Other [X360] Console selection and modding

Hey there,
This is my first real post on these forums and I'm not completely sure I put this in the right spot. So, if I did this wrong...Move it or tell me what to do. ANYWAY, I've recently been trying to decide on whether or not to buy an xbox 360. The most smart thing in my eyes is to buy the arcade edition because it is cheaper and I have numerous hard-drives of varying sizes laying around to replace the original 256 (who has a console with 256m of hard drive these days?) with one of a larger capacity. So there goes one of the advantages of going premium/elite. The colour isn't an issue as I've been wanting something to mod for ages (laptops aren't the easiest to mod imho). Another issue is whether or not the arcade can play on live. I've looked around to try and find this out but I can't get a definitive answer. I have read that the arcade plays only stripped down versions of the games. Is this true? Another thing. Is it possible to get an arcade edition with HDMI output? Lastly, are the internals (in terms of graphics, cpu and ram) the same? I don't want to fork out for an xbox just to find it doesn't look as nice.

Sorry, I know its alot of questions but I know little to none about them at the moment. If it's too complex to answer on here add me on steam (niinjiaownage) or msn (ninjiaownage[at]gmail[dot]com)

 

All the consoles are the same inside.

You have to use an xbox360 HDD with the console as it's in a special caddy.
Arcades can go on Live but you'd need a memory card plugged in to remember your profile.

 

You can actually replace the hard-drives inside the caddy. Its really just an external hard-drive which, if you have looked inside you will find its just a hard-drive with an adapter. For the sake of me knowing. If I bought an xbox hard-drive separate from the arcade and put it in, would it in theory be the same as any other xbox?

 

Yes it work just the same, but value wise you would be better off buying either the premium or elite. Also only the elite (afaik) has a HDMI port.

 

The size (& possibly type) off HDD is set by Microsoft at the firmware level. YOu can't just stick a 500GB drive in and assume it'll work.
Adding an xbox HDD to an arcade essentially turns it into a premium/elite model.
Arcades should have HDMI on them.

 

It IS possible to exchange the HDD, but not as easy as all that. There's some hacking around in dodgy tools involved, as well as some rather serious disassembly of the Console's drive caddy.
Any disassembly/hackery of that kind would definitely void warranties.
So while it is possible, it's not recommended (especially considering the 360's high failure rate).

AFAIK, all 360's currently ship with HDMI port... that was IIRC a platform upgrade that was implemented across the board.

 

Yes you can replace it but don't expect it to work. X360 hard drives have a special file system. Lately it became possible to clone that, but it has dodgy written allover it and IMO it's not worth the hassle.

 

This is correct, I was wrong previously when I said only elites had it.