120GB 360 HD explained

A

Aerobahn

Limp Gawd
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Jun 17, 2003
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http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5119&Itemid=2

Good read.

"We know it is expensive and we have definitely heard that feedback but it is a little apples and oranges to compare it to internal PC hard drives because those are off the shelf drives that you have to install yourself. You have to format those and figure out how you are going to move your content over. There is a lot of work there for your average consumer it is not a plug in and play experience for them. "
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“What we have done is release a smaller laptop size drive. If you compare what we are offering with a real plug-and-play drive the closest thing would be to take a 120 gig self-powered external PC drive and in that case we are seeing those retail at anywhere from $160 to $200 for comparable laptop sized external hard drives.
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Here's a similarly sized, external, 120GB HD from Seagate for less than $100:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148176

This article is bullshit.
 
Its no biggy.
Consoles = premium $ for accessories.
$12 for a battery pack, how much are 2 rechargable AA's?
 
I agree that external HDD price is way off and the article is wrong in that area.

The 360 HDD is a SATA drive, not a normal IDE laptop drive like those external drives are. So the cost can be a bit more.


and of course console accessories are going to be a premium, they always have been and always will be. It is how these companies make their money and make up for loses on the console (considering MS and Sony both lose money on every console sold).
 
I see no cost difference between PATA and SATA 2.5" drives. If there is a price difference it is because the retailers make it so. The only pricing differences usually come with a 7200RPM 2.5" drive. Hell, I just bought 40GB 5400RPM 2.5" drives with 16MB cache for $1 more than the 8MB cache version. The price difference is usually in the enclosure, where you typically see SATA external enclosures costing a bit more than their PATA counterparts.
 
True, it is amazing how much SATA 2.5" has come down in the last few months. I was looking in January and SATA 2.5" was way more, I just looked again and it is about the same :)
 
Its the xbox profit model ...overcharge for extra's ...lowbase cost on the systems.
 
It is ridiculous how much extra they charge for a simple 2.5 SATA drive + case. I understand a profit needs to be made, but it seems to be a pretty wide margin.

For what its worth at least Sony did something right for once with their HD upgrade scheme. (Buy notebook drive and just plop it in; No void in warranty).
 
Thats just MS trying to justify sticking it to the consumer. And as far as I'm concerned that IS apples to apples. ITS THE SAME DAMN HARDWARE!!!!!
 
TheToE! said:
Thats just MS trying to justify sticking it to the consumer. And as far as I'm concerned that IS apples to apples. ITS THE SAME DAMN HARDWARE!!!!!
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then don't buy it :rolleyes:

No one says you need it or have to have it. They aren't "stickin" ya

And looking at retail, a lot of harddrives are set at that price point.
 
Netrat33 said:
then don't buy it :rolleyes:

No one says you need it or have to have it. They aren't "stickin" ya

And looking at retail, a lot of harddrives are set at that price point.
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I dont care how they try to explain it. 179$ for the addon is a frickin rip. Its not about just not buying it, but if people really want to enjoy the hi def content and larger games/demos coming to XBL you are somewhat forced to consider shelling out that much for one.
 
4saken said:
I dont care how they try to explain it. 179$ for the addon is a frickin rip. Its not about just not buying it, but if people really want to enjoy the hi def content and larger games/demos coming to XBL you are somewhat forced to consider shelling out that much for one.
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I'll quote this from another thread

KaosDG said:
i've said it a few times already.

If you are SERIOUS about HD video and audio, you AREN'T using an Xbox360 to watch it.
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You've GOT to be kidding that you don't think the 360 HD isn't enough. You are just renting movies off of XBL. Delete when you are done. Larger demos? How big do you expect demos to get? Bigger than DVD?! And more importantly, how long do you plan on keeping a demo?

You don't NEED a 120 gig HD. It's a luxury. You are not forced to anything. And reality not that far off from most brick and mortar priced harddrives for pcs.
 
Netrat33 said:
I'll quote this from another thread



You've GOT to be kidding that you don't think the 360 HD isn't enough. You are just renting movies off of XBL. Delete when you are done. Larger demos? How big do you expect demos to get? Bigger than DVD?! And more importantly, how long do you plan on keeping a demo?

