Anyone keeping up on news on " X-Box Next" will know there' s a lot of debate as to whether or not the next X-Box will have a hard drive in it.

Some are speculating that instead the X-Box will use Flash memory cards which may be big enough for both game saves and Live downloads. However, those cards will not come pre-installed in the system.

So what' s your take on all this? Do you like the idea of flash memory cards or should hard drives be a standard feature for all systems?

I know the hard drives for the X-Box made it a little bit more expensive than MS wanted it to be, but that same size hard drive in 2005 won' t cost as much and will most likely still be big enough to fit all your saves/downloads.

After all, has anyone here actually filled up their hard drives yet without purposely trying?

IMO I think the hard drives should stay. I for one believe the true potential of the hard drive has yet to be realized plus I like not having to buy memory cards.

Me = Cheap b*stard.

The One, The only One
- The Lotus One

Here' s my take-

Screw the hard drives. At least until they become more reliable. Microsoft has been scrambling to supply major retailers with replacement units for defective systems returned with burnt-out hard drives. Of the seven people I know that have an Xbox, three have had complete meltdowns, and all their saved data lost. For someone who loves to keep many completed RPG files for years at a time, I for one do NOT like the idea of losing hundreds upon hundreds of hours of hard work.

I have five PSone memory cards and two PS2 memory cards, and I' ve never once had a problem since 1996. Dozens and dozens of games and save files, and never once any kind of problem. The PS2 memory card was plenty large enough; it lasted nearly three years before I had to get another. During most of the PSone' s existence, Sony-branded memory cards only cost $15, and IMO, it was well worth it for the reliability and peace of mind they provided.

I don' t care about space, nor do I care about the very small investment. I care about reliability, and unless there is a SIGNIFICANT increase in the reliability of the built-in hard drives (if they decide to use them), then I would be happy with memory cards. Hell, I' d be happy with memory cards for the rest of my life. How hard are they to manage, really? Two seconds of your time?

I' m happy with reliability, and for almost eight years, I' ve been happy.

Again, Lotus is telling it like it is. The HD is an integral part of the XBox, and of the 15+ people I know with a XBox, none have had problems, so maybe it' s just the European systems. At first I thought that the LIVE downloads were a gimmick, but some are very fun, usefull, or both. Also, this is only speculation, the big M$ hasn' t said anything about a HD yet. So, unlike in all the lesser forums, don' t start bashing the X2 for not having an HD, at least until M$ says it won' t. Anyway, if it doesn' t, the mod community will figure out a way to install one and post it. I' m out.

No it shouldn' t as most people with xbox' s barely use the 8Gb they have on offer. It adds a fair amount onto the production cost of each unit and quite frankly isn' t worth it.

Who really cares? M$ hasn' t made the XBOX cost any more than the PS2, so its like getting a free Ethernet adapter and HD. And, yes some people have gotten close, and may very well do so in the near future. I believe if you load all CD' s and a lot of game saves it may be close. But, who cares, better to have too much than not enough.

Better to have memory cards that never die than defective hard drives that erase all your save data...which could mean years of fun and hard work down the tubes...

Worth the risk? Not on my end.

Thats why mem cards are optional on XBox, in case your worried about losing your data. Also, I' m much more likely to physically lose a memory card than the console, I can' t tell you how many PS1 and N64 memory cards I have lost.

Well, umm...it' s not really my fault or the company' s fault that you can' t keep track of your things.

And the memory cards for Xbox are a joke. They can BARELY hold enough for one game! At $25 a pop, you would expect better. I' d need eight memory cards just to back up all my save files.

Sorry, but I' d rather not have to " back up" anything. The memory cards have been working for me for a while. Until I believe the hard drive is as reliable, I' d rather stick with the cards.

My friend just lost 75 hours of DoA: XBV data when the hard drive fried. That' s just about the LAST thing I want to have happen...

Wow, your fanboyism is showing again. The XBox mem card holds 8mb (same as PS2). And, once again, I dont know anyone that has had their HD fry. (And I know a lot of ppl with XBoxs) Also, you may have seen the article, it seems they are going to be using flash cards. Also, without a HD, you couldn' t save games like KOTOR.

FYI, 8 MB can' t hold much of anything in regards to an Xbox game. Give it a try. Let me know how many games you can save on one, then get back to me.

Bottom line- I' ve had no problem with memory cards. Ever. The hard drives in 3 of my friend' s Xboxes have fried, destroying the data. EB has been struggling with MS for the past eight months, demanding more replacement systems for all the systems returned under the ESA with a defective hard drive.

All I want is reliability.

" FYI, 8 MB can' t hold much of anything in regards to an Xbox game. Give it a try. Let me know how many games you can save on one, then get back to me."

Thats why XBOX has a hard drive.

" Bottom line- I' ve had no problem with memory cards. Ever. The hard drives in 3 of my friend' s Xboxes have fried, destroying the data. EB has been struggling with MS for the past eight months, demanding more replacement systems for all the systems returned under the ESA with a defective hard drive.

All I want is reliability."

Maybe your friends are not taking care of there xbox' s.
6 of my friends have XBOX' s and non of them had any problem with the hard drive.I my self have 2 Xbox' s and the hard drives are ok.

So i say keep the hard drive untill they figure out some other way of saving data without sacrificing DLC or Custom Soundtracks.

Your personal experience and mine don' t mean much of anything. The truth of the matter is that MS if facing declining reliability because of defective hard drives. Both major retailers (EB and GameStop) have been trying to deal with the problem since October of last year, when the issues really started to snowball. Apparently, there was a batch of systems with defective hard drives that was released to all of the East coast and parts of the Gulf coast.

The 8MB memory card is worthless. You' d need to spend close on to $50 just to back up three games. So we' re forced to rely on the hard drive.

