Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

The girlie-poo gave me the go ahead on purchasing the xBox 360, but after hearing of the RRoD problems I'm not so sure. From what I've read the system has an astonishing 33% failure rate. My questions are numerous, but I'll sum it up:

~ Do you have an xBox 360, and if so, for how long and has it failed you?
~ It seems like the RRoD stems from cooling problems, so is an accessory fan a good buy and does it avoid my Microsoft warranty?
~ Is it really worth it?

Any information you can provide would be great and any links about the current failure rates in 2009 of the system would be mighty helpful.

-J.

I've had my xbox for almost exactly a year. It's an Elite, and it failed once. In the UK, all electronic goods come with one years warranty as standard; I'm not sure if this is similar in the US. To be honest, I'd take an xbox over a PS3 anyday, failures or not. From what I've heard, the online service is much better than PS's, and the difference in graphics is negligible. Plus it also get more games.

There are a few PS only titles such as Killzone2, but on the whole xbox owners have a pretty good deal.

If you get the warranty, do it. If not, it's much more of a risk.

I have owned a Xbox since chrismas 08,I like it it hasn't failed me yet.I spend at least 3 hours a day on it and so far I have had zero problems,its also got a special quality for me my friend is a hardcore gamer he owns a ps3 and yet when I play on it I do not get that same sense of(well I can't explain the feeling)wow this is a wonderful machine.Overall its like owning a broken down old sports car,you drive it a few minutes and then it starts smoking and it dies on you and you have to call a tow truck while in the middle of busy London traffic ,so yes it gives you problems but overall it just gives you this sense its special and it is a wonderful machine.

I have mine since last summer and so far, it hasn't failed me.
The Red Ring of Death is a heating problem, so as long as you play too long while your Box is sitting in the sun, it shouldn't be a big problem.

And I can totally recomend it. Unless you're desperatly in need of a blu-ray player, there aren't that many reasons to choose a PS3 over an XBox.
The 360 has a much larger game libabry and a very good online service.

I got my X-Box 360 recently. However, I have a tendency of leaving it on for very extended periods of time (Five hours or more at once), and so far it hasn't died on me. I'm not too worried about it at this point, honestly.

Is it worth it? If you don't have anything else that can handle the current generation of gaming, most definitely. Custom soundtracks are a big plus to me, the online service is more refined than anything similar (and Netflix is nice), and you have a much larger library of games, especially exclusives. If you get a PS3, you're much more likely to get games that aren't as polished as their 360 equivalent, due to the cell processor being so hard to program for. So actually, the PS3's minimal graphical edge it has causes it to have poorer quality games, at least in terms of non-exclusives (Exclusives for the PS3 are also getting much more rare).

I'd say get one, if you can really afford to.

i have had mine for at least 3 or 4 years I forget how long. It failed me last November, and for a while I could just turn it off and turn it back on like 10 min later and it worked, but eventually it just stopped working. So I told Microsoft shipped it in and got a new one in like 2 weeks. So even if you have a problem they handle it efficiently so get it. And besides there are many more games to buy for 360 over PS3.

I've had mine over a year, and the only problems I've had with it is freezing, rarely, and in certain games only. Newer consoles have a reduced failure rate due to different components used, I believe.

The Dreadnote wrote:I've had mine over a year, and the only problems I've had with it is freezing, rarely, and in certain games only. Newer consoles have a reduced failure rate due to different components used, I believe.

Yeah, that's what I've read into. They've redesigned it completely and not told anyone. The new "Jasper" models were released in August of last year and are a bit more popular now... they run on 12.1A instead of the 14.2, so that's how you can tell...

-J.

The new reduced failure rate is 31%.

Personally, I don't think that you have to worry about failures, they added a 3 year warranty so when it fails you'll be covered.

Compared to all the systems, I still prefer my ps3 over my 360. I mean the only exclusives for 360 involve halo, master chief, or marcus phoenix. Fable 2 is a good game though.

360 gets more exclusive downloads, but games not owned by microsoft will get ported to the ps3 with more features like Bioshock or Red Alert 3.

The online for 360 is better, but 50 bucks for service is ridiculous. I already pay for internet service so I play online with my ps3 for free. The service difference is almost negligible if you have a good connection.

Do not buy a fan for your 360, they usually never work or void your warranty. Just keep it in an open, well ventilated area.

In the long run, a 360 will cost more than a ps3.

Controllers are 40 bucks and if you want a rechargable battery with charger, that'll cost an extra 20. PS3s have rechargable controllers and sell for 55 dollars. PS3s have blu ray players, 360s lack hi-def movies save the netflix that you pay more for.

PS3 exclusives may be "rare" but they are more diverse.

Resistance(FPS), Killzone(FPS), Metal Gear Solid(stealthy stuff), Little Big Planet(platformer), Gran Turismo(driving), Motor Storm(driving), Uncharted(Like Tomb Raider but with a dude).

More people play the 360, but most of those are adolescents and fail at playing harder games online like COD4 and COD5.

The points system for the 360 market sucks and I really prefer the dollar values on the ps3 market.

BTW my 360 died epicly. RROD during GTA 4. So now I love playstation.

Got any evidence to back up your opinions

I am not going to involve myself in a contest of fanboys...I am not going to involve myself in a contest of fanboys...I am not going to involve myself in a contest of fanboys...

yeah,
I've had xbox's since launch.
My first one scratched disks, I sent it back.
It never had any problems since...
I've got a second xbox at work and it's been failure free.

I have a PS3 at home and love that too.

Panic...

The Dreadnote wrote:Got any evidence to back up your opinions

I am not going to involve myself in a contest of fanboys...I am not going to involve myself in a contest of fanboys...I am not going to involve myself in a contest of fanboys...

Not a fanboy, just disappointed with the Xbox.

