XBox 360- 4GB or 250GB?

[Traitorfish]

Buying myself an XBox 360 with the proceeds of my Yuletide labours, but I'm not sure if it's worth paying for the larger hard-drive. I'm not planning to use it for online gaming, which I understand is its primary benefit, but I don't want to find it bursting at the seems from save-games and downloads alone, and I don't really have any frame of reference to know if this is likely on a 4 gig drive. (Also, I understand that some games need installations to function, and that this can eat a pretty huge chunk of your memory?) Buying it from the store I work (employee discount) the difference is only about £20 ($30ish), so it seems like it may be worth it on better-safe-than-sorry grounds, but if I never actually use it, it's just wasted money.

So, thoughts? (That aren't quips about which consoles I should be buying? )

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Just spring for the 250 GB. Installs make games run much smoother. You'll need the space, Even patches can run into hundreds of megabytes. The 4 GB just won't do.

 

[Lillefix]

Buy the 250GB one. I don't have any consoles, but I've heard that it's common now to install the games on the hardrive and from my computer experience, I'd say that's a big advantage. £20 is nothing.

Even patches can run into hundreds of megabytes.

I sometimes visit the system wars forum on gamespot(the "Can PC do HD gaming yet?" thread is legendary). Before the 360 came out, one of the big advantages that consoles had over PCs(according to the console fans) was that consoles didn't need patches. How times change...

 

[Quackers]

I bought the 250gb model in the summer.
It's a huge amount of extra space for just a little extra and in your case not a lot at all. I would go for it.

 

[woody60707]

No game "needs" to be installed. Some games will play better/faster installed (loading times). And other games like forza 4 have "extras" that need to be installed to use, but again, that mostly on-line community stuff. Same with DLC.

If it's only $30, I would get it. The 250gb HDD is removable, and you can always ebay/craigslist/I'll buy it for $30 if you don't end up needing it.

 

[El_Machinae]

I'm waiting for two more generations of gaming consoles before I upgrade. But my experience is that the 'cheap' memory upgrade tends to be worth it, but I always regret getting expensive upgrades.

 

[Maniacal]

The 4 gig xbox is a joke, and so is the 512 MBs of RAM they have.

 

[woody60707]

I sometimes visit the system wars forum on gamespot. Before the 360 came out, one of the big advantages that consoles had over PCs(according to the console fans) was that consoles didn't need patches. How times change...

Most of the patches are mainly due to combat piracy and cheats/hacks while playing on-line. If you don't play on-line, you won't need a patch.

 

[Lillefix]

Most of the patches are mainly due to combat piracy and cheats/hacks while playing on-line. If you don't play on-line, you won't need a patch.

That's not the impression I have, but I may be wrong. The impression I have is that nowadays console-games are just unfinished at launch as PC-games. Like Skyrim.

 

[Cheetah]

I was convinced this was a spam post, but then I thought it weird that TF should be a bot.

Does the extra £30 really matter? Many games like to put a lot of data on the disk itself, and assuming you're not throwing it away and buying a new one after just a year, I'd think the bigger drive might come in handy. 4 GB fills up much faster than expected.

On another note, in what kind of hell have they been able to dig up a 4GB drive these days??? The smallest I can find in stores in 250 GB and it barely costs £45!

 

[ZeletDude]

Get the 250GB.

 

[History_Buff]

I sometimes visit the system wars forum on gamespot(the "Can PC do HD gaming yet?" thread is legendary).

That thread is awesome. Thank you for pointing it out.

 

[Traitorfish]

Decided I'm going with the 250GB. Obvious, when somebody actually tells you, but I guess I needed told?

On another note, in what kind of hell have they been able to dig up a 4GB drive these days??? The smallest I can find in stores in 250 GB and it barely costs £45!

I think it's actually internal flash memory.

 

[Zelig]

I'm waiting for two more generations of gaming consoles before I upgrade. But my experience is that the 'cheap' memory upgrade tends to be worth it, but I always regret getting expensive upgrades.

Why are you waiting two generations? (Probably over a decade from today.)

I dunno that HDD upgrades (as opposed to RAM memory) can be qualified based on price.

Pretty much any computer should have a SSD that's large enough for the OS and applications, and other drives to hold media... the majority of cost is determined by how much stuff you have to store, not by any measure of quality of storage space.

 

[Verarde]

I have no Xbox, but from what I understand, the 250 GB seems to be the better buy.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Yeah, my brother bought an Xbox about a month ago, and we're already down to 217 GB left on the Hard Drive.

 

[Mise]

Yup, 250GB > (4GB + £20).

 

[El_Machinae]

Why are you waiting two generations? (Probably over a decade from today.)

Well, intend to purchase a new gaming system eventually, because I'd like to partake in videogames that are somewhat modern. The kinetic is cool, but not yet where I want to upgrade.

Keep in mind how frugal I am, and where I think we should be spending our money. I cannot easily justify spending money on more gaming, given the opportunity cost. But, despite my best efforts to be good, I'll probably succumb to temptation within a decade. My choosing to delay the purchase, I'll feel more justified when I eventually do so.

Giving money to Microsoft increases our tech-curve, though. And if people were going to be spending that leisure time in front of a TV anyway, then them getting an xBox doesn't really matter.