xbox 360 question??

[parker619]

hey im thinking about getting a 360 arcade,, but i was wondering, it comes with a 256mb memory unit, but will that be enough memory to use for xbox live gold, and have a profile and game saves?? (games like, fifa 09, smackdown, beijing guitar hero etc) and will it be enough to go online with those games??.. im not going to be downloading demos or anything just gamesaves and playing on live. thanks to anyone that answers because ive searched about this but never got a proper answer..

thanks!!

[skaar]

You can use it just fine for saved games and a few XBLA arcade titles, but you'll want more.

Microsoft is running a promo giving away larger memory units and hard drives - you might want to google that one. No idea if it applies to stuff currently on the shelves but it's a requirement for the new XBL coming out soon.

[parker619]

ok but does anyone know how much space it takes up for xbox live,, and will i be able to play my games on xbox live and still have enough space for more game saves?

[carlcarlson]

You'll get by, but I would get annoyed having to manage space. Also, some game saves can get pretty huge. I have 60 mb worth of saves for Orange Box alone.

I'd take skaar's recommendation and Google the promo. Certain people are eliglble for a $20 hard drive.

[Nebagram]

If you're getting Guitar Hero you'll want a hard drive for the DLC alone- I have over 1.5GB spread between GH3 and Rock Band.

[NayusDante]

Beijing Gutar Hero... Is that Chinese rock music? I'm interested...

Nobody seems to bring up the issue of game PATCHES. Those take up space on your storage device, and you are usually required to be up-to-date before you can go online. A game that once worked on an Arcade unit might be "arcade-broken" after patches are released. Then again, maybe they have some kind of filesize limits for patches, I'm not an expert on the subject.

[skaar]

Good point ND.

Get yourself a HD.

[shaggy]

I actually think you can't use live unless you have a harddrive. I'm positive I read in the Xbox 360 manual that you can't go on live unless you have a harddrive.

[dylan0228]

You are required to have a hard drive to play online.

[The 1 2 P]

ok but does anyone know how much space it takes up for xbox live,, and will i be able to play my games on xbox live and still have enough space for more game saves?

This thread will help answer all your questions and it was made by one of DP's most respected members:http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123252

[parker619]

thanks for everyone that commented,, im now going to just save up a couple more weeks and get one with a 20gb hard drive, :D

[NayusDante]

thanks for everyone that commented,, im now going to just save up a couple more weeks and get one with a 20gb hard drive, :D

If you're willing to take a risk on getting one without HDMI....

Check the "New" listings.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000UQAUWW/ref=sr_1_olp_3?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1225715019&sr=8-3

[carlcarlson]

thanks for everyone that commented,, im now going to just save up a couple more weeks and get one with a 20gb hard drive, :D

I'd hold out for a 60 myself.

[NayusDante]

I thought about what I posted earlier, and if you DO get a non-HDMI one, those are more likely to RRoD.

[parker619]

ok ,, thanks nayus,, definately gonna get 20gb one now

[Leo_A]

For the two that incorrectly told you that your required to have a hd to go online on a 360, that isn't true. I think only two titles require a hd for online play so far, a Burnout title and Ace Combat.

For 99% of the library, you don't need the hd to use XBL for online play.

[NayusDante]

Don't forget FFXI.

Even if you don't need an HDD for online play, it's still a good idea to get one. You'll definitely want to download demos and themes, unless you subscribe to XBOX Magazine, but I still haven't really given a look to those demo disks I found to see how much is on them.

You could get an Arcade unit now, then get a cheap HDD when you know that you need it. My personal recommendation, however, is to get an HDD now. Size is up to you, a 20gb is enough for saved games and demos, but movies and such are going to kill that drive space pretty quickly. If you're going to fill it up (or play FFXI), you NEED a bigger drive. With just FFXI and a few demos on my Elite, I'm over 20gb in usage.

[parker619]

well i have no plans to buy final fantasy and all i am going to be using it for will be a few demos but delete them after,, and having a gamer tag XBL and saved games so i think 20gb will be enough :D

[PapaStu]

well i have no plans to buy final fantasy and all i am going to be using it for will be a few demos but delete them after,, and having a gamer tag XBL and saved games so i think 20gb will be enough :D

You realise that 20 means 12. A formatted drive only has just about 12 available at start. I've got a 20, had it for 2 years, down to a few gigs available. It would be full if I downloaded some of the stuff i've been wanting (XBLA titles and songs or other DLC), i'm waiting for a better price on a 120gb drive before I do anything. Map packs eat up TONS of space.

[Leo_A]

Space is a lot more than 12 gigs on the 20 gig, it comes with a lot of stuff like videos preloaded.

Edit - Just checked my empty 20 gig hd (I have a 120 gig now), and its 13.9 gigs for the 20 gig hd. So nearly two gigs more than a even 12 gigs. The rest is reserved for caching, backwards compatibility updates, etc.

[SegaAges]

I have the 20gb model.

I easily have over 100 gamer pictures and at least 30-40(maybe 50) themes. The themes are normally less than 1mb (same with gamer pictures).

Most xbl games are uber small. Unless you get something like the new portal on xbl or 1 of the original xbox games through xbl, then most games do not take that much space (i think i have 1 xbl game that might take up 200-300mb). The average xbl game i have seen takes between 50-100mb

I also have a good 20-30 songs on my hdd downloaded for rock band.

the thing that eats space like crazy is the demos, which are anywhere between 600mb to 2gb.

I normally have anywhere from 3gb to 1.5gb left depending on what demos I have on there.

[slip81]

you sound like you're a light online user like me, and if that's the case, the 20GB will be fine. Though, unless you're getting it significantly cheaper, I would just recomment the $299 60GB over a 20 model. When I bought mine 60 wasn't an option, but I did pay $299, so if I had the choice of getting the bigger HDD for the same price I would go with that.


Having said all that, after you delete the preloaded junk it brings you up to almost 13GB I think, and so far I've had mine for 6 months and haven't even dropped below 12GB of space. But GTA IV DLC is coming soon...