Haven't seen a huge improvement, no, but my disc drive was terribly noisy, so the peace and quiet is well worth it.

I've started installing my games, but I only keep three to four of them on the hard drive at any given time. So far, all of the games I've installed have shown some improvement on the load times, but some do better than others. I think it depends on the game and how much the game relies on cache, which is why Halo 3 doesn't show any improvement on load times.

With the improvements on load times and major noise reduction, it's well worth the 10 minutes it takes to install a game.

I've noticed a huge difference on my 360. When I play Fallout 3 from the disk, it usually becomes choppy at various points. On the other hand, when I play it from my HD it runs much more smoothly.

Bungie actually tells you not to install Halo 3 for fear that your friends will laugh at you.

it's supposed to load faster i think, saying that, halo 3 specifically tells you to 'NOT FUCKING DO OR MC WILL RIP YOU INSIDE OUT MAN.' [sort of] and with Fable 2 there's a neat little bug that makes it impossible to play without installing to the HDD. that bug comes in the form of periodic crashes, which annoyed me considering all that ego masterbating molyneux did over it.
shame really.

DirkGently:

TheGhostOfSin:

DirkGently:
I'm still using one of the old-school HDDs, 12GB

MrBrightside919:
I still have the old crusty 10 GIG HDD that came with my 360.

Neither of those size HDDs are made for 360..

12GB was the standard HD about three years ago, if I remember correctly.

The standard was originally a 20GB. That's the lowest they do.

TheGhostOfSin:

DirkGently:

TheGhostOfSin:

DirkGently:
I'm still using one of the old-school HDDs, 12GB

MrBrightside919:
I still have the old crusty 10 GIG HDD that came with my 360.

Neither of those size HDDs are made for 360..

12GB was the standard HD about three years ago, if I remember correctly.

The standard was originally a 20GB. That's the lowest they do.

However, because of stuff that's automatically on the HD, it only actually starts out with 12GB of space available for use.

I was in the process of it, but canceled because it was taking forever.

TheTygerfire:

Mr.Pandah:
Do any of you actually install your games to the harddrive?

What?

Your Hard Drive...on your Xbox 360. No comprende? O.o Or are you just poking fun because I put harddrive and not Hard Drive?

s-l-u-g:
it's supposed to load faster i think, saying that, halo 3 specifically tells you to 'NOT FUCKING DO OR MC WILL RIP YOU INSIDE OUT MAN.' [sort of] and with Fable 2 there's a neat little bug that makes it impossible to play without installing to the HDD. that bug comes in the form of periodic crashes, which annoyed me considering all that ego masterbating molyneux did over it.
shame really.

Really? I played through the whole game and not once did a glitch or crash ever happen to me...I guess I was lucky =X (I didn't install it to my Hard Drive obviously)

I never noticed too much diffrence in loading times because I dont care much if it takes 15 or 20 seconds but I enjoy the quietness and hope that installing games increases the livetime of my 360 a little bit :) I also have two scratched games I could not play for months so after NXE arrived I rented these 2 games for a weekend, installed them to my hdd and thanks to that new feature Im able to play them again :) (Of course this does not work when the scratched discs are totally unreadable because you need them to "start" the game from the hdd)

Mr.Pandah:

TheTygerfire:

Mr.Pandah:
Do any of you actually install your games to the harddrive?

What?

Your Hard Drive...on your Xbox 360. No comprende? O.o Or are you just poking fun because I put harddrive and not Hard Drive?

I knew the idea you were trying to convey, I just honestly had no idea when this was possible.

TheTygerfire:

Mr.Pandah:

TheTygerfire:

Mr.Pandah:
Do any of you actually install your games to the harddrive?

What?

Your Hard Drive...on your Xbox 360. No comprende? O.o Or are you just poking fun because I put harddrive and not Hard Drive?

I knew the idea you were trying to convey, I just honestly had no idea when this was possible.

Ooo Okay, misinterpretation on my part =P Since the New Xbox Live has been available for download this has been available. All you have to do is go to My Xbox then with whatever game you wish to install onto your hard drive in the xbox at the time, hit Y then just install. You can play the games and its faster and quieter. A win/win in my books.

Aiwe:

TheGhostOfSin:

DirkGently:

TheGhostOfSin:

DirkGently:
I'm still using one of the old-school HDDs, 12GB

MrBrightside919:
I still have the old crusty 10 GIG HDD that came with my 360.

Neither of those size HDDs are made for 360..

12GB was the standard HD about three years ago, if I remember correctly.

The standard was originally a 20GB. That's the lowest they do.

However, because of stuff that's automatically on the HD, it only actually starts out with 12GB of space available for use.

