Please help me figure out which Xbox360 to buy

So after years spent trying to convince the spousal unit to let me get an Xbox360, during which my brothers practically begged me to get with the program so that we could play Xbox Live against one another, all it takes is for one of her friends to mention that her husband plays one, too, and now she’s all on board so that I can make some more friends in the local area. :rolleyes:
Anyway, she’s decided that she wants Kinect, and she’s left the rest up to me, so I’ve been trying to decide how to go about this. I’ve decided to look for a used one, for monetary reasons, but I’m unsure about most everything else. First, the 4GB and 250GB models… this is such a huge difference in storage sizes that it has me completely baffled. I don’t have any problem changing discs out to play new games, so I won’t need a lot of storage for copying game discs, but say I wanted to get Forza 4 and some (ok, all) of the car packs. How much space do those take up? I’ve seen a few XLA games that I might like to check out… how much space do those take up on average? Once I pay for an XLA game, can I delete it to free up HD space and redownload it later? For those who have full 250GB models, what takes up most of all that space? One of my brothers said he’d give me a 25GB (I believe, but don’t quote me on the actual size) Xbox hard drive from his original 360. Could I use that with the new slim model?
Another question I had: I was looking on Gamestop’s website to get an idea on prices, and I noticed that the new consoles say “DLC is available for this game” but the refurbished ones don’t. Does this mean that I won’t be able to download stuff like those car packs to a used console? Will I even be able to connect a used console to Xbox Live at all, or is the console tied to a specific username?
That’s everything I could think of off the top of my head… I know there are a lot of questions there, but I’d sure appreciate any help I can get here if anyone’s willing to indulge me. I feel like buying the Wii was simple: one model, take it or leave it. But the 360 makes me feel like I’m buying my first computer again for some reason.

Get the 250. You’ll fill 4 up with the Forza install alone, then you have save games and XBLA games. Plus you’ll want to download demos, some of which are over 4GB. I am not a hardcore gamer, and I just got my 360 in December, and I already have 90GB filled (though I do have several games installed to HD).

There is the option to “recover gamertag”. So this would do away with a console being tied to a specific username.
Other than that, Just my take on the matter, that it doesn’t work that way; that is, you should be able to get your own / new Live account onto a used system .

My mom managed to get a 360 with the smallest hard-drive and a 250GB HDD for cheaper than the 250GB model, but that involved sales. Still, couldn’t hurt to look around.

Some games require the hard drive for multi-player, others will require an install to not look like they came out in 1999. So definitely get the one with the large hard drive.

Kinect is a waste of money. Get the ebay page ready for when your wife, inevitably, grows dissolutioned with it.

It’s possible to prop up the 4GB model a bit with USB devices, but frankly, I think it seems like more trouble than it’s worth.

THAT said, the difference in price between a 250GB model and a 4GB model is basically what you would pay for the hard drive, so if you decide that 4GB isn’t cutting it, it’s not a big deal to just acquire the drive.

This is a pretty biased opinion. Lots of non hardcore gamers are very, very pleased with Kinect. You, however, are not the target market.

To answer a few questions from the OP that no one else seems to have:

Yes, you can redownload XBLA games as often as you want, but frankly, it’d be a pretty serious nuisance, and I wouldn’t recommend this, even though most games are 1GB or less (though this is constantly expanding).

Heck, you could probably fill up most of that 4GB memory card just with updates and apps, or DLC for a couple of games. THAT said, I have an older 360 with a 60GB drive, and it still has about 20GB free, even after downloading a fairly large number of games, an even larger number of trials (many of which are still on the drive) a bit of DLC (not a particularly large amount - but I’ve got a few GB of it) and installing two full games off disc.

Can you get away with the 4GB model? Probably, but you’ll probably rapidly discover that you want a hard drive. (Note: I am not sure about compatibility of old drives - I don’t THINK the old 360 drives work with the Slim, but there might be an enclosure or something you can purchase if you’re feeling savvy.) The 250GB Model is overkill, but Microsoft is being shrewd and not offering any inbetween models, so that’s what you get.

I agree that I am not the target for the Kinect market. I wasn’t approaching the question from that angle, but rather from that of his wife, clearly NOT a gamer.

Now, granted my opinion is based on nothing but anecdotes, but there it is.

Every single non gamer who tried kinect went through the same stages as they did when the Wii came out.

It was the “cool” new thing to try out. And they did. For a week. But then the unresponsive, inaccurate controls, and the lack of compelling games eventually kills their interest, and away it goes into the closet to colelct dust.

