HCW Tech Blog

Just so you know, black consoles are far better than white, white is for ipod loving douche bags

[...] the venom I spat in the direction of the Elite Edition yesterday, the XBOX 360 is a pretty damn good gaming system. Ask any game developer, and they will [...]

Its great news for us that have waited out the console war. ill pick up one of these elites when i get the chance, since i just have a wii now.

So wait, let me get this straight. The fact that the console is black makes it a less viable purchase?

Many of us happen to LIKE black, dumbass. Silver became the vogue in 2001 because a mess of cheap crappy electronics decided a thin silver paint that wore off and exposed ugly greyish plastic underneath, looked better than black.

Black never goes out of style. There was CLAMOURING to release a black P180 when antec first introduced it. Most high end audio hardware is actually black and uses anodized brushed aluminium fronts. Silver is a popular colour on cheap plastics made in japan by goodmans and sony.

Wow, reading skills for the WIN!

Not once did I say the black colour makes it LESS worthy of purchase. I merely suggested that it doesn’t justify the $100 price premium.

Wow

I own both systems and sony still got microsoft beat You can put a 500gb in your ps3 for the same price of xbox 120gb

Agreed.. elite edition is merely a marketing ploy to get people who’ve been waiting out the console war to finally make the move.

Stick to the core or premium, that $80 hard drive upgrade is hardly worth it. That’s $0.80 / gig.. I just paid $0.23 / gig for a 400 gig SATA. Since you can (and should) stream all your media, might as well put your harddrive money in your home PC where.
Xbox live has, and always will have stringent limitations so that developers can’t eat too much harddrive space with downloable content. It’s basically designed for the ‘default’ 20 gig hard drive so 120 is overkill.

I am disapointed with the elite system. They could have added a built in wireless function to it and had much more intrest in it.

Well i much agree that it is a retard system and some what stupid on M$ part. I was a few months ago about to put a second 360 in my home and heard rumor of this New elite 360, so i waited it out.Not overly a great deal but will still pick one up. As far as the wirless built in well its a tough call but should have been an option. Wired is just better, for connection,speed,hosting, and team match playing.But yes if your 360 is across your home away from the modem then wirless is the way to go.

i dont have a xbox 360 i want to get one so i can eventually buy fable 2
i dont know if i should get the elite or just the basic can someone help me out

I think the Premium system is the best choice overall. Because game developers will NOT be taking into account that a user may have a 120GB hard drive, it will offer no advantage in games. Unless you plan on downloading and storing a lot of content from XBOX Live, there is no reason to have a larger hard drive.

HDMI output may or may not be of use to you, but almost certainly it isn’t worth the $100 extra to have.

Everything else is identical; the Elite offers absolutely no other advantages over the Premium system.

Hope this helps!

HI

Can someone set my mind at ease please. the only reason i have been waiting for the elite system is that it was rumoured to be based on the 65nm process, not the 90nm. with the launch of the xbox360, the were several reports of the ‘0102′ error and the ‘ring of death’ error. when buying the premium system now, still based on the 90nm process, are we as customers still possibly facing a overheating device? the only reason i would buy the xbox is to game, not really interested in the media entertainment aspect at this stage. in short, overheating is my biggest concern. Thanks for any input.

By all indications, the Elite system will use the same 90nm process as the Core and Premiums. Not sure what steps they have taken to get rid of the ‘ring of death’, if any, however.

im still stumped on getting a xbox 360
i want one but i dont know if i should wait becuz im getting feedbak of they are awesome but they are having malfunctions of overheating and not reading discs and stuff
could someone tell me whether i should get one now or wait or something
thx

Sure you hear about XBOX 360s malfunctioning all the time, but it really doesn’t happen that much on the 2nd gen 360’s. only about 100 MAX out of 10′000 or so are DOA and only anbout 50 more MAX(out of 10′000) fail within 1-2 years. Now I have a 52″ HDTV so I’ll be getting th Elite for its HDMI, but yes, premium is probably the best deal.(unless your a modder[me]who would use a bigger HDD)

naa im just a regular not crazy about how well it looks with the tv it already looks awesome
premium would be good to to hit up the online for xbox rite and if i go online with it how does that work do i pay is it free or wut??????????????

