XBOX 360 Wire

From Premium, to Elite : Should you upgrade?

For me, there have only really ever been two proper Xbox 360 packages - The original ‘Premium’ and it’s younger brother the ‘Elite’. Microsoft have since the launch of the 360 in 2005 carried the ‘Core’ version, and this festive season will see the release a further variation in the form of the ‘Arcade’ pack.

I was one of the lucky few here in the UK to be able to collect my Premium package on launch day. It’s become the core of my technology interest and driven me to buy a good HD screen and the add-on HD-DVD player. Being a launch machine, I don’t know if I should be surprised that it’s still working perfectly - never had a problem with it. In short, I adored my 360.

So why think about upgrading?

In general the 360 audience wants to play games, nothing else. There is though a small percentage of us who’ve bought the HD-DVD drive and want to get the absolute best experience when using the console. To that end, I finally settled on using the VGA output for the best image.
Last week, I was watching the HD version of ‘March of the Penguins’ which as you’ll know if you’ve seen the film yourself, has some quieter scenes through out. It’s only then I really noticed the constant whir coming from my 360. Yes, the DVD drive can be a bit noisy at times, but I’ve become accustomed to that whilst playing games. What annoyed me was that I was using the HD-DVD unit which itself is much quieter - the noise was coming from the cooling fans at the rear of my console. That’s when I started to think about the Elite.

Can I really justify another £300 for just a console revision? 

That question troubled me for a few days before I finally decided to make the move. Why?

I’m an early adopter in the HD era which means I was among one of the first to pick up a decent LCD once they hit an acceptable price. Because of this, I’m limited to 720p until it’s time for the next TV upgrade. I didn’t consider the additional benefits of HDMI output to be of much importance in the decision.

What about the 120gb of storage then? Well I had been a bit short of space, using up about 95% of my existing drive with Halo announcements, trailers and a few demos. The simple answer would just be to delete the old content to make way for the new. 120gb of storage does sound particularly appealing though when you consider the upcoming release of the Video Marketplace here in the UK. Taking into account the large size of these HD downloads, it sounded like the right step to take. That raised another question though, why not just buy the new HDD itself?

After a few days of deliberation and reading reviews of the Elite I was finally able to make my decision. The cost factor went out of the window when I realised It wasn’t a problem at all. Owning two Xbox 360 units meant that I could only ever use one of them, what’s the point in having two? Selling my Premium on the second hand market for £130 and buying a second hand Elite for £260 meant that the upgrade was only going to cost me £130 in the end - I knew what I had to do.

Setting Up and conclusion

I didn’t want to loose any of my original data of course, so I would have to get hold of the Xbox 360 Data Transfer cable from Microsoft. Waiting time? 4 weeks in some cases. How can a gamer be expected to wait that long to complete the transfer? I had to resort to other means and managed to pick one up on a second hand gaming forum for £10. They are free direct from Microsoft, but I felt the small cost was justified when the cable arrived on my desk the very next day. The transfer was very easy and only required you to plug in the USB to HDD cable and click on a few prompts, all in the transfer took about 15mins to complete.  An error message said some data had been corrupted and lost, but to this date I can’t see anything missing.

I really don’t notice much of a difference between the two machines when playing games. The DVD drive certainly is quite a bit quieter but that never really bothered me in the first place. I was only really happy with the choice last night - watching ‘Full Metal Jacket’ on HD-DVD.

The image quality over the HDMI cable is visibly better. Colours are richer and lines are clearer , though this may have more to do with the way my TV (Samsung LE32R41BD) handles VGA & HDMI inputs.

No, what really stole it for me was how quiet the Elite runs when using the HD-DVD unit. You can still hear a slight noise in the background but it’s 100% quieter than it was before and doesn’t detract from the film in any way at all.

Overall, I’m absolutely delighted with the new Elite and would urge anyone who would happen to be in a similar position to myself to really think about updating. It’s certainly not worth it for everyone, but considering the benefits and the fact you can sell your Premium second hand should make it hard not to resist.

Posted by Bleem - October 13th, 2007 -