So this past Sunday, August 2nd, my xbox "died".  I was greeted by a lovely E74 error code, which didn't entirely surprise me.  The day before I had noticed significant deterioration of the video quality and while it worked briefly Sunday morning (I noticed bad graphics again and decided to turn off the xbox and check my discs), it gave me a lovely red light on my xbox.

I was then faced with a very important decision.  I had to choose one of the following:

1. Suffer the absence of my xbox and forego any xbox gaming for the next little bit while I waited for Microsoft to "repair" it. 
2. Give in to my bigger harddrive desires and my eventual need for an HDMI cable and buy an elite.

Now, number 1 wasn't particularly desirable at the time.  For one, I didn't know whether or not I would be home at the end of the month, and I knew it would take at least 2 weeks for this whole process if not longer.  My previous dealings with Microsoft had been a bit of a nightmare and I didn't want to have to repeat that.  Last time they had accused me of tampering with the xbox, but had neglected to take pictures of the xbox when they received it like they're supposed to.  They also cracked the case, or it was cracked in transit.

So, number 2.  Why not?  The 120GB harddrive costs about $150 on its own.  HDMI cable is cheap.  In the end, I bought the special edition Resident Evil Elite Xbox.  Red goodness, 120GB, HDMI and Resident Evil 5. Yummy.  It's a gorgeous console and the elite is ridiculously quieter than the Pro.  It also seems to be able to process a little bit faster.  So, all in all, a sound investment.  Let's hope it lasts more than a year and a couple months, as that seems to be my current track record.