Time to buy an XBOX360?

[NokkonWud]

I'm considering an Elite for christmas.

Mum asked me last week when I was home what, if anything, I wanted for christmas this year. I didn't really have a clue, but now I'm thinking an xbox would be good. The best deal I've seen so far was @ Game - £199 with MW2 and Forza. These are pretty much the only games I'll need/want so that I can actually play games online against people i know again! the PS3's online side isn't sociable enough for me :(
It's a rather superb deal, it's possible something a little better may come along, but it's gonna be very little, perhaps Modern Warfare 2 and Assassins Creed 2 for the same price, or having that deal for £189.99, but I think those deals are going to be hard to beat.

I also agree with the social side and I'll be very happy if you get one, the amount of times you buy the same games as me only to get them on PS3 is annoying, especially UFC, was really psyched about playing that.

Anybody know if there are better deals to be had? and have the fail rates got better over the past few years? my last one died about 2 years ago and i've not had anything to do with them since.
The failure rates are massively improved and you're certain to get one of the newer chipsets. All reports I've read are a huge difference, I've even read reports stating at around 1% and better than PS3's, but until there is a unanimous answer across the board I couldn't say, but they are definitely better

oh, and can you transfer data from an old HDD to a new one?

I'll still have all my data on my old 20gb disk
You can move it over, however you need to do it straight away because to do so formats the 120gb first, then the 20gb after the copy, so if you save anything to the 120gb first you will lose it.

If you aren't interested in saves, just arcade games, then you can re-download those. As you seem to be wanting to use the same account you will need to buy an Xbox Live subscription which is around £28 via digital delivery.

yup you can all you need is a transfer kit there are a couple kicking around BD :) I think Nokkon has one come to think of it.
I do, I have both Zico's and Daz's from here and another one from a friend on LIVE. My friends on Xbox Live totally kick ass and always seem to help me.


For me I think it's definitely the way to go, especially with some awesome exclusives coming up (Left 4 Dead 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction). As for older games, many people here would be willing to lend you some, I'm sure. I have around 50 and won't be playing those all at the same time :p.

[Joe 90]

ha, thanks :)

i'm not bothered about other games. with the amount of work i've got on i don't have time for anything more than MW2 on my PS3... not played uncharted 2 in weeks.
but as I said - Forza is just that good i need it!

yesterday I was thinking... whats the trade-in value going to be on all my Wii gear;
Wii, remote, nun-chuck, motion plus, Wii Fit, Tiger Woods 10?

I never use it so might just tell mum to go trade it all in at game.

You can move it over, however you need to do it straight away because to do so formats the 120gb first, then the 20gb after the copy, so if you save anything to the 120gb first you will lose it.
hows moving things work? do you need two xboxes connected to each other or something?

[Mark]

No, you need a transfer cable. Put the old drive in as usual, then plug the cable into the new drive and the back of the same Xbox. Shove in the CD and off you go. I think. :)

[Matblack]

I had a 20Gb when I bought the Elite but to be honest there were only a few saves I wanted and those could be transported on a memory card, a lot of stuff on the 20GB was d/le'ed content all of which is logged at Live and can be redownloaded for free :)

MB

[NokkonWud]

i don't have time for anything more than MW2 on my Xbox360...

Fixed

[Joe 90]

aye, after looking at the video about transferring stuff, it just covered what you can transfer online, which seems to be enough. after all lets face it, i've not had an xbox for like 2 years, so all those saves are going to be from games i wont play anymore.

any ideas on the value of my Wii?

[leowyatt]

i'd look on the CEX site

[Daz]

Dont forget to transfer your licenses (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/licensemigration/) before you re-download stuff :)

[Joe 90]

aye cheers daz, the video went through using the transfer feature of the website before you try to sign in to xbox live.

and it looks like i'll get about £140 for my Wii, not too bad i guess :/

[leowyatt]

I'd ebay that Wii fella pretty sure you'd get a good price for that. Infact I'd wait a couple of weeks then flog it they're bound to sell out around Christmas ;)

[Joe 90]

might be a good option. I've never been a fan of selling on ebay, but probably a good shout cose its all in pretty mint condition.

[Joe 90]

so, my Wii is on ebay after game wouldn't take Wii Fit and said £60 was all they'd do on the Wii itself! (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270495890556&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:GB:1123#ht_500wt_996)

but mum said she'll give me the money for an xbox so i can go get it whilst she's at work tomorrow.
That brings about the question, is the Game package @ £199.99 for MW2 and Forza with an Elite the best deal around?
I'd like a bundle of the same price with MW2 and AC2, with Forza separate on the £29 @ game deal this week @ Game. But game wont swap bundled games, despite them not physically being together :/

[Davey_Pitch]

You can get an Elite with 2 selected games for £195 on Amazon currently, AC2 isn't in the list though - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_82960773_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000095443&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=special-offers-2&pf_rd_r=02AETE4PM5SPXGBTDTWR&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=477930173&pf_rd_i=B002YIHJNC

[Joe 90]

aye, not really interested in anything other than MW2, Forza3 and AC2 atm.