I just shake my head at Microsoft now. I realize they were losing lots of money on the original xbox, but I now agree with those that said the 360 was the xbox 1.5 when it was released. The fact that there were so many hardware problems with the original release was disappointing (but MS did an excellent job in keeping this relatively quiet). And now, black, HDMI, and a larger harddrive? This might be Xbox 1.75 rather than any major update and a cheap ploy to get current 360 owners to upgrade for completely cosmetic reasons. I don’t know… I just don’t know. I do really like my 360 Premium edition but I wonder about the long-term future of the console. I would rather spend my money on games (i.e. supporting developers) rather than buying a new console every couple of years or on minor upgrades.

Hey Immortal, here’s my thoughts. If you purchase any xbox 360 system, get an extended warranty and don’t, DON’T move the thing (from vertical to horizontal, etc.) with a disc in the system. I’m on my third system (one core and two premiums) but the last one seems to be working just fine. Get the extended warranty at the retailer so you can just return it there rather than getting a cardboard box from MS and waiting for a return system to be returned to you through the mail system should you have problems with it. As to which 360 system to buy? If you just want to play games and do some minor downloads from xbox live (trailers, demos), then get the Premium edition. The smaller harddrive will be fine for those uses (games saves, some music, some trailers, etc.). If you will want to use the 360 for games, lots of downloading, you could even get a Core system and the new, larger harddrive (separately). If you want to play lots of games, lots of downloads, and use the 360 to play HD movies (and if you have a 1080p TV and an HDMI compatible TV), then get the Elite with the add-on HD-DVD drive because that would make use of the HDMI cable. As to the format war between HD-DVD and Blueray, who knows where this is going? Personally, I think it would be better to wait and purchase a HighDef player (Blueray or HD-DVD) sometime in the future as it will probably be a lot quieter and use less power than the 360. Hope this helps.

ROFL you know, with all the extra components you have to buy you are paying way more money than PS3, GG Bill Gates the xbox 1.5 is even lamer now.

The White Box is Cool but I have to say I like the new look of the Black Box however I’m not sure if I’m going to trade in my 2 month old XBOX (White verison)paying $399 for it and get $250 for it to put towards a $479 XBOX Elite. So, Jake… Go play with your snake because the WHITE XBOX’s are NOT for ipod loving douche bags. I don’t even own a IPOD! I have a sony mp3 player which brings me to this… Up till now I had a PS1 and a PS2 and with my experience the XBOX is so much better not to mention so much easier to get online and stuff, oh and it seems far more people have the system compared to the PS3.

my 360 dint came with a 20 gb Hard Drive am I the only one?

thx dclearwater ill take that into consideration and decide from that on which i should buy
thx again

lol to “Tom”

Dude, Xbox 1.5 (elite or not) has nothing can compare to PS3 - PS3 just beats xbox 1.5 (again w/e elite or not) in everyway. We can ven play PS3 games like dam wii with our six-axis controller, can you do that on xbox 1.5? oh about the online service you say, PS network is complete free with voice chat support, almost all the PS3 games come with multiplayer function now, Resistance: Fall of man, which is the earlist PS3 first person shooting game - support 40 people death match and it’s absolutely free to play on PSN, not mention PS HOME is on beta now (assume you know what PS HOME is ;), do you really think the cheap solution of xbox live (with monthly fee) stands a chance? Wipe your eyes and see how xbox 1.5 become a shame, buddy.

My suggestion: trade in your xbox 1.5 white and get a PS3.

