Is a bigger xbox really necessary?

March 3, 2011 11:44 AM

Thinking about getting an xBox 360 with Kinect. Is the larger size really worth $100?

A bit more explanation re: what I'd be using it for: I'm not an everyday, serious gamer, but I do enjoy adventure and strategy games that are story-based (think Left for Dead, Red Dead Redemption, Fable 2, and Tropico 3). Of course, I would also play a few of the Kinect-based games.

My friend, who recently got the 4GB Xbox, told me that for the types of games I want to play, it really wouldn't be big enough, and I'd eventually need to add more memory, which would be more expensive than just getting the 250GB Xbox initially.

Truth to this? Do I really need the extra space? What other things that I'm not thinking of might I be using the Xbox for that would require space?

Bonus question: still slightly torn between Xbox and PS3. Leaning toward Xbox really only because of the Kinect. Also, I already have a Blu-Ray player. Thoughts?

Thanks, all!

posted by mingodingo to Technology (13 answers total)

The storage on the Xbox is used in a number of ways. It's used primarily as a place to hold information on your saved games as well as games and other items purchased through the Xbox Live marketplace (such as songs for Rock Band). This marketplace is just an on-line portal reachable only through the Xbox where you can purchase and download games, watch Netflix, listen to Last.fm music, peruse your Facebook account, etc. Each of these uses will carve out a bit of your local Xbox memory to save things like preference files, but most of your memory needs will be for downloaded games. Most of these games, both demos and full versions, require between 350MB and 2-3GB or storage. I have 20GB and it's barely enough to hold all the stuff I've purchased. Unless you're absolutely sure that your storage needs are small, I strongly recommend getting the largest amount of storage available to you. Even if 250GB is way too much, in a year or two I guarantee that 4GB, or even 20 GB, will be too little. And purchasing it later as an add-on will cost you far more.
posted by Jamesonian at 12:02 PM on March 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

regarding the bonus question: my understanding is that adding storage to a PS3 is similar to installing a harddrive in a computer. It appears that method is not feasible for the 360.
posted by garlic at 12:21 PM on March 3, 2011

Even in the new Xboxes the optical drive is much louder and more annoying to listen to than the hard drive, so installing everything you want to play is the way to go. I use my Xbox pretty casually and in six months or so I've filled up about 90GB of it just with games installed from disc. 250GB is a bit excessive, but 4GB is nowhere near enough.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 12:33 PM on March 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

It appears that method is not feasible for the 360.

To add/replace storage to the xbox you just need to buy the drive (ones made especially for this purpose) and pop it in the hard drive spot on top of the system.
posted by royalsong at 12:50 PM on March 3, 2011

I just got a 4GB w/ Kinect model a few months ago. My gaming habits are VERY similar to yours, and let me assure you that 4GB is not enough. In our house, the 360 used for everything: not just gaming, but also DVDs and Netflix (no cable). I'm super happy with this newest 360 since it's so quiet compared to the old one, and Kinect is tons of fun, but if I could do it over again I'd get more memory right out of the gate. Then again, upgrading is easy and pretty cheap. Amazon has 250GB hard drives for around $90 new. I think game stores generally have them for $100-$130. Mine's on the way.
posted by kella at 12:53 PM on March 3, 2011

we moved to the 250 a while back and haven't regretted it once, but we were in the camp that purchases a lot of games from XBLA. we ran out of space on the old hard drive, which is an uncomfortable consumer space to find yourself in...

("i WANT to give microsoft more money, but i am unable to store any more games! how can i resolve this issue, so that i may give microsoft more money?!")

and bear in mind this, too : a number of games push mandatory "updates" (mandatory in this case means "if you would like to PLAY ONLINE, you must have this update") which are actually just largely giant chunks of DLC. you won't get access to the DLC portion until you pay for it, but it's still a manadatory update. some examples off the top of my head : Borderlands and Burnout:Paradise both shoved 1.x GIG "updates" down the pipe.
posted by radiosilents at 1:26 PM on March 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

You can use sizeable thumb drives to add storage, but I think you're going to be happier with the extra storage if you can afford it.
posted by craven_morhead at 1:28 PM on March 3, 2011

4GB is enough to store your saves and random crap, but the best use of the hard drive is caching disk to shut the optical drive up. And many games will basically fill up on that. I got in on the 20GB drive upgrade when it was cheap for a bit, and it's basically full.
posted by pwnguin at 1:36 PM on March 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

also, swapping in a new hard drive later is NOT as simple as "just pop it on!" IF you're interested in keeping your existing gamertag and/or redownloading software you've purchased from XLBA.

it's not DIFFICULT, but it is TEDIOUS (said the guy who had to go through seemingly hundreds of entries on his download history to manually redownload each and every game, update, and DLC again).
posted by radiosilents at 1:38 PM on March 3, 2011

One factor which may or may not matter to you is that a hard drive (as opposed to the memory unit the 4GB model comes with) is required if you want to play any original Xbox games on your 360.

Also, nthing the responses that it is very nice to be able to load your game on the hard drive and not have to listen to the annoying noise of the optical drive.
posted by SomePerlGeek at 2:24 PM on March 3, 2011

I have all of the game systems and my PS3 filled up completely. I had to delete some downloaded games in order to play newer ones. I really wish I had a bigger hard drive i the thing.

So get the biggest you can. You might not need it now, but in the future you won't suddenly realize you are out of space and have to delete other games to make room.

And Xbox is better than PS3 in my opinion.
posted by tacodave at 3:10 PM on March 3, 2011

I have the 4GB model and find it fine. I added an old xbox harddrive (I think it is 8GB?), but even if I would have had to buy a new 16GB usb drive it would still be much cheaper and good enough for me. Unless you want to store lots of games on the harddisk, the smaller model is fine, in my opinion. The 250GB is definitely not necessary, so whether it is worth the extra money is a matter of preference. It is also not really all that expensive to add more space later as opposed to now. I believe radiosilents when they say swopping hard drives is tedious, but in my experience simply adding a new harddrive was no problem at all.
posted by davar at 2:46 AM on March 4, 2011

You really should install the games you play, and 4 GB isn't enough for many (most?) of them. 20 GB would be OK if you don't mind wiping the ones you don't play anymore (you can still keep their save files as the installation file is separate, so you wouldn't really lose anything) to make space for others, but IMO you should just stick with the largest HDD you can find. Installing is fast (about 5-10 minutes per game), gives you quicker load times in most cases, and drastically reduces the chance of your console scratching your spinning game disc if a kid/pet accidentally impacts it during playtime.
posted by Bangaioh at 4:54 AM on March 4, 2011