I turned on my Xbox 360 the other night, hoping to download the new Fallout 3 DLC.  Instead, I was greeted with a grinding sound as everything came up.  I don't entirely know what the problem is, as there's no flashing lights or any real indication of what it is exactly that's grinding inside the 360.  It almost sounds like a loose or broken fan, but that's judging from my old PC repair experience (and that's rusty, to say the least).  I'll be calling Microsoft over the weekend to see if my 360 is still under its warranty.  Hopefully, it should be, but I've got this sinking feeling my warranty ran out last year.  That means I'll have to replace it soon, which is a bummer.  It's been a solid console for me, as have the PS3 and Wii.

So, for those of you with more expertise in the area than myself, what model would you recommend?  I'm sure my old hard drive is fine on the current 360, but I might be game for upgrading to a new hard drive if I can keep my old gamertag and upload all my saved data and downloaded content (can't imagine dropping that kind of cash on DLC again, except for Forza and Fallout 3).  Is that even a possibility with a new hard drive, or would I have to replace those?  State your opinions on which model to get below.  Price will be a minor factor, but if it's gotta be done, I'd rather go with a great model and pay a little extra.

I'll also be buying a new PS2 sometime soon, which kind of makes the inner nerd in me very happy.  Finally, I'll be able to get to games like Kingdom Hearts, God of War, and a few others I'd like to revisit.  I'm thinking about a good, long run on Rogue Galaxy, a game I never had the pleasure of finishing and would like to play again.