Xbox 360 games on HD

[AZ Legend]

Was wondering whats the difference when you DL your game, lets say FallOut 3, what does it do. Speed up load times... It was huge and didnt really see much of a difference, but i really didnt know what to look for.

[RyanMurf]

I didn't know you could download xbox 360 games onto your hdd. Are you sure?

[JunkTheMagicDragon]

load times are marginally improved. some games are a bit smoother on the framerate.

eurogamer tested a bunch: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=290745&page=1

probably the biggest advantage is less wear and tear on your drive + less noise.

oh, and don't install halo 3. due to the hd caching it was designed with, installing actually makes it slower.

[RyanMurf]

load times are marginally improved. some games are a bit smoother on the framerate.

eurogamer tested a bunch: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=290745&page=1

probably the biggest advantage is less wear and tear on your drive + less noise.

oh, and don't install halo 3. due to the hd caching it was designed with, installing actually makes it slower.

This is pretty cool I had no idea. Learn something new everyday.

[kedawa]

So you still need to insert the disc, right?

[norkusa]

I tried messing around with this for a few minutes today but couldn't figure out how to get my games to the HDD. How do you do it?

[Darren870]

I tried messing around with this for a few minutes today but couldn't figure out how to get my games to the HDD. How do you do it?

When the disk is in the drive just go to the menu and highlight over where you would press A to play the game and I think you press Y for more options...its in there.

You need the NXE update of course...

[AZ Legend]

Yes you still need the disc to play it. Now that i think about it did seem less noisy. The only thing it takes up a lot of space Fallout 3 was 5.9GB, and i only have a 20gb HD. Yikes I need to upgrade!

[geneshifter]

Gears2 is so much better installed I want to cry :)

[carlcarlson]

Most games aren't going to benefit much from this... yet. The theory is that now that it is an option developers will start to optimize their games to be played in this fashion. My 20gb is going to be need to be replaced soon I guess.

[mailman187666]

it seems as if installing the games to the harddrive were really meant for the bigger HDs. For smaller HDs, its best to just do it with whichever games you will be playing around that time, if you delete the installed game, you still keep your saves and whatnot. The only downside is waiting to install the games when you decide to do so.

[Graham Mitchell]

It sounds like it's a hit-or-miss situation whether or not it improves things. You know, the PS3 forces you to do this to some extent every time you put a new PS3 disc in the thing. Most games still have to load every 5 minutes anyway so it doesn't do you much good. It's actually a nuisance at times as it stops the game periodically to install more data.

[Perkar]

i installed two games onto the hard drive to see what it'd do for me. Rock Band 2, and Cars: Mater-National. i didn't see any significant difference in load times on Rock Band 2, but Cars: Mater-National (already known for shitty load times) was sped up considerably.

definitely hit or miss.

[ProgrammingAce]

Cars: Mater-National (already known for shitty load times) was sped up considerably.

We're going to need to stage in intervention...

[maxlords]

I'm gonna point out what people apparently haven't realized about this. I loaded Fallout 3 onto the hard drive on mine and load times were sped up by about 15-20%.

Now that's great, but the REAL reason to do this is that my drive isn't spinning up constantly while playing Fallout 3. What this would SEEM to indicate to me (don't quote it as the gospel) is that the system isn't working as hard to run games from the hard drive. Hence...it won't be generating as much heat. I would think that by running games from the hard drive instead of from the disc, you'd most likely be extending your system's DVD drive life and possibly the life of the system itself by not overheating it as much. In other words....loading games from the hard drive might save your Xbox from the RROD.

Does anyone have any info that would dispute this? I know that to run a game, you'll still be using the GPU, but the fans aren't kicking on like they do for the game when run off the disc. Could this cause MORE overheating? Or will the system run cooler since the drive doesn't have to spin up?

[otaku]

I've heard it improves graphics and load times. Biggest difference I've noticed is the system is much quieter which is nice

[robotriot]

I'm gonna point out what people apparently haven't realized about this. I loaded Fallout 3 onto the hard drive on mine and load times were sped up by about 15-20%.

Now that's great, but the REAL reason to do this is that my drive isn't spinning up constantly while playing Fallout 3. What this would SEEM to indicate to me (don't quote it as the gospel) is that the system isn't working as hard to run games from the hard drive. Hence...it won't be generating as much heat. I would think that by running games from the hard drive instead of from the disc, you'd most likely be extending your system's DVD drive life and possibly the life of the system itself by not overheating it as much. In other words....loading games from the hard drive might save your Xbox from the RROD.

