360 Questions

[Dorza]

First and foremost is £300 for the following package a good deal @ play? Its currently sold out but I hope they still have it going at £300 when it comes back in stock.

* Gears of War Game
* Project Gotham Racing 3 game
* XBox 360 Live Arcade game
* 20GB Hard Drive
* 2 Wireless Controllers
* Headset - Voice Communicator
* Component HD AV Cable (with SCART adaptor)
* XBox 360 Console

I've done some research into the 360 bundles available and knowing what I know I think its a good deal I just wanted a second opinion on the matter.

Secondly: How hot does the 360 get? Is it something to be concerned about; Is there a need for those external cooler things you can buy for them?

Thirdly: How noisy is it? Is it like the average PC or noisier? Is it noticable in game?

Lastly: I know MS have denied a planned version 2 of the 360, but judging by the types of upgrades the "prototype" has I think it’s a safe bet that it will get released. I wouldn’t be suppressed if they put an inbuilt HD-DVD drive in it either. Basically is it worth the wait to see what happens with it seeing as I’m only interested in the HDMI port at this stage. Since nothing has been said to my knowledge about an internal HD-DVD drive I can’t speculate about it so that’s not a concern.

The 120Gig hard drive I'm assuming would be detachable thus purchasable and the new CPU core shrinkage would just be an added enhancement it’s not something I can make tangible use of. So that as I have indicated just leaves the HDMI port. The only reason I am interested in the HDMI port is because of HDCP.

I haven’t read up on it in depth but I’m guessing the HD AV cable doesn’t carry HDCP content so it’s safe to assume that XBOX live doesn’t support it either. If MS release a 360 with a HDMI port I’m a little concerned that they will start throwing HDCP stuff over XBLive content and I won’t have access to it. I know this would be a disaster for MS with all their 10million customers who currently don’t have a HDMI port but it is a possibility none the less.

The crux of it is like I said above, is it worth the wait or should I just take the plunge and not worry about it?

Thanks guys/girls


EDIT: Forgot to ask: How long do the batteries in the wireless controllers last? Are they rechargeable or do they need to be replaced all the time?

[Russ]

1. good deal
2. hot - but is ok in most rooms
3. loud unfortunatly, its fine when playing off the hdd, dvd drive is loud though.
4. ...sausages

[theuncharmed]

Rumours suggest XBox 360 version 2 will be released late this year. It will not have a HD drive in it. MS have said a very big no to that one.

I've read about the external coolers actually heating the 360 up more than if they weren't there ! I have mine in the corner of a room by a speaker system, 3 external PSUs and my PC. runs fine all the time.

£300 is a good deal. I had to buy everything separate as I was given a core for crimbo :s

[Clunk]

The deal looks good mate, gamestation do some good deals as well.

It is noisy, silly noisy in fact! Much noisier than a pc, but, once you have a game on, its drowned out.

If you have an HD telly with vga input, get the vga cable, itll give you a nice 1360x768 resolution, which looks great with movies as well.

If you plan on using the 360 as a dvd player, get a media remote, a tenner from tescos

Batteries in the controller lasted me about 10 days. I picked up a quick charge unit with 1 battery for a tenner as well, I think that was amazon.

[Speedo]

Looks a fair deal, not amazing, but fair.

360 doesn't get that hot, PSU does get quite warm though (it's huge). It's damn noisy, completely wipes out any of the PCs I have running, it's not that noticable unless you're playing a quiet game though (but for movies it's VERY annoying).

Component can't carry a HDCP signal, but I doubt it's going to get enforced anyway. If it ever is, reasonably priced HDMI HD-DVD/Blu-Ray players will probably be around anyway.

The controllers eat batteries, get some rechargables or keep a good stock. I wish it had the 2000hr battery life of the Surfwave .

[Dorza]

Rumours suggest XBox 360 version 2 will be released late this year. It will not have a HD drive in it.

Ok, I'm not waiting that long If it was 4/5 months I might have.

