20 GB Minus 7 GB = ? (Microsoft Xbox 360 Hard Drive 20 GB)

Member Name: DocDan3

Product:	Microsoft Xbox 360 Hard Drive 20 GB
Date:	29/07/09 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good Design, Compact, Not Bulky, Looks Good, Save All Content

Disadvantages: Not Large Enough, Only 13 GB In Reality, Expensive

The Xbox 360 hard drive is pretty much another necessity, as it is required to save games, profile information and everything. Without the hard drive, there is no way of saving data, as the console doesn't have any other memory units built in. The good thing about the hard drive is that you can buy it and just slot it into the side. You don't need to open up your console and it's extremely easy to apply. This means you can even take it to other people's houses as it's very portable and you simply clip it in the side of your Xbox 360.


Design
******

The hard drive comes in plastic packaging amongst cardboard with the Xbox 360 logo and it clearly says '20 GB Hard Drive'. The packaging is annoyingly hard to open like all the Xbox 360 accessories, so you just have to get scissors or a knife and be vicious. You can't open the box neatly.

The hard drive is dark grey to match many other accessories in the Xbox 360 range. It also has a silver chrome effect on the sides and top. The top has an indent with a chrome silver piece on display that says 'HDD' standing for hard drive disk, which is easy to spot once it's on your Xbox so you know which side the hard drive is. The side of the hard drive has a chrome finish all the way round. The actual thing is around 20cm in length, 8cm in width and 2.5cm deep. A part sticks out underneath the hard drive, as this plugs into a socket on your console.

There is a clip to one side of the hard drive, which will be in line with the console when it's clipped in properly. The bottom has a label showing how it clips in, and that's about it. The hard drive weighs 880g, which isn't light but the console is heavy enough as it is anyway. It is quite compact and barely adds any bulk to your console. It blends in nicely with the design and slots in just perfectly.


Uses
*****

The hard drive can be used for many things - pretty much everything that you will use your Xbox 360 for. You can save profiles to it as well as saved games. Your saved games may take up most the space. You can also save gamer pictures and themes from the Xbox Live Marketplace, which take up no more than a few MB themselves. You can also save your music onto the hard drive and create playlists to play whenever. You can save demos and videos on there, which can take up quite a bit of space depending on their size. I like to delete old videos and demos because of this. You can also save arcade games, which are usually no more than 100 MB.


My Experience
*************

My previous 20 GB hard drive broke. I think the long term damage from a flood we had started to corrode the hard drive. I was not sure whether it was the console or something else that was wrong as games started messing up and not loading my files. I figured it could be the hard drive so took it out and saw through underneath that the metal had gone rusty. I bought a new one, second hand, and it worked just fine.

The hard drive is very easy to slot into place. It goes on the left side of your console if it's lying down, or the top if it's upright. You simply push it to one side and then push it down until it clips. The bad thing with the hard drive is that you don't get 20 GB of space at all. Unknown things immediately take up around 7 GB. Therefore, you get 13 GB of free space on an empty hard drive, which is a bit stupid really. The larger ones are so expensive, and a similar proportion of space is still automatically taken up. You don't have a massive amount of space to store stuff like games. If you are a passionate gamer with many games, this hard drive is simply not big enough. With demos, videos, gamer pictures and themes on top, there is no way you will have enough space.


Price & Availability
*****************

You can buy the hardrive either online or offline. The RRP is a rip off at £69.99. You can buy it used and new from amazon.co.uk at just £22.00, which is a lot better. The RRP for a larger 120 GB one is £99.99 but that can be bought on amazon.co.uk at a cheaper price too for £93.79. Luckily, the 20 GB versions comes with the premium console but is not included with the Arcade version. If you buy an Elite console, you will get a 120 GB hard drive included, which is great as well as a unique black console and controller. You can buy the console and hard drive from places like Game, Zavvi and Tesco.


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Overall, it's a necessity for the Xbox 360 and I would recommend buying a premium console that has a hard drive included. If you have the money, buy an Elite console so you get a large enough hard drive. I find the 20 GB versions is a bit too small and it's annoying how they advertise it as 20 GB when 7 GB is automatically taken up. It has a good design that blends in nicely with your console and it doesn't cause much bulkiness either. I would still recommend a larger version as it's not got enough space for a passionate gamer with many games and other content.

Thanks for reading,

Dan ©

Summary: A necessity for your console - one that is expensive and lacks 7 GB from the name

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