Customer Reviews

Xbox Memory Unit

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Don't buy this memory card until you need it. Mine works well, but it only has one use: it transfers files from X-box to X-box.

The X-box has a huge hard drive, and since the hard drive is what you use to save your games, you can play for years without a memory card.

After fully testing the memory card, here are the restrictions:

-You can't directly transfer files from X-box to X-box, even with the system link cable, so the only way to transfer files is with the memory card.
-You can't transfer music files on the memory card. It would hold about two files, but the X-box won't let you. You can only transfer game saves.
-You can only transfer character profiles, so you can't transfer the progress on a game like Dead or Alive that doesn't have character profiles.
-You have to transfer character profiles one at a time.

Probably the best use for this memory card is if your friend has an X-box, and has unlocked a bunch of special features on a game, you can save the profile off your friend's X-box to your memory card and then transfer it to your X-box.

Though this device will likely work great, you don't need it. You can save your games to the XBOX hard drive; XBOX is the only next-gen console which does not require a memory card. So, unless you plan to run back and forth between XBOXes, skip this one for now.

It can be used to bring your saved games over to a friends house, but you don't need it if you don't know anyone with an xbox. The xbox has it's own hard drive that does the same thing, but isn't portable.

You need the Xbox memory unit only if you intend to take your saved games to another Xbox (e.g., at your friend's house). The Xbox already has an internal hard drive which allows you to save games (among other things). The memory unit plugs into one of the two ports on your Xbox controller. Its light weight means you probably won't feel it in your hands.

The memory unit is fast. While I have not tested it rigorously (just sold my PS2 :), I think it loads and saves faster than PS2 -- of course, it could be also that the Xbox is more efficient and/or uses less data. Anyway, I do think the price is a bit too high.....

You can pick up one of a few third-party memory units. I have not tested them so can't offer advice on whether they work well. I only know that third-party PS2 memory cards usually [stink].

Bottom line: if you intend to play your beloved games on other people's Xboxes a lot, this is a must-have. Otherwise, skip.

First, let me start by saying that if you're going to buy a memory unit, get a cheaper third party one. They're licensed by Microsoft and will save you (money).
Next, if you're used to the Playstation and GameCube style of saving games on your memory card, this is not neccessary for the XBOX. You can use the hard drive. But, having said that, know that you will need the Memory Unit if you want to take saved files to a friends house.
However, the best reason that I've found to have one of these is because of the game HALO. If you have progressed in a level, but have not finished it and you decide to show someone the beginning of the same level, you will erase all of your progress.
With the memory card, you can save your progress on it and demo whatever you want without fear of losing it all. Some other games may have the same problems, so for these reasons, the memory unit is a smart buy.

Ok, technically you don't need a memory unit, thanks to the XBox's hard drive, but there is one reason why having one is a very good idea: backup. If you XBox hard drive decides to call it quits, all of your saved games will likely go with it. If you're into long games such as Morrowind, that is a large time investment down the drain. Spend the cash and keep 2 copies of your most important saves.

Aside from the obvious reasons why an Xbox Memory Unit is useful, there is another reason. I have two Memory Units because Xbox games, mainly sports games like NFL Street 2 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005, only allow you to save a limited amount of user profiles. For example, If you want to create more than four golfers on Tiger Woods 2005, Then you'll need one. That game only allows you to save up to four golfers(user profiles) to a memory system. On NFL Street 2, you can only save up to sixteen user profiles(created teams) to a memory system. Plus, the user profiles tend not to take up a lot of space either. So, that is another reason why Xbox Memory Units are useful.

$21.95 for 8MB of memory??!! This is unacceptable. 8MB equates to around 500 blocks of space for the XBOX. 500 blocks would only hold one Splinter Cell save, there are some games (KOTOR) that you can't even save because the file is too big. Sure the XBOX has a massive hard drive, but what about those of us who want to back up our hours of game play in case the XBOX has problems and require service? You hard drive will more than likely lose all of your data after it returns from service. What if your hard drive just quits on you one day?

If you want to back up your XBOX data in case a catastrophe occurs, you have two options 1). Purchase anywhere from 50 - 100 of these little Memory Units at $22 a pop 2). Purchase a bigger memory card, like MegaXKey, or Max Drive for XBOX, that hold 4 times the space for only $10 more. On top of both of these cards also allow you to moves your XBOX saves to your PC's hard drive and even burn them to a CD. Because of the included USB to XBOX adapter you can connect these to both your PC and XBOX; this means you can back up all of your savable game files to your PC by only having to buy one memory card. Better yet, use of these items do not require your XBOX to be modded in anyway. After backing up all of my data to my PC, I restored them to my XBOX and had no problems with the files although the Max Drive is a little more user friendly and also can go up to 64MB!

XBOX's are composed of man-made mechanical items that will eventually fail or have problems. No one wants to lose all of their data just because they are unable to back up their stuff. It is too bad Microsoft forces their customer to depend on the hard drive only since they do not offer a cost-effective, efficient method of back up. To add insult to injury, they don't even offer bigger memory cards! 8MB is the largest and ONLY memory card option they have!

I love my XBOX, but Microsoft really needs to get with the program here and offer bigger memory cards and also an option to back up saved game files. If other companies can do it, why can't they? Unless you want to carry around a pocketful of these tiny memory cards, your best option for back up is something like MegaXKey or MaxDrive.

Unless you are just using the memory card for saving small game files like rosters or settings, then I don't think Microsoft's memory cards are worth the money.

As others have posted, the Xbox has an 8 GB (earlier ones are rumored to have 10 GB) hard drives. Memory cards help only in the following cases:
1) Transfering files to other Xboxes, like a friend's
2) Copying your Xbox Live account to the card so you can bring your account to your friend's house. (great feature)

Otherwise, it is simply a memory card.

There is a more compeling reason to buy a memory card...when your xbox breaks down. Because all of your achived levels and player stats are stored on the internal hard drive, if you ever need to send in your xbox for repair, there is a significant chance that they will wipe the hard disk clean and/or update the OS, or replace it with a new hard disk if that was the cause of the failure. This would result in *ALL* of your game data being lost and you would then need to re-play *all* of your games for dozens of hours just to get to where you were before the xbox broke.

So, I'm getting this memory card and doing "backups" every so often so if the xbox ever breaks, I won't loose my game data.