Xbox 360 Resident Evil 5 Elite Red Console

great for games and NetFlix, poor construction
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I really like the games (HDMI with large HiDef monitor) and the NetFlix playback (very cool!). The reason for the tree stars is the rather poor construction (made in China and put together in Mexico). The swinging flaps in front fall apart with the slightest push, and the overall feel of the deck is a bit flimsy. Oh, well…tough economy calls for cutting back on labor and production costs. Still recommended though…along with your PS3

Don’t be fooled!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Don’t be fooled by the Amazon message that “There is a newer version of this item.” The “newer” version is the Game of the Year edition which actually comes with an older console. These older consoles don’t contain the new Jasper chip. I just received the Resident Evil elite console in the mail today and the console is only 4 months old and it does contain a Jasper chip. By contrast, the Game of the Year editions I have seen are as much as 1 year old and have all contained either Falcon or Zephyr chips. On a related note, all of the systems I have seen packaged with Kung Fu Panda and Indiana Jones have also contained Falcons.

I’m sure a lot of folks probably think that the difference between Jaspers and Falcons only matters to hard-core gaming geeks, but I think it matters a little more than many people realize. The Xbox 360 has been plagued with hardware defects ever since it was released. Famously, the system is known for over-heating and for a system error colorfully called “The Red Ring of Death.” Supposedly, the Jasper chip solves these problems. For my money, that makes this package the best currently on the market.

XBOX 360 Resident Evil 5 Elite Red/Black Console
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is the first official release of the “Jasper” Elites and all i can say from having this xbox for 60 days now it runs hella nice! when compared side by side with my black xbox elite, the resident evil version runs quieter, uses less energy and doesn’t create as much heat! the power supply uses 150 watts and 12.1 amps and i can tell you from experience i put the box to a good 8 hour session several times and my resident evil jasper elite doesn’t even sound or feel like its been running at all…and while i ran my black elite falcon box it would be hot and sound like an oscillating fan (exaggerating to a degree).

you can’t beat the price though its an elite and it comes with resident evil 5 for free! which is by the way an awesome game..and as an added bonus it comes with codes for streetfighter 2 hd remix for free and others as well. you get all the same stuff as a regular elite except these are the jasper xbox’s and its all red with black. the 120 hdd is black and chrome the front is mixed with black and chrome and the controllers are black and red. as of now the only wireless accessories you can buy for it in red and black are the controllers with the play and charge kit, you cant buy the play and charge kit by its self and you can’t buy the controller by its self only the package with both together. which kind of sucks because the elite comes with a wireless red and black controller so to get the red play and charge kit for it you will need to pay extra money for the one that has the controller with it..so i got two controller with only one play and charge kit.

on the other hand if your not a huge resident evil fan and you aren’t taken away with the colors go with the regular black xbox elite because now they come with fable 2 and halo 3 for free which are both game of the year titles and soon will be getting the platinum hits collection. but be aware that the new black xbox elites offering fable 2 and halo 3 for free aren’t jasper elites, they are in fact older model xbox’s repackaged in newer factory wrapping.

***20 June 2009 Update***

decided to add an update to my review on this product. after a month of using this xbox i can still say i would give this 5 stars again and again and again! this xbox runs so smooth and flawless and at least appears and seems like the perfect xbox to date! no flaws, no bugs, no red ring of deaths, nothing!

anyways, i know you can buy other elites that now come with 2 game of the year titles like halo 3 and fable 2 which by the way are awesome games, but don’t just buy a system off of the freebies…resident evil 5, halo 3 and fable 2 are all great games but trust me buy this system because its the latest and greatest xbox…the jasper elites like said before still amaze me how it doesn’t even sound like its on compared to the others..i can run it non stop and my xbox and power supply have never gotten hot in fact my ac adapter was even cold to touch in my washington state environment..

keep in mind though they haven’t released any accessories that coordinate well or at all with this color scheme. the closest thing as of right now is the black headset (which it comes with) and the black play and charge kit…but if you want a red play and charge kit you will have to buy the one that comes with a controller as well..which sucks because if you only want the play and charge you have to cough up another $30 to get the one with a controller as well..

the wireless headset, the qwerty text pad, wireless network adapter, and etc still only come in white color and i dont see microsoft changing that except in some cases they have released halo 3 versions of the wireless headset.

if your debating on whether you should go with the arcade version, the pro version or elite…then let me school you a bit, since the only thing that might opt you to go with the other versions is price then look at this way…

the arcade version has no hdmi cable or input/output (and it can’t be added later), it has no hard drive and hard drives can run you up to $120, the pro version has a 60 gig hard drive and it does come with the hdmi input/output but no hdmi cable, but if your going to get one of those why not just spend a little extra money to get twice the hard drive space, better color schemes, cool free games, hdmi cable and last but not least the Jasper units? so go with the elite its the best bang for your buck

i would 100% recommend this and if i had to over and over again i would purchase this product everytime

Great Product
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is an outstanding product. I was a bit uneasy when looking at this product because I wasn’t sure if it contained the new Jasper chipset or not. Based on other reviews, I decided that this was the version that I wanted and just waited until I found it on WarehouseDeals. The price that I got was exceptional and the product arrived before expected and in great condition! I couldn’t find a single scratch on the unit, only a cracked game case and I got it for over $100 off the regular price. Every purchase I’ve made from Amazon and WarehouseDeals has been better than expected, I’m a lifelong customer.