In my opinion the xbox 360 is the current best system to buy, sure the black is a money ploy, but just wait about a year. When the price of a PS3 goes down it will be the best system. Right now Resistance is pretty much the only good game, but in a year the games will have major ownage even over computers. Except mmo’s.

who cares if is not that much better my new 47″ Lcd is not much better than my 30″ but I bought it anyway, for those that bitch about it they cant afford it and for those that dont care or can afford it good luck, I will myself get one of course and love it.

But as of now ya’ll cant say shit cuz the 360 is the rape machine last time i looked at the polls!

I’ve heard already that the Elite unit is a complete crap case as well.

http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/news/inside_the_xbox_360_elite.htm

He identifies the issue nicely.
“A good old dab’l do ya!”

Imukdude…….I love you. Thanks for being on the side of the xbox.

come on. who wouldn’t want it, its “Black”

so wat if itz black n xpensiv ??? microsoft has 2 other systems … if u cant afford the elite, buy a premium or a core !!! if u think dat the premium set is gud enough … then stick with it … why bitch about the elite ??? People who can afford it, who prefers the black colour, who has a gud enough hi-def tv with HDMI, who r gona download lots of contents off xbox live, will buy it … I know I will !!! Nobodyz forcin u 2 buy da elite !!! As for the heating issues and the “ring of death” … wel jus hav to wait n see but im sure microsoft has done something to improve it as I can guess dat they r aware of it. u can see in llamma.com, (where they opened up an elite unit for investigation) that microsoft has made some minor changes to the elite 360 motherboard (even though the 90nm chip remains), maybe to minimize these issues … as i said … wel jus hav 2 wait n see …
p.s. this forum is about comparing the 3 models of xbox 360 and the consumers opinions bout it … so those who are here 2 advertise bout the ps3 … put a (s/c)ock in it !!! xbox fanz r alwayz gona b xbox fanz !!!

I was bummed when the Xbox 360 came out in white. I was like…why can’t it be black? Oh and about you guys comparing it to the PS3…why even go there? Some people like apples and some like oranges! It’s a toss up and depends on what your preference is. Until Xbox, my last console was a Nintendo. Why did I go Xbox? It was because of the games! People are going to buy the console for the games more than anything else. Afterall, I don’t know anyone who actually plays Playstation games anymore. Everyone I know has a Xbox or 360. I waited for the Elite and I have it sitting up in the closet still in the box unopened waiting for one game….Halo 3. Peace.

Touche’, to the one who stated, support the gaming publishers. Since the beginning, games have only been as good as the designer, testers, etc. Gears of War, my fav’ (so far) is a perfect example of the way games can be. Yes, it has its flaws, but what nex-gen game doesn’t. If you have played more than one game, on any console, then you can see the difference between a game that took some time for development, to a game that was made for some quick $$$. Core, premium, or elite. First priority, to anyone who hasn’t, buy an HDTV, and experince how far games have come since the beginning of gaming.

“American bred, and American Fed… I’ll support Microsoft and spend $479 at most compared to the bunk ass price for the PS3″
$700 for a Blu-ray player (No Thanks)

THANK YOU FINALLY SOME PEOPLE SEE WHERE I’M COMING FROM. ALL THESE GAY ASS PEOPLE KEEP COMPARING THE 360 TO THE PS3. YOU CANT FUCKING DO THAT. IT IS LIKE APPLES TO POOP. ALL YA’LL PUNK ASS DILL HOLES NEED TO GET SOME TANG AND SETTLE DOWN WITH A WOMAN OR FOR THE PS3 PEOPLE A MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111

Scott, do you have anything to interject about these tang deprived dill holes?

hd dvd will likely lose the battle????where do you get that information, it appears that neither will win or lose, in fact if there was a winner it would be hddvd because the porn industry which is 60% of dvd sales chose exclusively hddvd

The elite is pretty much exactly what I’ve been looking for. I don’t plan to do any gaming on it, I’ll be using it exclusively as a Windows Media Centre extender, to access TV and content on my Media Centre computer located in my media room in the basement. The Elite will be three floors up in my bedroom. I don’t care about wireless since my home is wired with an ethernet lan. The HDMI is extremely important to me since I have 1080P plasma and LCD displays in my house. I like the HD also because I can store television programs on the HD and take the entire thing with me from my weekday to my weekend residence. I’ll probably buy the HD-DVD player as a cheap way to get into HD video. I was hesitant to buy the 360 until they at least had the HDMI, so I’m ready to jump in, the added features of the Elite are perfect for me.

