360 Elite Impressions

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renixinq

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 13, 2003
Messages
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To preface, please no flaming. I just want to hear other's impressions with their new toy.

I got him yesterday, CC had 7 there were 5 of us at open. I have to say that the up conversion on dvd's is not bad. I can tell a decent improvement on coloring and a little better blacks. After listening I have to say I think my audio is clearer as well, but that probably has nothing to do with the elite but rather different boxes. My launch box died at the beginning of the month so I was very pleased to just have another box.

The black color is subpar I think. The matte finish isn't as good as the original xbox. The controller looks kind of weird with the gray sticks with the black finish but all superficial.

I'm happy with my purchase. I'll be downloading anything and everything now. How are others liking their elite?
 
I was curious, I read that the elite did not come with a transfer cable, but you could order a free one from microsoft (is there a coupon or something?) Did you create a new gamertag or can you use your old one on the new system. (games save transfer etc)
 
I didn't bother to transfer my data, the only stuff I lost was my saved games and I was not too concerned with those. The data cable can be ordered just by calling MS, i think it's 8004myxbox or something, and ask for the cable. They don't advertise it but if you complain they will give it to you. They will want to verify you bought an elite I'm sure.

The gamertag you can recover on any box, took like 5 minutes to input all my data and then I was up and running again. Another 5 minutes to redo my media center connection and I was off and rocking.
 
It is good. I have waited this long to get the 360 and it does not disappoint.
 
I really like it ... my girlfriend bought it for me from Target, and they only had 2 left when she was there.

I think it's quiet - the finish would fit in well with black devices, but I'm kind of wishing that they had done a glossy finish. I'm thinking about ordering the chrome faceplate for it ... and you are right about the controller, it just looks absolutely funky.

I'm just not going to be fond of burning all these CD's and then ripping them in order to get my music over.
 
BaconGrease said:
I was curious, I read that the elite did not come with a transfer cable, but you could order a free one from microsoft (is there a coupon or something?) Did you create a new gamertag or can you use your old one on the new system. (games save transfer etc)
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Wired has a review of the Elite, and they said it did in fact come with the transfer cable. I thought for sure it didn't come with the cable, but maybe it does, or MS just included it with the review units? Can you guys who have one confirm that it does/does not come with the cable?

Wired review:
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/04/first_look_xbox.html
 
I swore I got a USB cable in there, but I was thinking that was more for hooking into a modem ... I'll check when I get home.
 
I got exactly what IGN reported which is no transfer cable. I have the audio dongle, hdmi cable, component cable, ethernet cable, power cable, power brick, headset, controller, console w/ HDD, nothing usb for transfers. I really wish the finish was a little different but I'll live. My biggest problem so far is the dvd drive is louder then my launch console was, which disappoints.
 
renixinq said:
To preface, please no flaming. I just want to hear other's impressions with their new toy.

I got him yesterday, CC had 7 there were 5 of us at open. I have to say that the up conversion on dvd's is not bad. I can tell a decent improvement on coloring and a little better blacks. After listening I have to say I think my audio is clearer as well, but that probably has nothing to do with the elite but rather different boxes. My launch box died at the beginning of the month so I was very pleased to just have another box.

The black color is subpar I think. The matte finish isn't as good as the original xbox. The controller looks kind of weird with the gray sticks with the black finish but all superficial.

I'm happy with my purchase. I'll be downloading anything and everything now. How are others liking their elite?
Click to expand...

I can give you my impressions if you trade my Xbox360 with your elite :D :D :D
 
I got mine recently from best buy (/w the 2 year replacement warranty, of course.), and as a first time Xbox 360 owner, I have been pretty impressed by all these "next-gen" graphics. I like how it can scale to my wide screen's native resolution, and have no trouble at all to play xbox 360 games.

The elite came with a lot of misc. stuff on the HDD pre-installed, like 3 demo games, and some video-clips. I never owned an xbox before, so I really dunno what to compare. When running Dead Rising the under-carriage of the system was very hot, but not extremey hot. The noise it made when playing the game was very minimal, there was some faint sounds when loading, probably equivalent to to a laptop dvd-rom.

Can't speak on HDMI as this is taken up already by my cable box, but I am using the VGA cable - looks good to me.

There was no transfer cable at all, doesn't really affect me. However, I hear microsoft will be offering free transfer cables for a limited time. Basically, there is a downloadable form to fill out, available on xbox.com. Then, you have to include your elite serial number, and your former xbox serial number and send it in. Eventually in a week you will get a transfer cable. There is probably "creative" ways to get a cable sooner, but not worth mentioning here.

So far I am happy about the Xbox. I was sitting on the fence about wheather to get a ps3 or xbox, but seeing as how most of the titles now a days are cross platform anyway, and Xbox being cheaper than the ps3, I decided to get the xbox.

Since I am not sure if the elite is more reliable with the ver 1.1 board -again- I would probably recommend getting the replacement warranty. For half the price of a microsoft "reconditioned one", you either get a new one or a gift card.
 
If you really need HDMI and the 120gb hard drive, then I say it's worth the price. And it's black...that's cool too. Speaking of cool, I wonder if the Elite runs any cooler.