You don't NEED a 120 gig HD. It's a luxury. You are not forced to anything. And reality not that far off from most brick and mortar priced harddrives for pcs.
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I purchase every single xbl arcade game personally. I am down to 6.5gb free at this point, with maybe 1 demo installed, and 1 HD tv ep(south park). Sure that will last me a while now, but its going to run out eventually and faster as these bigger games come out.

Now that the limit on arcade games is lifted, i do see it as a future requirement. Ill be buying the HD, im just stating i think the price point is ridiculous compared to how cheap i put a 120gb 2.5" sata in my PS3.
 
They can make all the excuses they want but at the end of the day it's way overpriced for what you get. They should have taken the Sony route when it came to the HDD.
 
Are you people aware that you can upgrade the drive yourself? If you've got free time to play video games and you *absolutely must* have the 1337est 360 drive on the block, then you've got time for a (much much cheaper) DIY upgrade.

As far as the price go, yeah it's ridiculous, but so is $100 for a wireless adapter. As with that accessory, people will eventually stop bitching and bend over.

I agree with the earlier posts that the 120gb drive is a luxury and "if you don't like it don't buy it," although it is disheartening to see Microsoft charging such ridiculously high prices for almost the same system they were selling before. I sure as hell won't buy it.

I think the main problem here is that people see the lack of value. It's obvious. And yet after bitching about the cost, many of us are going to go out and buy the damn hardware anyway. That's why the cost is so high--MS knows they can get it. And consumers confuse want for need enough to give it to them.

We live in a capitalist system. Nobody is forcing you to buy any consumer goods. Vote with your dollars.
 
4saken said:
I purchase every single xbl arcade game personally. I am down to 6.5gb free at this point, with maybe 1 demo installed, and 1 HD tv ep(south park). Sure that will last me a while now, but its going to run out eventually and faster as these bigger games come out.

Now that the limit on arcade games is lifted, i do see it as a future requirement. Ill be buying the HD, im just stating i think the price point is ridiculous compared to how cheap i put a 120gb 2.5" sata in my PS3.
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But are you playing all your arcade games all the time? No. Delete them when you are done or haven't touched for a long time. They are still linked to your account (like steam) You own them. That's why I'm saying a 120 gig hard drive is only a luxury.
 
I own both and i will probably buy the upgrade...but how can they say "oh you have to worry about this and that" when Sony makes it as easy has popping the cover, undoing 4 screws, slidding in a bigger drive and away you go...:confused:

Oh well...i guess there goes $180!
 
The whole reason it costs so much is the proprietary design of the casing....simple as that. If they had designed the 360 to use off the shelf laptop drives that mounted inside the case then they could probably afford to charge a more reasonable price.
 
Godmachine said:
Its the xbox profit model ...overcharge for extra's ...lowbase cost on the systems.
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"Its the profit model ...overcharge for extra's ...lowbase cost on the systems."

Fixed further.

Profit is money in excess of your costs. Otherwise it's just covering your expenses, basically "just making it", which is something no business would willingly plan their pricing around.

The price is set at the point of maximum gross profit. Cost-based pricing doesn't exist in the real-world. The only time costs drive pricing is when the profit margin is tightly constrained by competition, creating a market price where no single entity can dictate pricing and must instead accept the pricing set by the market collective. In this case everyone prices the same and succeeds based on how far they can push their costs down. But they will still never price at their cost just because they can. Profit-maxing is fundamental to business.

People buy things at the prices that the people are willing to pay. It costs so much more because they're willing to pay so much more. If they don't like it, they can either not buy it or look for an alternative. If the price is so high that gross profit is restrained, then they have a reason to drop the price, but not before.
 
The complete drive assembly, enclosure + drive, cannot cost more than $90 to manufacture.
 
I thought that the 360's HDD had some special circuitry inside of them that allowed hot swapping and a few other features? I do agree that $180 is a little on the high side but I will wait until the whole system drops in price to get one.
 
SATA is hot swappable by spec.

There is certainly a PCB there in order to adapt to the connector on the outside of the enclosure.

