Is 4 GB enough memory?

chris hollands

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Hi guys, i want to get my 8 year old son an xbox 360 for xmas and am tempted by best buys 4GB slim for £119.

The only thing that concerns me is wether it will be enough memory ?

He will just play games on it, doubtful it will be on-line multiplayer as he is a bit young.

Advice greatly appreciated.
 

bigblue235

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I personally wouldn't say so, no. I don't really think the 4gb is a good option. I appreciate he's only 8, but he's only going to get older and more savvy.

On Xbox Live, playable demos of the latest games are often bigger than 1gb in size, I downloaded one the other day which was 1.6gb. There are also loads of great Xbox Live Arcade games available, which are smaller, but still often hundreds of Mb. With some of these Xbox Live downloads, and game saves and other data, 4gb will be full in no time.

If you buy the bigger version you can also install games to the HDD. Some games are noticeably better when you can install at least part of the data to your hard drive. Battlefield 3 isn't a game your son is likely to be playing any time soon, but it needs a 1.5gb install to have the best graphical performance. If other games follow this path, then this will be an issue for those with 4gb consoles. Also, when a game is installed the disk drive isn't constantly running, so the console is quieter.

In general, I think you may find the 4gb version a false economy, as you'll end up shelling out for the bigger hard drive in no time at all. But if the Best Buy price is really good, it may be cheaper to buy the 4gb then add an HDD?
 

Alantiggger

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You could look at the likes of http://www.play.com/Games/Xbox360/4-/15570092/Xbox-360-S-Console-With-250GB-HDD-Gloss-Black/Product.html?_%24ja=tsid:11518|cat:15570092|prd:15570092

But for a wee kiddie.... it's a good buy that you mention... go for it if he's probably only gonna play single player games against 'the machine' :)

Forget about the extra memory and the guy above talking about ''in a few years time ....''

In a few YEARS time we will be onto an xbox 720 or something ... so in the meantime... go for the cheaper deal... he'll love it :dance:

Maybe look into pc desktop deals though in the future as EVERYTHING looks far better.... in PC :)
 

bigblue235

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Alantiggger said:
You could look at the likes of...
Or he could look at it on Best Buy, where it's only £165 and isn't the old matt model. But I guess he'll have seen that when he was looking at the 4gb version ;)
Forget about the extra memory and the guy above talking about "in a few years time..."
Which guy said that, then?
 

Alantiggger

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WHY are sooo many on this site sooo 'confrontational' ?

Therre is NO call for it ...it's no wonder that sooo many STOP frequenting here ... grrr

The dude above said:

''In general, I think you may find the 4gb version a false economy, as you'll end up shelling out for the bigger hard drive in no time at all.''

You dont like my interpretation ? fine... give it a rest.

It's what 's intended (ask him)

_______________________

The Idea is SOUND... buy it :) ... he's a child.
 

bigblue235

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I think you've misunderstood. It doesn't come down to me not liking your interpretation, and I don't need to 'ask him' as the 'dude' who made that post was... me! I know what I meant, and it wasn't what you suggested, so I corrected you. "In no time at all" doesn't equate to "in a few years time", does it? No big deal, certainly no need for a rant telling me to 'give it a rest'!

Anyway, back on topic, hopefully... :)

For £45 extra I'd definitely get the 250gb hard drive version. If the little 'un downloads some demos, then it should save some money on games!
 
A

Anonymous

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If you're connected to the net, the bigger hdd is definately better. As one of the earlier posters rightly sais, there are loads of games available for a few quid to dl, which take up a few hundred megabytes, but can be a good way to keep the little beggars occupied at short notice.
 
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Anonymous

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I agree with the "false economy" thing.

I don't have XBOX (I have 2 PS3s), but if the downloads are anything similar you'll get irritated in no time. Demos, cheap games etc will fill 4GB in no time. And (certainly on the PS3) this is where many really good kid-friendly games are to be found.
 
I've never downloaded anything on my PS3 in 3-4 years of ownership. It really depends on what you want.

You can connect either an external HDD or USB thumb drive up to 16GB. The hard drive is not essential and can easily be replaced with a USB thumb drive. The HDD serves only a few purposes:

1.) Retail games (they sell full retail Xbox 360 games on Xbox Live). These are usually more expensive than the disc based copies and you can't resell them so I don't recommend it personally. Typical sizes are about 5GB-7GB.

2.) Game Demos. Usually deleted right after playing. Ranges in size about 700MB-2GB.

3.) Game add-ons. These include extra maps for multiplayer games, additional campaign levels or missions, new songs for a music game or new in-game characters. These could range from a few megabytes to a couple of gigabytes depending upon the amount of content you are buying. Extra multiplayer levels or missions could use a lot of space.

4.) Xbox Live Arcade Games or Indie Games. These range from usually really small 40MB to the occasional big game 300MB. None of these games require a HDD, but they could add up over time. You will be fine with a USB thumb drive for these games though. And you can always delete and redownload later if you need to clear space.

5.) Installing disc based retail games to the HDD. This was much more useful with the old Xbox 360 because the DVD drive was so loud when it would spin. The new Xbox 360 is so quiet that there is very little advantage to installing games. Load times are only reduced by a few seconds by installing games to the HDD.

6.) Game videos. I expect this will eventually change, but for some reason unlike movies, movie trailers, tv shows, and music videos Microsoft still requires you to download game trailers to your hard drive. Microsoft clearly has the ability to stream 1080p video so there is no reason for this any longer. For now though you need storage space to watch game trailers.

Basically the only thing you NEED a hard drive for is if you expect to download a lot of extra content (DLC) like multiplayer map packs for Call of Duty or Halo or if you expect to buy a ton of songs for music games.
 

professorhat

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I agree with others that it's worth having a bigger drive with the Xbox - there are lots of demos plus mini games etc to download, many of which you might play and find it's all you need rather than buying the whole game, so it saves money in the end. 4 GB just won't cut it and you'll more than likely end up shelling out later for an upgrade or a USB drive. I have an older 20 GB model and struggle to keep enough free on that (and I rarely use the Xbox).

It's also worth remembering that 4 GB will actually turn out to be more like 3.5 GB once you take into account how they advertise these things.
 

bearwolfblade

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professorhat said:
I agree with others that it's worth having a bigger drive with the Xbox - there are lots of demos plus mini games etc to download, many of which you might play and find it's all you need rather than buying the whole game, so it saves money in the end. 4 GB just won't cut it and you'll more than likely end up shelling out later for an upgrade or a USB drive. I have an older 20 GB model and struggle to keep enough free on that (and I rarely use the Xbox).

It's also worth remembering that 4 GB will actually turn out to be more like 3.5 GB once you take into account how they advertise these things.
I agree
 

chris hollands

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Thanks everyone, think it is gonna be the 250 gb, simply because you get Halo with it and is only £45 more and i can play that. really appreciate the advice.
 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B005HHTK70/ref=dp_olp_all_mbc?ie=UTF8&qid=1320271891&sr=8-2&condition=all

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Xbox-360-250GB-Console-Matte-Black-Finish-Free-Shipping-/110767969485?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item19ca4914cd#ht_657wt_922
 

bigblue235

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I'd keep an eye on Amazon. They tend to match other major offers that are available. Don't think they're offering anything special at the mo (£199 with a new 'big' game) but definitely worth watching :)
 

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