I am a "never buy the extended warranty" kind of guy, but I bought it for my 360 for Christmas 2006 based on the initial reports of hardware failures. So here I am a little over a year later, and the console is dead with the red ring of death. Thank goodness for buying the extended warranty, I will be attempting to return it and get a PS3. Failing that, the extended MS warranty for this hardware failure should cover me. However, will I buy another Microsoft gaming console? Nope, never again.
My 360 is freestanding vertically, with plenty of air circulation and it still croaked after 12 months of light use. That's pretty pathetic hardware design.
So, are you feeling lucky? Did MS really do enough to improve the heat dissipation and fix any solder composition issues? I wouldn't take a chance with my money.
3/28/08 update - Replacement unit from microsoft dead after 5 days and maybe 2 hours of use. Pathetic. My motto has now become "anything but microsoft".
This without doubt the worst console known to mankind, anyone thinking of buying don't you will be throwing you're money away. Im not a fanboy but im pissed of my xbox 360 broke 4 times, and i had to throw it away because i could not be bothered with all the hassle, and now im stuck with $350 worth of games, fuck you bill gates you best hope i don't catch you on the streets I will kill you!!! I would never recomend this rubbish hardware anyone looking for a grill i would recomend the xbox 360, the rrod is just unbelievable that they are still selling faulty console.