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Print E-mail del.icio.us 27 comment(s) - last by ElJefe69.. on Mar 5 at 3:43 PM

With the 512MB Memory Unit on its way, why bother with the 64MB one?
Xbox 360 gets a bigger memory card, but no new hard drive

As one of the first announcements out of this year’s Game Developers Conference, Microsoft today said that it plans to launch a 512MB Memory Unit for the Xbox 360. The 512MB Memory Unit will be available worldwide beginning April 3, 2007, will retail for an estimated retail price of $49.99.

While Xbox 360 Premium owners may have little use for a memory unit, the added eightfold capacity over the 64MB Memory Unit will be welcome for those still without a hard drive on their console. The 512MB Memory Unit will provide Xbox 360 owners with expanded capabilities to store transport their gamer profile, save game data and Xbox Live Arcade games. The 512MB Memory Unit also gives Xbox 360 owners the ability to download exclusive content from any of the 45,000 Xbox 360 kiosks accessible at retail outlets worldwide.

As an added bonus, the 512MB Memory Unit will be pre-loaded with the hit Xbox LIVE Arcade game “Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved” from developer Bizarre Creations Ltd. for a limited time. The original 64MB Memory Unit will simultaneously drop in price from $39.99 to $29.99.

This latest move by Microsoft could be a sign showing that the company is willing to address matters of limited storage. While a bigger memory unit is good news for owners of Core systems, the announcement that all Xbox Live Marketplace users are waiting for is one about a bigger hard drive.

A roomier hard drive for the Xbox 360 has been spied and rumored several times, though Microsoft denies that it is exploring the possibility of a larger drive, with Bill Gates saying that 20GB should remain plenty.

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Great
By tuteja1986 on 3/5/2007 4:08:36 AM , Rating: 2
People should just end up buying the 20GB HDD instead for $100 but i do say that Microsoft should got rid of the 64MB model for good and just priced the 512MB for $39.




RE: Great
By StevoLincolnite on 3/5/2007 6:02:36 AM , Rating: 2
I'm expecting the 512Mb memory for 79 or 89 bucks here in aus.
What is REALLY needed is a larger Hard drive.
Eventually when mods are released I want to turn my 360 into a HD media center, Where my Origional Xbox is a media center it doesn't have HD support, Even XP runs on it with the added 64mb of ram mod :) (128mb in total)
Or even better one of those cardbus adapters, I have that many different types of SD card thingy's from the different brands of camera's or people giving them to me it is not funny.


RE: Great
By SquidianLoveGod on 3/5/07, Rating: 0
RE: Great
By FITCamaro on 3/5/2007 7:19:48 AM , Rating: 2
Well you can already get a larger notebook drive attached to the 360. The issue is the stop gaps MS put in place to prevent it from being used. Once mod chips come out that won't be an issue.

And I don't know about HD support but I know my DVDs run from my hacked Xbox (has the extra RAM mod) look great on my HDTV so I wonder if theres any upscaling going on there or if just the hack took off the limitations from DVDs outputting in 1080i. DVDs are capable of it just it normally requires a digital connection (HDMI) for the HDCP.


RE: Great
By nurbsenvi on 3/5/07, Rating: 0
RE: Great
By VIAN on 3/5/2007 8:25:20 AM , Rating: 1
Don't you mean $600 dollars. And normally tax isn't a very big deal, but 7% of $600 is $42. So you're actually paying $642 dollars.

As far has HD video it isn't any cheaper than a 360 premium with a HD DVD add-on. Although I do understand that there are other benefits to owning a PS3, such as, a good HDD implementation.


RE: Great
By peldor on 3/5/2007 9:19:01 AM , Rating: 2
Personally I think MS is letting a tremendous opportunity slip through their fingers. The 360 could easily be THE 'convergence' media box if only they'd put out a large, affordable storage option. If MS keeps farting around with tiny drives and huge markups, even Sony will eventually get it right.


RE: Great
By ATC on 3/5/2007 3:17:44 PM , Rating: 2
I agree that MSFT can really do some damage here to Sony and others if they play their cards right.

MS can easily release a revised/upscale 360 housing HDMI, a larger HDD, wireless adaptor built-in, a shrunken CPU (to 65nm), and HD-DVD. If they make such a beast available while keeping the bloody thing quiet and without overheating then Sony would really be worried.

I am sure they may be able to price it the same as the PS3(60gb) too.


RE: Great
By ElJefe69 on 3/5/2007 3:43:46 PM , Rating: 1
yeah then all the M$ whores will stop whining about the ps3 being so expensive. Bill gates wont do it all though as it would make users happy and does make a lot of sense.

thats not m$ style.


