Caution: This message/question may seem negative please don't take it as so, I love my Xbox360 and love a bunch of games both current and coming in the near future.

Having said that I wanted to ask this, anybody notice their 360 is loud while in idle and especially playing a game?

I bought an Elite in early May(pretty much right when they came out) and by that point I'd had a Wii and PS3. PS3 is fairly loud but not annoying, Wii is quiet except while accessing data(seems especially during Game cube games) but the 360 is -always- loud. When I first put a game in it I freaked, I thought something was wrong. My tv volume for gaming is normally at 8(I use a 5.1 sound bar usuallybut that's a little loud for late/early day gaming. It's hidden behind a Link wallscroll I've had people look around for the speakers lol but thats another story!) On the 360 if I don't have the tv volume set to 12-14 I can hardly hear some of the lower end sound effects without the sound system on.

The thing sounds like it's prepping to take off into space.. anybody else have this problem and is there anyway to quiet the damn thing down IE. set it on a sepecific surface etc.

Thats normal dude, my Xbox 360 Elite does the exact same thing. As along as its not making any grinding sounds while playing games and while at dashboard, you shouldn't have any problems.

Plus mines was manufactured September 9, 2007. So its completely normal, and we have the Zepher motherboards which are more reliable then the launch motherboards. Do you have a Ben-Q drive or a Hitachi drive?

I have the same thing with my 360. It gets very loud, even when sitting there doing nothing but looking at the dashboard. Start up a game and it's like it's turbo charged.

Dude you have a 360?

I have the Hitachi GDR-3120L I hear the Ben-Q is quiet but I dunno if I've ever heard a quiet 360.

Try pointing a fan at the air intake (not outtake) holes ;)

EDIT - maybe it's not a good idea, too much air pressure might screw up the internal fans. The noise of the fan won't help either ;)

 Yep.... had one since summer of 06.  Oddly enough **knocks on wood** no problems with it so far.

No they are not, listen to this Ben-Q drive

Here is a launch Hitachi drive:

Now that is horrible right?

As long as it doesn't sound like the two above your DVD drive is fine.

Actually if you leave the console horizontal and leave the console in a well ventailated area. Then your Xbox 360 shouldn't have any problems. If it does RRoD, then your console is a defect.

Do you even play it or do you play the PS3 more? Because I notice in your sig you have a PS3 tag.