Hey guys I'm obviously new to this part of AVS and typically a PC gamer.

The last console I owned was a Sega CD for my Genesis. Obviously I'm 15 years out of touch.

I have a 720p projector (Mits HD1000u) and the notion of playing Halo 3 on that got me to seriously plan to buy a 360 and lots of goodies.

I guess I have 2 questions:

1) What's the most economical way to get a HDMI 360, 2 wireless controllers, 2 play'n'charge kits and Halo 3? My situation is strange in that I live in India but I'm American, so I typically buy electronics in the US and wait some time to either pick it up or have someone bring it to me. In this case I have friends coming in late Jan/early Feb 2008. So I don't need to buy now, but with Black Friday approaching I thought this might be my best chance. Don't want to mess with eBay or refurbs, since returns are near-impossible for me here in India. So buy now or buy later, and my US ship-to address is Washington State so Amazon has 8.4% tax.

2) Is it worth it to invest the $550-ish from my already insanely expensive PC (see specs below).

I typically play RTS games although I've gotten a little more into FPS of late and love the idea of team coop - never play online (crap internet) but often have LAN parties. Halo 3 in coop mode on the projector (96" screen) should be fantastic, but how far a step up (or is it a step down, aside from the display) than my current setup?

Thanks for your help. My PC specs are below.

Mac Pro dual 2.66ghz dual core Xeons (fast as hell)
2GB FB-DIMMS (actually 5 but only 2gb shows up in XP under Bootcamp, oddly)
Fast SATA drives etc.
Radeon 1900XT 512mb card
30" Dell 2560x1600 screen (my pride and joy!)

It runs most games great (slowly downloading Crysis which will be the real litmus test but COD4 is awesome). Is the 720p XBOX a step up or down, graphics-wise? 640p Halo 3, even, but then on the huge screen so.....

And no, it's not practical to hook up my Mac Pro to the projector.

Well, your pc can output higher then 1080P, so yes it is a step back in some sense. It will be a step forward in easily set up co op. Consoles are much easier then pcs. I also find the controller intuitive. I don't like rts on the console. But almost everything else is great. I would suggest the elite. For the audio dongle (optical out) and larger hard drive, plus it is black. I don't have the charge kit. I just change batteries every other month or so.

Good Co op games:
Halo 3
Gow
Doom3 (xbox)
Serious sam 2 ( xbox , no bc)
The outfit (cheap ww2 co op , but with no saves)
Graw2 some co op

I would add mass effect, cod4, orange box, and bioshock as must have games.

It is fairly easy to hook up a laptop to a projector. A long dvi cord will work.

Go with the elite because it encludes cables and a nice hard drive. Mindwarper's game list is accurate to the last detail.

Thanks for the feedback!

I'm glad you mentioned the optical - I've heard there's an issue with HDMI and optical audio at the same time. I'm no where near upgrading my receiver for HDMI audio, so I need to get that to work - that's the other advantage of gaming in my living room - projector + higher end 5.1. I have what amounts to a low-end 2.1 system presently in my office.

I'm thinking to largely stick to PC games whenever possible (already have COD4 (love it), almost done acquiring Gears and then will nab Crysis) but the ease of coop is very attractive, plus of course doing it on the huge screen.

It is my opinion that the difference between 1080 and 720 is marginal for movies (I'll say 10%, if I had to quantify it) so while I know what my 30" is capable of, I often game at 1680x1050 and find it totally lovely. I don't think the res step down would be too bad - but honestly I don't know how good (or bad) the 1900xt is vs a current-gen console game (say Halo3).

If I were to buy that 'value bundle' for $350 with 1 wireless controller and the 20gb hard drive (internet sucks so won't download much... to the XBOX) and HDMI - would I also have to buy the AV cable for the optical?

I want the charge kit because I don't have easy access to good brand batteries (they're very cheap and really terrible here).

As for laptop and projector, I do that now for downloaded MKVs, with DVI-HDMI cord to my splitter. Gorgeous. My laptop has an even lower end graphics card (Radeon x1600 256mb on Core Duo 2.0ghz - first gen MacBook Pro) but again, not much fun to play coop or even head to head so far apart in the house.

Forgot to mention, my wife wants DDR and a dance pad, which I admit would be fun for novelty value here in parties, especially in HD on the projector - which is the real reason I can consider a console purchase after spending so much on my ultimate gaming Mac rig.

Can anyone speak to the comparison in graphics (aside from resolution) between my system and Halo 3 on the 360? Might also buy Orange Box for the value quotient.

