The original Xbox burst onto the scene on November 15th, 2001 from computer software giant Microsoft and featured hardware more powerful then any other gaming console on the market at that time.

Riding the strength of its killer-app title Halo, the Xbox carved itself a niche amongst gamers and over time it grew in popularity and became a household name. The Xbox was home to the console world’s first premium pay-to-play online gaming service called Xbox Live. The Xbox has since been succeeded by the Xbox 360, which hopes to build upon the Xbox’s success going into the future.

Xbox 1 specs

• CPU: 733 MHz chip crafted by Intel
• Graphics processor: 250MHz custom chip named XGPU, developed by Microsoft and nVIDIA
• Total memory: The RAM in the Xbox will be supplied by Micron, it will be 64 MB running at 200MHz DDR (Double-Data-Rate)
• Sustained polygon performance: 100+ M/sec (transformed and lit polygons per second)
• Pixel fill rate - 1 texture: 4.0 G/Sec (anti-aliased)
• Full scene anti-alias: Yes
• Storage medium: 2-5x DVD, 10GB hard disk, 8MB memory card
• Audio channels:64 (up to 256 stereo voices)
• 3D audio support: Yes
• Broadband enabled: Yes
• Modem enabled: No
• DVD movie playback: Remote control package required
• Maximum resolution: 1920x1080
• HDTV support: Yes
• Controller ports: 4 USB Ports

System comparison

Graphics

• Xbox 360 uses a custom triple-core processor clocked at 3.2GHz and is far better equipped to handle multitasking environments than the 733 MHz processor housed inside the Xbox.
• Xbox 360 has a custom ATI-developed graphics card that is solely designed to be used in the console gaming demographic, unlike the standard off-the-shelf PC-based card used by the original Xbox.
• Xbox 360 supports several different high definition resolution modes, such as 720p and 1080i. The Xbox games mostly supported a much lower resolution such as 480p.

Winner: The Xbox 360 is vastly more capable of displaying much better graphical images then the original Xbox did, as the Xbox does not support HD resolutions such as 720p and 1080i and also has far less advanced hardware.


Sound

• Xbox does support 5.1 surround sound speakers in some of its titles, though the Xbox 360 supports 5.1 in all titles as a mandatory feature.
• Xbox and Xbox 360 both feature custom soundtrack creation tools that let you copy music off of your CDs onto the hard drive for play during games. However, the Xbox 360 lets you play them in all titles, unlike the Xbox, as well as let you stream music off of an USB hard drive or your PC.

Winner: Since Xbox does not connect to PCs for audio streaming, nor does the hardware let you play your music in every game on the system, it is easy to see the progression level Microsoft took when updating the sound capabilities of their platform. The Xbox 360 is the clear winner.


Capabilities

• The Xbox 360 supports an official wireless gamepad, eliminating the use of corded controllers such as the one used with the Xbox.
• The Xbox 360 is home to the Microsoft Marketplace which houses arcade games, demos, and movie trailers to watch unlike the basic service used on the Xbox for mere online gameplay.
• The Xbox 360 fully supports Windows connectivity for audio and video streaming unlike the Xbox which does not function with outside media sources.

Winner: The Xbox 360 takes advantage of the newer technologies available and integrates it into its operating system to deliver unique capabilities on a console, whereas the Xbox is more of a dedicated gaming machine.


Games

• Xbox has a much larger library of titles that cover many more genres then the Xbox 360.
• Xbox games do not all support Xbox Live features unlike the Xbox 360 titles that are all Live enabled.
• Xbox developed games do not always appear inferior to Xbox 360 ports, as the 360 is still in its first generation of titles.
• Xbox titles such as Halo 2 and Fable are backwards compatible with the Xbox 360 which in turn improves performance of compatible titles.

Winner: The Xbox obviously has a much larger and more varied library then what is on the Xbox 360 due to time available on the market.


Overall winner
The Xbox is the clear benefactor of having been on the market longer and having more games in its library. However, many of those titles are playable on the Xbox 360. Most of the titles will see sequels released on the 360 which should be of higher quality. Therefore, if money is not an issue and you want the better platform, the Xbox 360 is the way to go.

See also

• X360 vs. Atari 2600
• X360 vs. PCs
• X360 vs. PS2
• X360 vs. PS3