Rumor: Xbox Elite being phased out, assuming 'limited edition' retail role

Yeah, but it'll cost like $450.

and when it will come out? probably enough for me to save.

@ FNG

I have replaced my ps3's HDD twice and Have a WD Velociraptor 300GB in my PC ( a 2.5"HDD in a 3.5" heatsink) so I know what they look like when I get back from work I will post a link to pictures of the three different sizes and waht it looks like when you try to put a 360 HDD in the PS3 as well as a PS3 HDD in the 360 enclosure.

It'd be nice if they were standard drive, but I just wish they weren't ridiculously overpriced.

Of course they went proprietary. This is M$ we're talking about. I don't suppose anyone knows how to crack open the plastic casing of the current HDD modules so you can roll your own.

It's been posted on Joystiq and xbox 360 Fanboy as to how someone has put up how to use a laptop hard drive and some software to make your own 120-gig hard drive and save some money off of the price tag.

It's a standard SATA laptop drive inside, albeit of specific size, a specific manufacturer, and special formatting. The system software would need to be updated to support larger drives, but there is nothing technical stopping them from repackaging one of the off-the-shelf 500 GB drive with two weeks of development and testing. Or expanding the system software to support drives of functionally arbitrary size / manufacturer.

You can buy WD drives on ebay that have been formatted by someone for you to have the 107gb space and then they come with the install parts for the 20gb shell.

Anyway, as mentioned above - the problem with the drives isn't the space right now, its the damn price. Lower the price so people cans justify buying the 120 gb drives and then look at making an even bigger model. If I am having trouble justifying one for 150 (which I am having trouble with) then I sure as hell won't go buy one for more than that.

It's not a standard laptop HDD, laptop HDD's are 2.5" drive (same as PS3). While M$ went with a 1.8" drive akin to Ipod Classics or Zunes.

They could have gone bigger if they internalized but with all the heat issues thank god they didn't. You can find a 2.5" 500GB HDD for under $100.

FYI as of 9-10-08 the largest 1.8" announced was a Toshiba 240GB I found one priced at $200. The cheapest 120GB I could find were $120. M$ would probably sell it for 250 - 300 judging current $1 per GB they use on their other sizes.

120GB is fine for me plus I don't want to pay 2 or 3 times the price for half the size of one I could get for my PS3.

Also you could use any size HDD with any amount of storage capacity but your still limited to the firmwares allowed 107Gb and you wont get it back in that case unless its a 1.8"

Doesn't anyone understand that they went "proprietary" for security purposes? Though I agree their prices could be more in line with standard drives.

@ Derek H

You are kidding right? I can't believe you to be serious with so much wrong info in your post.

It most certainly is a SATA 2.5" Drive.

@ Derek.

So either this guy (link:http://www.pcworld.com/article/150970-4/upgrade_your_xbox_360s_hard_drive_on_the_cheap.html) has tiny, hairy hands, or the drive is bigger than 1.8".

It's a 2.5" laptop drive, dude.

Dirty, don't you ever change. I'm serious! (+)

your picture, Dirty, makes me laugh every time i see it. It suits your humor.

Dirty, I just came across all of your wonderful posts. they are things of beauty.

Im getting an awful lot of compliments today..... this is not good for my ego.

You suck and your jokes suck. I hope you end up in a hell where there are no games to play except Tetris Worlds and Tetrisphere.

Tetrisphere! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

and bomberman zero...

Exactly. Why would I pay the ridiculous price for an Elite when I can get a Pro or Arcade for substantially lower? The Elite needs more than just a bigger hard drive to justify the price difference, in my opinion.

also, there isn't much of a difference between elite and pro. with the elite you get the 120gb hdd and an hdmi cable. no real incentive to drop the extra $100. especially now since the pro comes with a 60 gig hdd and you can get an hdmi cable for < $10.

It going an even less attractive proposition (compared to the Pro and Arcade) if the rumored Pro price drop is accurate which would bring it down to $250 or lower compared to $400 MSRP for the Elite.

when the elites came out, the point of the sku was both hdmi and larger hdd. but since hdmi is commonplace now, it has fewer selling points. if they added some more features to make it superior to the premium sku, it would make more sense. hell, all they really have to do is add built in wifi. it would cost them pocket change, and it would more than justify the higher price.

They should still offer the console in black tho. That's one of the reasons why I held out for an elite model.

Jeramy,

I agree with you 100%. When I initially heard of the Elite I assumed it would include the Wi-Fi adapter. They need to somehow add an extra value that is important to the customer be it the wi-fi adapter or the wireless headset.

How much of a difference am I reaaaaaaaaally going to notice if I pick up HDMI cables for my 47" tube? Still have the HD RCAs that were packed in...

Markez,

You are going to notice a big time difference if you aren't even rocking component cables. Even going from component to HDMi gave me a huge upgrade in visual quality. Some games require the HDMi cable to be hdcp compliant (Prince Of Persia on the PS3 I believe does) but you won't see a difference in visual quality between a $10 HDMi from a discount online cable manufacturer. Some people can't tell a difference in Component and HDMi but I for one notice a huge difference plus the convievence of one cable versus 5. DO IT!

Markez,

HDMi will also give you better audio quality. It did for me anyway when compared to component cables.