You could just cut off the plastic casing off of the AV cable incuded. Folks here have been doing that instead of buying the optical dongle.

I think it'll still look good. The benefits of playing on the same screen far outway the resolution differences. I liked seeing my rocket on its way.

I still haven't bought anything, but I'm thinking it might be smart to let the Holiday units all sell out and then buy in mid-late January when there's a very high probability of getting a Falcon chip - especially since returns are a big problem for me. Smart?

One more question. I envision playing alone 40% of the time and with 2 people the other 60% of the time - think 1 play'n'charge kit would be enough? I guess the battery comes with the kit also, so need to buy 2? Advice appreciated.

Is it not really worth obsessing over deals? Like apple products, sticks pretty close to MRP so just find it free shipping and no tax and just do it?

Oh one more thought about the graphics. Holy smokes GoW looks awesome at 1680x1050 on my PC. I remember downloading a HD review of Gears a year ago and thinking how great it was - I realize a stream isn't the same as XBOX Gears on a nice TV, but man it looks great on my PC.... If only it wasn't in Spanish :D

It's probably in your best interests to just keep looking for deals that certain stores run for bundles. The elite comes with an HDMI cable and the 120gb hard drive. If you plan on using 120gb of space, that the choice is a no-brainer. An HDMI cable will run you ~$10 with shipping from monoprice (to one of your friends in the states) if you are really worried about the cable. Currently the halo 3 edition of the 360 comes with a play and charge kit (something to think about). I believe there was a deal over BF where you could get the halo 3 edition w/ halo 3 for $400 bundle price (this may be just my mind playing tricks on me... but I could have sworn that I saw that at BB).

As far as the play and charge kits go... the rechargeable bats for the controllers last pretty long... so you don't actually need a PnC kit for every controller you have (unless you are into 24 hour gaming sessions with your friends).

The elite w/ PnC kits and as many controllers as you need is probably your best bet. Currently you can get them for $450 with Forza 2 and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. For $100 less you can get the same system without the larger HHD and the HDMI cable (as the normal system - whatever they call it now... the premium or whatnot).... still comes with the games...

As far as how your computer experience will match up with playing 360 over a projector... well you can't really compare the two. I'm a big fan of macs, but truth be told, your system (under either OS) is much better for multi tasking, editing, etc... than it is for games. That doesn't mean it's bad for games (hardly). However, we are just starting to see games that are taking advantage of multi core processors. Most current games would run just as well, if not better, on a system with a core duo at a faster clock speed with a better video card (say an 8800 series). I'm a big mac fan, and I would absolutely love to have your system (to replace my G4 powerbook!), but anything with a 1950 isn't state of the art anymore gaming wise. Graphics chipset and CPU clock speed seems to be more important for current gen games than having 8 cores. The good part is... games are starting to be developed to take advantage of multi core systems. In any case, playing on a projector is a completely different experience. With your HT setup it will be much more immersing than playing on your computer. Graphically, the 360 will look great on a 720p projector. Remember, resolution isn't everything... and size does matter :) I'm sure you will be happy with your purchase!

Edit: The one nice thing about consoles over PC gaming is that you will never have to worry about if your system has enough power to play a game. The games are designed to work with the console! You wont have to drop a new graphics chipset in your 360 to play next gen games, but you very well might have to upgrade your mac's video card if you want to continue playing games at higher resolutions in the near future.

Edit 2: Sorry for the long winded reply, but I wanted to add a few more things. First, I just wanted to say that you are pretty much right with the pricing scheme. Like many goods (Under Armor Clothing, Oakleys, Macs, etc...) the prices of consoles are generally held constant by the manufacturer. Unless MS decides they want to do a price drop, you will likely see the same prices everywhere. Retail outlets don't make much (literally like $10) on a 360... and prices are pretty much set. However, the thing to look out for is game bundles. If you see a bundle put out with a game or two that you want to play, than it's a good idea to buy it! Retail stores have a much larger profit margin to work with in regards to software (games) and hardware (accessories like PnC kits and such) so they can often make good "deals" for their consumers by throwing stuff in.

Also, there are certain games that may have additional features on either a console or PC. Take oblivion (and Morrowind for xbox) for example. These games have a very large fan base and a developer provided editing package that allows their fans to make custom mods for the games. You can add tons of playable hours on those games by adding new (downloadable) features that are made by the community; however, this is limited to the PC versions of the game. Some games just are easier to play on a console than they may be on a PC (I personally play sports games on console only... I don't like the play style on PC). Other games that have really in depth UIs may be easier to play on PC because you have a much larger "controller" to work with!