Thread: Justifying An Xbox 360 Hard drive?

I'll make this short and to the point.

I finally learned that Xbox Live Silver is free. I went through the entire account creation process and now have a one month Gold trial as well.

Immediately I noticed something wrong - I didn't have a hard drive, as when the system was bought there didn't seem to be a reason to bother with it. Well this came as a surprise, as somehow I thought "MU" was the hard drive, laugh here if you need to, and thus learned that I couldn't download demos or Fallout 3 Anchorage.

After looking around a bit more, I was even more surprised to notice just how little was actually on the Marketplace; and not to mention the fact that 360 games can't be downloaded.

My first question is as such: Is there a logical reason the hard drives start at 60GB, and the nearest memory card is 512MB, when the entire collection of currently available data (not counting demos) could easily fit onto that hard drive and barely give the user need to worry about running out of room?

Secondly: Is there any good reason why someone like me, who could just easily download the demos onto a computer instead, and already own or have played the "Xbox Original" games, to ever consider buying a hard drive?

Oh god, I laughed for about 5 minutes. xD

Iirc, the first few models came had a 10gb or a 20gb model. They gradually got bigger HD's since some games have optional installs, new movie service, competition.

Some people dl XBLA games, some movies, etc.

It's worth it for the XBLA games, some games getting patches, dlc, demos.

The HD is a must if you want demos and DLC (but you've already said that), the question you need to ask is can you afford the extortionate price.

Originally Posted by Terasiel

After looking around a bit more, I was even more surprised to notice just how little was actually on the Marketplace

I thought you were serious till I saw the troll part.
Well played.

Originally Posted by Jyuu

I thought you were serious till I saw the troll part.
Well played.

I try not to troll on things I gratefully own. Mind you, I don't have a PS3 and I was just expecting it to completely overshadow the Wii on downloadable content. Didn't really happen that way, unfortunately. I'd say their downloadable content is pretty much equal in the overall sense. (Though I would like to see expansion packs for the Wii.)

The biggest reason I don't want to spend the money on a hard drive, is that after this much time, if there's only 30 Xbox Original games uploaded, and I own two copies of portal as it is, it seems a waste.

I think the hard drive is worth it. The 512MB plus ekstra, gets filled up pretty fast with save games etc, and there are some games that need a Hard drive if you want to play with a friend that also got a 360. Besides, new maps/features takes up alot of space, and if you want to play online, then its kinda a must, since "the game" wont let you play certain playlists, if you dont got the space to download the maps that is.

XBLA games make having a hard drive a must.
SOTN, Rez, Geometry Wars, Castle Crashers, SSF2THDR, etc.

The main reason people used to prefer GTA4 on PS3 instead of X360 was apparently because there was no option to install the game to the hard drive for faster load times (less objects popping into view as they are loaded). Well with the new interface also came the ability to install any game to the HDD.

If you have GTA4 or any other games where load times matter, I'd say the HDD is now a must.

I think the HDD is a must, having to micromanage your disk space is a pain. I have an Elite and my HDD has like 40 of 120 left and I don't even buy arcade titles.

To me the best thing about HDD space is being able to install your games to it so when you play them they don't make the horribly loud noise you'd normally get from playing it off the disc.

You have no idea how much quieter it gets when the disc isn't spinning, it's great to say the least, They say load times are lightly increased and tested it to be true for many, I can't really notice but later it'll matter. Now that this is a standard with the update, devs will utilize the install feature to slow down loads and other related issues inherent with loading off a disc.

Originally Posted by Jyuu

XBLA games make having a hard drive a must.
SOTN, Rez, Geometry Wars, Castle Crashers, SSF2THDR, etc.

Already Own it. Would love to play it. Don't care. Don't care. Don't care. Etc...

Originally Posted by MadDogMike

Well with the new interface also came the ability to install any game to the HDD.

If you have GTA4 or any other games where load times matter, I'd say the HDD is now a must.

Originally Posted by event

To me the best thing about HDD space is being able to install your games to it so when you play them they don't make the horribly loud noise you'd normally get from playing it off the disc.

You have no idea how much quieter it gets when the disc isn't spinning, it's great to say the least, They say load times are lightly increased and tested it to be true for many, I can't really notice but later it'll matter. Now that this is a standard with the update, devs will utilize the install feature to slow down loads and other related issues inherent with loading off a disc.

Hey look, people who actually read my post.

I had no idea you could use the HD for that until just now. That alone is a very, very good reason to buy one.

Anyway, thanks to all of you for the suggestions. I actually bothered checking out XBLA thanks to some of you bringing it up, in spite of me saying I didn't care for it, and I've found a few things actually worth downloading if I do indeed get a hard drive soon.