Black XB360 120 Gig HDD + HDMI = $479
- Thread starter Brimstone
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802.11a is an idiotic inclusion. An insignificant fraction of people own 802.11a capable access points, and the theoretical non-interference benefits are thoroughly outweighed by 802.11a's irritating absorbtion characteristics. I owned 2 802.11a capable hubs and countless cards capable of it, and none of them were able to tolerate me hiding the AP a reasonable distance away in another room or closet. Even *drywall* can suck significant dB out of the signal. So yes, sounds great, until Joe Sixpack goes and buys an 802.11a AP, puts it in his garage or master bedroom, or basement, and then wonders why his new $479 Elite box can't get a signal.
IMHO, unless you have a relatively open house, ranch style, or have the AP near, it is still outperformed by a modern 802.11g router. 802.11a is dead except in the enterprise, while huge floors with cubical walls that don't block signals offer better propagation characteristics.
802.11a only makes sense if the internal hardware secretly has the capability for 5.4Ghz-mode 802.11n future firmware upgrade, like Apple's 'hidden' 802.11n airports, othewise, the 5.4Ghz radio is pointless.
I've been streaming video from a custom build HTPC over 802.11g for years. I rip Tivo and DVD streams to a RAID and stream them. Zero problems.
IMHO, unless you have a relatively open house, ranch style, or have the AP near, it is still outperformed by a modern 802.11g router. 802.11a is dead except in the enterprise, while huge floors with cubical walls that don't block signals offer better propagation characteristics.
802.11a only makes sense if the internal hardware secretly has the capability for 5.4Ghz-mode 802.11n future firmware upgrade, like Apple's 'hidden' 802.11n airports, othewise, the 5.4Ghz radio is pointless.
I've been streaming video from a custom build HTPC over 802.11g for years. I rip Tivo and DVD streams to a RAID and stream them. Zero problems.
Which was the first
The 360 effectively got a price increase with this announcement.
I would have to be a lunatic to get the Premium when for 80 bucks more I could get the Elite with extra 100 Gigs + HDMI (with free cable) + "cool" black colour especially since there is no upgrade path from the premium to the Elite as far as HDMI goes.
It's the exact reason why nobody chose the "Tard" Core Pack over the Premium. It was Hobson's Choice.
MS has effectively "Tarded" the Premium with the ludicrous $180 dollar price of the HDD and no full upgrade path for the lower models.
DuckThor Evil
Legend
That's mostly BS. Premium has the full functionality, Core doesn't. HDMI is the only valid point you make and it's not needed by everybody.
The price increase talk is nonsense though. I quess by that logic Gamecube got a price increase with the release of the Panasonic model or PS2 got price increase with the release of PSX? (Both were Japan only)
Only in online drama world. Realistically the 360 is the same price it always has been, just with more options. Let me guess though, when the HD DVD addon was announced it went up in price too, right?
Then I am a lunatic because if I was going to buy a 360 today it would be a Premium. HDMI is absolutely useless to me at this point and most likely the entire life of the console. And while 100GB more of storage is nice, not for $80! I could easily pick up 2 games for $80 or get Live for a year and the PGR3/Forza pack or another great game in the budget pricing (or used).
People don't buy the Core because a) the Core is there to appeal to the casual gamer at $299 is NOT a casual gamer price and b) no-HDD versus a HDD is a functionality difference, one that also requires a $40 memory card which further dapends the price disparity whereas with the Elite you don't get any more functionality just more options.
That is your opinion. Mine is an even more expensive SKU has limited market and doesn't offer anything substantial to consumers at all. Disk space isn't a major issue on the 360 for most users (data can always be re-retrieved if deleted and very few have complained) and HDMI is such a small segment of users and almost all HDTVs support Component or VGA. The HDMI and 1080p markets are so small it isn't even relevant at this time as MS has already hit all the early adopters.
If they have done anything they added confusion as well as haven't done much to broach the accessiblity issues where Wii is mopping the floor with both MS and Sony.
2 great points that I've been trying to get across.
My worry now is will Sony be less likely to introduce a price-cut because of this? I hope not.
In terms of a console being around for 5-6 years, 360 unquestionably should have included HDMI. However, once MS decided to go with an early launch instead, it should have left it alone. Now its userbase is further segmented--HDD/no HDD and now to a lesser extent, HDMI/no HDMI.
Your scenario about Joe Sixpack setting up his network applies equally well to 802.11g, except replace "no signal" with "everything I watch stutters" or "my connection drops every time the microwave turns on".
Fu3lFr3nzy
Regular
From some of the posts i've read, some people would like to purchase Elite because it has a quieter drive(among other things ofc).
Umm, iirc, didnt the new Core and Premium X360's get the BenQ drive(which is quieter than the original?)
Umm, iirc, didnt the new Core and Premium X360's get the BenQ drive(which is quieter than the original?)
It kind of struck me today, that Microsoft deliberately won't lower price this spring, because they don't want higher demand. It may sound stupid, but 360s have flawed cooling and ventilation system and chips break down from overheating. Incredibly high failure rate (although newer models seem slightly improved) means probably insanely high service costs for Microsoft and lowering price not only would cause direct losses, but also these related to repair service. As we know, 65nm chip production will start in 3rd quarter and these shrunk chips will be much easier to cool and there'll be much lower failure rate. With more reliable and cheaper to make system they''ll have no reason not to make it cheaper for customer (199$ for Core and 19$ for 64MB memory unit would be desirable).
do all new 360s have BenQ drive btw???
@aselto: do we actually know the cause of this ring of death failure???
FWIR these drives were shipping from Jan but there is no way to tell (AFAIK) the manufacture date from looking at the box.
This new SKU will obviously have the new drive in every box so no guessing game
... unless this whole benq drive inclusion was misinterprited and they were actually manufacturing the elite model only, using this new drive.
It's nothing official, but I heard from Microsoft employees overheating is the main cause of failures.
i thought the origin was from hardware design
It's the same thing; the chips overheat due to the heat pumping dynamics of the console. It's not that the components themselves are prone to failure, it's that the components when within the 360 environment are prone to failure.
Fu3lFr3nzy
Regular
Thats just an analyst prediction though 
For a second there, I thought a MS rep said that
For a second there, I thought a MS rep said that
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