It’s been this way for every non gamer friend, acquaintance, coworker I’ve ever known to own a Wii, and the same thing happened when a smaller subset (usually the xbox isn’t considered unless someone in the family is an actual gamer) tried kinect.

I could be 100% wrong and the Op’s wife will be rocking Kinectimals and Dance revolution for the next 6 months.

But I doubt it.

I think my wife will absolutely love Kinect for a few days or maybe weeks, but then she’ll get bored with it. And then I won’t be able to convince her to get rid of it. That’s what she did with the Wii Balance Board, anyway, and while I realize there are plenty of things you can do with Kinect that you can’t with the WBB, it’s just what often happens with video game peripherals in general. It’s not really negotiable, though, because if I want to get an Xbox, and I do, Kinect is a condition of the deal. She doesn’t ask for much, though, so I’m usually willing to indulge her.
Based on what I’ve read here, I’m leaning toward getting a new 4GB model. My game collection won’t be all that big for a while, which will save space; my brother’s hard drive will add some space (if it works like I think it will… there’s a transfer cable available on Amazon for like $16, that says it’s compatible with the S model. I should be able to use that to permanently hook a second hard drive up, right?); and as **Arik **pointed out above, the cost for a bigger hard drive later brings it up to about what I would have originally paid anyway, so I’m out nothing if I do decide to go that route.
What are some games that require an install, as **Kinthalis **mentioned? Is there a list somewhere? I tried Googling, but apparently didn’t use the right words.

I am…not 100% sure that the transfer cable actually allows you to USE the old hard drive - I suspect very strongly that since it results in connecting the HDD as a USB device, that there’s some sort of special handling involved - namely, that when you turn the 360 on with the transfer stuff hooked up, it pops up a dialogue saying “Do you want to transfer your stuff?”

I don’t think the cable makes the old hard drive accessable to the 360 in a general sort of way - but I’ve never tried, so don’t take this as 100% guaranteed information.

All THAT said, if the HDD your brother is giving you is only a 20GB one from an original 360, you might as well skip the transfer cable entirely and just pay like $12 for a 16GB USB Flash Drive and use that - it’s not quite as much space, but you’re not gambling on the transfer cable doing something that it’s not advertised as doing, and if/when you upgrade to a new HD, you can continue to use the USB stick for whatever - be that transferring stuff around, keeping some sort of backup, or just sneakernetting stuff for your PC.

The 4GB is probably your best best; especially if you can get ahold of a hard drive for free. 16GB flash drives can be added for more storage (up to 2). The transfer cable is only for transferring, the hard drive can’t be used while hooked up to it. However, the hard drive inside the case is the same for both the slim & the fat Xboxes - a standard notebook hard drive. You need to spend $5 on a new case for the HD (http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Disk-Drive-Case-Enclosure-Included/dp/B004YV9TSA), and get a really small torx screwdriver at Lowes or somewhere. Unscrew the HDD out of the case it is in now, and it snaps into the new case, and the new case slides into the Xbox slim.
Hard drive is needed for:

  1. Original Xbox games - there is a separate partition where the emulation data is saved on OEM Xbox hard drives.
  2. Halo Reach Split Screen Campaign/Multiplayer- some kind of bug/issue in the game requires a hard drive for split screen - won’t work even with a fast flash drive.

For everything else a 16GB flash drive is the equivalent of a 16GB hard drive, so buy whatever is cheaper.

Edit to add: 16GB flash drive doesn’t even come close to filling up for me without installing games. But some games you really need to install, for example, Elder Scrolls V:Skyrim loading times are awful while installed, and when not installed are probably best described as “absurd”. For game install purposes all flash drives aren’t created equal - the very cheapest/slowest ones are far worse than a hard drive in terms of speed.

Well, if you want to have more than 4 GB and save money, do this.

Buy a 4 GB, and realize that 4 GB is not an internal hard drive but internal flash memory. There is a slot for a hard drive accessible through an access panel. Microsoft wants you to buy an overpriced new slim hard drive. Older version hard drives do not fit into the slim -Except that they do.
Buy any sized old xbox hard drive from Gamestop or somewhere and follow one of the many you tube examples such as the one I linked to learn how to take the case off of it and install it in your slim. Its actually really easy, took me about 5 minutes to do it.

Also, I have the Kinect and I love it. Sure the games are not quite as responsive or intricate as controller based ones, but it is really fun to play a mobile interactive game with someone else. Also, you don’t feel like such a blob sitting on the couch.