Like I said, seven years with Sony memory cards; not a single problem. I' ll get back to you seven years from now. If the hard drive in this Xbox I have, or in the Xbox 2 (if there is one) is still operating fine, I' ll believe in their reliability. Until then, recent happenings in the retail world do not brook confidence.

I just want my games to be saved and stored safely. That' s all.

Okay, so your experience and ours doesn' t count, so then why did you bring up your " personal experience" . And no, it wouldn' t take $50 to back up 3 games. Have you ever heard of exageration? I can fit close to 10 games on a mem card. (I admit that you can only keep 2 or 3 Halo profiles, and KOTOR is too big) And the XBOX2 seems to be using flash cards, so it will either be 128MB or 256MB, so it should be large enough, even for KOTOR.

Correction: You can fit as MANY as 10 games on the memory card, and that' s stretching it. On average, maybe four or five. MAYBE. I can put 30-50 games on a PS2 memory card that costs the same amount. And I can count on the files to always be there when I need them.

In terms of reliability with memory, the cards are near-perfect. MS has yet to establish that level with the hard drive. That' s all I' m saying.

Jeeze, does every thread have to turn into a debate. I mean G*d D*mn, tke it easy. Yes, the Xbox has had its problems, the PS2 has also had its fair share of prolems. Out of all my friends only one has had to get their Xbox replaced. All of my friends that own PS2s ahve all needed a replacement. That' s 8 perfectly fine Xbox' s with one bad one versus 14 defective PS2s. Does it matter? Not if you bought the garentee. None of the systems are all that reliable. It' s just the way it is.

As far as a HD is concerned, I think there need to be some sort of built in memory. With my DC I kept having to buy more and more memroy cards. I have two official Sega ones and a 3rd party one that is the equivilant of 4 officical ones. All of them are filled. It' s not fun having to run out and get a new memory card for $30 everytime you run out of space. I also think it' s funny people complain about the cost of an HD when the Xbox came out at the same price as the PS2. Better system(tech terms), same price. It' s just a convienence to have built in memory. We may not need as much as the Xbox currently has but it is still nice not having to worry about buying extras for the system.

I do agree though the Xbox memory cards are crap and need to be bigger. The majority of games won' t fit on them. They need something bigger to take care of that especially if the xbox gets that disk read error. That way you can trnfer to a new Xbox.

I' ve always found it funny how fathoms friend' s always seem to have trouble with their other consoles...can anyone say " sabotage" ?

I highly doubt there will be an HD: one reason .. pirates!

Fathoms, your argument is ridiculous. If it' s anything, an HD is a trangressive feature - unlike your precious PS2' s memory card. It goes beyond a " saving feature." Online gaming is only possible with an HD; the data gets save on the storage - character stats, player creation, etc. - which makes it a more pleasant gaming experience. Also, certain programming techniques are only possible with it - such as " backtrack" features like holes in walls and dead bodies.

USA A-OK !

T-Shirts: No matter how much of a legendary loser you are, you make a good point. The HD is certainly necessary for online gaming, and for that, I admit my mistake. I missed that, but that' s simply because I don' t play online.

Ramp/yoshi- It' s no secret that both of you are huge Xbox fans. I' ve known that for QUITE some time. However, as I said earlier, mine and your experiences aside, MS is dead last in terms of the ratio of units sold vs. defective units returned. EB and GameStop district managers between New York and Florida have actually PETITIONED Microsoft to send double the normal amount of replacement units for the second quarter of this year. The defective hard drive issue spreads far beyond me, my friends.

And yes, I know nothing is perfect. The PS2 has certainly had it' s problems, as Ramp said, especially with the first couple of batches. Mine is starting to go even as we speak. Then again, I' ve had it for over 3 years, and it still plays games, just not DVD movies anymore. However, I didn' t even know what a DRE was until I bought the Xbox...which gives me one of those errors half the time when I pop in a brand new game. And that' s only 18 months old.

No system is perfect, and no way of saving is perfect. Memory cards for the past seven years (Sony-branded, mind you; we all know that the so-called " licensed" memory cards aren' t half as reliable) have been perfect for ME. I have not had a problem with the hard drive on my Xbox either. All I' m saying is that' s it' s been less than 2 years with the hard drive, and more than 7 with the memory cards, so for me, one has a better track record than the other, simply based on the law of time.

The space an HD affords is great. But being someone who loves to save and keep old RPG files forever, kinda as a mark of my success, I would HATE to see my nearly perfect FF VII save file get completely erased for no reason. Sure, it can happen with a memory card, but it' s unlikely. All I want is reliability. I don' t care who has it.

Oh, and for the record, the Nintendo GameCube has by FAR the best current ratio of units sold vs. defective units returned. Really, an extremely high-quality piece of electronics right there. They had everything under control when they made it.

I love how you claim these stats and I never have seen them. Tell me, has every major mag ran an article on how to fix your cheap xbox dvd drive? Nope. PS2 dvd drive? Yep. I hate to tell you, accusing to people of being XBox fanboys is stupid, especially when your the biggest PS2 fanboy on Kikizo.

I haven' t even used that word in this thread. I just said fans, and I know they both are. That' s not a bad thing. You, however, are just a rampant fanboy because all you care about is Xbox, and to top it all off, you know SHOCKINGLY little about games.

I also never posed any " stats." I just told you what is going on in the retail world. I don' t know how many of anything was ordered, but I do know of the East Coast petition for more MS replacement units. My ex-manager was whining about it last weekend (I used to work there); about how they never have enough replacement Xboxes for the defective units that come in.

Mine still works fine, despite the frequency of the DRE. I' m not complaining about anything on my end. I' m just telling you WHAT I' VE HEARD. If you don' t want to believe it, then fine.