Xbox 360 Fanboy

For those of you who didn't win the Xbox 360 120GB HDD in our fanswag giveaway a few weeks back, we've got a money savings deal for you. As part of Amazon.com's Deal of the Day, today and today only they're knocking off $40 and offering the 120GB HDD for "only" $139. Not too shabby, eh? But if you're interested you better check your bank accounts quickly, because this daily deal ends tonight and the $139 price tag will revert back to original $179 status and the evil in the world will corrupt your soul. Well, maybe that's a bit much, but trust us when we say this deal will disappear tonight

[Thanks, Ben Koca]

It took us all morning to pry our 120GB hard drive from Li'l Chief's fingers -- he may be small, but he is a Spartan after all -- but we promised to give it away and dagnab it, we are. We've chosen the lucky winner of the 120GB hard drive and that winner is ... Noxat! Congratulations on your glorious (and completely random) victory! We'd also like to tell you that you've now made life at Fanboy Towers a living hell. Seriously, Li'l Chief will be pouting for months. Thanks a lot, Noxat. Thanks a lot.

For all the fanboys out there that weren't lucky enough to win (and there were a lot of you), take heart because we've got more giveaways coming. Keep your eyes peeled, the next one is coming soon.

[Update: The giveaway is now closed and our winner selected. Once the winner is verified, we'll put up an announcement post.]

Hey kiddies, don't forget that we're giving away a 120GB hard drive for the Xbox 360 in celebration of the impending arrival of Halo 3. Entering the giveaway is incredibly easy, and it will take you less than two minutes. That's two minutes for 120 gigabytes of awesome. All you have to do is head over to the official giveaway post and enter. You've got two hours to do it before we pick our lucky winner, so get to it already! Oh, and if you don't win fear not, because we've got lots more stuff to give away this month. Keep your eyes peeled next week for the next bit of swag*.

*Hint: next week's swag is even better (and more valuable) than a 120GB hard drive. Think about that.

[Update: Comments are now closed and a winner has been selected. Once verified, we'll post the name of the winner so that he or she can gloat and the rest can grumble.]

As you can see, Li'l Chief loves his 120GB Hard Drive, but it's September and it's high time we started giving away some swag in celebration of Halo 3. To kick things off, we're giving away one 120GB Hard Drive, which includes a transfer kit so you don't lose what's on your crummy old 20GB HDD. With one of these babies, you could store all the media you want and a bag of chips*. As you may be aware, 120GB Hard Drives cost precisely 1 million dollars $179.99, which is no small sum. We're betting that most of our readers would probably prefer to have one for free, so here's your chance to win. All you have to do is:

• Post a comment below. You can say whatever you want, but keep it civil, m'kay? Be sure you only post one comment. Posters of multiple comments will be disqualified.
• Entries will be accepted until Friday, September 7th at 11:00AM ET
• On Friday we'll choose our winner at random and notify said winner via email. Once verified, we'll post the winner so that he or she can gloat about how they "never run out of space."
  
• The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only, ages 13 or older (younger children need clearly defined boundaries, and 20GB is enough for them)

If you'd like to read the official rules (and who wouldn't?) you can find them here. Best of luck to everyone, and keep an eye out for more giveaways this month!

*Warning, under no circumstances should you attempt to store a bag of chips in your 120GB HDD.

Let's face it, 360 accessories are expensive. In the case of hard drives, 360 accessories are ridiculously expensive. As a service to our readers, we bring you the news that you can snag a 20GB 360 HDD for the tempting price of $49.90 from GoGamer.com (for now at least). Add $2.59 for shipping and you've got a brand new hard drive for $52.49. Not bad. But wait! there's more. Why grab a measly 20GB HDD when you can get a 120GB HDD for the bargain price of $144.99 ($35 off retail)? Head over to Newegg.com and you can purchase one for $164.99. Just slap on the promo code "Paypal20" and pay with PayPal and you'll get an additional $20 off. After shipping, you'll pay somewhere in the range of $150. Again, not bad.