Before you use the 360 as a media extender, you better do some research. It’s quite limited at what kind of files it can play (in other words - WMV ONLY).

I’ve done extensive research on this already, there are pretty much NO other media extenders that work with MS Windows Media Centre operating system. The DVR in Windows media centre uses the DVR-MS file type. This can only be read by a limited amount of media devices. That’s why I didn’t get the PS3, it had no compatibility with the TV portion of MS Windows Media Centre. The 360 elite will stream live TV from my satellite box in the basement to my 360 elite in any other area of the house, plus provide access to the TV shows I’ve recorded on my computer. There are programs that will convert the MS-DVR file to other file types that can be read by other devices, but I don’t want the added step of converting my DVR files. The conversion process takes a lot of time and I have hundreds of TV programs recorded already.

We get the Elite released in Canada tomorrow, can’t wait.

Yo, i’m a serious gamer so i can see myself getting the elite when i heard about it coming out i have to admit i was psyched but now that i read up on it it’s not really a dissapointment but just brought my psyched down a little bit but i am still going to get it, if you get a 360 you might as well just make it the best one right, plus seein that i’m goin to get a HD TV real soon i guess it would make all the more sense… but with all that space… i just Can’t wait until i can put all my Mixtapes and CDs on that thing… IMAGINE playing Gears of War on High definition with the most hardest Music playing BOI!!!!

Im sick of the people who own just a ps3 bashing xbox360 cuz they bought a expensive system that they cant do shit on unless ur chinese..everyone i know who has both says xbox is better hands down..if we pay 50 bucks 4 a year online what dose that tell you about the online world …it kicks ass so go roll around with ur stupid non rumble fisher price controller…peace out

Yes well, “everybody you know” means you don’t have either. So that means nobody cares what you know.
I have three systems. Not two. I say 360 sucks.

I say 360 is a gratified Low Power PC from the same company that is selling us Vista and the “Games for Windows” movement.

Connectivity is limited, the operating system is restrained, the online activities are convoluted, and all the hardware is proprietary.

Pay for cross platform multiplayer?
I don’t pay for multiplayer. Especially not to wax a bunch of Joy(stick)Boys.

this discussion is about the xbox 360 elite. it is not comparing ps3 and xbox 360, it is comparing the elite to the premium and core. on that note, the elite is pretty bangin from the fact that it is black and has HDMI. if ur gonna pay 400 for a 360 anyway, why not just pay another 80 if you like those features (plus the HDD)

i am a PS3 owner and we just had an update that allows you to connect to the WMC and it works great … the media is still limited … some music filetypes aren’t compatable .. but who cares to me the xbox still hase alot of limitations too ….. i like the fact that i can connect my PSP to my PS3 over the internet (new feature ine the update) and listen to music from my computers when im not home!!! ive dabled into the 360 at the game stores and the few “extras” it comes with are ok, but still dont make up for the overheating problems its haveing and to have to buy the 360E at 479.00 hd-dvd 180.00 and a wireless for 90 looks like im out the same amount of money that i paid for PS3 w/1 game ….. but to alls one own buy what you want its your money not mine so i cant tell you what to get!!!!!!

when the elite is sold out, isn’t MS planning on producing them in white, and selling them as the new ‘premium’ system? I heard it would also be at the same price as the current premium. So, if the black colour is not important to you, then wait until them offer it in white at the premium price.

