Gaming A Few Quick Questions - Before Buying an x360

[higuys]

hey guys i've been watching the wii scene for a really long time now (almost from the beginning) so i'm no newbie to console modding. i've been considering buying an Xbox 360 over the holiday break and am just wondering if people can give me a few tips on the modding side. i've been reading over tons of threads and websites regarding modding and i'm really not sure whether i should invest in a hardware mod. for my wii i started out with a modchip, but eventually softmodded it completely.

what i'm mainly concerned with is the opening of the Xbox in order to flash the drive, which i read may also be more difficult for newer versions? current mod chips don't have any restrictions compared to software mods do they? and i don't need to worry about being banned from Xbox Live, i plan on buying games it's just that i'm one of those backup freaks.

any tips and anything else i should take into account regarding the purchase and modding would be great. i know you probably get these threads all the time so i'm sorry. =D

EDIT: i was also wondering if flashing/modding imposes any restrictions, like having games on the hdd or anything?

 

[FAST6191]

Do not get a 360 mod chip as for one they do not work with current drives (or any drive from the last year or more and even if they do they are useless compared to modern hacked firmwares).

The general order of things to flash a drive is
hook up drive to PC
dump key/firmware from the drive
Add key to custom firmware
Flash firmware back

You have also decided to join this game at an odd time. MS understandably does not like the 360 being modded and their only real recourse is to ban people from xbox live (although this last batch has seen them get a bit nastier and take off hard drive installs even if they can be returned with some effort).
The general consensus is that they detect the hacked firmware by some means (previously thought impossible) but there is a new one coming in the not too distant future.
This means your plan for live as it stands would be pointless (and indeed I would argue it always was).

It is not more difficult to open the 360 but all new 360s for some time now use a liteon drive (we are rapidly approaching 2 years).
There are 4 models
7 series
8 series
83XXXXX v2
9 series

The 7 series needs a probe you can either buy for about the price of a new game or make for hardly anything. You will need to open up the DVD drive to gain access to the mainboard.

The initial 8 series will work with just a compatible sata card (no need to open it up)

The 8 v2 and 9 series have only just fallen in the last week and will require some electronics knowledge to pull off: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=194329
They also lack an official hacked firmware (the ones that exist are just hacks to the older liteon drives)

A flashed 360 is just like a normal 360 other than it can play copied games.

 

[higuys]

ok, thanks for the detailed reply, i appreciate it. =D