New Xbox 360 Pro 60GB Variant Could Hit the Stores

[btarunr]

According to XboxFamily.com, a leaked email that Microsoft may have sent to major retailers reveals that a new Xbox 360 variant, the 60 GB Pro is on the cards and slated for release later this month. The timing of this alleged new variant entry comes after price cuts were indicated for the popular 20 GB Pro variant.

The new variant provides:

• 60 GB hard drive
• 3 months' Xbox Live subscription
• Wired headset
• Ethernet Cable

The leaked email also states that Microsoft's research "suggests it is very important to have a 60GB standalone hard drive", that could be sold as part of the Live Starter Kit that could sell much later this year. This variant could replace the 20 GB Pro and could be positioned as a "Choice and Value" offering.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[scoutingwraith]

So let me see.... the 60GB will replace the 20GB and it will be sold for $299.....hmm. Interesting. Still though what pisses me off is to as why Microsoft does not allow users to put their own hard drives much like the PS3 can.

 

[newtekie1]

So let me see.... the 60GB will replace the 20GB and it will be sold for $299.....hmm. Interesting. Still though what pisses me off is to as why Microsoft does not allow users to put their own hard drives much like the PS3 can.

Yeah, that is one of the reasons I haven't bought one yet. The 120GB model is too expensive, and the 20GB model doesn't offer enough space(and the 120GB upgrade drive is way overpriced). Now that they have a 60GB model, I might pick one up though.

 

[Snipe343]

Well there used to be something you plugged into your computer and could transfer all your files to your pc that were on the drive, so in some way you could have your own harddrive

 

[mab1376]

is this one going to use the 65nm transistors on the gpu and cpu?

 

[scoutingwraith]

is this one going to use the 65nm transistors on the gpu and cpu?

Most likely....yes. Seeing as all the new revisions such as the Arcade, Go Pro bundles are 65nm they will make them on the newer tech.

 

[Ravenas]

So let me see.... the 60GB will replace the 20GB and it will be sold for $299.....hmm. Interesting. Still though what pisses me off is to as why Microsoft does not allow users to put their own hard drives much like the PS3 can.

Why can't a Xbox 360 user use any Mic they want? The same reason they can only use Xbox branded HDDs...By keeping things proprietary they can charge whatever they want. Much like Apple did in the late 80s and early 90s.

 

[scoutingwraith]

Why can't a Xbox 360 user use any Mic they want? The same reason they can only use Xbox branded HDDs...By keeping things proprietary they can charge whatever they want. Much like Apple did in the late 80s and early 90s.

Yeah i can see that but still it is crap. I understand if Microsoft charges $100 for a 200GB hard drive then it will be kind of worth it but to charge close to a $100 for a 20GB is simply laughable from any perspective you look at.

 

[zithe]

Why can't a Xbox 360 user use any Mic they want? The same reason they can only use Xbox branded HDDs...By keeping things proprietary they can charge whatever they want. Much like Apple did in the late 80s and early 90s.

XD!! The 360 headset works on my PS3. lol..

 

[eidairaman1]

this is gay, why is MS releasing multiple flavors of the XB360??

they should of just left it with the Elite system which technically is inferior to our computers.

 

[DaedalusHelios]

They have always had multiple "flavors".

It really doesn't change anything. I really don't like my PS3 as much as my Xbox 360.

You have to spend $500 on a PS3 before you can play PS2 games on it.

They say it costs them more to load the driver so its compatible with PS2 games...... how much did you have to pay when you loaded your latest drivers.:shadedshu

Sony abuses its customers 100x worse than what microsoft does. Its awful.

When I sold Electronics at a "major retailer", Sony had a higher return rate for defects and DOA than Mitsubishi, Toshiba, and Philips combined at my store. They also charged more for there products than any other brand (excluding some Sharp Aquos models). I am talking about their televisions/monitors.

 

[newbielives]

The 40GB version of PS3 doesn't play PS2 games not because it doesn't have a driver, its because its missing the PS2 CPU that the 80GB version has, which is needed to play PS2 games.

They have always had multiple "flavors".

It really doesn't change anything. I really don't like my PS3 as much as my Xbox 360.

You have to spend $500 on a PS3 before you can play PS2 games on it.

They say it costs them more to load the driver so its compatible with PS2 games...... how much did you have to pay when you loaded your latest drivers.:shadedshu

Sony abuses its customers 100x worse than what microsoft does. Its awful.

When I sold Electronics at a "major retailer", Sony had a higher return rate for defects and DOA than Mitsubishi, Toshiba, and Philips combined at my store. They also charged more for there products than any other brand (excluding some Sharp Aquos models). I am talking about their televisions/monitors.

