Want to get a 360 with my brother

[sam10685]

Decided with him yesterday that we are going to get a 360. Neither of us have much money so it'll be a while, but we still have all year. Was wondering about the warranty. I'm not really cool with microsoft because I've had a few bad experiences with them... But there are lots of good games for it out/coming out. How reliable are these systems? How hot do they get? What accessories should I invest in as well? I can't talk and everyone else is never here to call for me so is the a customer service email address? Thank you in advance.

 

[gkarris]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/407837/

 

[sam10685]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/407837/

Yes, I realize I could have used the search feature but I was actually hoping for a more personalized answer.

 

[Mackilroy]

Reliability varies, I've had two Xbox 360s and not had a single issue with either system. One of them was purchased exactly two years ago, as well. Other people will tell you they've been through four, seven, eight Xbox 360s, but I don't know what they're doing to their machines. Some treat them well and they die anyway, some don't.

The warranty is one year, then there's three years for the RROD issue (red ring of death).

Mine doesn't get super warm, but I can definitely feel a bit of heat coming out of it. There's plenty of airflow where I have mine, so it isn't a big issue for me.

Accessories? If you hate wires, only buy wireless controllers and get a wireless adapter of some sort - Microsoft sells one, but I believe nowadays it's $90, which is a little expensive. There's third-party ones but I cannot attest to their reliability or where to find them.

For customer service, go here. There's one email for hardware support, and one for Live.

 

[sam10685]

Reliability varies, I've had two Xbox 360s and not had a single issue with either system. One of them was purchased exactly two years ago, as well. Other people will tell you they've been through four, seven, eight Xbox 360s, but I don't know what they're doing to their machines. Some treat them well and they die anyway, some don't.

The warranty is one year, then there's three years for the RROD issue (red ring of death).

Mine doesn't get super warm, but I can definitely feel a bit of heat coming out of it. There's plenty of airflow where I have mine, so it isn't a big issue for me.

Accessories? If you hate wires, only buy wireless controllers and get a wireless adapter of some sort - Microsoft sells one, but I believe nowadays it's $90, which is a little expensive. There's third-party ones but I cannot attest to their reliability or where to find them.

For customer service, go here. There's one email for hardware support, and one for Live.

Thank you very much. Very helpful. one more question. actually two-- I'd probably have it in an armoire-type thing so should I invest in an external fan and are 360's basically pointless without the internet? I have a wireless router but don't want to drop 90 bucks on a wireless adapter for the 360 and I'd need a 60 foot long ethernet cable for it to be wired.

 

[Mackilroy]

Thank you very much. Very helpful. one more question. actually two-- I'd probably have it in an armoire-type thing so should I invest in an external fan and are 360's basically pointless without the internet? I have a wireless router but don't want to drop 90 bucks on a wireless adapter for the 360 and I'd need a 60 foot long ethernet cable for it to be wired.

Hmm. I don't know if you'd *need* a fan, but if you don't mind a little work you could cut a hole in the back and that would be just dandy. Actually, with our home setup there's only a tiny hole in the back where I stick all of the cables through (HDMI and power cord) and I just keep the front door open. So you might not.

Second: depends, do you like playing online? LIVE is awesome, and you would have to download (well, not HAVE to, but it's a good thing to do so) updates once in a while. It's not pointless without the Internet, some of my favorite games are offline-only (like Mass Effect ), but having online makes it that much nicer.

Also, don't forget that you don't have to buy Microsoft's. I've heard of third-party adapters working, though I don't know which ones. Anyone else have any ideas?

 

[dukebound85]

ive gone through 5-6 360's. lasting only a couple of months to half a year if lucky. they have srated my discs to the point they are unplayable as well in some cases


i hate the 360 but like the games. thats what i say lol

 

[MRU]

Don't buy those FAN solutions. If anything they bugger up your 360 more so than anything else.

You don't have to spend $90 on the 360 wireless solution. You can buy a cheap enough $30/40 wireless router and set it to be an extender/access point and just plug your 360 into that via ethernet and that will talk with your main wireless in the house.