The deal looks good mate, gamestation do some good deals as well.


If you have an HD telly with vga input, get the vga cable, itll give you a nice 1360x768 resolution, which looks great with movies as well.

Yeah they do have good deals to be fair to them, but off the top of my head and from what I remember I don't think they can match the deal that play have going there.

Im a little confused with the cabling thing. I thought VGA wasn't HD-ready as they say. So if i connect via VGA will the HD stuff still look as good as HD should and is it better than the AV cable supplied? I'm not much of an AV kind of person as you might guess after reading this so could someone explain this please?

Looks a fair deal, not amazing, but fair.

Since im quite a tight b espcially if theres a chance of getting somthing cheaper can you suggest somthing better


Thanks for all the other info so far.

[directhex]

1) it's a good deal. i paid £40 more for 2 games on top of your listed bundle

2) hot, but the external coolers actually cause the power supply to burn out due to too much current drain, so i'd suggest simply not encasing the thing in an airtight container

3) noisy in console terms, but quieter than a typical "quiet" pc

4) i think it's an appropriate time to buy a 360. a changed spec of some kind is inevitable, but i don't think fluffy notions of the future should influence you

[Veles]

I've read about the external coolers actually heating the 360 up more than if they weren't there !

Only if they're turned off but still attached, since they'll limit the air flow out of the case, when it's on the 360 is a hell of a lot cooler, but they make loads of noise.

As others said, it runs hot, and it's pretty loud, the die shrink will help the heat a bit though.

TBH I really doubt they'll be releasing an HDCP requiring content over XBL. Also, if your that fussed about HDMI then you shouldn't really be using a 360 to play HD-DVDs anyway, I can't speak for the HD-DVD playback, but normal DVD playback is pretty poor compared to a decent DVD player.

You can buy rechargeable packs for the controllers, those last about 30 hours I think between charges (you'll need to either buy a play and charge kit (a usb lead that attaches the the controller so you can charge as you play) or a quick charge kit (a little dock where you can plug in 2 battery packs at a time for charging, but you'll need a backup battery for this).

The 120Gb HDD is, I'm assuming, exactly the same as the 20Gb one, only 100Gb larger, so you just snap off the old one and replace it with the new, larger one. I myself will probably be skipping this one, I don't have all that much on there, and saying the 20Gb one is £70 ATM, I hate to think how much the 120Gb one will be :S

[Clunk]

If your telly has a vga input and component input, try both. Mine came with the cmponent lead and I bought the vga cable to see what dvd looked like, and it looks great. On my telly, the vga did look washed out in comparison to the component, but was easily sorted with a few tweaks of the colour on the tv and I think there was an update after I connected the vga cable as well.

Things in general look sharper.

[Speedo]

Since im quite a tight b espcially if theres a chance of getting somthing cheaper can you suggest somthing better

It'll take a little more effort, but this is a fantastic deal .

[Dorza]

It'll take a little more effort, but this is a fantastic deal .

yes that was a very good deal. I missed it by a couple of days though . Could have added Gears Of War - LE to that price and still saved £24ish over the play price. Think I'll be going for that when it's back in stock .

Thanks everyone for your input on this.

PS. When I was browsing that site i came across "http://find-games.co.uk/index.htm". Theres some big savings to be had on these games if you know where to buy i must say.

[Dooms]

www.play-asia.com

is the cheapest place to get the few games that are region free (about £21 a game with free del)

[YorkieBen]

I find the 360 plays DVDs very nicely on my 20" tft monitor, probably because it upscales the image to 720p

[Dooms]

Its one of the reason's im tempted to buy a VGA cable instead of using component when I move my 360 onto my Dell 2407WFP

[Speedo]

yes that was a very good deal. I missed it by a couple of days though . Could have added Gears Of War - LE to that price and still saved £24ish over the play price. Think I'll be going for that when it's back in stock .

Ah yes, missed that it was finished now .

[Dorza]

Ah yes, missed that it was finished now .

Still thanks for posting it .