is facing you from the a.i.'s perspective rather from your own. Is this right? the first Top Spin game didn't do this, so I find it hard to believe that it does it on this one, I think the person on Amazon must have been mistaken....

Plus only runs at 60 hz, which I have mentioned before looks a bit strange on my TV <_< ....must save up for that LCD HD TV!!!

/bbc.co.uk

Got my first crash today during Halo 2 online!!! , although I can't tell whether its the actual 360 or the power supply to our home, everything today has been switching off.

My PC just turned itself off after being on for 5 minutes, so it can't be overheating as it didn't feel hot at all. So it must be the power supply being inconsistent and dipping enough to turn off equipment.

However I don't know if thats it though, because if that was the case the 360 would have just turned off but I got the dreaded 3 red ring of lights. The console was hot but just the same as usual, so I turned it back on and it seemed fine on the dashboard, haven't tried a game yet though since, I'm gonna let it cool.

I really do hope this isn't anything serious...I haven't even played a 360 game on it yet!!!

(Steve please tell me you didn't buy yours in Argos, as I'm hoping their return policy is better than the place you bought from :unsure: ).

Two freezes and a 3rd red ring of light crash happened today. I really hope this isn't a downward spiral to the death of my 360.

(plus I lost alot of my bankroll in texas Hold'em).......