I was recently asked by a friend to help him in his Xbox purchase as I am pretty familiar with gaming. As I talked to him I realized that to a non-gamer or even a gamer who hasn't kept up with the industry, purchasing a console is confusing as all hell. We both missed the times where each company had one SKU and you were just choosing between companies. Nintendo or Sega? Sega, Super Nintendo or PSOne? Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, or PS2?
Now we've got: Xbox 360 Core, Xbox 360 Console, Xbox 360 Elite, Xbox 360 Special Halo3 Edition vs PS3 (20) which isn't made, PS3(60), PS3 (80) keeping in mind the PS3(20 and 60) both have the original PS2 and 1 chips in them while the PS3(80) will emulate PS2 and PS1 games. Also the PS3(20) didn't have wireless or the cardreader. For the Xbox's the Core lacks a harddrive...unless you're current with Xbox Live gaming and what it offers and the fact that more and more games require the harddrive for updates, there's no way someone would know how a memory card isn't going to cut it. To add a harddrive to you Xbox core with headset would be actually more expensive than just buying the Xbox 360 Console package, they throw in a better cable and a wireless controller with a headset, essential for the Live experience. The Elite comes in black and has the option of connecting with HDMI.
At this point the casual consumer's head swims. How do you want to connect to your TV, what cables are provided, I know that with the XBox360 console with HD the cables provided are very nice, there's an optical audio port, component, and composite cable in one, that was one thing that Microsoft did manage to nail.
In the end we concluded that the Core model was obviously out as well as the Halo3 model because it is as ugly as fuck. If i see anyone with that model I will mock them but respect their love of Halo. The decision between the black elite model and the classic white console becomes a more difficult one. If you have only a standard TV as I do, I'd say go with the Classic. Asethics aside (I still think the white looks better than the black), the Black elite offers an hdmi connection which to my understanding just means that the picture and sound are all in that one cable.... yippee (again i don't have an HDTV so maybe i have it wrong). With the White version also containing composite and component I believe you can get a rather spectacular resolution with it anyways and you can use digital audio as well for your 5.1 surround speakers. The last consideration between the two are the harddrives. The White comes with a 20gb harddrive while the elite comes with an 80gb harddrive. For someone who plans to only game and not use his 360 as a media center there's really no need for 80gb's ...yet. Hopefully in the future the 80gb harddrives will be cheaper and if there is a need to upgrade its there. If you're thinking of using your xbox 360 as a media center, and you plan on downloading tv, movies and other videos through Xbox live the elite might be the better choice... maybe.
As you can see even someone who's pretty current with their understanding with the Xbox360 gets a little flustered in attempting to explain the differences. Thank god I don't own a PS3 yet, I have absolutely no desire to explain why Sony keeps changing their models and components every few months and keeps trying to sell them for absurd prices. I'll consider joining the Sony camp when they have some exclusive games I'm interested in with a console that's below 400 dollars. I'm a gamer. I just want to play games not install linux on my console or watch high definition dvd's on my nice SDTV... I'll join in the blu-ray vs HD-DVD race if I ever crack and get an HDTV but I have a feeling my DVD's will look more than adequate on an HDTV so like most of the world I'll just wait longer for a technology I don't particuarly have a need for. Also Sony, the immersion suit is over, please bring back rumble to your controller that has a locked battery... hmm maybe that's why there is no rumble. I'll discuss why I like rumble in my controller another time.
Until then I await any of you who wait to weed through the various SKU's and finally manage to get on Xbox Live. Send me an invite and we'll actually play some GAMES.
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