hi just got a xbox crystal and want to play backups what do i need .easy way. i also read somewere that there is a softwear mod,instede of getting 1 fitted is this true
You can do a soft mod, but you can't use Live with your box at all that way. I'd very strongly recommend the little extra effort a chip takes. There are loads of tutorials around, search the forums for a while. Firstly you'll want to know what version your box is. I found that my crystal was 1.4 (bundled with PGR2), but that was a little while ago, before the newer limited edition pack came out (2 controllers, no bundled game). Only real way to find out is to bust the sucka open and look around, but I'd suspect you have a 1.6.
I got my chip from www.divineo.com I hear the X3 chip is the absolute best at the moment, but I got a Xenium ICE and can't put a fault to it, so I guess the choice is up to you really. Look at some comparisons, work out what you actually want (you'll probably never use 90% of the features anyways), and decide off of that.