Xbox360 - So glad I waited until you could play from hdd

[James]

I only recently (Christmas last year) got an Xbox 360. As soon as I set it up, I updated everything. Next I went about installing all the games I had at the time (3) to the hdd.

Each new game, I would install to the hdd, it just made more sense to me.

Now I can appreciate it for a different reason. Just switched from disc 1 to disc 2 in FF13. Holy crap is that DVD drive LOUD! How can people play games with that thing droning on?

I hadn't bothered to take the time to install all 3 discs when I started the game, but you can bet I'm doing it now.

For those of you who have had a 360 for all the years before they came out with the hdd solution, I salute you. You are stronger men than I.

[Snakespy]

Agreed. I install all games that I own. If I stop playing them for a long time I'll delete them, but if I get back into it I won't even play it until I install it again. It's unbelievable how the difference is.

[xclite]

I've found that some games absolutely need it to load any time this year, while others do fairly well. Actually, I find that Resident Evil 5 loads too quickly from the hard drive so that I don't even have time to read the tips or triva on the loading screen.

[Spaceman Spiff]

...or for those of us with the 360 Slim, we hardly notice any drive noise anyway.

I've owned a 360 since early 2006 (two of which died from drive read/RRoD issues), and the older units were indeed rather loud.

Still, I never really understood that complaint too much. I usually play games with the audio relatively high, or use headphones, also with the volume up. Either way, 95% of the time, the music/sound totally drowned out the drive noise.

Then again, I've owned a Dreamcast since '99. I have been hardened to the trials of loud disc drives.

[MrDigital]

My 360 sits on the other side of the room and I have game music/sfx playing. I'm not sure how you can hear the 360 over that.

I find the hard drive to be hit or miss on load times. I rarely see any major improvement. I even use a 7200rpm WD black drive in my one 360 and it makes zero difference from the 5400 rpm drive.

For example, games with long load times like NFS: Shift didn't improve at all from switching to disc-loading to hdd-loading.

[taggart6]

HD loading is hit or miss for me as well. Check out this website that lists game performance increase given by HD loading. In many cases, you see little to no change, but some games improve drastically like Devil May Cry 4.

http://www.bingegamer.net/2008/so-ho...install-chart/

EDIT: Didn't know about Fable 2. That damn inventory slowdown was bugging me. Nice to see HD loading fixes it.

[Trunks]

My Jasper unit isn't terribly loud when loading from DVD drive, but I always load all my games to the HD I never hear it anyway.

[JDC]

I've noticed a difference between installing to a Jasper unit versus a new Slim unit. The Jasper unit still has a hum that I notice between loading screens where the Slim is virtually silent. And now that I have the 250GB I install all my games even if I dont' play them too often.

[PowerCreep]

It's interesting that some games are louder than others. Some, like Forza aren't really all that noticable while Marvel UA 2 are loud enough to wake the dead.

[taggart6]

It's interesting that some games are louder than others. Some, like Forza aren't really all that noticable while Marvel UA 2 are loud enough to wake the dead.

Fable 2 is loud. The moment I start it up, the 60 starts to sound like a jet engineer getting ready for take off.

I have no idea why.

[Kamakazie]

I refused to play Fable 2 until I got a bigger hard drive so I could do the install. :O

[Snakespy]

When I watch Netflix a lot of the time my 360 is super loud too, almost unbearable for watching something (with company over usually). Or maybe I'm just worrying about it since I'm the host? I dunno whenever I say its loud they have no idea what the hell I'm talking about. But it rumbles my whole damn place I swear!





oooohhhhh dirty thoughts

[Johnmcl7]

My launch Premium and launch Elite both had noisy drives so I was very pleased when the option came out to copy to the hard drive as it made a massive difference in the noise level. I find the 360 S still a bit noticeable with the drive spinning however with its 250GB drive there's little reason not to copy the games to the drive.

John

[Timman_24]

I've never installed a game. I usually play the game with the volume up so, I never hear it anyway.

[dyne]

It's interesting that some games are louder than others. Some, like Forza aren't really all that noticable while Marvel UA 2 are loud enough to wake the dead.

Forza makes my 360 sound like a chainsaw and I have one manufactured a couple months into this year. I agree with Spaceman though, the Dreamcast was the loudest system I ever had. You could use the GD-rom drive noise to sometimes know in games when something was about to happen.