Xbox 360 RE5 LE Console (jasper chipset)
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I had an original elite model that RRoD’d me a while back. I opted to replace it with a new “Jasper” unit and so I got this package.

I’m not a big Resident Evil fan and red is one of my least favorite colors, BUT this X360 runs quieter and stays cooler. AND that is what’s important to me.

The power brick is a little smaller and the power-cord connector that plugs into the 360 console is all plastic (the older ones are metal), what this means is that the new 360s require less wattage and they run at a consistently cooler temperature. Since the majority of RRoD’s are due to over-heating this is good news.

Personally, if I had known a month ago that COD:MW2 was going to get a LE console with a larger hard-drive and a newer chipset I would have held off for that, but quieter and cooler are a combination worth having now.

If you’re looking at a regular black box elite system you’ll want to check for a recent manufacture date … if it’s last years, or older, it’s not a Jasper. Also under the UL logo on the back sticker it’ll say “12,1A” an older X360 will have “16,5A”.

Hope this helps.

Awesome XBOX
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this back in April. I had the original Xbox and wanted to wait until the bugs seemed to be limited on this new system. My research suggests that the Jasper chipset found in this console is less likely to have problems than the older chipsets. The Resident Evil console is now hard to find, but you should be able to find a Jasper. The RE is a pretty red. I like having something different. The large hard drive allows me to load games and play from the hard drive — this leads to less heating of the console and it runs quietly. I have no noise concerns because of this. I keep the console horizontal on a wire shelf (total airflow around it). I purchased a mini kitchen shelving unit from Target. For the wireless setup, I went with wireless N, not the wireless G. The G is the slower wireless and that is used by the Xbox 360 wireless hardware. I bought a Linksys Wireless gaming adaptor from Amazon. It cost about $80, and reviews indicated that it worked great with the 360. I have had a great experience. It is easy to set up (with a PC, a bit more difficult with a Mac). Others have commented on the games available. There are some highly rated games for less than $20 — Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, for example. It’s a good time to get a system. I love Live. 13 months can be had for about $40 — the Live experience is so fun.

Everyone is pleased
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I purchased this console for my family; I personally do not play video games. My family loves the console and it seems to have performed well to date.

I purchased the “red” “limited” edition only because there is no question that the red consoles have the jasper chip. However, I think it is really bad business to charge so much extra for a “red limited edition” console when consumers don’t really want it because it is “red” or “limited” – rather, most want it primarily because there is no doubt that a “red” console has the jasper chip (i.e., you do not have to look at the serial number, or jump through some other hoop to determine what chip type it has). I really doubt MS simply “forgot” to clearly and unambiguously mark every Xbox console box with the chip type “inside” – making it possible to determine the chip type of all Xbox consoles on an Xbox by Xbox basis. If the jasper chip were not essentially a “corrective measure” taken to “replace” a known defect – then whatever MS wanted to price their “red” “limited” edition console at would be entirely their business…not a questionable business practice.

As to the “limited” part…I could not find a clear verifiable statement that defined what MS “limited” the production to……exactly.

I would have given the unit itself 4.5 out of 5 if the rating system allowed. I could not give it 5/5 on the basis that one must spend more money to get a wireless adapter if they want to connect to the internet – wirelessly. A selling point of this overpriced console is it’s “internet interactive cabilities”….but if you want to hookup wirelessly you have to spend more money??? Honestly!

if on the fence–Now is the TIME to buy
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
PROS: lightweight. Fast plugin connections, good media type support, plug into a jack on the router– on the internet. RUGGED sturdy controller

CONS: text input slow with controller. Controller sticks cannot be remapped or changed unless specifically game supported

First of all, I wish to thank sMakTard89, gEEpPo01 and the thousands, perhaps millions of others who beta tested this product through its zephyr and falcon chipsets, sending it in multiple times for service after it failed. Special thanks to the guy who bought his box off of Ebay for $1200 after its original owner waited all night in line and bought it then promptly placed it online for auction.

Now, in its Jasper chipset, designed to run cooler, and, knock on mahogany, the Xbox 360 should be less prone to breakdowns. I decided to jump in and make a purchase because it came with a game I might be actually interested in playing.