RE: Great
By gramboh on 3/5/2007 11:41:39 AM , Rating: 3
You don't need an HDD to use the Xbox as a media extender, I have the original Xbox running XBMC. You just plug the machine into your LAN and use network shares to store content. 100mbit is easily fast enough to stream everything over. Very convenient, just have to do a softmod. Too bad the original Xbox can't decode HD fast enough :( Hopefully the 360 gets to that state soon.


RE: Great
By Visual on 3/5/2007 6:06:30 AM , Rating: 2
ridiculous, $100 can get you a 320gb pc drive, why would you pay that for a mere 20gb?

i don't have a xbox so i'm not up-to-date on the hacking opportunities, but i guess its not too hard to use a pc drive for xbox...


RE: Great
By darkpaw on 3/5/2007 9:05:39 AM , Rating: 3
Well laptop size drives $100 gets you a lot less (like 60-100), but its still a hell of a lot more then the severly overpriced 20gb MS addon.

$50 for a 512mb memory card is insane too, considering 2gb SD cards are available for $13-15 now.


RE: Great
By RamarC on 3/5/2007 12:29:27 PM , Rating: 2
they should just make a memory holder so you can use SD or CF cards. 2gb for $40, 4gb for $80. then open up the usb port so any old hard drive can be used.


OK....
By VIAN on 3/5/2007 8:21:15 AM , Rating: 2
And the point of this was. WTF do we need a memory card for seriously. It's not like it's even competitive with the HDD. 20GB for 100 bucks VS Half a GB for 50 bucks. No comparison.

I still think that both 360s should have released with a HDD. It's just pathetic that even if you do buy a 360 you'll have to buy a memory card which initially cost 50 bucks. It's just a much better value to get the 400 dollar version.

The 300 dollar version should have gotten a 20GB HDD and the 400 dollar version should have gotten a 100GB HDD. But that's just me. That's what I would've done.

The only big drawback to the 360 is the HDD implementation and they choose to release a new memory card. What are they thinking?




RE: OK....
By jt63 on 3/5/2007 8:26:07 AM , Rating: 2
"with Bill Gates saying that 20GB should remain plenty." This from a man who once said 640K is enough RAM.


RE: OK....
By SpaceRanger on 3/5/2007 11:36:08 AM , Rating: 4
RE: OK....
By VIAN on 3/5/2007 8:27:32 AM , Rating: 2
What I think they're going to do is release the new HDD when they release the new Xbox360 version. And the new 360 version will come equiped with the new HDD. That's nice, but making people wait is just stupid.


RE: OK....
By IndyJoe on 3/5/2007 8:30:06 AM , Rating: 2
The Memory Card is actually useful if you have friends with a 360. It allows you to take your profile with you when you play on your friends consoles.


Massive
By quiksilv3r on 3/5/2007 5:16:03 AM , Rating: 3
What a good deal on 512 MB of memory!!




RE: Massive
By dome1234 on 3/5/2007 6:43:51 AM , Rating: 2
my sarcasm detector just went buzzing


RE: Massive
By rbfowler9 on 3/5/2007 7:12:29 AM , Rating: 2
C'mon man, it's not just memory.... It's got all the packaging and stuff, it's actually a steal for $39 ;)


RE: Massive
By ComatoseDelirium on 3/5/2007 7:53:41 AM , Rating: 2
The 64MB stick is dropping to $39, the 512MB will likely intro at $49.


RE: Massive
By ComatoseDelirium on 3/5/2007 7:54:53 AM , Rating: 2
err.. dropping to $29.


PS3
By rupaniii on 3/5/2007 10:03:50 AM , Rating: 2
Sony didn't do alot of things right, but man, i tell ya, plugging in a small portable hard drive to save things to, and a giant 500gb USB drive too, well ,that's just ruling.
Now, I've had Tekken:DR for a while already, I could access to those PSP game downloads to my PS3 instead.




RE: PS3
By darkpaw on 3/5/2007 1:22:32 PM , Rating: 3
For once the company thats obsessed over DRM (Sony) actually has a more consumer friendly version then the company thats just loves DRM (MS).

Now if Sony would just stop being asses about PSP firmware...

Yah I'm dreaming.


Proprietary Formats MegaBite
By wrekd on 3/5/2007 8:54:39 AM , Rating: 2
I'm so thankful my Wii takes SD cards.

When will these companies learn that proprietary formats do not serve the customer in any way, shape or form?

Wait maybe they do know...they just don't care.




512K for $50, someone's on crack!
By aguilpa1 on 3/5/07, Rating: -1
"Intel is investing heavily (think gazillions of dollars and bazillions of engineering man hours) in resources to create an Intel host controllers spec in order to speed time to market of the USB 3.0 technology." -- Intel blogger Nick Knupffer











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