The actual ‘brains’ of the system haven’t changed at all which does worry me given my prior crash and burn 360 console experience. My particular console came with a Toshiba DVD drive and while it runs quiet, it is not the well known “Ben-Q” quiet drive.
Thankfully I had a friend that purchased the HD-Upgrade Kit and wanted nothing to do with the Elite, so I was able to borrow his transfer cable to migrate to the new system. The transfer was pretty painless and nowhere near as difficult as I had feared. The only issue with the migration was that content I had deleted on my old drive was showing up as not deleted on my new drive.
I received errors when trying to play it (the content was erased from the drive but there must have been some sort of flag marking it as so on the old drive), so I just re-deleted and re-downloaded it and things were fine. The transfer wasn’t 100% perfect, but I didn’t lose any stuff from the old drive.
The HDMI connection is probably a matter of personal preference. I like the idea of only having one cable deliver sound and graphics to my TV. I have a 23” Olevia LCD TV for my gaming and to my eye, the HDMI picture looks better than Component, although I doubt that it looks $229.99 better. The black console and controller is also a matter of personal preference. I think black looks much better than gray (another example is the PS2 vs. PS1 for reference), but again, the black doesn’t look $229 better than the white/gray.
If you’re new to the Xbox 360 scene, there is no question that you should purchase the Elite. Even though it’s $479.99, the value you are getting for $80 more than the Pro system is worth the price. If you already have a 360 and are happy with what you have, there really is no reason to upgrade. If hard drive space is at a premium, the price difference between the hard drive kit and the Elite (net of sale or trade in of the old console) is rather insignificant, however the time involved in finding a transfer cable and transferring the drive contents may be more of a hassle than it’s worth. I don’t regret upgrading to the Xbox 360 Elite and since I now have a new one year warranty it’s probably money well spent.
