xbox HDD size (1 Viewer)

[James Nguyen]

found in the teamxbox forums:
Link Removed

Sent: 11/23/2001 6:28:54 AM
One of our forums members, Patience, has taken the task of
finding out how many blocks exactly the Xbox could hold,
50,000+ was all Microsoft put down on the spec sheet. He
copied a huge 77 minute CD to the HD. Then copied that set
of tracks onto itself. Then he repeated that process
several times. What he noticed was that you could only
hold 500 songs per sound track. So he copied that
humongous sound track to a new one. Dont get the idea that
you can only copy 500 songs. Its 500 per sound track. You
can have multiple sound tracks.
He maxed out the HD at 312,500 blocks!
Y2Kevbug11 did the math and figured out that it would take
5,297 GameCube memory cards told hold that, and at that
rate, at the GameCube's memory card price of $15, it would
be $79,459 to hold it.

 

[MaxY]

Wow and here I was thinking it was simply a 10 gig drive, but it sounds so much better when you put it that way.
Max

 

[Shawn O]

5,297.Is that all!!

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Then again, I don't think people will actually fill up an entire 10 gig hard drive with game saves, which is what the GCN uses memory cards for.

If you're also using it for music and downloading, then I guess it seems like the better deal.

Then again, Nintendo could still release a HDD for the GameCube. If it was $100 and equal in size to the X-Box HDD, then it would be somewhat equal.

Nonetheless, thats a lot of space.

 

[James Nguyen]

I'm sure the remark about comparing it to GC memory cards was meant as a joke and not to be taken seriously.

The point in my posting this was to answer the numerous ponderings to just how many blocks the xbox had when it lists "50,000+" despite HTFers saving hundreds and in some cases thousands of blocks onto their machines without getting the indicator to budge.

And it's looking like I personally might never get the thing to budge in my xbox's lifetime....even if I never delete a saved game or song I ever rip on there, I'll still have plenty of room...my 40 or so songs I've ripped on there seem but a drop in the bucket now. Heh, this might come in handy in RPGs if space is no longer an issued and I'd like to save at multiple points throughout the game as an archive save (in general right before big cinematics that I'd like to be able to go back and watch later...doing this on my old PS for FF7 took me 2 dedicated memory cards just for it)

 

[Butch Smith]

from what I had heard, is that the HD will be used for downloading levels for games, like multiplayer maps. but they will be unified, as in when you log into playing HALO or something, as soon as you get in it will say "new level detected, downloading" and proceed to DL a 1-3 MB map.

They will have to make it streamlined as hell, because it has to NOT mess up anyone's XBOX.

 

[MaxY]

Well I have seen some conflicting reports on the size now. Yesterday I saw a Tech show say it only had an 8 gig drive but most stats I have seen said 10 so who knows.

As for what the intended use of that much space is I say we will really find out when the ethernet port starts getting used for high speed access. My bet is that there will be a browser program to be loaded and this will result in downloads of images, soundfiles, patches, levels, and what not.

I for one hope I can find some sort of high speed net connection soon, in my area.

Max

 

[BrianB]

Yesterday I saw a Tech show say it only had an 8 gig drive but most stats I have seen said 10 so who knows.

Microsoft got harddrive units from two different suppliers. One supplied 8GB drives, another supplied 10GB drives. So, some XBoxen have 8GB drives, others 10GB - this is the cause of the different sites/mags/tv shows reporting different HD sizes when they open up their XBox.

I /believe/, and I could be wrong here, that both machines have the same available space - the 10GB units are partitioned with the same space as the 8GB - to keep a level 'playing field' so to speak. Anyone know for sure?

 

[James Nguyen]

Max,

part of the licensing agreement that game developers must sign in order to develop for the xbox explicitly states that patches must not be made for any game they release. So the downloads of patches is a no no.

The buzz from MS and other developers has included downloading new levels, new characters, demos; refreshing the stats of a sports game daily to accurately reflect trades, injuries, etc. the possibilities I'm assuming are as limited as the imaginations of the developers who choose to use the combination of the built in online access and HDD.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Am I the only one that thinks its stupid to have two different HDD sizes? Yes, they may make it so that the two sizes provide the same space through a partition, but it still doesn't make any sense.

 

[James Nguyen]

Morgan,

I'm sure they contacted two different manufacturers purely to insure that they'd have enough drives to meet production requirements. Sony got hit hard due to shortages of a graphics chipset if I recall correctly. Contacting two manufacturers was just an additional level of insurance. Unlike things like graphics chipsets in the case of NVidia, the HDD is a rather staple commodity, so the ability to contact multiple vendors was a cinch. (NVidia had also started production of their chipsets much earlier than mass production of the Xboxes started)

Perhaps geography played a hand as well; i.e. either HD manufacturer was just simply geographically more accessible to a specific Flextronic production plant? I'm sure the logistics of producing millions of anything, let alone a video game console must be a bitch to manage. Given that they're rookies at it, MS I think overall did quite well; missing their original projections for launch units, but nailing their promises of continual levels of quick turnaround in retail replenishment.

The differing sizes I'd hypothosize to be that MS just gave them minimum specs and said "here, here's what we want".. just happens that one over delivered a bit.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Am I the only one that thinks its stupid to have two different HDD sizes? Yes, they may make it so that the two sizes provide the same space through a partition, but it still doesn't make any sense.

Not really. When mass producing products, you buy parts to spec. If a part exceeds some parts of spec, is still compatible, and meets pricing requirements, it is not usual to still use the part.

If you'll tear open 'identical' game consoles that were made 2 or 3 years apart, you will often see different parts in the newer consoles...and some of those parts have additional capabilities that are not even used.

I don't see why anybody cares, as long as the Xbox does what they claim it does.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I agree, it just didn't make sense that they would have two different HDD sizes.

 

[John Kilroy]

Specifically, Xboxen contain either a Seagate U Series 5 drive or a Western Digital WD80EB drive. My Xbox has the Seagate drive. It is actually a 20 gig drive, so they must be using only one side of the platter, hence 10 gig.

I'll choose not to second-guess the manufacturers on their choice or variety of parts. It's clear that Microsoft and Flextronics (and Sony) know a lot about manufacturing, and we don't. Instead, I'll spend my time enjoying my consoles and games!

John Kilroy