How fast can I fll an Xbox 360 20GB hard drive?

August 16, 2007 8:51 PM

I know the differences between the Xbox 360 Premium and Elite editions, but I cannot find anything about the size of downloads. How fast will I fill up a 20gb hard drive? Should I spring for the Elite and get the 120gb? Are the demos, movies, XBLA games, and TV shows going to fill 20gb in a week? Does anyone even use the downloads? Thanks!
posted by EduTek to technology (9 comments total)

To give you an idea of sizes: The Bioshock demo is 1.3 GB, the Hitman Blood Money demo is about 700 MB. Even Katarmari Damacy for Xbox was around 300 MB. Movies generally run around 700 MB, good quality TV shows around 350 MB per episode. 20 GB isn't going to last you very long, if you don't plan on deleting regularly.
posted by Phire at 8:56 PM on August 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

I've had one (20GB) since launch; I fill it up all the time, but mostly with demos and trailers and other disposable items that I'm willing to erase when I need to.

In my experience, savegames (the main thing I care about) are of negligable size.

The XBox live arcade games, which you pay for, and presumably don't want to have to delete, are relatively small (they were limited to below 64MB [so they could fit on a memcard.] That limit isn't in place any more, but they're still mostly small. Also, themes and icons and junk you pay for are tiny, too.

The paid movie downloads are big, but are actually rentals, so you can't keep them anyway.

However, if you want to buy some TV shows, I could see running out of that 20GB real quick. I've only bought a couple of those, though.

So, in summary, no complaints here so far. But who knows what the future will bring.
posted by blenderfish at 9:02 PM on August 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

It's also important to note that you do not get access to the full 20 gigs. 7 or so is saved for game/system updates.

I've had my 360 since Dead Rising came out, and I haven't filled it up once yet. I download lots of stuff, but delete it pretty quick too, since I don't like most of the demos enough to keep. Remember, anything you buy/that is free you can download again later. (except movies, since they are rented not purchased)

On preview, blenderfish's comment about the 64 MB limit for XBLA games has been raised to 512, I believe. They did that so they could release Castlevania:SOTN. If you want the Elite, get it for the HDMI out.

One last thing! MS is soon releasing a slightly different version with a better heatsink. You just need to find out what batch number these are and look on the box for them.
posted by The Castle at 9:09 PM on August 16, 2007

Just a note: In the near future some games (mostly MMO's I think) will require a hard drive to be used so I'd advise getting any model with a hard disk.
posted by puddpunk at 9:16 PM on August 16, 2007

And now I realise that wasn't the question - sorry good sir!
posted by puddpunk at 9:17 PM on August 16, 2007

puddpunk: Psst.. FFXI already requires a HDD. (link)
posted by blenderfish at 9:32 PM on August 16, 2007

Thank you all!

The Castle: I too noticed some rumors regarding a 64nm (I think) version. Perhaps i'll hold off until that switch occurs, and then go for the 20. I use a Mac Mini for most of my other TV and media needs. Thanks again!
posted by EduTek at 9:40 PM on August 16, 2007

Most of the XBox's on the shelf now should be safe against the RRoD (red ring of death, which is generally what happens when the overheat). If you can find one, get a premium model that advertises hdmi, those are guaranteed to be new (they're being soft launched, so supply may still be the older model). I wouldn't expect a significantly newer version of the box until the holiday season, so now's a good time I think.
posted by JZig at 11:12 PM on August 16, 2007

I just bought an Elite. I told it to download every single XBLA game, and I downloaded a bunch of demos. I delete games after I play them. The most disk I've used so far is 21 gigs. It's nice not worrying about it.

If I were downloading movies I'd use more.

Note until recently the Elite was the only way to get an HDMI output.
posted by Nelson at 8:48 AM on August 17, 2007