Okay … where to begin. Well, first of all, color should make no difference in a system. Look I love the black 360 elite, but I’m not going to pretend that it’s worth a dime extra. The real issue is the hard drive. Okay $80 extra, and look a 120GB hard drive, worthy, in my opinion of an extra $80. Oh and an HDMI drive. You’re just all pissed off that you wasted your money on a slightly obsolete console. Climb down off the Cross, use the wood to build a bridge, and get the fuck over it, loser. Btw if you have any inquiries you can contact me at chronomaster027@yahoo.com. But for now let’s just leave it at this … you’re an idiot.

Well, I was interested in buying an Xbox 360 Elite, but after reading some reviews I think I might just go premium, seeing how I came from a PS2 (never owned an Xbox). For those PS3 lovers, I think the PS3 is a brilliant system, although this is a race and in today’s gaming world, multi player is the new thing, and if Xbox offers 100,000 more online players then PS3 we might as well join the crowd, because not many people own PS3 compared to Xbox’s.

do you have to have hd tv to play x box elite

No

I just wanna say that here in Canada, the Premium is $499.99 and the Elite is $549.99, so it’s $50 bucks more not $100 more for the Elite. For 6 times the hard drive space I think that’s worth it.

Like “tdcrooks” noted here in Canada the “Elite” is only $50 more than the “Premium”. For that $50, based on canadian prices you are getting in tangible extras close to $300 worth of products. The 120Gb Hard drive retails for $210(+tax), also HDMI cables seem to start around $70 (all prices were taken from futureshop.ca - probably the largest retailer of electronics in canada). Also a vast majority of the “Elite” consoles have the new heat sink that supposedly helps with some of the heat related issues. (probably crap - but worth mentioning)

So really, for Canadian buyers, IF you have an HDMI enabled TV it makes more sense to pay the extra $50 for the elite over the premium. Even if it’s only for the hard drive….I know alot of people who complain that the 20Gb (13Gb space) HDD is too small, especially with a lot of demo/content downloads now being close to or over 1Gb in size.

i have both 360 and ps3 as of right now i play the 360 more .. way more. because it has way more titles out right now. such as gears of war, unreal tournament 3 is comming out, call of duty 4 modern warfair, devil may cry 4, grand theft auto 4 and gutitar hero 3 both came from sony to 360 and not to mention halo 3 which has over 1 million pre orders and still is about 2 months from release. the online community (movies, tv shows, demos, trailers, ect) destroys the ps3s. many of you guys are speaking without knowing all the facts or are just plain fanboys for the xbox or playstation. what i am getting at is if you want to spend the money for the elite go for it, it is only $80 more. as for the war between 360 and ps3 it is in microsofts hands but the ps3 has a chance to regain the title because they did just come out.it is an ongoing war between all consoles that will never end no matter what is said. if you are smart you will agree if not you are just very narrow minded.

[...] has a sweet bundle deal going on now for the recently-reduced XBOX 360 Elite Edition. Sure, we called the Elite the new Retard Edition, but at this price it’s too good a deal to pass up. Included in the bundle [...]

if u ppl could pick a console (xbox 360 white or xbox 360 elite) which console would u prefer?

I purchased an xbox360 about 10 months ago, I loved that consoled dearly. As of two days ago, the system began to freeze during game-play and finally yesterday it produced the infamous “red ring”. I spoke with Microsoft and I will be sending my 360 in for repair covered by the 3 year expanded warranty. I just bought a ps3 which I’m extremely happy with, however, despite my new system and my altercations with my xbox, my 360 will always be my baby. For those considering to invest in a 360, at this point in time I believe that the elite version would be a more solid investment than the premium, due to the fact that the elite at least for the time being seems to be less vulnerable to the red ring of death than the premium version, I sincerely hope Microsoft gets their act together in tern of product quality, because the 360 is a great system with tremendous potential.