I'm not disappointed with the xbox as a console it is fine, I just feel that it is made primarily for online games, something which i have a large aversion too, after experiences on games like CS and UT I gave up online gaming in all its forms. From my experiences with the xbox to get the full potential out of the console you need to have it online alot of the big blockbuster games like Halo 3 and GoW2 are made primarily for the online arena the single player campaigns are great but I just feel they take a back seat to the online multiplayer which is where games like Halo and GoW shine because of the lasting popularity of the online arena especially when ranks and unlockable weapons are involved, COD 4 is a testament to this.

Me I prefer single player games like JRPGs and series' such as MGS and for me personally the PS3 suits me fine, don't get me wrong it seems to have a perfectly fine online service (I don't find it as refined as Xbox Live but its still good) but I feel that your not 'ushered' for lack of a better world to go online with a PS3 than a 360, I own both and I have to say I vastly prefer the PS3, now I've always stuck with Sony, my mates got the N64 and were raving about it I stuck quietly with my PSX, I got the PS2 it started slow for sure like the PS3 has, but I still consider it to be the best console of the last generation if not just for the sheer variety of games on the machine and some really obscure ones at that were absolutely awesome.

But asking is it really worth it? It comes down to yourself as a gamer, do you like to go online? Whats your favorite game genre shooters, rpgs etc? The Xbox from what I have experienced with the 360 is it does a little of everything well and appeals to all gamers which is why the machine is doing well. Want to go online? awesome heres your copy of Halo 3 and XBL subscription off you go? Want movies DL off Netflix or whatever it is and off you go etc etc etc. Don't get me wrong it has some good games on it I just feel the way Microsoft has marketed the console has tried to make it too generalized, not to the extent of the Wii, but even more so with the XBL Experience that launched last year, as I said it does everything many things and has a great library of games to choose from, only issue is there is some right tat floating about and some games that were not as great as they should have been (assassins creed comes to mind here).

In summary I would say go for it, the console itself is a great purchase and a lot of the bugs that marred its initial release have been fixed over time. I don't want to get into a PS3 vs 360 debate because I have always owned both rival systems and every time I come back to Sony because they have never steered me wrong I hope over time the PS3 will get better, games like Resistance 2 and Killzone 2 have shown what the PS3 can do. But again the 360 is a great purchase and you will not be disappointed.

I'm going to try to avoid all the console war arguments and give you my experiences with owning an XBox.

I bought an XBox when I was deployed and was seriously afraid that the dirt was going to hurt it. After 6 months of working fine in the desert, I took it home and used it daily for a year and three months before it RRoD. Sending my XBox into microsoft took me only 3 weeks to receive my refurbished box. During that time, I bought my girlfriend a 360 and we moved in together. For the last year we've been using her 360 as our main console, and it hasn't had any problems.

The RRoD comes from overheating with the machine. Fan add-ons usually don't help because they usually draw power from the USB port on the 360. This just forces the 360 to draw more power and heat up worse. The disc scratching issue comes from having an unstable platform. Never post your 360 vertically, because that will lead to disc scratching. Sit it flat on a stable surface with plenty of space and open air and you should be fine.

The biggest value my girlfriend and I are getting now is through streaming movies and TV that I download (with less than legal means) and stream to my 360. We've completely shut off our cable so that's one less bill to pay. Also, we're streaming movies and TV from Netflix, which now gets more screen time than my games.

For these reasons alone, I find my XBox 360 worth the "risk" of RRoDing. It rarely happens, and when it does, Microsoft has been on the ball with fixing it.

Is it really that important that the Box doesn't stand vertical? Because I have some space issues at home and when if the Box would lie on it's back then I wouldn't have the space left for my Wii.

Important if you want to minimise the risk of a disk scratching - personally I think this is a case of YMMV. I used to keep mine vertical while playing, and it did get knocked over a couple times. Admittedly this did end with the disk getting scratched, but this was a gradual thing and not a catastrophic destruction of the disk as you might be led to believe.

So, I picked up the xBox Pro and it was the Falcon version. (Mind you, I searched about 25 stores and their stock for a Jasper unit.) I got all the bells and whistles... Picking up the obvious Halo 3 and my girl picked up the 40+ Sega collection.

She has now kicked me off of it to play Sonic the Hedgehog... On my xBox 360...

-J.

My 360 only RRoDed after being played about 60 hours out of a 72 hour stretch.

But the RRoD is a free fix by Microsoft, you just have to send it to them, and you will probably get a new one back. Most RRoD failures can't be fixed, they just replace the system.

Alazahr wrote:So, I picked up the xBox Pro and it was the Falcon version. (Mind you, I searched about 25 stores and their stock for a Jasper unit.) I got all the bells and whistles... Picking up the obvious Halo 3 and my girl picked up the 40+ Sega collection.

She has now kicked me off of it to play Sonic the Hedgehog... On my xBox 360...

-J.

It could be worse. She could be playing Sonice The Hedgehog (2006).

heh,heh,heh



FALCON PAWNCH!!!!

Just had to say it.

You know why they call it xBox 360?

When you see it you turn 360 degrees and walk away.


(Someone had to say it...)

Orkeosaurus wrote:You know why they call it xBox 360?

When you see it you turn 360 degrees and walk away.


(Someone had to say it...)

And it was probably the dumbest thing I've ever read.

-J.

You know, where I work at we've had to replace 6 X Box 360's dueto malfunctions. Have yet to replace PS3, and we had a PS2 demo set up for 6 years (same PS2).

PS2 FTW!!

You know why they call it xBox 360?

When you see it you turn 360 degrees and walk away.

You do realize that would leave you directly facing it again right?

He must be thinking of the alternate dimension where 360 degrees is slightly to to left of your original facing.