[Joe 90]

Right, is there any way of getting digital audio out of these Elites? The lack of an optical port is annoying.
Now that I'm back at uni I want to put my z-5500s to good use!

[leowyatt]

How are you connecting your elite to your display?

[Aboobie]

You should have one of these:

http://budgetgamer.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/sound2-360-optical.jpg

[Mark]

That's what I was thinking, but he may be having the problem that I've got - namely that you can't use that cable and HDMI at the same time. In that case, there are two options:

Buy the official cable (http://www.play.com/Games/Xbox360/4-/12361467/Official-Xbox-360-HDMI-AV-Cable/Product.html)
Break the shell on the supplied cable open.

[leowyatt]

ah yeah good point I didn't make the connection he was using the HDMI lead. I thought he might be connected via VGA. Mark you get optical out on the component and Vga cables but the only other option is a Mark above says, buy the official cable :(

[Mark]

Just to make it clear that I don't know how he's connected things - so covered all options. :)

[Aboobie]

I thought the Elite came with the optical audio dongle connector for when you connect with HDMI.

At least mine did back in the day; are they cutting corners now?

[Wyrdo]

I thought the Elite came with the optical audio dongle connector for when you connect with HDMI.

At least mine did back in the day; are they cutting corners now?

Yes, they don't come with any of that now - all you get is a composite cable.

[Daz]

You can get third party cables with that adapter doobry - I picked one up off deal extreme because it was so cheap, haven't used it yet.

Think this was it:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.30585

[Joe 90]

they certainly are cutting corners.
Its their top HD console and the only cable they provide is a standard scart cable!
I used my old component cable on my brother's console and bought a HDMI cable for mine.

Thanks for that link daz - I'll probably pick one of them up. Although when I put the component cable in Gav's box it did cover the HDMI, so I hope those cables don't do that as well!

[Mark]

The pictures suggest it'll be OK, but pictures don't always tell the whole story.

[Joe 90]

yeah, i might just pick up the official cable - would probably be worth it, only £15.

[Mark]

Comes with an HDMI cable too which can cost that much on their own (if you're not smart about shopping around).

I paid £19 for mine, but that's still better than the £40-odd that used to be charged (and a few sites still try to charge).

[Jhadur]

Daz how have you got yours connected as I noticed over the weekend that the sound was much netter on your set up. :)

[Daz]

Just HDMI, my amp can take 5/6/7.1 over HDMI and the 360 will spit it out, unlike the Sky box :)

[edit]Sorry, not sure if you wanted more detail :o

360 > Onkyo TX-SR606 > QED Micro cable > some Tanoy 5.1 bundle I forget what was (not particularly expensive, budget got a bit thin and I figured I could replace these). Quite pleased with the quality, keep fiddling with the balance though, rear speakers are too close to your head really.

[Jhadur]

Ok cool, I really need to get myself a new amp and speakers. (any suggestions greatly appreciated :))

[Daz]

See edit, realised you may have wanted a bit more detail :o

[Mark]

'Spec me an Amp/speakers' is almost a 'how long is a piece of string' question. ;D

Budget will help, but in the absence of such Denon/Yamaha/Onkyo for reasonably-priced amps and whatever the budget will take for speakers. :)

[petemc]

Hmm. Amazon are doing the Elite + 4 games + extra controller for £199. Thats great but Halo ODST is out of stock and there just isn't four games on their list I want.

[leowyatt]

Ok cool, I really need to get myself a new amp and speakers. (any suggestions greatly appreciated :))

give us a budget and we'll do our best :D

[petemc]

Ok got a new elite coming. Is there any specific cable I need to plug it into a 3 port thing. You know, left audio, right audio and video. Forget what its called.

[leowyatt]

3 port things????? :huh:

[NokkonWud]

Ok got a new elite coming. Is there any specific cable I need to plug it into a 3 port thing. You know, left audio, right audio and video. Forget what its called.

SCART adapter? It comes with one. If you want to go HD you will need to pick up a Component/VGA/HDMI cable now.

What games did you get? Nice to see you're getting another Xbox :).

[petemc]

I've got a vga cable I think from my old one for HD on my monitor. Its been a while since I bought a 360, well since day 1 so I forget what they come with :) Girlfriend's tv has scart but they're in use. Has red, white, yellow thing at the front.

http://www.petecarr.net/t/SCART3Phono.jpg_500%C3%97500_pixels-20091218-170833.jpg

[NokkonWud]

Yeah, you get that cable (+ adapter) with it. Sadly with the Elites these days you don't get either a HDMI or Component cable, which is a shame as only a few months ago you got both!

[Jhadur]

give us a budget and we'll do our best :D

I suppose £500ish maybe a bit more :)

[petemc]

Yeah, you get that cable (+ adapter) with it. Sadly with the Elites these days you don't get either a HDMI or Component cable, which is a shame as only a few months ago you got both!

Ah that is a shame. That'll do for now. Just want to be able to use it on Xmas day :)

[Aboobie]

Have you got a generic HDMI cable kicking about? You can 'borrow' that for a day or two. You don't need the official one.

[petemc]

Not after HD. Want to use it on a CRT.