Xbox Arcade Edition--Hard Drive v. Flash
Well, I got the red ring of death today and also saw the news of the possible new Arcade edition. I have a PRP through Best Buy and can get a replacement, but now I wonder if I should wait and possibly save some $$$ if this new version actually comes true. My question: is there any disadvantage besides storage space between flash and a hard drive? I read somewhere that developers may take advantage of the hard drive for caching, etc. Is that noticeable with just arcade games?
" I have a PRP through Best Buy and can get a replacement, but now I wonder if I should wait and possibly save some $$$ if this new version actually comes true."
Ouch.
While no Best Buy employee will tell you outright and lose thier commission (I don't care what they call it, it is still a commission by definition) it is important to know that the PRP only covers the hardware and not your DLC in any form. Only through M$ will you get points creditted to buy any XBLA games or DLC you have purchased to play offline.
Other than actual storage amounts for the memory cards versus the HDD the huge downside is cost. For $60 you can get a used 20 gig HDD ($100 new) and have every XBLA game, map packs or other DLC and still ahve space left over. A 512 MB memory card is $50. If you are interested in more than one or two XBLA releases then I'd highly suggest looking into a used 20 GB HDD over paying more for the new xbox package.
Oh, and if you feel the need for an extended warranty look into the ones MS offers so that you can get points refunded if something happens to you system in the future. Keep in mind they recently extended the warranties on all 360s, so depending when you got yours the current one may still be covered.
Thanks for the advice. Good points regarding the HDD.
Usually I'd agree about the PRP, but when I bought my 360, I couldn't stand the noise from the drive, and figuring it would die some day, I wanted the option to be more selective in getting a replacement in the event they ever fixed it. Of course, what ended up happening, is that I rarely play a disc game (due to both the noise and the fact my feeble old mind can't handle the complexities of most of the games) and stick with XBLA titles. I ended up getting a new console today via the PRP and just had them swap my hard drive, so I'm back up and running. And yes, the drive is still too noisy.
Joined: 2007-05-27