Question about xbox 360.

Hello,
My question is about the xbox 360. I am interested in acquiring one. I am unsure which one to get. What are some differences between them besides hard drive space and xbox backwards compatibility.

I do not really plan on getting live. I am the type of person who would not want to pay for maps or any other downloadable content. And unless I have a few shooters i love i probably would not want live (last shooter i really got hooked on was counter-strike no lie).

So i was thinking of getting a xbox 360 arcade version new. Maybe get a bigger memory card for saves who knows. I like action, racing, shooters and rpg games mostly (so a fairly wide genre) but i'm not the type of person to go get 20 games in a year or anything... probably not even 10.

I am thinking of the xbox 360 arcade because... since as above, it doesn't seem like i'd be a big live person unless i'm just playing online and not really getting any downloadable content (unless free) I would not need a hard drive. I would want this to be more than a gaming console (watching videos and tv and maybe some music here and there if my computer's off). I would use this by setting up and plugging in my external hard drive which i use as a back up to the xbox 360 and I would then play it off of that... i hear this is possible.

What do you guys think and what advice can you give me. I am not usually one to buy big things for myself (i think the most expensive thing besides necessity of a car that i bought on myself was a guitar for 300-400 and of a macbook pro (which can also be considered a necessity) and building a computer before that (when i was way more into gaming)). Other than those few purchases, i am almost positive my entire live i haven't bought myself anything over 100 (maybe concert tickets the last two years). Haha okay so maybe i've bought more for myself than i thought. But the point being buying a system for gaming and watching dvds/tv shows off my computer basically I haven't done. Mostly necessity stuff (concerts are a necessity ). Anyways enough of my rambling.

What do you think of my idea? Do you think it's a good idea or is the hard drive and live truly necessary to "truly enjoy" an xbox 360 as the internet keeps telling me? And is the extenral hard drive plugged into usb truly work? Also are the new xbox 360 arcade's (or the other versions) fixed of the red ring of death issues or any other major issues, as that is also one of my concerns?

Again sorry for rambling,
Qua Sar

The harddrive is an absolute must! Even if you do not plan on playing on Live with other people, a Silver (free) membership entitles you to a huge load of free downloadable content; themes, gamer pics, game demos, arcade demos (you can purchase them with MS Points). That being said, you can create up to 3 gamertags and enjoy a month of Xbox Live Gold for free. However, if you have an existing gamercard, you can't use that one to take advantage of the free Gold membership.

I've never had a 360 without a hard drive, so I can't really say, but from my experiences, it's a must-have.

In terms of using an external USB hard drive with media on it, yes, this is true. I have a 160gb USB hard drive with a boat-load of music and video clips and such, and it works fine... Providing the movie clips are in wmv. Some other formats play, but I can't remember off the top of my head.

You can also plug an iPod into the USB port and play media off that as well.

One app I'd HIGHLY recommend is Connect360for OS X. It's an app that lets you stream movies/music/pics from a Mac to your Xbox 360. It's like $20, but definitely worth it.

hmmm,
I'm just worried i'll end up getting the xbox 360 and not being as big of a gamer as i used to be not play it to it's full potential for the price and just use it as a htpc sort of deal, which i could probably hook up my external to my computer to my tv or get something that hooks up my external to the tv (apparently that is possible or so the internet says). I'm just worried it's a boring summer so i want to buy a 360 to alleviate some boredom when i could work out/learn skateboarding better web design, read etc. and i'm just using it as a "easy entertainment" thing and it ends up going to waste. Although not TOO expensive anymore it's still fairly expensive technology.

I mean i do have a gamecube just not a lot of games i could always get better games for that even though it's older technology... maybe i just want the "latest" haha. Sorry i always think over and over things i buy myself, cause i don't do it often so i want it to truly count. lol.

If you want cheap and still want to play the gamecube games - there is always the Wii option. Just keep your old gamecume controllers and discs and memory cards. And you're set.

Sure I have to agree that the Xbox can do a lot of things and you pay a premium price tag for all it's features. I think the Xbox is only worth it if you use all of it's features as the above has stated in details.

Mind you you could always but the local apple and other stores for some good mac and PC (bootcamp) games if you don't want to fork out for a new machine. And your Mac can do everything the Xbox can only better. Only a different assortment of games for it.

For me why I did not get an Xbox was why buy a machine that can do a heap of features my mac can already do. you might feel differently though. If there is an Xbox game or 2 you really want it might be worth it.

Good luck with your decision.

Thanks guys for your advice and everything. I've decided not to go for the xbox360 at this moment. instead i got a few more gamecube games and i decided to get some tv series and maybe a eyeTV hybrid instead of the xbox360.

Thanks for the advice again