That would explain it then. The NXE takes up less space apparently, because I'm using 12.623 and still have a 1 gb free.

While I've heard it works well reducing noise ad load times, I havent done it since my hard drive is almost completly full. Also, NEVER install Halo 3 to ur hard drive because it does the exact opposite

TheGhostOfSin:

DirkGently:
I'm still using one of the old-school HDDs, 12GB

MrBrightside919:
I still have the old crusty 10 GIG HDD that came with my 360.

Neither of those size HDDs are made for 360..

My HDD came with the Xbox.

I'm not going to bother. I know for a fact that Halo 3 loads SLOWER when you save it to your HDD.

I need my HDD space more, though.

The only game I ever installed to my hard drive was CoD4 (partly because i only have enough space for one game) and it really helped. I used to time out alot whilst loading the map but installing it to the hard drive eradicated this problem almost completely, can't see why you'd need to install mirror's edge though, it's pretty fast at loading anyway and i garuntee you'll remove it in a few weeks time for a game you like more.

i dont see much use for it since the only noticable effect is in large load intensive single player games like far cry. since multiplayer CANT use it from what ive seen due to differing player load rates.
plus installing 1 game takes up like 65% of my 14GB hard drive

EDIT: also theres been reports of people installing all their games to their hard drive then returning them to the shop not knowing they still needed the disc to run them

MrBrightside919:

TheGhostOfSin:

DirkGently:
I'm still using one of the old-school HDDs, 12GB

MrBrightside919:
I still have the old crusty 10 GIG HDD that came with my 360.

Neither of those size HDDs are made for 360..

My HDD came with the Xbox.

Then you have either a 20, a 60 or a 120 GB HDD.
They are the only Hard Drives that Microsoft made for

well then I guess I have the 20 GIG. I don't know how large it was, I haven't checked in over 3 years

I haven't seen an improvement in load times, nor is my 360 noticbly quieter. I do have an external cooling fan that makes a lot of noise though, so my observations may be invalid.

MrBrightside919:
well then I guess I have the 20 GIG. I don't know how large it was, I haven't checked in over 3 years

If your 360 is three years old, then you have the 20 gig, as that was the only kind available at launch. I'll also mention that the measurement is misleading. It is a 20 gig hard drive, but about seven gigs are used up by the OS and preloaded content.

Well I installed Fallout 3 to my hard drive and I really thought it was nice. Reduced load times, things ran smoother, and my Xbox was dead silent. But then a day later my Xbox red ringed so....don't know if there's any connection there.

i still haven't tried it but i will after this forum

Novajam:
I haven't seen an improvement in load times, nor is my 360 noticbly quieter. I do have an external cooling fan that makes a lot of noise though, so my observations may be invalid.

MrBrightside919:
well then I guess I have the 20 GIG. I don't know how large it was, I haven't checked in over 3 years

If your 360 is three years old, then you have the 20 gig, as that was the only kind available at launch. I'll also mention that the measurement is misleading. It is a 20 gig hard drive, but about seven gigs are used up by the OS and preloaded content.

Good, great, grand...I don't care...

I've got plenty of room left on my HDD and I don't plan on installing any games to it...

It is unbelievable the difference it makes for Oblivion.

I never bothered

Never thought it was worth it

... So if I'm reading this right, I can go to my friends house, steal his games while he sleeps, load them onto my xbox, return them before sun up, and play them free of charge?

Sounds too good to be true to me. Regardless, I'm gettin my camo gear together..

toastybuds:

Sounds too good to be true to me.

When things sound too good to be true, they usually are, and this is no exception. Even if you copy a game to the HD, you still need to have the disc in the drive before you can play it. Microsoft hasn't gone totally crazy.

Antiparticle:

toastybuds:

Sounds too good to be true to me.

When things sound too good to be true, they usually are, and this is no exception. Even if you copy a game to the HD, you still need to have the disc in the drive before you can play it. Microsoft hasn't gone totally crazy.

I figured. :\

My Guitar Hero III didn't work until I installed it.
So yes, I have installed one game.

The only real improvement there seems to be is a reduction in noise from the xbox. Which is well worth i think, that fucker is loud.

I have the 120GB hard-drive and the diffrecne is great, the 360 is silent and the games runs slightly quicker with no texture pop-ups on ANY games (Mass Effect...)

Don't put GTA IV or Halo 3 on hard drive. GTA IV suffers lag in terms of load distances (you can drive into an area where textures haven't loaded yet, so it's best to keep it on disc). Otherwise, every other game has been better for it.

Yeah my 360 is staying way cooler now that I've been installing the games. Fallout 3 and a few other games made my 360 grind and whine xD.It also makes like no sound its awesome.