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Looking to buy my 11yr old lad an XBox for Christmas, not sure whether to go for the 4GB or 250GB.
Is 250gb needed??
not really, is helpful as you can install games direct to your hard drive so they run quicker and you don't get the disc drive whirrrrr noise. It's only really used on mine for saving games
I think the 250gb is pretty superfluous to be honest, unless you're going to load a bunch of DVD box sets and CDs on to it and use it as a "media hub".
I have a 120gb hard drive on mine and barely use a fraction of that. You can only play one game at a time.
Also, if it's one of the new XBoxes, I think they're supposed to run quieter, which negates one of the reasons for having a big hard drive, which is to make the machine run more quietly when the game is installed on the hard drive rather than from the disc.
Get the cheaper one.
I think you can add more storage via usb if you really need it.
You don't 'need' 250GB, but it is massively useful:
- installing games to the disk makes playing a much nicer experience
- the xbox runs quieter (even the new 'quiet' versions only have quieter fans etc - not a quieter drive)
- you need space for any DLC you plan to buy (e.g. extra Guitar Hero tracks, Call of Duty map packs)
4GB is not enough IMO, 250GB is plenty, 120GB is a great compromise (but not sure if they make 120GB versions any more).
Some games need the hard drive to play coop online etc... well I know halo reach can't be played online coop mode without a hard drive. (this is only a minimum inconvenience mind and not worth putting you off buying one without a hard drive!)
If you can guarantee that the box is never going to be connected to the Internet ever, the 4Gb should do.
If you're going to be doing any online gaming, downloading demos, etc, 4Gb is woefully inadequate. You can fit a bigger drive afterwards, but it's much more cost effective to do it at the start.
MS release game demos on a weekly basis. Some are small, but some can be over a gig in size. I've probably got about 100Gb used on my 360. Sure, you can delete them, but "I've installed a demo... oh, my hard disk is full" is going to get old fast.