I am thinking about getting a Xbox 360, and I keep hearing about the RRoD (Red Ring of Death) problem. So I need some opinions from people who own / have owned one of these systems. Is it safe to buy one? Thanks.

I've had mine just over a year, only 1 problem I've had is my Power Supply committed suicide.

I also know people who've had launch model consoles, and they've lasted until now(thats a good 2 years I think).

Definately consider buying one, you won't regret it, XBOX Live too :P

One of ours had the red ring of death, it was annoying, but not that big of a deal. Microsoft sends you a box, you put it in the box, and send it back, it costs you nothing. You get a 3 year warranty from the date of the last service, so that's huge.

Great games, fun to play, and it has a whole lot of tricks other than just games. We have one upstairs that really only ever gets used for streaming music and photos and video. We had a little streaming device upstairs already, but the 360 does such a better job, we got rid of the old one.

I'd highly recommend.

I think the 3 year warranty is shit, because it shows that the 360 is so unreliable, that it needs a 3 year warranty after every service.

I'd take a PS3 anyday, and rather gouge my eyes out than buy or use a 360 or Wii.

I've had my 360 since the launch and I've never had a problem with it. Just make sure everything has good circulation and give it a rest every now again.

Will you be getting the Elite because there is a rumour that next week (i think) there maybe another price drop on the 360, so just hang on a little longer.

Andy.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

I think the 3 year warranty is shit, because it shows that the 360 is so unreliable, that it needs a 3 year warranty after every service.

I'd take a PS3 anyday, and rather gouge my eyes out than buy or use a 360 or Wii.

My graphics card has a 10 year warranty, only limited be European law. Does that make it unreliable?

Think the PS3 is the worst selling console of them all, needless to say the Wii outsells it 6 to 1 in Japan.

I've had a couple of red errors on my box, but it's working fine at the moment.

The first one it threw at me was 3 red rings and 1 green. Couldn't find an explanation for that anywhere. Unplugged the PSU for 15-20 mins and it was back up and running.
Second one was standard 3 reds. Reset it and it came back immediately.

The thing is it's been loading a little slower and the DVD drive's been a little noisier since the first error, so I'm pretty much just waiting for it to die properly. The good news is that with the new 3 year guarantee at least they'll fix it for free, and possibly upgrade it while they're at it.

You might want to wait until they release the new 'Falcon' version (which should be in the next couple of months). 65nm CPU instead of 90nm, which means less overheating problems, as well as whatever other counter-measures they're taking to avoid the problem.

Or if you want to wait until late next year, they're talking about a 45nm CPU!

PS3 sales are picking up everywhere except Europe. It's outselling the other 2 in Australia and the US price cut means people there are picking them up. I wouldn't rule it out yet.
And the Wii is great, it's just that developers are being lazy and only releasing crap for it, so people are looking at it unfavourably.

Quote from pb32000 :

My graphics card has a 10 year warranty, only limited be European law. Does that make it unreliable?

Think the PS3 is the worst selling console of them all, needless to say the Wii outsells it 6 to 1 in Japan.

Yes, but I'd have more use out of a PS3, then a 360 or Wii. Heck most people I know that got Wii's haven't touched it since the month that they bought it in, a 360 would collect dust like my PS2 has, because there are no games for both that interest me, and atleast the PS3 I could use for a media center, the way I want (with Linux), not Microsofts way with Windows Media Player and a Windows PC.

Also, your point is different, your GFX card has that warrenty because of a good manufacturer, Microsoft did it becuase they don't want to get raped by Class Action Lawsuits.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

a 360 would collect dust like my PS2 has, because there are no games for both that interest me

If there are no games for the PS2 that interest you, then you are not interested in games at all. I mean... the PS2 by now has pretty much the largest game library of any console. The PS3 has one of the smallest, and still no 'killer app' to support it, and if it's a media center you're interested in, get a proper media center tbh

Well, OK, I just don't look for games for the PS2 anymore, I'd rather get games for PC now, but a PS3 actually has games in the future that interest me.

