Idk man , can you be sure it's not a banned box these days? How does that work? Will a reformat and new GTag fix it? Modded? The 3 yr replacement deal in Canada takes 8-10 days but it would be nice to know you could take advantage. Check the seal and put the seriel no. on an acct. on xbl to see what it says maybe? I've changed mine manually.
You could get $80 easy for a 60 GB and a controller on kijiji if E74 happens and you don't want to pay Mr. Fixit. They're twice that new. EB charges $100 for a refurb 60 hd alone. If it lasts a couple years a new arcade could be a C note.
They will play any game you can buy now and almost everything in the future. Not Natal games obviously but I expect much longer support for the 360. The Big Black Box was a miniaturel black hole financially so it got fazed. The 360 is BC for original Xbox titles through downloaded emulators. Don't build a library till you're sure.