bit-tech Shopping: Microsoft Xbox 360 120GB Hard Drive

Rating: 8

Time with product: 37

Strengths: The retail 120GB Hard Drive upgrade kit gives a full 20GB owner about 95GB more space after the one-time 20GB to 120GB transfer.

Weaknesses: None so far. Rumor has it some content doesn't work when not logged into Live, but I tested a few games and themes offline. They work fine.

Summary: I was tired of being out of space on my 360 HDD. For $145 shipped, I couldn't pass up this upgrade. The upgrade went smoothly. It takes about an hour to transfer the original 20GB hard disk's contents to the 120GB disk. After that, the 20GB disk is left wiped clean and the 120GB disk contains all the 20GB disk's content. The content I've tested so far works fine when not logged into Live.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 2 Months

Strengths: huge amount of space for games, movies, and more

Weaknesses: the price

Summary: If you are tired of running out of memory when you want to download the latest demo or movie from XBox Live, this is your answer. With 120GB of space, you can keep a whole lot more game demos, movies, music, and pictures, without the need to clean out files every time you want to download something. It looks and fits just like the 20GB hard drive that comes with the pro package with the exception of the 120 GB label. The package comes with a transfer cable and software so you can move all of the data from your current 20 GB hard drive to your new 120 GB hard drive. With my 20 GB drive about 90% full it took about 45 minutes for mine to transfer. The only real drawback is the price. Having already paid about $350 for the console, another $180 is kinda hard to swallow.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 1

Strengths: Its large size allows me to download more of xbox lives content. I can store mp3 and videos. Now that Xbox plays divx movies i can store it on the hard drive and watch it with out my computer

Weaknesses: Very expensive, it takes about 1hr and 30 min to transfer from my 20gb to the 120gb. You don't actually get a full 120gb only 99gb

Summary: I bought this hard drive so that i could fully take advantage of the online downloads from xbox live. The 20gb was sufficient for the first 1st year but since then I've had to manage the space available. Setting up the drive to transfer from the 20gb to the 120gb was easy and simple. However it took over 1 hr and 30 min to transfer only 20gb. This upgrade has freed up my time worrying about the space available and allowed me to play more and watch more of the xbox live content. I have been also taking advantages of xbox 360 divx playback storing divx movies on the hard drive. Playing music is also much better now that i don't have to stream it from my computer. They say that their planning to introduce IPTV for the xbox service and that the 120gb would take advantage of the service. I cant wait for them to relase that feature.

Rating: 10

Time with product: 3

Strengths: Capacious; straightforward install & upgrade

Weaknesses: relatively high cost

Summary: Because one cannot install a regular computer hard drive on a non-modified system, you mustn't take the price of this drive into account when considering value. (Although if you don't already have a system and want the 120gb hard drive, the Elite model will give you more bang for the buck.) That being said, once installed, you can download everything you could ever want without batting an eye. Because, with the exception of ripped CDs, the Xbox 360 streams media to the machine, you cannot fill up the drive with your media, leaving it available for game-related downloads. Once MS begins its IPTV/DVR program, the available space may seem insufficient, but for now, it's plenty for even the biggest packrat.

Rating: 6

Time with product: 3

Strengths: Lots of storage space for game and marketplace content, music, movies, etc.

Weaknesses: Price. Unless you grab it on a deal somewhere the price for what is essentially a 120GB external HD is ridiculous.

Summary: A nice, if not overpriced, accessory for the Xbox 360. Plenty of storage space for whatever you are looking to do (music, movies, save games, demos), and it integrates with the 360 exactly as the 20GB drive did. Transferring files from the 20GB to the 120GB was simple and took less than an hour, and all the content from my original drive transferred over properly. I only gave it three stars because I feel it is way overpriced... I bought one because Amazon had it as their deal of the day and I saved forty bucks off the regular price. MS is kind of taking advantage of users by making their HD proprietary. It would be much better if we could just attach external HD's via USB.