I know nothing about games consoles at all but the wee lad has been on and on about getting an X-box (or a ps3), now I dont fancy paying the price of a new one but fairly new secondhand ones are on fleabay.

Is ther anything I should watch out for when buying one, what is the “best” one to get, and how much should I be paying for a decent one, say 6 months old??

Thanks in advance.

ps I did try to use the forum search function but it wiznae working.

i would recommend getting one second hand from a computer shop/chain e.g game e.t.c.they will have checked over it before selling it+ they will give you a 3 month i think? warranty with it,if it does break down they will repair it/exchange it for you.unfortunately i do not know the current going rates for 360’s.but i bought a 2’nd hand arcade one (with no hard drive for £90 if i remember.as it was a year ago)they should be a lot cheaper now,as a new version has recently come out.hope that was some help.

General concensus on the heavily populated XBox forum on the AV Forums site would probably push you away from 2nd hand, as older models have been known to have a fair few problems, including the dreader Red Ring of Death.

What’s your budget and requirements (there are a few different new models with different storage/accessory options)?

Don’t forget that older Xbox360s have extended warranties. from 1 – 3 years, for any RROD problems.

12 month warranty on used from gamestation

my xbox died last month got a second hand one from CeX. £95.
It died in the first 2 weeks and they tried to refuse me a refund but in the end gave in and payed up!
i just forked out for a new one instead. Have had 4 second hand xboxs over the years and all have gone faulty eventually, the new model hopefully addresses some of the issues of the old one.

I’d say buy new.

I went through 3 second hand ones from Gamestation as they kept failing (RROD, E74, HDD Failure). They replaced them without issue but it was still a pain in the arse having to make a 50 mile round trip each time to get them replaced.

You could always buy the arcade one without the harddrive for really cheap then put a computer hard drive in which will be alot cheaper than the xbox one

Just how cheap are you wanting by the way?

New 4GB slim Wi-Fi enabled model for under £140

Hmmm this is scaring me a bit, is the x-box really that unreliable?

Would he be better of with a PS3, or is that a very objective question?

He switches back and forward over wether he wants a ps 3 or X-box…

I wouldn’t buy either pre-owned. I worked at Gamestation when I was a student, consoles don’t get properly checked. £140 for a new slim xbox online as STW linked. PS3’s can be just as fragile. Hope you and your lad have fun playing on it.

iwoud buy new if you can stretch i bought new and it died after 8 or 9 months took it back to the shop and they replaced it with a new one with bigger hd foc

is console shop in the link a decent place? almost 15 quid cheaper than play.com which is very tempting 😀

actually with shipping it’s the same price as game or play

Buy second hand, take it to bits, re-paste the GPU and chip = all good 😉

my old 360 has thrown up the RROD, I thought I’d check the official solution so I followed the above link and got to a page that said:

Error

The server is busy now. Try again later
Correlation ID::b0e38688-3c16-4739-aff8-72d037b7234c

Date and Time: 1/10/2011 1:11:51 AM

pffft.

http://www.xboxscene.com/versions-xbox360-power-port.php

Try and get your hands on a Xbox 360 ‘Falcon’ (v3.0)

They have a refined CPU (90nm down to 65nm), which cured their Red Ring of Death problem.

( http://pictures.xbox-scene.com/xbox360/xbox360-versions/360-versions-video-s1680.jpg )

To identify the version of xbox, look at the power socket on the back, in reference to the first link I gave.

Older models will throw up the RROD eventually, I don’t know anyone with a 360 who hasn’t had this.

Although it will work in the short-term, it’s a bit more involved than simply re-pasting the GPU chip.

The board will need the solder reflowing and you’ll need to employ a better cooling system to avoid problems further on…

Avoid the older models at all costs IME.

Older models are fine if they have been back for repair, otherwise avoid.
Any problems with warrentied xbox’s are sorted without hassle by microsoft and they also refund a month gold subscription