If i buy a new xbox (im in the UK) in the near future (a month or two) is there any chance that it will have a Thompson dvd drive or have these drives been phased out as they are supposed to be bad at reading cd-r and cd-rw.Or will i get a different dvd drive.

I would think by now most of the new XBox's (if bought somewhere that's actually sold a few units) would be 1.1 (Samsung drive).

Hard to tell until you crack the case though...