Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite

For serious gamers, most experts say the Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite is the video game console to get -- especially now that it's $100 cheaper. It has a larger collection of must-have games than the PlayStation 3 Slim (*Est. $300), and reviewers say online gaming through Microsoft's Xbox Live handily beats Sony's PlayStation Network. Graphics are fantastic.

However, the Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite is not without its downsides. It doesn't include Wi-Fi or a Blu-ray player like the PS3, and there are a number of concerns about reliability. In a 2009 reliability survey conducted by PCMag.com, 29 percent of Xbox 360 owners reported a hardware failure, compared to only 7 percent for the PS3 and 2 percent for the Nintendo Wii. While hardware updates were said to fix most "red ring of death" (RRoD) failures, a new problem -- the E74 error -- has been causing a number of headaches over the past year. Microsoft offers a three-year warranty for RRoD failures, and it extended the same coverage for E74 errors in April 2009. While it's great that Microsoft offers warranty coverage for these failures, it also indicates that there are enough hardware problems to warrant a change in policy. Reviewers recommend skipping the Xbox 360 Arcade (*Est. $200), which lacks a hard drive and can only play Xbox 360 games.

Dozens of reviewers covered the Xbox 360 Elite when it first debuted, but few have reviewed or tested the console since then. We found user ratings to be invaluable because these report on the kinds of reliability issues -- which are particularly critical when it comes to the Xbox 360 -- that professionals often miss. Among professional reviews, CNET stands out for its timeliness, though some older reviews are worthwhile as well.