Does anyone have any info that would dispute this? I know that to run a game, you'll still be using the GPU, but the fans aren't kicking on like they do for the game when run off the disc. Could this cause MORE overheating? Or will the system run cooler since the drive doesn't have to spin up?

I doubt it would cause less strain on the system itself, since loading from DVD or HD isn't much of a difference for the CPU, and certainly not the GPU. I think on the 360 it's easy to mistake the DVD drive sound for a fan, that's why it seems as if it's "working" less when playing from HD. Overall, I'd say the only thing it does is extend your DVD drive's lifespan a bit, but not the system's.

[maxlords]

I doubt it would cause less strain on the system itself, since loading from DVD or HD isn't much of a difference for the CPU, and certainly not the GPU. I think on the 360 it's easy to mistake the DVD drive sound for a fan, that's why it seems as if it's "working" less when playing from HD. Overall, I'd say the only thing it does is extend your DVD drive's lifespan a bit, but not the system's.


Ya think? Well....that's why I was wondering. It really does seem to run cooler...ah well.

[carlcarlson]

It's definitely easier on the DVD drive, but I don't think it will have any effect on the system itself. I'm pretty sure robo is right, the CPU will have to work just as hard.


I've heard it improves graphics and load times.

I'm not sure about the graphics thing but I've heard it makes food taste better.

[s1lence]

Bungie has come out and said DO NOT install Halo 3 to the HDD. The game runs much slower and has issues with loading.

I like it for the simple fact that the disc only spins for a second and then its QUIET. A quiet 360.....awesome idea.

[c0ldb33r]

I like it for the simple fact that the disc only spins for a second and then its QUIET. A quiet 360.....awesome idea.
Amen. Usually I can barely hear my TV over the sound of that helicopter trying to take off.

[maxlords]

I'm not sure about the graphics thing but I've heard it makes food taste better.


Loading 360 games to your 360's hard drive DOES make food taste better...but it hurts more coming out. Install at your own risk.

[PapaStu]

I guess I'll have to do that with everything i've got since all my 360's keep having their drives shit out. Oh when my new system comes back from Texas!

[Blitzwing256]

lost odyesssy runs amazingly well, the load times for the most part are cut in half. definatly worth it.

[Nature Boy]

Bungie has come out and said DO NOT install Halo 3 to the HDD. The game runs much slower and has issues with loading.

I noticed some lagging this weekend playing online. Even just with friends who didn't insall Halo onto their HDs it was slow. I wonder if the NXE had anything to do with it.

I installed "Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga" onto my HD, as my son and I play it often, and didn't notice any huge changes in load times. I might remove that and put The Orange Box on instead.

Thought it would be small, but I had 7+ GB free before install and like 1 GB free afterwards. Wow. Don't think I'll upgrade my 20 GB drive anytime soon just to install more than one game, especially with prices being what they are, but I am more interested in doing so!

[mailman187666]

so far I've noticed that the DVD drive makes almost no noise at all. Whenever anything moves at all inside the console, I figured it would generate heat, so it could very well reduce the amount of heat inside the system as well. I installed Tales of Vesperia and it runs quiet, load times are generally fast, and I've got no complaints. Thank god for the 120 gig HD because I can actually install a bunch of games until I'm finished with them.

[ProgrammingAce]

The DVD drive doesn't spin when you're running the game off the hard drive. It does an initial check when you start the game, and will throw an error if you open the drive door.

[jcalder8]

I still have my original 20 gig hdd so I'm not too excited about this but the thought of the drive not running is pretty tempting.

[heybtbm]

The quiet DVD drive is amazing. I don't think I'll ever be able to go back. The minimized load times are nice but not remotely as exciting as that disc drive spinning once, then complete silence. It's almost like a...PS3 (gasp)!

[gamegirl79]

I installed Fable II to the hdd last night hoping it would speed up the load times, but I didn't notice much of a difference. However, I did notice the lag I was getting in the menus is now gone. The quiet DVD drive is very nice too.

[Nature Boy]

I uninstalled LST: TCS and installed The Orange Box instead (which was 1 GB smaller to my astonishment!). I've only got a 20 GB drive so one game is pretty much all I have space for.

Love it. It's definitely nicer for TOB. Load times aren't a huge issue in LSW anyway (especially when compared to the PS2 version of TOS). But as has been mentioned the lack of drive noise is fantastic. I think it will extend the life of 360s (which was probably another reason they did it).