I agree that the margins on 360 accessories are absurd. I still use rechargeable AA's in my wireless controller and a long Ethernet cable to my router.

I dare say that MS is now about getting you coming AND going (sort of a subscription model)

I want a PS3 just as a BR player- games are secondary for now. I barely have time (none right now) to play games at all.
 
I'd like to have one, but I'm not paying that price. Right now mine's not that full anyway. I've just started streaming MP3's from my PC (or my MP3' player) so beyond that I only have a few XBL games.
Hopefully the price on this will come down.
 
Wondernerd said:
Exactly. Not everybody hops on to Newegg or ZipZoomFly. I'd venture that 90% of the western world will go to the nearest Big Box retailer and buy whatever matches their computer the closest.
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So just because 90% of people are willing to get ripped off because they don't know where to get it cheaper, that makes it right?
 
its a ripoff, end of story.

people are allowed to be upset if they want something, and its totally overpriced.
It is the same reason people bitch about the PS3 being $600 dollars.

Its not a huge deal though, as accessories are always expensive from first-party. Only problem is, in this case I am not able to go to a much cheaper alternative in a third-party accessory....its either ripoff or nothing.
 
CopyCat said:
its a ripoff, end of story.

people are allowed to be upset if they want something, and its totally overpriced.
It is the same reason people bitch about the PS3 being $600 dollars.

Its not a huge deal though, as accessories are always expensive from first-party. Only problem is, in this case I am not able to go to a much cheaper alternative in a third-party accessory....its either ripoff or nothing.
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Or...Figure out a way to get an empty enclosure, then buy the hard drive yourself.
 
acascianelli said:
So just because 90% of people are willing to get ripped off because they don't know where to get it cheaper, that makes it right?
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It simply means that most people are willing to spend the price if it's within reason and not bargin shop.

That doesn't make it a right or wrong issue :rolleyes:
 
blah blah blah, bitch bitch bitch.

ideally what I'd like to see is a simple firmware update that lets you use any external USB hard drive you want. Go ahead and write a signature to the drive, format it with something nothing else can read, encrypt it--whatever--just let me use my own drive. I don't even care if I can't use said drive on any other device as long as I can use it on 360.
 
acascianelli said:
So just because 90% of people are willing to get ripped off because they don't know where to get it cheaper, that makes it right?
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yes, it's RIGHT. It is up to these individuals to CHOOSE whether to purchase these drives or not. Nobody forces them to buy the drives, they do it VOLUNTARILY. One party offering a product, another partying CHOOSING to buy said product, wherein the transaction is consensual from one end to the other, is *absolutely* morally right in every sense of the word. If you feel it's a ripoff--DON'T BUY IT, that's YOUR choice and it's 100% within YOUR power to make it.
 
If you feel it is a ripoff, don't buy it. I know people seem to think they have no power over corporations and the evil corporations have control over every single aspect of our lives, but the reality is very different.

Consumers have all the power. The consumer control the ebb and flow of products and prices. If you think it is too expensive, don't buy it. The price will drop if enough people don't buy it.
 
Netrat33 said:
so what?
You'll also showing an OEM version (not that I don't doubt you can find them retail cheaper too)

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...ebook+harddrive&type=product&id=1158316214936
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...ebook+harddrive&type=product&id=1165609038463


for example

It's retail pricing.
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BestBuy overcharges a lot for there hard drives
120gig for $120 that's retail and everything.
http://www.compusa.com/products/pro...de=344258&Pn=Momentus_5400_2_120GB_Hard_Drive
 
joemama said:
The whole reason it costs so much is the proprietary design of the casing....simple as that. If they had designed the 360 to use off the shelf laptop drives that mounted inside the case then they could probably afford to charge a more reasonable price.
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LOL!!! HAHA "proprietary design of the casing."

No that PDOTC is designed to keep everyone else from upgrading it at a reasonable price. That PDOTC costs about $2 to manufacture (if that). LOL funniest thing I have ever read!
 
if MS offered their solution, and allowed other to use their own pratical then I think there would be zero issue. But we are only allowed their option as far as I know or an external mod.
 
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