Read -- 20GB deal at GoGamer
Read -- 120GB deal at Newegg

[Via TechBargains. Thanks, djphatjive]

If you're a current 360 owner and are in the market for a new 120GB HDD or the Xbox 360 Elite in the coming weeks, then you'll be dealing with some HDD data transferring. And thanks to Major Nelson's data transfer demo, the whole process will be painless. In the embedded video above, Major and his clothes twin Albert walk you through the whole thing step by step and even do a little Xbox 360 Elite unboxing to boot. It's actually quite simple and should take less than an hour to move all your data to your new 120GB behemoth. And, as if it wasn't mentioned enough, the data transfer will be permanent and can only be done once. So, make sure this is what you want, as there's no going back.

The hard drive prophecy has come true. Xbox-Scene is reporting that the new version of HDDHackr has been released allowing the use of an unlicensed 120GB hard drive for your 360 storage. The HDDHackr program uses the newly found 120GB signature and will allow anyone to use a specific 120GB WD HDD for their 360 storage saving roughly $100 over Microsoft's official Xbox 360 120GB HDD. Though, you'll need to be somewhat familiar with hacking programs and PC hardware setup to get the drive up and running. But, if that's your thing, you can save big bucks and up your Xbox 360 hard drive capacity to 120GB the l33t way. So, is anyone up for the challenge?

Perhaps you've heard of the brand new, super fancy Xbox 360 Elite. You know, it's black, has HDMI and a 120GB hard drive, and it's super cool. You may have heard that the Elite has been utterly gutted, all of its vitals exposed to the world. It just so happens the 120GB hard drive was part of this dismantling process. With the drive cracked open and exposed, we can finally see the wondrous, ultra high-tech hard drive that justifies Microsoft's $179 price tag. Or can we?

It turns out that the drive inside the plastic case is in fact a Fujitsu MHW2120BH 2.5" laptop drive. Shindakun.net did some Google searching and discovered that these drives generally cost around $100. Not long ago, Aaron Greenberg stated that the drive in the Xbox 360 is comparable to a self-powered external hard drive for a PC. Alright, so there must be some sort of additional work that justifies an $80 increase above retail, right? The thing is, according to Shindakun, the 360 drive isn't self powered. You have to shut down the console to install it, because it's just an SATA drive with a proprietary connector. So, where does the extra cost come from? The plastic casing isn't that nice. Granted, there are R&D costs to consider, but $80 extra per unit seems a little steep. Without a direct explanation of the costs from Microsoft, we can make only one conclusion: we're getting ripped off.

Buyer beware.

If the Xbox 360 has one consistent complaint, it is undoubtedly the cost of its peripherals. In particular, the price of its hard drive has been the most difficult to stomach. $99 dollars for 20 gigabytes seems positively ludicrous in today's world of cheap storage. The new 120GB hard drive isn't much better, clocking in at $179. Microsoft has defended the pricing structure, saying that they demand very strict specifications from manufacturers (things like drive speed, security, etc.), but it's hard to believe it couldn't be had for less.

Enter one lucky 360 fanboy by the name of Scooter. Scooter spotted a 120GB hard drive at his local Wal-Mart. Looking closer, the drive was priced at a cool $99.88. Seizing upon the opportunity, he asked a clerk to open up the case and ring it up. Of course, once the item was scanned, it came up as $172. After a quick interchange with customer service, it's revealed that Wal-Mart store policy requires that items be sold for the price at which they are marked (even if the price is incorrect). So, he walks out with a 120GB drive for a full $80 less than retail price.

Granted, we're sure the display price was corrected immediately following the sale, but it's nice to hear that at least one fanboy managed to stick it to the man. Our advice: scour your area Wal-Marts for mislabeled hard drives. You might end up with a killer deal. Follow the "read" link for photographic proof of the $99 120GB HDD.

[Thanks, Scooter]

Most people, outside of those planning to buy an Xbox 360 Elite, are understandably miffed that the 120GB hard drive will debut at a wallet draining $179. As such, Microsoft has received quite a bit of flack for the pricing of the unit. Major Nelson himself got an earful from us on the subject during the latest Fancast. Aaron Greenberg, group product manager at Microsoft, recently defended the 120GB HDD price in an interview with GameTheory. Greenberg noted a few reasons for Microsoft's pricing decision, among them that Microsoft requires stringent specifications for drive performance. In other words, they have to perform at specific speeds to provide an optimal gaming experience, and they must provide a certain level of security. Greenberg also notes that the 120 gig HDD price is comparable to other self-powered external hard drives on the market. Greenberg's statements are in line with what we heard from Major Nelson.

