This is a little bit of old news from earlier in the week regarding memory concerns around the New Xbox Experience (NXE), but it's an important bit, especially considering Microsoft's recent price drops so read on.

Over the last month or so there has been a bucketload of hoopla around NXE, the update to Xbox LIVE's UI, launching November 19th. It will bring with it a lot of new online functionality, but as all hardware users know, functionality gobbles up memory. Truth be told, gobble isn't the right word here. NXE only requires 128MB of free space on consoles, which is surprisingly light, but then again hard drive space has always been an issue with the 360. To their credit Microsoft was first to the market, but the 360 came in at the high end with a 20GB hard drive. Considering the amount of memory downloadable content soaks up and the fact that you can now get a Xbox Elite with a 120GB hard drive, 20GB sounds pretty chinche, much less anything lower than that. But the fact of the matter is that most people are still playing with a 20GB unit. Unless the hard drive fairy paid an over night visit, I still am. And with Microsoft price drops bringing the Core Arcade and Arcade Holiday console bundles down to under 0, there are a lot of people who are/will be playing with less than that. For these folks an extra 128MB might be a lot. So what is the solution? Thanks to big money MS, it's a freebie.

There's no going back to the old Xbox LIVE after Nov. 19th, so Microsoft has announced a program to ensure that all Xbox owners have enough memory by either giving owners a 512MB memory unit for free or cutting them a deal on a refurbished 20GB hard drive for . They've set up a memory upgrade page within Xbox.com's hardware support section where 360 owners can enter their 360 serial numbers or console ID to find out which options they are eligible for. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. A word to the wise though. If given the choice between the two, do yourself --or parents, if the 360 you bought or will buy this holiday season was/is for your kids, do them-- the favor of springing for the refurbished hard drive. New, they retail for about 0, so that's a HUGE savings. And take it from me, 20GB is totally doable and will be for a long time as long as old content is deleted from the drive. 512MB will barely cover game saves in the long run.

--Hobson's Choice

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