 

[ShadowFold]

You dont need a 60gb harddrive in a console. I used maybe 6-8gb before I got sick of them.

 

[DaedalusHelios]

You dont need a 60gb harddrive in a console. I used maybe 6-8gb before I got sick of them.

I had a 500gb in my modded xbox, years ago. I used alot of that hard drive.





PS I thought it was a chip aswell but I have heard it simply emulates the old emotion engine and doesn't have the old chip. Thats what I heard from the local Sony lady....... maybe she is wrong?

 

[newbielives]

PS I thought it was a chip aswell but I have heard it simply emulates the old emotion engine and doesn't have the old chip. Thats what I heard from the local Sony lady....... maybe she is wrong?

The 60 version had both the PS2 cpu(emotion engine) and gpu so it had perfect PS2 backwards on all games
80Gb only has the CPU(emotion engine) so it uses the RSX to emulate the PS2 GPU which give the PS3 backward compatibility on Most PS2 games but not all.
40GB doesn't have PS2 cpu or gpu so it can't play PS2 games.
There are rumors though that Sony is researching complete PS2 Software Emulation

 

[MilkyWay]

thats bull only the 80gb had the emotion engine cpu not both cpu and gpu, also bull that the 60gb had a ps2 gpu i mean it would end up costing more than the 80gb

either way the full compatibility ps3 is discontinued all it uses now is emulation and that has to be done separately for each game


Xbox 360 drives cost a lot because they are designed specifically for the 360, proprietary hardware means that developers can develop quicker and everything is designed to work perfectly meaning they dont have to program for specific hardware ect

fact they wont let all games use a hard drive is ridiculous tho but i have to admit mandatory installs and still getting long loads on the ps3 is bad

the whole point of the arcade is to compete with the wii and i think it might even be the same price as a wii or lower

you cant use your own headsets is bad BUT you get a free wired one and some other headsets need configuration and drivers that would be not possible on the 360

60gb is just right not too big not too small like the 20gb

all a ps3 is trying to be is a mini PC with its browser media capability and if you want linux

the ps3 is open to hackers and such by using linux just like the original xbox was

my pal had a moded xbox with linux and bootloaders this is something microsoft dosnt want again

 

[scoutingwraith]

thats bull only the 80gb had the emotion engine cpu not both cpu and gpu, also bull that the 60gb had a ps2 gpu i mean it would end up costing more than the 80gb

either way the full compatibility ps3 is discontinued all it uses now is emulation and that has to be done separately for each game


Xbox 360 drives cost a lot because they are designed specifically for the 360, proprietary hardware means that developers can develop quicker and everything is designed to work perfectly meaning they dont have to program for specific hardware ect

fact they wont let all games use a hard drive is ridiculous tho but i have to admit mandatory installs and still getting long loads on the ps3 is bad

the whole point of the arcade is to compete with the wii and i think it might even be the same price as a wii or lower

you cant use your own headsets is bad BUT you get a free wired one and some other headsets need configuration and drivers that would be not possible on the 360

60gb is just right not too big not too small like the 20gb

all a ps3 is trying to be is a mini PC with its browser media capability and if you want linux

the ps3 is open to hackers and such by using linux just like the original xbox was

my pal had a moded xbox with linux and bootloaders this is something microsoft dosnt want again

Did we hit a sensitive spot there........ Seriously calm down.

Also if you do not know the HardDrives for the 360 are not special at all. They are simple 2.5 Laptop based Hard-drives inside a special casing that provides the interface to put on top of the 360. Fact the 360 loading times are no better than the PS3 ones so really there should not be a complaint there. And let me tell you this now.....60GB is still way too little these days. I have a friend who switches between 2 120GB hard drives and thinking on buying a 3rd one due to the fact that he downloads the media on Xbox Live. I do not hold a grudge on the 360 but if it had a hard drive bay that allows for quick switch it would have been better.

 

[eidairaman1]

i know one thing most definitely is we all will be replacing consoles in 5 years vs a single component in our computers, thats the onlything that Consoles have over PCs, plug n play.

 

[DaedalusHelios]

i know one thing most definitely is we all will be replacing consoles in 5 years vs a single component in our computers, thats the onlything that Consoles have over PCs, plug n play.

Nah, the only thing I think the consoles have that PC's don't is game selection. Sure 90% of the games for consoles are utter crap or rehashes, but even the ten percent that are worth playing adds up to more games in the long run. Of course those games can never scale to the same resolutions as PC games.

The cost of software alone on consoles adds up to the same you paid in the average gaming PC.