Quote from LFS Drifter :

the PS3 is good, the graphics are good for first games, and it has wireless intrrenet capiblity and the online isnt laggy at all, i would have it out in the living room and i would have 60% strength and my interenet sucks and no lag. the 360, my cousin has one, he almost never plays it,but i does have more titles and a higher user rate than the PS3 Currently does. i Think the games have bassicaly the same amount of graphical capibilty, just the PS3 a Little better, the same games are coming out for each system really, so either way 360 or PS3, the Wii is fun, but the games do tend to get to easy and boring. 360 is cheaper but in probably a year microsoft will have a new system and the PS3 is gonna be set for i say 3 years. just narrow it down to 360 and PS3, PS3 is expensive but i think is better while the 360 cheaper but games might stop comin out. and if you get the PS3 hell you can weight lift the thing it wieghs like 20 pounds or so.
EDIT the system itself wieghs 12 pounds but in the box its 15

I really doubt that Microsoft is going to release another console in a year. That's ridiculous, I don't think Microsoft is stupid enough to do that! If they did that, no one would buy it because developers are still just getting to the brink of using the 360's full potential.

As for the Falcon edition, I would think the 65nm chips should be coming onto shelves now, shouldn't they? Maybe right in time for the August price drop in the US? Anyone got any solid info on this? Also, by the looks of it some of the new Elite systems have an extra heatsink and other measures to combat the heat issue (which is an issue, if anyone says it's not, I think they're in denial). Anyone know if the new premium systems also have these kinds of measures?

And before anyone says that I don't have to worry about the heat issue and RRoD because of the 3 year warranty, well I just don't want to deal with a failure and the hassle to get it fixed.

Thanks for your opinions!

PS: Killzone 2 for PS3 looks amazing by the way!

Quote from OneCrazyDiamond :

I really doubt that Microsoft is going to release another console in a year. That's ridiculous, I don't think Microsoft is stupid enough to do that! If they did that, no one would buy it because developers are still just getting to the brink of using the 360's full potential.

As for the Falcon edition, I would think the 65nm chips should be coming onto shelves now, shouldn't they? Maybe right in time for the August price drop in the US? Anyone got any solid info on this? Also, by the looks of it some of the new Elite systems have an extra heatsink and other measures to combat the heat issue (which is an issue, if anyone says it's not, I think they're in denial). Anyone know if the new premium systems also have these kinds of measures?

And before anyone says that I don't have to worry about the heat issue and RRoD because of the 3 year warranty, well I just don't want to deal with a failure and the hassle to get it fixed.

Thanks for your opinions!

PS: Killzone 2 for PS3 looks amazing by the way!

Apparently the new Elites have suffered from the RRoD already too.

I own a PS3 and i absolutely love it, never had any problems with it so far, apart from the fact every now and then, the game i was playing would crash, but a quick update solved this. I like the Xbox 360 alot too, especially playing forza 2, but after a while, i just have to go back to the PS3 and play resistance fall of man, such a great game. I dont bother too much with consoles no more though, after the novelty has worn off, i go back to my PC, better gfx anyway on these next gen games i got.

...has there been an overheating problem announcment from MS yet?...It does'nt like confined spaces, it gets very warm and reboots.
Something that MS forgot to tell teh public, pc's and fans n' stuff

Quote from CSU1 :

...has there been an overheating problem announcment from MS yet?...It does'nt like confined spaces, it gets very warm and reboots.
Something that MS forgot to tell teh public, pc's and fans n' stuff

No announcement from MS but isn't the 3 year warranty extension a huge giveaway that there's a problem (and it's most likely heat related). Someone did tests on the exhaust air temperature for the 360, and found that on average it's 40 degrees celsius higher than ambient temp. They also measured the GPU temperature at load and found it to be just below 100 degrees celsius. 100 degrees is outright dangerous IMO .

