I'm looking to buy an Xbox 360 and i just wanted to know which is the best to get. the obvious answer is the pro but.
My question is if you bought the arcade could you than buy the 20 GB harddrive and put it in the arcade making it the same as the pro or are there other differences i don't know about?
My theroy is that if every thing was the right price it could work out cheaper.
Hope that all makes sense. thanks

arcade (can be had for $350 from bigw or similar) + 20GB HD from ebay ($50ish) is the cheapest way

only thing you have to watch is your not guaranteed a HDMI port on the arcade units but it is possible to get one if the store lets you check or otherwise just buy and return till you get one.

the arcades without hdmi tend to be rather old units which is not really what you want

I don't have a HD tv so would it really matter if there's no HDMI port?
and the ones without HDMI is that the only difference or is there other differences.
Edit: also another question what's with the xbox's wow is selling it says factory refurbished. Is this just an old model that is prone to red ring of death?
http://www.wowwicked.com.au/catalogue.php?p=16

Man you learn something new every day - i didnt know there was different versions!

The non-hdmi ones tend to be quite old stock, HDMI ones are revised models which are less likely to RROD

I believe the refurbished ones are ones that have RROD and have been fixed but often it can happen soon again after purchase

That what i thought you'd say about the refurbished ones thanks for that

they should have made the ring go blue.
atleast then it would be like other microsoft products

Yeah old models are prone to the Red ring of death. HDMI models are most likely to have the newest chip in them.
When I was looking to get mine (upgrade to a HDMI model) I found the best chip in Aus to be the falcon chip which was a 65nm chip versus the old 95nm chip IIRC.
However the falcon chip 360 was already obsolete in the US before it hit our shores. So the falcon chip is better but still had/s issues. I believe the newest chip is a 45nm chip, and the way to look for these is by looking for the lowest wattage consuming 360

To be able to tell the difference between a 95nm chip and a 65nm it is 103w for the 95nm chip and 95w for the 65nm chip, so you can imagine if the newest chip is in Aus then the 360 watt consumption would be around the 90w mark.

This is all by memory so my numbers may be off, probably not though. Goodluck with getting a good batch of the 360!

Ok this is getting really confusing. I thik i under stand what everyones saying i need one with about 90w consumption and with HDMI. Bit a noob question what does a HDMI port look like. I've been looking at the here and it show the RCA's
http://catalogues.bigw.com.au/portal/dynam...mp;pageview=two
Edit: Page 95

I had the rrod on mine, sent it back for free repair, been working for 9 months no problems

Please don't bother with the Xbox 360 Arcade.

The current Xbox 360 Pros aren't that expensive and you will get a current version of the Xbox, with minimum, if no risk of overheating (RROD). I bought an Xbox 360 Pro last year and got a 2007 August build (you can check the Xbox's serial for build date - It hasn't had any problems, and even though it physically feels hot after being run for hours, it doesn't overheat.

The Pro model will come with everything you need, and won't require any upgrades, hopefully ever. And hopefully you get a great game in the bundle (I got Viva Pinata & Forza 2) for ~$499

Speak to EB Games, and see if they know of any Pro bundle sales coming up, either their own sales, or ones they can match.

At the end of the day, it won't matter who you buy it from, as long as it's a genuine retailer and they price match it for the cheapest you can find.

All the best

Yeh my 24" PC monitor has HDMI so im thinking of getting one with HDMi then buying a Lian-Li case (They make PC cases for those who don't no) and put it in that (This one is made for a 360 with one big quiet fan and sexc to