Say someone, let's call him Jhonka, was going to mod their Xbox so they could backup their games on it. Jhonka hears that games played off a harddrive load even faster because the data is accesssable much faster than if it were to remain on a DVD or similar medium, and this makes Jhonka wish even further to pursure his mod project. Jhonka thinks on using a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 120GB 7200rpm with 8MB buffer, but before buying, wishes to confirm his suspicion about the faster loading off a HDD. Could anyone here do just that for m...Jhonka?

do games access faster off an HD than a dvd? yes, very much so

do games access off a 7200rpm drive faster and a 5400rpm? no, the xbox will only access the drive at 5400rpm speeds

2mb vs 8mb? same deal, xbox will only utilize 2mb

a 7200, 8mb cache drive will work in an xbox mind you, however it will only run a 5400 2mb

Jhonka also wonders that, since using Xbox Live after the mod will be kinda awkward, if he could download his desired content (Splinter Cell levels, RTCW levels, etc.) before the mod then transfer that content to his new harddrive along with everything else so he could use it afterwards. Or can you download content with a modded Xbox? Jhonka knows you have to lock your HDD, but doesn't quite know what that means, presumes it means it can't be used.

no, when u lock it u can still use it, it just means (correct me if im wrong) in a sense xbox live dicks cant look onto ur hard drive and then once they realize u have illegal programs or bios ban u from xbox live. but mind u, a locked hard drive is only good if u have ur mod chip off when u use live.
so yes, u can still use live if ur hdd is locked and if ur modchip is off b4 u turn ur box on.

...and download content without worry? I know I'd be using my original discs to do so.

yes, u can download, but just make sure u lock hdd and turn off chip

So even after Jhonka swaps HDDs, transfering all files of course, and runs his games off the HDD, he'd be able to use the content he'd downloaded, like the Splinter Cell levels?

...eh?

QUOTE (lordvader129 @ Nov 22 2003, 11:19 PM)

do games access faster off an HD than a dvd? yes, very much so do games access off a 7200rpm drive faster and a 5400rpm? no, the xbox will only access the drive at 5400rpm speeds 2mb vs 8mb? same deal, xbox will only utilize 2mb a 7200, 8mb cache drive will work in an xbox mind you, however it will only run a 5400 2mb

I agree with you, except on the RPM and cache part. A HDD going at 7200RPM _is_ faster than a 5400RPM HDD, regardless of what it's installed in... the system doesn't determine how fast the HDD spins its platters. The cache works just as transparently (sp), also, and said HDD will shove data out onto the pipe as fast as the bus and processor can take it (in the case of the XBox, it WILL utilize the extra speed, but it's not nearly as apparent as DVD vs. HDD). I think you're confused with the above and the speed of the IDE cable.... if you swap in a ATA66 IDE cable to replace the ATA33 one (the stock IDE cable in the XBox), it won't utilize the speed appreciably (in practice, it'll speed shit up by about half a second, not enough to even waste the price of a cable on).
When you download the content, you MUST have the modchip off, and you must use the original copy of the game (you can't run copies with a modified BIOS). However, after the content is installed, you can use it with the backup as well as the original.

yeah, i know all that, i just didnt want to get too technical since you dont see a difference, lol

and all thats stuff about the locked HD, you need a locked HD to boot a retail bios (modchip disabled) and you need to boot a retail bios to go on Live, lockign the HD has nothign to do with MS folks spying on the contents of your HD

The speed of the hard drive is irrelevant (cache, rpm, etc.)

The bottleneck is the ATA33 data transfer bus. Seek time is not a concern, as the hard drives cache is virtually never empty in UDMA2 mode. A fast drive just doesn't have to work as hard to keep up, but all drives will keep up

To get to the point: Games will "load" faster, but not "play" faster

So why can't Jhonka just type for himself instead of making The Dave Man do all his research for him? He must be really lazy.

I hope you're being sarcastic. Thanks a lot guys, this helped a lot. Now I just gotta cross my fingers that M$ keeps that 2 free months of XBLive deal until the summer when I can do the mod.