Balls, yeah I meant I have component, not RCA, I'm a dummy. Anyway, are you saying I need to pony up for spendy HDMIs?

I don't think that anyone here is stupid enough to tell you to pony up for the "spendy" HDMI cables. That is reserved for the ignorant consumers that want to do all their shopping at Best Buy.

If you want to go HDMI, just hit up Monoprice.com and get one for 4 dollars or so.

so, do arcade and pro packages have HDMI ports now?

Depends on the TV, my old tv (32") allowed 1080p from component, but my new one (50") doesn't, also some other functions are disabled unless it's through hdmi. What sucks though is my 360 is gen 1. :(

Also, all hdmi have exactly the same amount of quality, buy them online, 50x times cheaper.

Exactly just go to monoprice.com if you insist on HDMI. The audio quality isn't as good as analogue and cables in length of over 3 feet start to experience quality degradation because it's a digital signal but technically the picture is mildly superior. Honestly I doubt you'll be able to tell a difference considering it doesn't use HDMI 2.0.

@TDW

Yes, all 360 models come with HDMI ports now. Only the elite includes the cable in the box.

i bought a 6ft gold plated HDMI cable (v1.2) i believe for around $4 on Monoprice.com when i got my PS3 oh so long ago. the colors and convenience are well worth it. it's basically as easy to plug in as a USB cable.

just hit Monoprice and get some cheap cables. i suggest gold plated with v1.3 compatibility at least.

@Anticrawl

"The audio quality isn't as good as analogue and cables in length of over 3 feet start to experience quality degradation because it's a digital signal but technically the picture is mildly superior. Honestly I doubt you'll be able to tell a difference considering it doesn't use HDMI 2.0."

What? Are you talking about HDMI here? Most of what you just said doesn't make any sense. First off, there aren't any issues with signal degradation after 3 feet. Digital signals are less prone to signal loss BECAUSE they are digital. Analog signals are far more likely to suffer from interference. Digital can suffer signal loss, but we're talking about lengths of 30-50 feet before that happens.

Second, the audio quality isn't better with analog. You're really just changing where the conversion takes place. The signal being output inside the system starts off digital and at some point before it gets to your speakers it gets converted to analog. With HDMI it stays digital until it gets to your TV/Receiver/pre-pro. Then the signal is output in analog format through the wires headed to the speakers.

Of course, at the distances we're dealing with in most people's set-ups there's not likely to be many problems with interference for audio or video. But, still, where in the world did you get these notions??

I hate it when people follow the stupid double standard by saying "HDMI is better that component" and then fix their lips to say that the quality of an hdmi cable is insignificant. The quality difference that you get from a 4 dollar "monoprice" cable and a cable that actually has enough bandwidth is going to give you a difference in picture much in the same way that component and HDMI are different i.e. minuscule but somewhat noticeable. And if your decision to switch from component to hdmi is for "convenience" think about how "convenient" it is to have your hdmi cable break into your television or video component, having to ship it back and get replacement and waiting for it to arrive.

If you want BETTER quality, get an hdmi cable that is sufficient. A lexus and a camry can both drive around the world. One just does a MUCH better job getting you to your destination.

"If you want BETTER quality, get an hdmi cable that is sufficient. A lexus and a camry can both drive around the world. One just does a MUCH better job getting you to your destination."

This is BS. The $100 cables at Best Buy don't do a better job than the $10 cables at Monoprice. If you look at the website you can see that they have certified cables. And even then "certified" just means it was verified to be able to carry a certain type of signal, it doesn't mean that non-certified cables can't carry the signal.

If your cable doesn't have sufficient bandwidth to carry the signal you'll typically see white "sparkels" in your picture or macro-blocking. That's normally how digital signal loss manifests itself. If you're not seeing those things then the cable is doing fine. Feel free to keep buying $100 cables, they'll certainly do the job, but your kidding yourself if you think the Monoprice cables aren't quality and won't do as good a job.

Sweet hell who knew I'd touched such a nerve with folks :P dance on puppets, dance! There is no difference in quality between $4 cables and $100 cables! Grape nuts contain neither grapes nor nuts!!! MUUHAHAHHAAHHA

I have 2 120GB hard drives. 1 from a previous stand-alone purchase and the other from when i just bought my elite trading in my halo edition a week ago.

@Freeze - wanna sell one? : )

I have $150 from not buying the 120GB hard drive and $300 from not buying two of them. Maybe I'll use that money to buy a Blu-Ray player or an AppleTV.

"never been more satisfied?" "No complaints?"

What about the fact you just paid $80 for a plastic case?

I look at it like this: The 360 is integral enough to my enjoyment of life that it could be equated (almost) with a car. If my shocks go on my four year old car, I could say that that's bull shit. But when I get new shocks, that ride to work is still that much more sweet.

I have a 360 that has one of those shitty drives that doesn't like to read discs sometimes. It's out of warranty and it would have cost me 100 bones to fix it. When NXE dropped, I found that installing games made that problem irrelevant. So if I can spend $150 on a hard drive that I can reuse even if I had to buy a new 360, and get the enjoyment out of it that I do, well I'm okay with that. No regrets.

Yes it's bullshit that the drive broke in the first place. Yes it sucks that the HDD's are way overpriced. But it still makes that game time that much more sweet.