The fact it could play .avi’s, DVD video and Netflix streaming was certainly a deal sealer as I do not think the Playstation or WII had all these capabilities.

I quickly set it up and the first thing to try was the Resident Evil game, as I heard a few people had a problem getting the drive to read it. No problem, it loaded, it wanted to play. My problem was in trying to figure out how to get it off the screen and install it to the hard-drive. I set that aside and decided to try and play a chapter instead. Stunning graphics, every year they get better and better with that part of it. After the cutscenes, it came my turn to do something in the game. Ugh, as a longtime computer gamer with vast experience with the keyboard, mouse and assorted controllers, the Xbox sturdy gamepad with its movement and camera thumbstick will take some getting used to. After 14 minutes of trying to get my drunken sailor of a guy to walk over to the meat market without going zen with the sky or moored in the mud, and after bumping into every post, pail and stray goon with a machete in sight, I moved on to something else (maybe Kung Fu Panda might not have been such a bad game to start with after all).

I had a movie on a thumbdrive and after a moment, located the USB ports behind the springdoor (cute). I found the Dashboard selections to play it. However, a message indicated I would have to be signed into Xbox live in order to get updates; prevented its immediate playback. Now was as good a time as any to activate my Xbox Gold card for Netflix steaming use; the thing downloaded, updated and the .avi could play. Wonderfully, the Xbox 360 could pause the movie without it ever timing out. My entertainment center’s DVD player blanks out after a pause of three minutes and worse, on an .avi or mepg file, it will quit altogether requiring a cue it up from the very beginning and fast forward to the spot it was previously at. The Xbox, however, will remained paused there and though my experience is limited, I have not seen it blank out yet. Additionally, options are present which will allow skipping and rewinding with far more control than that of my entertainment center, ESPECIALLY with .avi files.

The Netflix streaming went rather well, and after a disappointing download from Xbox live for a free Resident Evil movie 2008 (it is NOT the movie only the film clips from cutscenes in the game itself), I streamed in the REAL movie from Netflix (Resident Evil Extinction). As of now, I have far logged more movie than game time, but, that could change.

Now all that needs doing is try to figure out how come the get the media from my computer portion is not working and get longer audio cables to extend and use the entertainment center speakers instead of the Tv’s.

A worthwhile purchase(at 399.00, sorry beach).

———–

Edits

After using the unit for around a week, I can go into a few more things:

The red color is the shade of those red audio cable ends.

The noise is not noticeable, or at least it does not seem any more obnoxious than any other thing in the living room: computer, refrigerator, wind tunnel fan. Amongst the three, I have to look to see if the Xbox 360 is even on. However, when compared to my shelf of books and pile of old tractor parts, it is definitely louder, so there might be something to other customers’ concerns about Xbox noise. Regardless, the sound of growling monsters and screaming women being shot by AGM type 39 blast cannons will not go well in a library setting.

It seems the controller issue regarding moving my guy around, is not my problem alone. Internet searches have revealed many people would like to swap the functions of the left and right thumbstick. In its most default and common setting the right Xbox thumbstick controls camera and aiming while the left thumbstick supports movement of the character. Currently these thumbsticks cannot be swapped and the solutions are as follows:

–The specific game supports (maybe) it in its configuration settings and the gamer can change it,

–The controller is disassembled and the wire leads removed and re-soldered on the controller’s logic board,

–a “southpaw” controller is purchased (a rebuilt Xbox controller soldered by someone else to have the thumbsticks swapped),

–the gamer learns how to use the thumbsticks in its default settings.

As someone who trained for years using the right thumbstick on a computer configured Logitech gamepad to move my character front back and sideways, this of course introduces a learning curve with results earlier described with the included Resident Evil game. I am contemplating my options along these lines to perhaps considering the purchase of an additional wired Microsoft Xbox 360 game controller for the PC to facilitate learning the default movement and camera control to stay consistently trained across these platforms.

Very good system with room for improvement
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I’ve had this Resident Evil Elite edition for three months now, and I love it! I like the red coloring, and I have had no issues with the performance. I know that it’s difficult to find an Elite system with the Jasper chipset, but it definitely seems like this edition is the one to get because of it. Xbox Live is unmatched as far as online play and interfacing, and the Netflix option is awesome! I probably use Netflix through my 360 more than anything else, and it’s one of the greatest ideas in years! Games like Halo, Fable, and Gears Of War make the 360 worth purchasing as these games are exclusive to the Xbox only.