Quote from OneCrazyDiamond :

No announcement from MS but isn't the 3 year warranty extension a huge giveaway that there's a problem (and it's most likely heat related). Someone did tests on the exhaust air temperature for the 360, and found that on average it's 40 degrees celsius higher than ambient temp. They also measured the GPU temperature at load and found it to be just below 100 degrees celsius. 100 degrees is outright dangerous IMO .

it sure is, my bro had his in one of those two-door enclosed cabinets lol, when I opened the doors the room filled with warm air

Alright, so now I am torn between the 360 and the PS3, what'd you guys think? Which one's the better choice?

I know that the PS3 doesn't really have major "issues" like the 360 so that's a plus.

They're both fairly equal in terms of power and output capabilities. And before you say it, yes I'm well aware of the Cell CPUs capabilities. But I also know it's limitations.
MS are working to fix the 360's overheating problems with free repairs and I believe next they'll just replace your faulty box with the 65nm CPU version instead. That means we can pretty much ignore hardware.

So it really comes down to software. The 360 got an 18 month head start so it's well ahead in terms of software choice. But the PS3 has some really nice looking titles in development as well (Lair could be amazing, the new MGS looks fantastic too). Most games are coming out for both anyway, so about 95% of the time it won't make a difference

The Blu-ray v HD DVD debate is a pain. Googlefight has HD DVD winning (), but they both have limitations. Visual quality is marginally better on HD DVD, but sound seems to be better on Blu-ray.

If you take the red rings out of the equation it's an even fight. It was purely the cost that turned me away from the PS3. There's a lot of good bundles available for the 360 too. I got mine, the 20Gb HD, 2 wireless pads and 3 top games for less than even the new reduced PS3 price.

Sorry I can't help more, but I'm not a hardcore fanboy so won't flame either of them

I dunno, what I hear is that HD-DVD is ****ed really, most of the major studios have backed Blu-Ray now, and there's way more players for blu-ray and cheaper too.

Yup, a lot of production companies (and Blockbuster) have gone with Blu-ray. Universal is going HD DVD and apparently the porn industry is too (it showed up in a search, don't look at me like that!).
That said, there's no saying that all of those companies will stay exclusively Blu-ray. I guess the reason they're doing it is because they have an immediate user base with PS3 owners rather than an optional user base with the 360.
HD DVDs are cheaper to produce, but again it's designed specifically for movies, not gaming, which is a bit of a downfall for the 360 player.

Chances are high that Blu-ray is going to win out in that battle, simply because it has so many backers. But MS have also said if Blu-ray wins they will make a 360 player for it.

I still can't understand why they thought a format war was a good idea 20 years after the VHS/Betamax debacle.

Quote from Dajmin :

Universal is going HD DVD and apparently the porn industry is too (it showed up in a search, don't look at me like that!).

/me runs to get 360 HD DVD player for my PC...

Quote from simscube :

The 3 lights of death are not as much of a problem anymore, and if you get them, microsoft fixes it for free. Great games. Fun for partys if you have good audio equiptment, beacuse it can play music and vids off of your Windows XP (or above) and view your photos too. If you get one, people may say the physics are iffy, but if non-pure simulation is ok, forza motorsport 2 is a great game, strong skin (for lack of a better word) editing system, and fun online (spare those kids like this: link). Also, X-Box live is great for getting demos. Overall, great consol, has a few faults (wireless controllers eat batteries, suggest that you get either rechargeable batteries, or the battery pack for it)

I probably sound like a Microsoft sales rep, that's thanks to my family (most work for them)

Hope that helps at all

Wow..that kid is a little fag dude. I was waiting for the mom to beat him up over XboxLive or the guy aiming at him to shoot him in the head to kill him lol.

That was classic! "I want some mother ****ing chocolate milk!!"

I want some motherBosching HD-DVD porn!

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

I want some motherBosching HD-DVD porn!

Internet connection + internet knowhow = no need for HD-DVD player