Additionally, Greenberg notes that the pricing structure is consistent with the rest of the Xbox line. As he puts it, the $299 core becomes the $399 premium by adding a $99 hard drive. By adding a $179 hard drive to the core, you get the $479 price of the Xbox 360 Elite.

Sure, there are some expensive external hard drives out there, but we don't buy that Microsoft can't find comparable drives at lower prices. There are plenty of 120GB drives out there for much less than $179. Are we to believe that all of them fail to meet Microsoft's specifications?

[Via Joystiq]

Over at TeamXbox they got the dish on what content will be preloaded on the newly announced Xbox 360 120GB HDD. First off, all the preloaded content will be available on both the Xbox 360 Elite hard drive and the seperate retail version. As far as content goes, everything that's preloaded on the 20GB model will be included on the new 120GB drive. We kind of expected this since the new drive is huge ... uber huge. This 120GB behemoth will also come preloaded with a bunch of other content not available on the 20GB drive including demos like Lost Planet, Street Fighter II, and Call of Duty 3. You'll also see more trailers, gamer pictures, and themes, all of which you can delete instantly or savor for the long run. A full list of the 120GB HDD's preloaded content can be found after the break.

[Thanks, Derka]

Aside from HDMI, the biggest feature of the Xbox 360 Elite is undoubtedly the 120 gigabyte hard drive. Much to the relief of 360 owners everywhere, we now know that the 120GB drive will come with a transfer cable allowing users to transfer data from the 20GB drive to the 120GB drive. Sounds great, right? Don't answer that yet, because Joystiq has uncovered a few caveats to Microsoft's transfer solution. Do you have two 20GB hard drives? You'd better pick a favorite then, because the transfer software allows only one 20GB drive to be transferred to the 120GB drive. Maybe you have data on your 120 GB drive you'd like to stick on the 20GB. Too bad, because you can only transfer from the 20GB to the 120GB. Any other combination -- transferring 20GB to 20GB for example -- won't work.

As if all that wasn't bad enough, transferring data automatically deletes any data already stored on the 120GB drive, and all files transfered will be deleted from the 20GB. Finally, data cannot be transfered back to the 20GB from which it originally came. Of course, some of these issues can be nullified by purchasing a memory card -- a financial fact of which we're sure Microsoft is aware -- but the data transfer cable seems unnecessarily restrictive. Essentially, it will only be useful one time, unless you really want to format your 120GB HDD for some reason.

[Via Joystiq]

Getting sick of the Xbox 360 Elite or the 120GB HDD rumors yet? Didn't think so. Today, TheDiggMan posted a screenshot from his online Gamestop searching where he stumbled upon the rumored 120GB Xbox 360 hard drive. Soon, after TheDiggMan found the listed 120GB HDD the item was taken down from the website, pulled by the Gamestop webmaster gnomes.

We're 97.4% sure that a 120GB HDD will be releasing soon, but what's interesting about this screenshot is the ship date and price information. $150 isn't a horrible price point seeing that it's $50 more than the 20GB HDD, but it's still a darn expensive peripheral. And if the April 1st pre-release date is correct we'll be putting all this HDD and Elite speculation to rest, because Microsoft should be making an announcement soon. Fanboys, if you're looking for more hard drive space, will you be purchasing the new Xbox 360 Elite or the seperate 120GB HDD add on? You know, that is if they are real.

[Via Digg]

True, the rumored black Xbox 360 Elite has yet to be officially confirmed, but we figured we'd add some more rumor logs onto our fanboy fire. Yesterday, Ben over at ars technica expressed his concern for how to transfer HDD data from his old 360 to the new Elite 360 if he were to purchase one. Not soon after Ben received a tip from a person who works at a large video game distributor (who wanted to remain anonymous) and divulged an answer to the data transfer problem ... an included cable. The tipster went on to say that,

"MS has told us that the data will be transferred via some sort of cable that will be included with the unit. The cable will also be included w/ the 120GB drive that will be sold separately (price TBD)."

Again, this is a whole basket full of rumor berries, but if it were true would it sway your opinion on a new Elite 360 purchase? A HDD to HDD data transfer cable would be a great accessory anyway and with the release of a 120GB HDD one would think it'd be a no brainer. Or maybe we're all just geniuses.

[Via Digg]