Core or Premium Console Pack?

Watty · **27th December 2006, 04:51 PM**

Do you really need a Premium system if it's only going to be an extender?

Is there any advantage?

DTB · **27th December 2006, 05:05 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Watty

Do you really need a Premium system if it's only going to be an extender?

Is there any advantage?

1. No.

2. Yes.

You don't need the premium for an extender.

The advantage of a premium (purely from an extender point of view) is a slightly faster connection to the MCE Computer (we are talking about 5 seconds or so).

However, I'd suggest getting the primium for the hard drive that comes with it (not to mention the remote control for MCE). The price difference is fairly small if you hunt around. Also the HD is essential for gaming particularly if you want to get onto Xbox Live.

Good luck.

Cheers

Darren

Watty · **27th December 2006, 05:14 PM**

Can pick up a Core for $380 at the moment. Does that make a difference?

Not overly interested in the gaming side of things.

logifuse · **27th December 2006, 06:53 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by DTB

1. No.

2. Yes.

You don't need the premium for an extender.

The advantage of a premium (purely from an extender point of view) is a slightly faster connection to the MCE Computer (we are talking about 5 seconds or so).

However, I'd suggest getting the primium for the hard drive that comes with it (not to mention the remote control for MCE). The price difference is fairly small if you hunt around. Also the HD is essential for gaming particularly if you want to get onto Xbox Live.

Agree except for the 5 seconds. Over my wired network the extra time to download the extender software each time when not using the hard drive is no more than half a second. Could be slower via wireless or in different networks, but that's what it is on mine. Not sure about Vista - I thought I read that the software client is larger, so that might take a bit longer each time.

Justin

simbot82 · **27th December 2006, 10:19 PM**

The premium also comes tih the component cables and SPDIF connector (I know with core you jsut get standard AV cables.. at least I am pretty sure)

saggynuts · **28th December 2006, 08:36 AM**

I got the Core pack as I just wanted to run it as an extender, but I had to get a memory card as I couldn't do any upgrades without it (or a HDD, or a HD-DVD). You can't even hook up to a Vista box as it is one of the upgrades you need.

I also ended up getting the extra VGA cable as the A/V one was crap.
Add to that the Universal Remote and I probably could have just got the premium pack for the same price and got the HDD instead of the memory card...

All in all, I am happy...

supafly · **28th December 2006, 09:07 AM**

if you need to pay for a memory card for upgrades you may aswell invest that $60 or so into getting the premium, trust me you might be thinking now "i am only going to use it as an extender" but trust me on that rainy day curiosity might get the better of you and you might hire out a game and wish you had the 20gig HDD so you arent limited to 64mb.

Watty · **28th December 2006, 10:54 AM**

So what prices are the premium systems going for at the moment?

supafly · **28th December 2006, 11:15 AM**

i bought a brand new and sealed one off of ebay for $480 about 4 or 5 months ago. I own a game shop and that is well below cost price about $100 below cost. If you buy one retail it will probably cost you around $599

maxz2040 · **6th January 2007, 11:18 PM**

hey, can i just ask to confirm, can the core console use the memory card to store the MCX software? yes it seems buyign a premium bundle is all for the value, but i want to know if just a core system can be used for MCX with the memory card, what are thesse upgrade, do the upgrade 'files' get stored onthe memory card.

reason seekign a core system is im probably going to be looking at two systems one defintely now a premium, but could i get away wihta core for just a media centre extender?