MG180ZS:
For this money you cannot go wrong but bear in mind that it might not last too long. First generation (and second for that matter) suffered overheating issues and some rumours put returns at over 60% - that's more than half of all XBox consoles returned for repair in their lifetime - not a good stat.
The biggest factor is abuse from kids (obviously) but it's also the notion of it being a toy in most peoples minds rather than a rather delicate computer in a fancy box. So they get chucked about like a DVD case. Main problem is overheating - the processor and graphics cause a lot of heat in a game with lots of frames and if you are in a warm bedroom to start with it can easily over heat and fry (just look at the forums).
You can avoid a lot of this by treating it with a bit of respect and putting it on a flat, hard surface with plenty of air - never carpet as the fluff gets drawn into the box and kills it. Some people add extra fans but I think that's a bit useless myself.... just turn the radiator down or open a window.
Don't buy too many generation one games - a good deal of them wont play on an XBox 2. Its a different system and graphics chip. Some popular games have emulation software you can add to a 360 to keep them alive but don't count on it.
Incidentily, MSoft started shipping updated (internally) versions of the XBox 360 to the UK in September last. These have a new, much improved chip and graphics set-up plus copper cooling pipes starting with the Halo special edition and Elite variations. I've compared one of these to a 2007 360 on the same TV and the difference is noticeable plus it runs a lot cooler so should avoid the overheating problems in future.
Needless to say - if you do go for a new one steer clear of the core system (old chip and cooling) and get a 3 year warranty just in case.
::
P
Jesus, nearly everything in that post was wrong!
I have a 1.0 and a 1.1 xbox, so the very first 2 models and both are still going strong.
One of them in particular has had A LOT of abuse, had all sorts of modifications added and removed and even then the only problem with it is a dodgy DVD drive (which I rarely use)
I have not known of a single xbox that died from overheating and as a whole I've found them to be extremely reliable. So where did you get this 60% failure rate from?
Re: 360's
All of them should now contain the updated board so there's no reason to avoid any particular model, plus they already come with a 3yr RRoD warranty as standard.
