Save some cash, use your own 120GB HDD

i would deff be looking into this is i wasn't purchasing an elite... but i'll probably end up doing it for friends who stick with their premiums.

Up for the challenge, i bought this hard drive the day after MS broke news on the elite.

As much as I'd like to save some dough, I dont think I'd do this thanks to the possibility of them stopping my xbox live access because of it.

I won't be doing either hacking or buying. I dont see the point. 20GB(13.8actual) should be plenty of space. I have my Computer to use for downloaded movies and music.

Okay, most people are bitching about Microsoft making all this money on the new HHD. As a manufactures rep (not Microsoft) I just would like to break this down for everybody, not everybody is going to like this but it’s the real world. I am not trying to bitch at anyone here, I just want people to sit down and look at the big picture.

Cost of the hard drive in the unit was found to be around $80. (Most likely cheaper because of MS buying a bunch) So lets go with $60 for just the HD alone. Let’s add $10 for the case and cost of construction so we are up to $70. The cost of the software (so the downloaded movies/tv shows are protected from being copied) $20 along with the cable to be included to transfer your info.

Up to $90. COST for the stores to buy this most likely around $120. This is the price that Best Buy and Gamestop will buy this at.

Most likely since this is from Microsoft, it has a MAP, (Minimum Advertised Price) this is a price set by Microsoft so people dont get into a price war over items. If someone breaks map they will be shut off from shipments. Also to assure people that margin will be made from this. Retailers DEMAND high margins.

This is an accessory, SO retailers usually demand even higher on these. So at $120 dollars, that leaves the rest as profit for THE RETAILS not Microsoft. The margins on a controller/batter pack are probably at 30-50 points.

This is no different from DVD’s CD’s sold in the same place, which are usually 40-50% margin for retailers.

So in short Microsoft is making their money yes, but also realize that the retailers are too.

Well just remember, that even if you have the right "file" to unlock the 120GB capacity, you'll never get on XBOX live with it, once its found by MS to be a duplicate.

RE: #2 Thats what drives (no pun) me crazy! Why can't I open my own HD, that I paid for, and do whatever I wan't to it? It's not a rental, it's my property and I have every right to upgrade my 360's HD. It shouldn't be considered as a terms of service violation. Every computer on the market can change/upgrade HDs. I understand it's not in M$ best intrest to allow this, but the 120GB they offer is not the going rate of similar products. Hey M$, let people upgrade if they want, then do a software update adding all that crap you want on the drive so you can sleep easy at night.

Benjamin09,

While I have no doubt that the retailer would enjoy the 33% gross profit I would think Microsoft would be enjoying a slightly better taste then the 25% your model suggests.

Also keep in mind that if the $80 drive is $80 retail priced you have to imagine that the cost for Microsoft to purchase them in bulk would still be below the $60 you suggested. Your model works but I would imagine they purchase the drives below a $60 price point which would deliver a GP of closer to 30-35%.

sounds iffy. you might lose your account. you need that cord too. i don't think they ship that separate.

and thanks benjaman09 for clearing that up. i had a feeling MS wasn't being sleazy afterall. retailers have kids to feed too!

Ok so where is everyone getting their "You cant login to Live" or "MS will ban you" stuff.

also if you want to copy over your data u can do so using Xplorer 360.

I left this on joystiq's comments as well...

WARNING! to anyone thinking about attempting this modification.

Installing your own harddrive and doing this hack could get you banned from Xbox Live.

First you need to buy a very specific Western Digital harddrive.

Second, it requires to install a unique number string to the harddrive. The only way to obtain this is from a retail 120 gig harddrive or find one online through various sources...however if people are sharing their unique number, it would be very simple for Microsoft to ban these accounts.

This is not like DVD firmware hack at all.

I've got a wired connection, and record my television on my Media Center desktop, so after the Spring update, I'll be able to watch my recorded TV via the Xbox 360. IOW I don't see need the bigger HDD because I just stream everything from my much-bigger HDD on my desktop anyway. And I'm sure A LOT of us readers fall into this category.

That's what I like about the way Microsoft has been handling the Xbox 360, though. There are many ways to do the same thing, so one is sure to suit you. I would say the bigger HDD is pretty much targeted at those who have been using the Marketplace for TV downloads more than anyone else...

@Benjamin09,

I agree with most of what you're saying, except the dvd/cd thing. I worked at best buy for a few months, their employee discount is 5% over company cost. Dvds/ipods/cds/computers were like the main things the discount sucked on. I scanned a few dvds to see how much I'd pay one night, they were all like 18 dollars instead of 19.99.

Well I may have been off on the price but I wanted to show more of the picture then everybody was complaining about.

i thought there was a way to transfer saved content to a pc HDD anyway? because if there is theres little point in the bigger hard drive unless you have a bundle of cash to burn, but if u REALLY have to save something and need the space just put it onto your PC HDD. it would be nice if they just allowed USB hdd that would just solve every problem.

Scott you are correct about CD/DVD pricing. These are low margin items. That is why Best Buy sells cables at very high prices...to offset low margins.

The same rule applies to most of the computers they sell. They have to have a low margin to make the sale. This is what makes volume of sales important.

Appliances have some really nice margin as well.

I was planning on doing this all along.

neeeerrddd: Where are you getting your info? Lets say I goto Best Buy and purchase the HDD add-on, take it home and plug it into my PC and strip the signature file off it. It would have never touched my 360 and therefore not have any identification that it belongs to my machine. I don't think every HDD has it's own special signature at leat that's not the way it was with the 20gig.

I gathered this from the forums on xbox-scene.com

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=599533

I could be mistaken since I am definately not an expert on the subject but I would still be cautious.

I'd do this, if it weren't for the fact that I am buying a black 360 once they get the 65nm processor.

Good find, though!

"I've read some concerns about the risk of a LIVE ban. I'd like to elaborate a bit on this. First of all, no one has been banned from LIVE for using a cloned HDD yet. However, there are tons of ways for MS to detect you're running a WD BEVS drive. For example, there are low level hardware commands that can be used, they could check for read/write timing like someone noted, the contents of the HDD is different and then of course there's the same hddss.bin info that's used on multiple HDD's. So, yes, if they WANT to ban you for using a WD BEVS drive, they surely CAN.

Question then is of course, are they going to do that ? Are they going to refuse customers from their LIVE network who bought a HDD from a competitor instead of paying that $120 extra ? I'm not a laywer, but I seriously think that would be considered as an attempt to frustrate a free and open market and that would be illegal in a lot of countries. Also about the copyright logo in the hddss.bin file: as stated on free60, US courts have held in at least four separate cases that copyright cannot be used to prevent interoperation. And even if it would be legal, I still doubt MS would do that."

Hey thanks Joshua (#3). That was very insightful. So how's it going working at Microsoft? Tricky, tricky.