I too am seemingly one of the lucky ones and have not had ANY problems with my launch console or the extra one I got a year later.


edit.. added this thread to the buy/sell sticky

 

[sam10685]

You don't have to spend $90 on the 360 wireless solution. You can buy a cheap enough $30/40 wireless router and set it to be an extender/access point and just plug your 360 into that via ethernet and that will talk with your main wireless in the house.

Didn't think of that. Thank you! (How would you do that though?)

 

[MRU]

You buy the cheap router and hook it up to your computer so you can configure it.

You then choose to use it as an access point / extender and you tell it where it has to share from.

Thats it configured. Take it into your room with the 360 and hook it up.

 

[sycho]

You buy the cheap router and hook it up to your computer so you can configure it.

You then choose to use it as an access point / extender and you tell it where it has to share from.

Thats it configured. Take it into your room with the 360 and hook it up.

Few routers can be configured like that...

 

[Andrew D.]

Few routers can be configured like that...

I'm curious as well. Could you elaborate more MacRumorUser if you can please, like what routers can be configured that way or what not. I am planning on getting an Xbox 360 as well and I don't want to do the whole $90 wireless adapter if I can. Thanks!

 

[MRU]

I'll see if I can dig up an old post ... someone put a link to a specific wireless point/router that was cheap and worked for the 360... just need to find it again


hold on... here's a wireless bridge that would work as I outlined.

official site

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=333


and on ebay for the item..

http://cgi.ebay.com/D-Link-Gaming-B...ryZ51164QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

another one same item

http://cgi.ebay.com/D-Link-Wireless...ryZ67252QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[da2005pizimp]

personally i LOVE the 360 however between me and my 2 brothers we have gone through 5 xbox's total, 3 rings of death and 2 cd-rom problems. it is nice to have that 3 year warranty with the rings of death but my brother was out of an xbox for 2 months before getting his back. He has a playstation 3 and has had no problems with it at all. The best thing about xbox is xbox Live but if you don't use it then i'd go for the PS3 or Wii

 

[sam10685]

I was wondering if anyone knows if the 360's made in 2008 are less problematic than the ones made last year or in 2006 or 2005. Help would be appreciated.

 

[webgoat]

i purchased a 360 the week they originally came out... it went a good year and i got the red ring of death and found out my warranty was up... they quoted me something like $170 to fix it so it sat in a box collecting dust in my basement for about 7 months... then one day i randomly got an email from microsoft saying they extended the coverage and would fix it for free so i had it done... been using it since with no problems and really enjoy the games... on a side note i just found out a few days ago my old roommate from college just got the ring death on his 360 which was purchased in 07

 

[ill0gical0ne]

I purchased a 360 in the beginning of January and I play it roughly 2-3 days a week, at 4-6 hours at a time. It sits upright, I haven't bought any external fans and it still works...

 

[Agathon]

Thank you very much. Very helpful. one more question. actually two-- I'd probably have it in an armoire-type thing so should I invest in an external fan

DO NOT put it in an armoire or any other confined space. You will probably kill it. I can't stress that enough. The 360 runs very hot. Mine sounds like a jet engine when playing games. It really needs to be in an open, well ventilated area.

and are 360's basically pointless without the internet?

Yes. You will need internet access to download bug fixes for games and to access downloadable content. Xbox Live is the only significant reason for getting a 360 over a PS3, but even if you don't have that you sadly will need to download some bug fixes.

 

[sam10685]

I'll see if I can dig up an old post ... someone put a link to a specific wireless point/router that was cheap and worked for the 360... just need to find it again


hold on... here's a wireless bridge that would work as I outlined.

official site

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=333


and on ebay for the item..

http://cgi.ebay.com/D-Link-Gaming-B...ryZ51164QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

another one same item

http://cgi.ebay.com/D-Link-Wireless...ryZ67252QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

This sounds like a good product. Except does it need any configuring on a computer? (I run MacOS Tiger.)

 

[RichL]

The only computer configuring you may have to do is logging in to your router and messing with router settings.

You know what makes a huge deal? The ambient temperature in your game room. I live in Chicago and rarely use m heat so my room temp is pretty low. My 360 Elite never gets hot.

-Rich L.