any cable will work. Careful not to pay too much...some stores want around $50 or more

$5 or $10 is more in the range you should pay. Check out small computer shops.

I put a laptop cooler under my xbox...I didn't think it would do anything, but I think it really does help. Before the cooler, the xbox would blow hot air out the back...It would even warm up the wall a bit that is about 2 feet away. After I put the cooler underneath, the air blowing out the back no longer feels hot, and it certainly doesn't warm up the wall any more.

However, I had tested the same cooler on my laptop by running lots of programs to crank up the temp and monitoring the temperature...I noticed the cooler did nothing at all to alter the temperature...So having fans blow on the xbox might be just as useless...

but it can't hurt, right?

i think the multiplug is fine but i've heard it's not great to plug it into a multiplug with a surge protector since the power brick already has a surge protector (i think...)

Anyone know for sure WHY it would be bad to plug the xbox into another surge protector?

You can go much cheaper here...

First, don't buy a used 360. If you get a used one, you never know what version it is or what's wrong with it. It might be that it constantly had the rrod and then someone just decided it was time to sell it instead of repairing it all the time. Here's what you do instead:

1) buy a new arcade model...you can even find a 'jasper' chipset in them now. $199...I even found them for $179 once brand new

2) Microsoft through the xbox live website offers arcade owners an upgrade... a 20 gig HDD plus 3 months of live for $30 (after 3 months you'll either be sick of Halo3 or love XBL so much that you don't care about paying $4 a month for it....and it is better than PSN...by far)

3) don't get a wireless adapter. Wireless blows for gaming IMO. You can get 25 feet of network cable for $5

4) I picked up Halo3 for $19.99 brand new...so I'm sure you can too

5) you could buy a headset...or you could also find a friend that has a messenger kit (the keyboard) and therefore he would have a spare headset...I think the headset is $25, so let's just assume you DO buy it

Total cost: $199 + $30 + $5 + $20 + 25 = $279 (before tax)

That's pretty cheap.

I got some red rings the other month during a wind storm...the power flickered and bam! xbox gave me red rings but all other electronics remained on...I didn't even have time to count the rings I turned it off so fast. lol. Been fine ever since

and about freezing in fallout3....I get that too. I think it is just the game. It's never happened in any other game.

I had always thought it was kind of odd that it DIDN'T do that before the NXE update.

Projectors, for example, often keep their fans running for a minute or two to expel the heat that has built up. With all the heating problems 360s have, you'd think the genius engineers at MS would have implemented this a while back...

You should be able to do it with just normal ethernet cable

I have both and I think L4D is better.

However, you can pick up TF2 for $20 now....