Opinions on 360 slim?

[Yancakes]

I'm looking at buying a new 360 soon, after having two older models RROD on me (fixed both times by replacing the heat sinks then, eventually, they single red bar after another year or so). I've been looking at buying a slim instead of just an arcade unit and transplanting my HD into it (yes, I know this voids the warranty on my HD, I don't care).

I basically just have a couple of questions...

1. How bad has the failure rate on slims been? They seem, around here, to cost about 50 dollars more than a barebones arcade unit. Is it worth it? I will be getting a warranty regardless.

2. I know that taking the HD out of the HD (haha) on old 360 units to transplant them into a slim will void the warranty on the HD itself, I don't care, but will it void the warranty on the slim?

3. Is there anything else I should know before plopping a (third) 200 dollars down on an xbox?

Thanks!

[Xeogred]

Your HD is not going to work with the slim, you're going to need a transfer cable (like $20 or something) to carry stuff over. The slims do not have that weird external HD like the old models, it's a smaller interior drive in the system now. How big is your HD anyways? I'd imagine you can get a decent sized one in a slim package for a few extra bucks.

Myself and most of my friends have made the jump, after so many red rings and crap. It's like 10x quieter than both of my old systems, looks nicer, and yeah I'm happy with it. Never had any problems with it and I don't know anyone else that has, unlike the old models.

I don't like the motion sensor disc tray though, but it's not a big deal if you have some distance from the system I guess. It's just super sensitive, if you're trying to dust the system off or something, whoops! Pretty annoying... lol

Buying old models at this point is suicide I'd say. I never, ever recommend them anymore with the slims out there now.

[Yancakes]

Your HD is not going to work with the slim, you're going to need a transfer cable (like $20 or something) to carry stuff over. The slims do not have that weird external HD like the old models, it's a smaller interior drive in the system now. How big is your HD anyways? I'd imagine you can get a decent sized one in a slim package for a few extra bucks.

Myself and most of my friends have made the jump, after so many red rings and crap. It's like 10x quieter than both of my old systems, looks nicer, and yeah I'm happy with it. Never had any problems with it and I don't know anyone else that has, unlike the old models.

I don't like the motion sensor disc tray though, but it's not a big deal if you have some distance from the system I guess. It's just super sensitive, if you're trying to dust the system off or something, whoops! Pretty annoying... lol

Buying old models at this point is suicide I'd say. I never, ever recommend them anymore with the slims out there now.

You can actually crack open the HD housing and remove the HD, then just slide it in to a slim.

Here's a tutorial:

Again, this will void the warranty on my HD, which is like 5 years old at this point.

[sabrage]

I'm thinking about making the jump. My Xbox is pushing 7 years old now... Still working like a champ but showing its age.

[gtmtnbiker]

I'm happy with my slim. Super quiet, built-in wireless N. No real reason to use the older model unless you get it for cheap.

[Xeogred]

You can actually crack open the HD housing and remove the HD, then just slide it in to a slim.

Here's a tutorial:

Again, this will void the warranty on my HD, which is like 5 years old at this point.

Oh wow, haha. Guess that's why you kept bringing up the warranty issue.

But yeah I say go for it.

Built in wireless is another good mention

[brunoafh]

I'd say go for it too. From what I've read the slim is a pretty reliable system. Early models are straight up guaranteed to be defective. Hilarious how Microsoft was able to get away with what they did there. I've had a slim for awhile now and like it, I've had no issues.

Super quiet

Really? Mine is VERY noisy, at least compared to my PS3s. It's as noisy as a Dreamcast. Hope there's nothing wrong with the fan or something... then again I'm going to get rid of it after finishing Lost Odyssey anyway.

transfer cable (like $20 or something)

Jesus, is that what they go for nowadays? Pretty ridiculous given how cheap the materials required to make a transfer cable are, and that actually creating the cable can be done in less than 5 minutes.

[Yancakes]

Is the wireless good? It'd have to be better than the old 360 wireless attachment (which was expensive as hell and would get interfered with if your freaking fridge kicked on, guh).

I think my plan is that at this stage of the 360's life I either need to get a slim and hope that it works for ever, or get a cheap-ass old 360 and just hope that it holds out until the next XBOX is released (well, the second or third generation of next XBOX, I refuse to buy systems at launch at this point).

[Gamerforlife]

I'm still using my old model, too cheap to buy a slim and too lazy to trade in my current one

It already failed on me once, but I sent it to Microsoft and it's been working fine ever since. I always make sure it's in a well ventilated area. The lack of wireless used to be a big headache, but since moving I have it in the same room as my wireless connection so I've simply plugged it in directly to the device where I get my signal and can get online easily now.

The slim's the way to go, but some of us (like myself) are still stubbornly holding on

Plus, I don't really love the 360 enough to motivate me to buy it yet again

[isiolia]

Not sure if it's just a limited time promo or an actual price drop, but with the 250GB Slims going for $249.99 right now, and still available with the holiday bundle stuff on some sites, that'd seem like a better way to go to me.

Otherwise, the Microsoft store has some kind of odd deals on it right now. They've got the basic consoles listed as on sale for $179.99 and $249.99 (arcade/250GB respectively) with no bundle stuff, and then a "free game" promo listing for each at their normal retail ($199.99/$299.99). Doing that lets you pick from a small range of stuff, but there are things like Forza 4, Gears 3, and MW3 there that are almost certainly worth more than the $20 off the 4GB they're otherwise offering.

To me, that's probably the way to go if you want an Arcade.