Well I'm new to the whole Xbox scene, so I have a few questions that I'd appreciate if someone answered. First of all, I was looking at the spider chip (since it's solderless) and was wondering if anyone could give me a comparison of it to other, more expensive chips? Are these advanced features I'm likely not to use, or are they important? I really just want one dashboard (do I need more?) and the ability to rip games/music to my hardrive and play backups. Oh, and play some homebrew software. Secondly, where would be a good place to find one on the cheap? I believe I used foundmy.com before, but they don't seem to be selling chips anymore? Thirdly, what exactly is there that I can't do with a softmod that I can do with a modchip? My friend has a modded box, and I was figuring I could get him to help me out with the softmod and save some money, if it's not really a big difference. Thanks in advance! Xbox Live! support isn't necessary to me--I doubt I'd have time to play it anyway...
I have been running with a spiderchip for about 7 months now in a v1.6 xbox. I got it for the same reason you said, because it's solderless. I know a lot of people post having problems with them not working. I got mine working without a problem but my friend who bought one at the same time never got his to work and we ended up softmodding his. Speaking from experience the softmod was a lot less of a hassle if you have a way to get the savegame files on the memory card. The only major difference we've found between his softmod and mine with the chip is that on the softmodded box if you want to use a hard drive other than the one that came with it you have to lock it or the xbox won't start up. I don't and never have locked my hard drive in mine with the chip