My gripes about the 360 are somewhat minor given my experience with it, but you do have to wonder why certain things happen with this machine. First, the fan in the 360 is LOUD. I mean, really loud. I know all about the RROD, so you have to wonder why Microsoft hasn’t figured out how to remedy this issue yet. The construction of the 360 is just poor, so it’s a tad disappointing that, after nearly five years, Microsoft can’t make a better machine aesthetically. Another bummer is that you have to pay for the Live membership. And there is no integrated wi-fi. After you finally do all of the necessary actions to finally get to the point of playing online you feel like you’ve been nickeled and dimed to the point of nausea. Another issue I had was my copy of Resident Evil 5 didn’t work! It’s kind of hard to give a top recommendation to a machine where the game it comes bundled with won’t even work. I had to go rent a scratched up, fingerprinted copy of it at the video store which worked just fine, so I know it wasn’t the Xbox that was the problem. All other games have worked fine since then. Still, a hassle.

Despite these issues, I recommend the Xbox 360 Elite, as long as you can grab the RE5 edition! If you can’t, I’d recommend you definitely hold off until Microsoft fix the issues that have been plaguing 360 users for nearly five years.

color!!! red?? no pics!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
i would consider that microsoft could make something a little better for this xbox 360 elite resident evil 5 version. the color is just not so good, dont misanderstand me. i love “resident evil” and i love the xbox but the color they give to it!!!…. come on…. i will espect at least a picture or some graphics, maybe claws or fangs, a zombie, or something.

The quality of the games and the online experience make the 360 my console of choice.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I have been a gamer all my life, starting with the Atari 2600 and moving on from there, so the question of whether or not I was going to purchase a next-gen console was never an “if”, it was a “when” and “what”. I started with the Wii and that satisfied some of my needs, but I also wanted a system capable of high definition graphics and more immersive gameplay. After researching the pros and cons of both the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3, I elected to go with the 360 for a variety of reasons. This review will cover my impressions on the Xbox 360 Elite (Red Console with the Jasper Chip) which I purchased in April 2008.

Pros:

1. Quality and quantity of games. For all the debating about which system is better in terms of technical specs, it’s easy to lose sight of what is most important; the games. I would buy the PS3 for “Killzone 2″ and “Metal Gear Solid 4″, but games like “Halo 3″, “Fable 2″, “Gears of War”, and “Left 4 Dead” are more appealing to me. With the quality of the exclusive titles plus the wide array of great cross-platform games, the 360 was an easy choice.

2. Best online experience. Sure, you need to pay for a “Gold” account on Xbox Live, but you get what you pay for. I have seen the PSN and it pales in comparison to Xbox Live in terms of customizability, user-friendliness, and the quality of online gaming. I have also found that more of my friends own Xbox 360 consoles and therefore more people are online for me to play with.

3. Xbox Live Arcade. In addition to the retail titles available, there are many great games available for download from the Live Arcade. These range from older Xbox titles to online puzzle games like “Peggle” and “Zuma” (both of which are highly addictive). I was also stoked that they have “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” available for download.

4. Best value. In terms of the console price compared to the frills, you get better value for your money with the Xbox 360 than you do with the PS3 or the Wii. They is always some kind of package deal being offered, usually with a packed in game as well as other bonuses like a headset or an Xbox Live subscription.

Having spoken about the strengths of the console, I cannot deny that there are some cons that should be taken into consideration when buying the Xbox 360. However, none of the below points have made me regret purchasing the console.

Cons.

1. Reliability. You can’t dance around the fact that the Xbox 360 console is notorious for malfunctioning. Freezes, scratched discs, and the dreaded “Red Ring of Death” made me apprehensive at first. Microsoft has extended their warranty to help cover these issues, but I think you should be able to enjoy your games without worrying about the system dying. I was fairly late in adopting the console, so I have not had any of the problems that seemed to plague the earlier models (Arcade and Pro).

2. Overheating. Playing the system for even a short time causes the console to get very hot. The new Elite models are supposed to be less prone to overheating due to the reduced energy use, but it still gets pretty toasty. My recommendation is to buy a console fan (such as the Intercooler) and make sure the console has plenty of room the breathe.

3. As a result of the system overheating, Microsoft has seen fit to install very loud fans in the back of the console, so loud that they sound like a vacuum being run. This is annoying to say the least.

4. No Wireless Internet. Unlike the Wii and the PS3, the 360 does not come with an integrated wireless card; it must be purchased as an external peripheral. If you use wired internet, you’re in luck as there is an Ethernet port on the back.

I bought my 360 fairly late in the console’s production cycle, therefore I have not experienced any serious issues as of yet. I have not had my system freeze, no “red disco lights of death” have come up, and outside of a few small annoyances, I have been quite happy with my purchase. It has the best games for me and it offers the best online experience, and I would recommend it on those strengths alone.

Xbox 360 Resident Evil
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Product is excellent! Plays great. Comes with a lot of great extras. Best purchase I made all year!