OK, first off I have a Hitachi 0047DJ drive in my 360.

-Which SATA cable works best for this drive?

-How difficult is it to flash this drive compared to others? Shouls I be able to do it if I'm not experienced with this?

There is a guy offering to do it for me for 50 bucks, I don't know if that is worth it or not.

-How often is there new firmware being released?

No. Pay the $50

You can do it yourself if you attack it with a posivite attitude, PATIENCE, and spend a day reading, reading, and reading. When you're done reading, come back with questions you may have.

As long as you have a specific question and you want to make sure you get the most up to date info as compared to what you've read in a tut, ask here in forums and most will be happy to help out.

It's when people come here and ask "how do I mod" or "can someone tell me step by step" that the regular members respond negatively or not at all.

You may have to invest ~$10-$15 for a sata card, but the knowledge and experience you gain is well worth it. Down the line, it may be you modding others consoles for $50.

Welcome to the forum and remember, don't just learn and leave... stick around and share your knowledge.

I agree with bhetrick.

I first got interested in modding my 360 back in November of last year, and previous to that I've had no experience whatsoever modding, and since then i've modded more than 10 consoles both for myself and friends.

Like bhetrick said, the knowledge you gain I think is worth it, plus once you get that SATA card, you can pretty much mod any drive (well not any drive, but most).

I'd say start by taking a look at Textbooks hacking the xbox 360 tutorial and from there ask questions.

Pay da 50

As Townie says (from The Waterboy)...

"Yuuu Can Doo Ettt"

I'd still reccommend a SIL 3112a chipset PCI SATA card for older Hitachi drives (prior to 78) but then again, I've had no problem just using my VIA 6241a card either.

Read the 360 guide ALL THE WAY THROUGH and then just do it. It's not hard at all. Just make sure you have the right shit to do it. Not counting the time it takes to open and reassemble the console it takes about 5 minutes to do.

FWIW, softmodding an original Xbox is WAY more complicated if you ask me.

Here's the guide:
http://360mods.net/Downloads/details/id=61.html