Xbox – the most cost efficient way to increase storage on an Xbox 360

xbox-360

Specifically, I want to buy a 360 but I also want to be able to download games from the marketplace. The cheapest console is 4gb, which won't be enough to hold even one premium game, so I'm curious if it's a better idea to spend the extra $100 to get the 250gb console or if it is cheaper to replace my hdd with a bigger one when I need to.

Cost is not the only factor (a major one though). Are there other disadvantages to replacing the hard drive (such as loss of warranty? the reason I'm buying a new console is for the warranty, after all).

Also, a valid answer could explain how I could use an external hard drive that I already own to store and play games purchased from the xbox live marketplace.

Best Answer

The cheapest option is definitely going to be the USB route as mentioned by others.

Ignoring the fact that Microsoft's hardware prices are inflated and overpriced, if you go strictly off a cost per GB, then buying the console with the 250GB drive is your best bet for the money. Using the averages prices these days

GB    Total $    $ per GB
250   $100.00    $0.40    (w/console)
250   $130.00    $0.52    (standalone drive)
120   $100.00    $0.83    (standalone drive)
60     $70.00    $1.17    (standalone drive)
16     $20.00    $1.25    (USB Drive)

I would assume the standalone drives have a warranty of their own, and the one with the console would be part of the console warranty, but I'm not sure on those.

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