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The Wii is a much better proposition for the hardcore gamer. FACT!

For a media streaming box, how does this stack up?

Got one of these last week on the same deal. They are the newer Jasper model with the smaller PSU, etc.

it's good for HD wmv files and mp3, sucks for anything else. A really great console though. I would pay $500 and still say it was worth it.

#2: I assume the 256 MB is enough for the media upgrade to play DivX AVI and HD MP4 video (although there are annoying limits on supported codecs, so that unless you encode the file yourself it's hard to know if a given video will play, which may explain #4's claim of suckiness on this front). Older boxes are distractingly loud unless you blast your speakers; I haven't spent time with a Jasper, which should hopefully be quieter.

there was a deal from microsoft that gave you a refurbished 20g HD for $20 (or something similar). is that dead now? if not, any one have a link? and do i really need a HD if i don't plan to download additional levels/maps online?

i got a jasper model (console says 12.1A), but with the big 175w psu. i have the console standing up and tried it for 2 hours last night. it seems to run quite cool, which is great.

oh yea, forgot to mention that my roommate also had one--a falcon or even before that. he had his lying down instead of standing up, and it's the bottom side of the machine that gets really hot. his died a while ago by red ring. so sit your machine on its side if you can, it should at least do some good.
in terms of noise level, the jasper is still on the loud side, unfortunately. it might be slightly better compared to the previous models, i'm not sure. but usually you forget about the noise couple minutes into a game...

If you're planning on playing online, you'll probably need the hard drive to download expansion packs/maps for online games. I know you need one for COD4. Another upside of the HD is that you can burn the game onto the HD for faster loading and no spinning DVD noise. Microsoft had some deal for the 20gb drives a while ago for like $40, don't know if that's still running.

#2: I use mine for streaming from my PC a lot.
You can set up Windows Media Player to stream to the XBox and there are a number of other programs that will stream to it as well and convert on the fly those formats that it cannot play.

If you have broadband and Netflix it's great. It's been the hit even with my non-gamer wife--more convenient than using the netflix viewer on a pc (even though I have a pc hooked up to the tv as well).

#10: Except for the fact that you need an XBox Live gold account to do Netflix. I'm not sure you could get away with just creating a new trial account every month and tying it to your Netflix account, but even if you could, that'd be pretty annoying to do. So if that's not your cup of tea (or doesn't work), you're either paying for gaming you're not doing, or finding that you need a hard drive after all (per #8 ).

If you buy this with the coupon, then buy the 60 GB starter kit (which will take the coupon if you buy it alone, but they probably won't let you use the coupon twice), you'll effectively be getting the a Pro system for $245 ($5 more than using the coupon directly on the Pro), with the following differences:

- Weaker game bundle
+ Jasper system
+ 256 MB onboard memory (Of dubious utility once you get the HD).
+ 3 months Live subscription card

(Unless I'm missing something...)

If you make make two separate purchases and can use the coupon code on both, that cuts $17 off you

Do you need WMP and a Windows box? I've got a linux file server and a DLNA NAS -- I may get one to try it out.

Ha! Just checked this (3 minutes past midnight Texas time) and the exact same coupon code works and says it expires Wednesday, February 25.