Should I buy an Xbox 360 Slim 4GB ?

[L3gi0n0fh311]

Can I add an internal HDD to the 4GB slim ? or am I limited to 4GB only ? Besides storage, is everything else identical to the 250gb version ?

 

[master801]

Xbox 360 Slims do use an internal hard drive. Although you can use one without it, since it has 4GB internally (for Xbox Live profiles and whatnot.)

 

[DinohScene]

If you end up hardware hacking it, you can use a 2 TB internal.

 

[L3gi0n0fh311]

Xbox 360 Slims do use an internal hard drive. Although you can use one without it, since it has 4GB internally (for Xbox Live profiles and whatnot.)

I have heard that the 4GB flash memory that is soldered to the board may fail and then brick the console ?

 

[DinohScene]

The same can be said about any 360.
If the NAND corrupts, the console is bricked, regardless if they have a 4GB storage module or not.

 

[L3gi0n0fh311]

I am asking here because elsewhere somebody said this:

That 4gb flash memory breaks quite often and then your xbox will freeze during booting. As I recall on some version of slim you can just take out the 4gb flash out of slot in motherboard but on some version it is soldered to board

I am looking to buy a couple of slim models...You are saying it doesn't matter which ones I go with ? the 4GB versions are as durable as the 250GB models ?

Also, are all matte slims the ones with the 4GB flash memory ? only the glossy ones are 250GB ?

 

[Ryccardo]

"Internal storage" started with the last fat models, with a much larger SPI nand (so, shared with the critical one, can't say I've heard of significant failure numbers for these or any of the successors)

Then the first slim console (Trinity) came out, some have the traditional SPI nand + HDD system, the "4GB" ones are the same but have an additional card inside (USB flash drive with a proprietary socket)

Then they started making the Corona slims, the 4GB models (just like 12GB PS3s) replace the SPI nand with an eMMC and conversion hardware to make it bootable while the HDD models use the traditional system

Except for the Trinity card all of these are soldered (but if you have the skill and a full backup, ie a working updflash.bin for your console, you can replace it); in any case all slim and superslim consoles have the HDD socket if you want to add/replace one

 

[L3gi0n0fh311]

Then the first slim console (Trinity) came out, some have the traditional SPI nand + HDD system, the "4GB" ones are the same but have an additional card inside (USB flash drive with a proprietary socket)

If the card is removed, can the system still work ?

Then they started making the Corona slims, the 4GB models (just like 12GB PS3s) replace the SPI nand with an eMMC and conversion hardware to make it bootable while the HDD models use the traditional system

is the eMMC as durable as the SPI NAND ?

should I just buy any Slim model (4GB or 250GB) ? All of them are equally durable ?

 

[Ryccardo]

If the card is removed, can the system still work ?

Yes, of course without the internal storage, but as long as you have an HDD (or generic FAT32 USB - no more forced FATX formatting at least on the "newest" updates) you can live fine without

is the eMMC as durable as the SPI NAND ?

Can't really say - eMMC is one type of managed NAND (= NAND + controller) like regular SD, CompactFlash, SATA SSD, NVME SSD, flash drives, etc; so in theory they're less reliable than the unmanaged NAND used in other consoles (because there are more parts) but, as you may have experienced with the other products I mentioned, there is a very wide range of quality and even the best may have manufacturing problems...

should I just buy any Slim model (4GB or 250GB) ? All of them are equally durable ?

Given the choice and comparable prices I would buy the HDD model, not because of reliability but they're better understood and most chip programmers also work for the SPI NAND but not the EMMC (however, now that RGH3 is a thing, if you go for that method you won't need a chip so this advantage disappears and almost reverses since most SD card readers work fine for EMMC).

 

[L3gi0n0fh311]

Are all Matte slims the 4GB version ? and all glossy black Slims the 250GB version ?