Xbox Newbie Question

bijou

Hi all,

I'm new to the world of Xbox so forgive me if this a daft question and in the wrong place.

We've got the kids an Xbox 360 4Gb with Kinnect for christmas and I wondered if buying the 4Gb has restricted them to what type of games they can play on it.

They won't be playing online or at least would be playing online very occasionally (we have sketchy o2 midband internet connection!!!).

I've heard that you can get external hdd's for this unit, and being new to xbox I haven't a clue what hdd to look for. Would I need also to buy cables etc for the external hdd???

Thanks
bijou

Riesen_Meal

bijou wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm new to the world of Xbox so forgive me if this a daft question and in the wrong place.

We've got the kids an Xbox 360 4Gb with Kinnect for christmas and I wondered if buying the 4Gb has restricted them to what type of games they can play on it.

They won't be playing online or at least would be playing online very occasionally (we have sketchy o2 midband internet connection!!!).

I've heard that you can get external hdd's for this unit, and being new to xbox I haven't a clue what hdd to look for. Would I need also to buy cables etc for the external hdd???

Thanks
bijou

Some games these days require a hard drive installation, Halo 4 being one I can think of recently that actually requires it...some games also have quite big patches



It will most likely fill 4gb in no time unfortunately, some game demos can be 2gb in size, the apps take up space as well...

The only external that you can use for games data is a pen drive, up to 32gb since the recent update, but it has to comply with Xbox at a certain write speed (mine only seemed to work with a certain sandisk key)

BoDiddly

No extra cables required, it slots in, I got the 4gb + expansion memory, just so I could download lots of free trials , movies etc, and at least you can remove the extra memory later on and sot it into a different console, it's useful but not necessary at this stage.

Hope that helps you

bijou

BoDiddly wrote: »

No extra cables required, it slots in, I got the 4gb + expansion memory, just so I could download lots of free trials , movies etc, and at least you can remove the extra memory later on and sot it into a different console, it's useful but not necessary at this stage.

Hope that helps you

Thanks BoDiddly
Can you recommend where I can get the expansion memory (is expansion memory what others are referring to as a hdd???) and what size would you or others recommend I should go for?

As I mentioned before our internet connection isn't the best so I can't see them/us being online with it too much.

bijou

OK - so..... is this what I'm looking for?????

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hard-Drive-320GB-Model-Xbox/dp/B005GTBVOO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1354232831&sr=8-2

Also does this plug directly into the console or does it need a cable like this??

http://www.amazon.co.uk/XB360-Transfer-Kabel-German-Version/dp/B005O6RLM0/ref=pd_bxgy_vg_h__img_y

Apologies, as I said I'm new to Xbox:o

Thanks

gizmo

bijou wrote: »

OK - so..... is this what I'm looking for?????

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hard-Drive-320GB-Model-Xbox/dp/B005GTBVOO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1354232831&sr=8-2

Also does this plug directly into the console or does it need a cable like this??

http://www.amazon.co.uk/XB360-Transfer-Kabel-German-Version/dp/B005O6RLM0/ref=pd_bxgy_vg_h__img_y

Apologies, as I said I'm new to Xbox:o

Thanks

That's the correct hard drive anyway, it's actually the same one that's inside the larger capacity models in the shops.

You won't need the transfer cable though, that's just for transferring content between consoles with different hard drives.

As for the storage issue itself, I'd certainly recommend getting one of those drives. There are loads of great games on the XBox Live Marketplace which are great for the kids (and yourself), won't break the bank but would fill up the 4GB storage fairly rapidly.

EDIT: On the subject of online/Marketplace. Are you aware that you will require an XBox Live Gold subscription if you want to play games online? If not, you can get one from here, which is considerably cheaper than in retail stores. Outside of the ability to play games online, the subscription also gives you access to other online services on the console, such as Internet Explorer, cloud-based saves, Skype, Youtube and Netflix (although given your internet connection these may not be the most suitable for you) , and more importantly access to the weekly discounts via the Deal of the Week which can see various games being reduced from 33-66%.

bijou

Gizmo & BoDiddly thanks guys; the mud is clearing now lol

chopperbyrne

For the £60 quoted on amazon for an external hard drive you'd probably get a console from the shop with the same hard drive already with the console.

Xtravision probably have the best bundles I've seen this year.

If it's for your kids, set up their accounts yourself and make sure to remember all the details and set up all the security info that's needed.

If you put in their correct ages, you'll be prompted to create a controlling parental account with your details on it. Also remember all the details for this and set up all the security options available.

Do not put your credit card on any of the childrens accounts. It is not required at all for Xbox Live (except for initial age verification purposes for an adult account and is not stored at that stage).

There are pre-paid codes for Xbox Live subscription time and Microsoft Points (the currency used on Xbox Live to purchase content).

sellerbarry

I wouldn't go as far as buying a hard drive, especially if i's just for the kids. If I were you i would buy a usb flash 16gb memory stick. This would cost €10 delivered. Plug it into the usb port on the front of the console and away you go. I did the same a year ago and it's plenty. Just delete old games etc. You would only need a hard drive for installing games from disc etc.

BTW don't buy any stick larger than 16gb as the xbox can only use(see) 16gb in each usb port.

chopperbyrne

sellerbarry wrote: »

BTW don't buy any stick larger than 16gb as the xbox can only use(see) 16gb in each usb port.

It's 32GB since the last update.

sellerbarry

Thanks for that. All the more reason not to fork out for a hard drive.