 

[cyberman]

So you wanna use a non-Microsoft external hard drive w/ that 360? Check out this mod!

So let me see.... the 60GB will replace the 20GB and it will be sold for $299.....hmm. Interesting. Still though what pisses me off is to as why Microsoft does not allow users to put their own hard drives much like the PS3 can.

Not so fast! Not so sure whether it'll work w/ the new, 60GB models, but you might wanna check out this here mod that I found which should allow you to do just what you want (i.e. Use any old, regular external hard drive--even one bigger than 60 or 120 gigs--w/ your Xbox360): It's at http://tinyurl.com/66vpf3 . Hope this helps! ROCK ON!!!

P.S.(Note: Make sure you read all of this before you get started. Trust me, it'll save you a lotta headaches later on!) It requires you to change the file system on the drive to FAT32. If you already have a whole lotta media backed up on an external drive but currently have the drive using the NTFS file system, by all means, save/back up the data onto another drive before you re-format the external one (Yes, unfortunately, unless you have PowerQuest's Partition Magic 8.0, that's what yer gonna hafta do before using your Windows XP or Vista installation disc to do this. Here is what you do[And be very careful when going through these steps so you don't accidently nuke the hard drive{s} on your PC. That would be bad, VERY BAD!!]: Insert your Windows XP or Windows Vista installation disc, reboot your computer, & as soon as the screen goes black, start tapping the "Delete" key(Or, if you have a proprietary PC[i.e. One by one of the major manufacturers such as Compaq, Dell, or others], it may be different. Consult Google or your PC manufacturer's Website to find out which one it is.) to get into the BIOS(Once again, be very careful here. If you mess up, you could end up turning your PC into a doorstop here.[Also very bad!!!]). Next, using the arrow keys, go through the menu choices in the BIOS's main screen until you find the one that lists the different drives & their boot orders on your machine. What you want to do is to change the boot order of the first drive listed to the CD or DVD drive which has the Windows installation disc in it. After this is done, exit out of that menu to the main screen, hit the F10(Or Exit) key, hit the "Y" key to save your changes, & let the computer reboot. You should get a msg saying "Press any key to boot from CD". Do this & follow the onscreen instructions until you get to the where it asks you to format the drive. Now comes the critical part(And I do mean critical!): On this screen, you should see all your drives--both internal & external--listed. Make sure you highlight the letter for the external drive and only the letter for the external drive before erasing the data on it[I don't need to repeat what happens if you get this wrong, so do this at your own risk. In fact, I really recommend not only backing up the data that was on the external drive onto a 2nd hard drive before starting any of this{With the external hard drive you're formatting being the 3rd one}, but any critical data on your computer's C:{i.e. Main} drive onto that 2nd drive as well. In addition, make sure you look up the drive letter of the external hard drive under MyComputer prior to starting so you'll know which one it is once you get to this stage.]. My recommendation is to leave the drive in a "Raw", unformatted state until you boot back into Windows & use the following program (FAT32Formatter) to help you put it into the FAT32 file system(Since WindowsXP itself doesn't allow you to do this above 32GB. However, as the article I linked states, while Windows XP itself may not be able to format a hard drive above 32 gigs,--although FAT32Formatter can & does--it has no problem reading one above that threshold{Which is why your Xbox360 should also have no problems seeing/reading/recognizing it as a USB device.}. Note: I can't really speak for Windows Vista on this, as I don't have it on my PC yet, so please understand.):View attachment Fat32FormatterEN.zip . One final note(And this is gonna sound strange, but hey! So am I!!! J/K ), you're not gonna believe this, but I also don't even own a 360 yet (But that may change come this X'mas as I may ask for one as a combination X'mas/b'day present[My b'day's in February, btw.]!). Anyway, speaking of presents, just consider both my posting & link to the mod article as two early Christmas presents to not only you, dude, but to also all Xbox360 owners who happen onto this part of the forum & who've been dying to tick off Steve Balmer & Co. regarding this so-called "restriction". Hey Steve! This is what I've got to say to you!!!: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(Oh yeah, and to my soon-to-be-fellow-Xbox360 owners, I say, "Enjoy!") Cya laters! Bye!

 

[DaedalusHelios]

^^^^ I hope that is copy pasta

 

[JoshBrunelle]

Does anyone know if upgrading my drive from 20GB to 120 (bevs drive from the egg) will result in a ban? I've scoured the web and can't find any info on this. Anyone here have an upgraded drive (that they made themselves) and been banned from live?

 

[alexp999]

You can upgrade NP, if you buy the official 360 HDD, but if you do it by buying a 2.5 HDD and somehow get it to work, its counted as a mod so could result in a ban.