Got a 360 elite yesterday, my first x-box and it's so loud I have to turn up volume to drown out box noise. Is this normal? It has a constant, loud rattling sound as if a fan blade were rubbing. Maybe this is normal, I don't know. My PS2 was unremarkable in this regard. I do have it positioned in tower position.

Thanks, Bob

360s are noisy, but a rattling sound is beyond normal.

A steady soft "whir" is expected when the console is idle, and when there's anything except a 360 game playing the drive is reasonably quiet.

It's a 360 game disc is spinning in the drive that causes most people's objection to the noise levels. It can sound, at worst, like a handheld mini-vacuum. Not all 360s have drives that are loud playing these discs, and the ones that do can have varying levels of loudness with different game discs.

It's louder than every system I owned so far (except one of my pc) but I woudn't say rattling as if a fan blade was rubbing. Since you bought it yesterday go exchange it and see if you can hear a difference...

Maybe the sound is normal; upon further game time - Lost Planet and Halo, I'd say it sounds more like my old lazer disk player or first laptop. Thanks for the information, I'll keep an eye on it.

Bob