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Technology news and Jobs arrow Radioactive IT arrow Xbox 360 Elite arrives this Sunday. Will it sell?
Xbox 360 Elite arrives this Sunday. Will it sell? E-mail
by Mike Bantick   
Saturday, 28 April 2007
So you’re a next-gen gamer who has all the tech gear.  A HDMI equipped High-Def screen, a high speed internet connection poised to download viewable content, and perhaps you already own an Xbox 360.  Will you succumb to the lure of black?

Officially it is released this Sunday, though some have got hold of the Xbox 360 Elite before-hand via a number of retail outlets jumping the release date gun.  Obviously Microsoft will be happy with the buzz generated by the new SKU.

Over at engadget however, they are a little under whelmed.  In a recent report they take apart the new matt black gaming box to check out the new features.

By the end of the article I am left thinking, who will buy this new model? 

Not being built on the rumoured 65NM chipset the Elite does not run any cooler than the Original.

By all accounts the Elite is no quieter than the Original, probably due to the cooling fans still needing to kick in at the same time and DVD drive having not improved despite the change of manufacturer.

On the promoted features front, Endgadget don’t seem to be able to discern the difference in picture quality of the classic Xbox 360’s component connections and the new HDMI, perhaps only a true technophile can!  Personally I would have thought the folks at Engadget would be up to this task if was indeed a worthy upgrade.

So apart from a more clickable power button, we are left with the 120GB HDD and errrm. The “blackness”.  I have never tried painting a games console before, but surely it cannot be that hard.  For that purpose it was nice of Microsoft to give us the Original Xbox 360 in an undercoat hue.  That leaves us with the Hard Drive.

Downloadable content is the way of the future, and ultimately will most likely cause the end of the Blu-ray vs HD-DVD argument.

In the meantime, if we separate the gaming downloads for the moment, with Nintendo pretty much ignoring the whole content download, and Sony yet to firm up their inevitable download service we are left with Microsoft’s Live Marketplace.

The discerning consumer will weigh this up and realise the separately available 120HDD on sale for the Xbox 360 (and a can of matt black paint) will be the only sensible approach at the cash till.  Use the - according to Microsoft – one use upgrade cable to transfer your data from the old 20GB drive to the new one, then throw the old 20GB onto eBay with the multitude of others about to hit that market.

True l33t home electronic set-ups sporting an already all-black look may well accommodate an Xbox 360 Elite in its full blown form, for the rest of us though, perhaps a credit card pause is required before considering the purchase.
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Radioactive IT - Exposure to Hazardous Interactive Entertainment
Wriggle into your Hazmat suit, pick up your Geiger counter and journey into the dangerous world of gaming and interactive entertainment. Mike Bantick will be your guide.