Always intended to get one, but I held off until they had their first "big" price drop - I have more than enough games on my Wii and older systems to keep me busy - I didn't need to get the 360 immediately. I was put off another year by 2007s paltry price cut and the ongoing RROD issue. Well, as you know, the big drop didn't come, though we may be getting a second smaller drop, which may suffice. So now I'm seriously considering getting a 360 in the next month (PS3 fanboys - don't even bother trying to persuade me to hop over - buying the PS3 is my wife's job).

1) Has the RROD problem been essentially corrected on the new systems?

2) Is the Elite really worth the extra money? What do I really get?

3) Is this price drop a Sony-like clearance sale? Will there be newer, better and cheaper models released before the end of the year?

1. should be

2. check any retailer

3. probably? the new chipset should be released/releasing soon.

E3 is just around the corner. Rumors of a price cut and a new model have been circling. Waiting is good.

RROD is almost under control. The current model probably suffers the normal failure rate of other electronics. The Elite has a huge hard drive so you can download a shit-ton of things and not worry about deleting stuff. It also is one of the "safer" models when it comes to RROD, I believe.

definetly wait.

As far as i know, the RROD is gone, but if you do get one, you have an extended warrenty, so atleast you know if something does go wrong (Doubtful) they'll fix it or send you a new one.

I have the Elite myself and i love it, the 120 Gigabite hard drive is great for storing all your music, video and pictures, you can also stream things though it and record live TV.

Apparently there will be a 100 dollar price drop later on the year, a few people have posted this and i am not 100 percent sure if it is true.

It is a good purchase and you will have a great time with it.

>1) Has the RROD problem been essentially corrected on the new systems?

Still getting returns at work due to RRoD, so I am not sure how much it was 'corrected'. But when worse comes to be, you will just be without your 360 for upward of 8 weeks, nothing to die over.

The retailers will give me the numbers and the sales pitch, not the personal experience of long time users of the console.

As for the new chipset, is there any way to know if it has hit, or when it hits, and how to know if the console in your hands has it before buying?  

If the console uses 203W or lower (175), it is a Falcon. I believe this is on the exterior of the box.

I imagine the newer model (Jasper) will probably draw less power, so possibly lower than 175W.

I need neither an HDMI (I have a cable already) nor a black console. What about memory? How much memory is eaten up by game-related downloads (I won't be dl'ing much in the way of music or movies)?

And another querry - is there any option for a wireless adapter beyond the $100 first party model? 

At least get a premium- you'll need at least 10 gig's of storage.
RRoD is not eliminated, but it has been reduced so much. (and you can help the situation by not/doing certain things)