I think that people that are selling their original XBOX 360 to get an Elite just because it's black are morons. If you are doing that just to get the HD, well you can get the HD separate. Might not be widely available right now..but eventually. If you are getting it just for the HDMI, I hope the cost is worth the video quality difference for you. Chances are you are going to convince yourself that the video quality differences are worth it because you don't want to convince yourself that you're a moron for spending that money on nothing while neglecting your child support and other bills. hehe
 
Ub3rn00b said:
If you really need HDMI and the 120gb hard drive, then I say it's worth the price. And it's black...that's cool too. Speaking of cool, I wonder if the Elite runs any cooler.

I think that people that are selling their original XBOX 360 to get an Elite just because it's black are morons. If you are doing that just to get the HD, well you can get the HD separate. Might not be widely available right now..but eventually. If you are getting it just for the HDMI, I hope the cost is worth the video quality difference for you. Chances are you are going to convince yourself that the video quality differences are worth it because you don't want to convince yourself that you're a moron for spending that money on nothing while neglecting your child support and other bills. hehe
Click to expand...

Core system + 120 GB HDD = $480

Elite = $480 comes with free wireless controller, HDMI, component, composite, headset, etc.

Tell me how exactly the elite is not worth it? Sure, you have to sell your original 360, but if you throw in some games you dont want + an extra white controller which you won't be needing, you wont be losing much....
 
Sinister Crayon said:
Tell me how exactly the elite is not worth it? Sure, you have to sell your original 360, but if you throw in some games you dont want + an extra white controller which you won't be needing, you wont be losing much....
Click to expand...

I don't know about that. It seems likely that used Premium consoles won't fetch what they did before the Elite came out. I'm wondering if selling a Premium for what you can and getting the Elite would add up better than just buying the 120GB HDD for $180.

As much as I like the idea of a larger HDD, until I absolutely need it, I'm not paying $180 for a hard drive add-on that cost them less than $50 to produce. Is there anything special about these hard drives? Honestly, I'm asking, because I don't know. I don't see how production costs could be so much to justify a $180 price tag.
 
JCJones86 said:
I don't know about that. It seems likely that used Premium consoles won't fetch what they did before the Elite came out. I'm wondering if selling a Premium for what you can and getting the Elite would add up better than just buying the 120GB HDD for $180.

As much as I like the idea of a larger HDD, until I absolutely need it, I'm not paying $180 for a hard drive add-on that cost them less than $50 to produce. Is there anything special about these hard drives? Honestly, I'm asking, because I don't know. I don't see how production costs could be so much to justify a $180 price tag.
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They are 2.5 inch drives, not 3.5. Cost a lot more.
 
Still you can buy a 120GB for 75-90, and the volume MS buys means they are cheaper for them (you would be amazed how cheap :D , the $50 price is probably about right ), so after the cheap plastic caddy you are probably paying a ~$80 premium / 100% markup for the drive
 
The hard drive discussion is kind of moot. How much of a markup is the wireless controller? We don't know. Yeah you can buy a 2.5" 120gig drive for less then a hundred but does that drive have a shitty case, does it include the correct software to work with the 360? MS had to invest time in creating the structure on the HDD along with the software much like they have to produce windows, etc. Yeah it's expensive, but 120 for 180 aint as bad as 20 for 100, which should drop to 75 if you ask me, but they dont.
 
renixinq said:
The hard drive discussion is kind of moot. How much of a markup is the wireless controller? We don't know. Yeah you can buy a 2.5" 120gig drive for less then a hundred but does that drive have a shitty case, does it include the correct software to work with the 360? MS had to invest time in creating the structure on the HDD along with the software much like they have to produce windows, etc. Yeah it's expensive, but 120 for 180 aint as bad as 20 for 100, which should drop to 75 if you ask me, but they dont.
Click to expand...

It just irks me that I could have held out a couple months and got six times the storage for only an $80 upgrade. I would have jumped on that. I'm just grumpy, that's all. :mad:
 
JCJones86 said:
It just irks me that I could have held out a couple months and got six times the storage for only an $80 upgrade. I would have jumped on that. I'm just grumpy, that's all. :mad:
Click to expand...

If you really want the 120 gig drive, what you should do is see how much you can sell your 20 gig for, whether it's on eBay, or a used game store, etc. Buy the 120 gig drive, which comes with the transfer cable, and then copy your data from the 20 gig, to the 120. The 20 gig hard drive will then be completely empty, as the transfer doesn't copy, but moves everything instead. You'll have all your data on the 120, and you can sell the 20 and recover some of your losses.

You still wouldn't be making out in the end, but being able to sell the old drive could make things easier... though I still wouldn't do this myself, unless I knew I could get a pretty good chunk of change, on my old drive.

I agree with the other comments though. I think the 20 gig hard drive should be around 50 bucks, sold seperately. The 120 gig drive should be around 120 or 130 dollars. You can get a 2.5 inch laptop drive, with the same capacity, for like 80 to 100 bucks these days... and Microsoft buys this stuff in bulk, so they are getting drives for even less, when they turn around and sell them.
 
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