256 Mb Memory module and new 4 Gb Xbox 360

Our Arcade Xbox 360 has died and I was thinking of replacing it with the new 4 Gb version. We only had a 256 Mb memory module with the Arcade. Will this work with the new machine (so I don't lose games saved so far) ? Can the game saves on the module be copied into the 4 Gb in the new Xbox so that they have some room to "grow" ?

Thank you.

You can transfer data to the new machine from a usb stick or data lead for the hard drive,why bother with a 4 gig machine anyway when you can get consoles with 250 gig plus drives.

4 gig can be a couple of demos and thats your lot and its much better and wiser to opt for a new machine with far more storage.

Why do they even make a 4GB model??

Why not? If you don't want to store films, music etc. on the Xbox then 4gb is more than enough for saved games and the occasional DLC. Then if you do want to use your xbox for more, you get the 250gb.

Think its just another way of making money to be honest as i have lost count of the number of times i have upgraded release machines with others with bigger storage and hard drives.

Suppose when budget is tight and you can save yourself £40 to £50 on a console you go for the cheaper option only for many you realise that you need more storage and much bigger hard drive a few months later or trade in for a better console.

So in the end some of us end up spending even more money than buying the better storage in the first place,like Jaxx says if you don't intend to download much and only want 4 gig for game saves then that's all fine and dandy.

Yea, but remember, you can configure USB devices as hard drives now and you can save games and profiles to them, so I have a 500gb external HDD i've had for a couple of years at home, I just use that, so for me it would be good to get the 4gb as I can save myself £50 and use my own HDD instead of Microsoft charging me £50 for the pleasure of using theirs!

Thanks for the replies. I only considered the 4GB version because we'd only been using the 256Mb memory up until now. I didn't think I'd want much more. What is the advantage of 250Gb ? Can I load games onto it so they load quicker ? Can I download good game demos (I mean demos of new games that do give a good idea of what the game will be like) ?

And no-one has yet answered the question of whether the old memory unit can be plugged into the new machines.

Thanks

No the memory unit cannot be plugged in because you cannot physically remove the memory unit. If you own the arcade one, the 256mb hard drive space is built into the console as far as im aware but like others have said, you can transfer the data over to your new console or save it to a hard drive like I mentioned earlier. That would be the best thing to do in my opinion, put all the data on like a 1gb USB stick or something and then put it on your new one.

Game demos are usually about 800mb - 1.2gb so it would be better having the 250gb console if you want to download them. You do get a lot of good game demos on xbox live e.g. Fifa, Forza, Battlefield there are hundreds. Also, you can download games from the Xbox Live Arcade which you can store on the hard drive.

You can save your games onto the hard drive and it does help with loading time on some games but in my opinion it's always been negligible. I tried it on Fable 3 as there is so much loading in that game but didn't find it helped that much.

One good thing though, I damaged my Fifa 10 disk last year, so I borrowed a copy off my friend, saved it to the hard drive, then just used my copy of Fifa 10 to certify the game, then it plays it off the hard drive. Saved me having to buy a new copy! So it is useful for backing up games in that respect

Hope that helps!

Jaxx has answered all your questions and i would go for the bigger hard drive if possible.

There are lots of advantages and like Jaxx says you can download and store 100s of game demo and also install games that you own directly to your hard drive which in some cases load a tad faster.

Thanks again for the replies. It looks as though the 250Gb one is worth getting anyway - I had an email from Amazon advertising it for £189, which I suppose makes it a "no-brainer".

The 256 Mb memory unit is a plug-in module in the front of the console, a bit like the old PS2 memory units. Do the new machines support those ? I can't see a suitable slot on the front in pictures.