Got my Xbox360 replacement yesterday! Wow, what a difference. I suspected my 1stGen unit had some problems, but now I know it had problems.
The new "jasper" chipset is the latest 2008 build of the 360 including smaller CPU chip, lower power supply and overall less HEAT. Also, whereas I live in a motorhome in a particularly quiet area, it is OBVIOUS to me, the new units are much quieter during operation and there is no doubt about it, most of the LOAD times are faster.
The longest load time noticeable because it is a major NXE dashboard function, is that it takes about 20 seconds [while it does nothing] to populate your recent games list. I THINK MICROSOFT SHOULD FIX THIS. When you pop out of a game and want to jump into another one, especially the XBLA games that you purchase, no user should have to wait 20 seconds for a file listing TO APPEAR.
I am pleased in all respects! Last night I had my first 5_hour romp with Civilization Revolution. Real fun game.
The Arcade pack also comes with 6 FULL VERSION games [2 of which I already owned]. SEGA Superstars Tennis [Sonic], Boom Boom Rocket, Feeding Frenzy, Luxor 2, PAC_MAN Championship Edition, and UNO.
[sidenote] NintendoDS has a new game called Big Bang Mini which is a stylus game very similar to Boom Boom Rocket on the 360. It's very colorful and a lot of fun! It's one of those games you start swishing the stylus and 3 hours later, you're still playing it!The Arcade compilation disc has a nice, simple interface. However, I was dissapointed that Microsoft did not include NXE in their startup video, which would impress new 360 buyers. Actually, I didn't realize how much better NXE was until I saw the video that showed the previous, "blades interface".
In anycase, for me, it was totally worth buying the $199 Arcade360 to replace my 1stGen unit, popped on my 20gig hard drive and in minutes had my machine, Netflix and Media Center configured and up and running.
Thank you to Ars Tehnica for the photo.
;;cheers;;
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