I got my Elite from Dell on their ‘Dell Days of Deals’ it was just $499CDN AND it came with Halo3 (preorder)! :D Plus I went through http://www.airmilesshops.ca and earned 50 AIRMILES on my purchase :)

Its gonna arrive today. Cant wait! Just one question, I have winXP and want to stream all my videos and mp3s through the xbox. Is it doable or do i need windows media center?

hemiboy, there is a way to stream without WMC, however you cannot copy files directly on to the hard drive (you need to put the MP3/vid on to cd).

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/knowledgecenter/howto/mp11/Xbox360toWMP11XP_StepbyStep.aspx

theres a link to microsofts help

hey ty for the info i have been searching every where to find out the differences are so since i dont have any system besideds a ps2 i will just buy an elite thanks
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[...] on a disc. That version is $279.99. Finally, there is the Elite Edition (or as we call it, the New Retard Edition) which is exactly like the Premium, but is black and has a 100GB more hard drive space for an extra [...]

right your all banging on about black is best no white is just by a tin of black paint spray and spray the white black.save money .. the point the guy is trying to make is xbox360 and the xbox elite its the same just different colour. so what the elite as hdmi that’s it … 3 day ago i had my 36o back from Microsoft because the red ring of death and today its going back because the r.r.o.d after 2 hour’s game play…think ill try my luck with a ps3 instead

you lot have nowt to worry about the elite over here(uk) is near double what you pay for it its cheaper to buy premium and on a seperate hard drive as you get four games bundled in to boot,europe excluding rip off britain has lowered the price so here the elite is the same price as the lower end ps3

just for your info and every one else the elite is running at 65nm not 90nm

I have the Elite system and yes it is a load of crap i cant believe i spent that money. I had a generation 1 Xbox 360 which i loved and thought this would be better…. WELL IT ISNT Bill Gates has really wasted my time. I now own a PS3 as well as the elite and there is no competition. I’m sorry to say this as i love X box but i gave in. The X box system is great but stay away from the elite…..

There is virtually no difference between the elite and the first generation, all it does is look slicker, and have a bigger hard drive, all of which are not really necessary. Unless you are storing full-length movies on your 360, why would you need 120 gb of space. I am just gonna stay with my regular xbox.

so do i have to by the extra hd dvd player in order to watch hddvd’s on an 360 console

yup pete, it’s cause microsoft knew all along that hd dvd would probably lose the new “disc battle” they didn’t want to integrate them into all of the systems and have them phase out. pretty clever really. they should’ve made the players cheaper though:(

Everything else in my AV rack is black, so I like the black color of the new Xbox 360 Elite. However, it is still the “Retard Edition” for lack of value added. Major toolage from MS.

To PS3PWNSXBOXN

“lol to “Tom”

Dude, Xbox 1.5 (elite or not) has nothing can compare to PS3 - PS3 just beats xbox 1.5 (again w/e elite or not) in everyway. We can ven play PS3 games like dam wii with our six-axis controller, can you do that on xbox 1.5?”

I’m sure if you ask any Xbox 360 owner, 100% of them would not give a fuck about not having “six-axis” abilities.

“oh about the online service you say, PS network is complete free with voice chat support, almost all the PS3 games come with multiplayer function now, Resistance: Fall of man, which is the earlist PS3 first person shooting game - support 40 people death match and it’s absolutely free to play on PSN, not mention PS HOME is on beta now (assume you know what PS HOME is ;), do you really think the cheap solution of xbox live (with monthly fee) stands a chance?”

I’d rather pay for Xbox Live, which is multitudes better than Playstation Network. More people, better games, better features … it’s just … better.

“Wipe your eyes and see how xbox 1.5 become a shame, buddy.

My suggestion: trade in your xbox 1.5 white and get a PS3.”

My eyes are quite clear and I’ll be keeping my 360, thanks.

Oh by the way, learn to use periods instead of littering commas throughout your giant run-on sentence.