Here is an EASY way to see what DVD drive you have (without voiding waranty) and a short description of each.

Take notice of the shape of the DVD tray itself.  Each have a unique design that makes it a relatively easy task to determine which drive you have without opening your console.

Hitachi: Easy to flash. Easy to Brick.

Samsung: Easy to flash. NOT easy to Brick.

BENQ: Not much is known of this drive. Popular opinion is quietest and fastest of all the 360 drives.

Click HERE to discuss in our forums

Why not add 2 posts together?

First: Xbox Live Problems: If you are having problems with your Gold subscription to Xbox Live do not be alarmed. Everyone is having problems with the service and the problem is being checked out by crew from Microsoft (almost fixed). This is mainly going out to people who had problems a few days ago(and still now but its not as bad). The problem is being said "almost" fixed. If you are a Gold subscriber be expecting a "gift" in some fashion from Microsoft. They have said they will do something for the members who had issuses (1 month free Live? 1000 points?)

Second: Brewology Issues: The staff is aware that people cant get to the site half the time (for me more then half) and is working on the issue. No worries, for to much longer the problem will be resolved.

To discuss in our forums click HERE

Thats right! A new SKU (package) of 360s MIGHT be coming our way.  Apparently it will be named Xbox 360 Ultimate(anyone else think Microsoft is going overboard on all the names like this? Whats next, Legendary?)

RUMORED specs(main differences):

320 HDD(overkill to me)

Built in HD-DVD player

Built in Wifi

To tell everyone the truth I expect this to be a false rumor. I have added up the price for this (if ordered how it is now) and it ends up being around $700. Microsoft has already said it hates the PS3's price. Why would they match or go higher then that?

Expected Release: 8/??/08

To discuss in our forums click HERE

      Happy New Years!

We would like to wish Graphixbrew a Happy New Year! Last year was a blast! But this year will be even better. More Contests, and surprises await all of you. This year we are hoping thats it will be three times as busier, now that we are trying to bring this site back to life!

Do you want to be able to create some awesome grapahix like we do here? Are overpriced Paint programs holding you back? Well now theres a solution!

One of our members, asddasit has provided us with a list of programs you can use to subtitute Photoshop. The list includes

-GIMP for windows

-Pixia

-Paint.NET

-VCW VicMan's Photo Editor

-PhotoFiltre

For complete details for these programs and their download links go Here

Argon Programmer Coming Soon

You can find more information at the Infectus site.

Wii Hack Update 1

Again, remember as this is the birth of Wii homebrew, few details are public at this time, but updates will probably be coming soon.

For the First Time, Unsigned Code Runs in Wii Mode

"The guys over at 24C3 just demoed a Wii hack that is set to provide native wii homebrew in the near future (not running in GC mode, and with full access to all the Wii hardware!)

They were able to find encryption and decryption keys by doing full memory dumps at runtime over a custom serial interface. Using these keys, they were able to create a Wii ‘game’ that ran their own code (their demo happened to show live sensor/Wiimote information, amongst a few other things)."

The following video taken shows the Wii running some very basic stuff as they had compiled the code just hours before the Wii was showcased. Since this is still very new, there are not a whole lot of details. All the information the public knows as of now is in this video. I think we can all agree that this is a great day for the Wii scene.

If the video doesn't work, you can try the following links.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=H5YB1Mmx7E4 (Another YouTube version)

http://www.sendspace.com/file/gbqsre (Avi direct download)

http://s65.photobucket.com/…H5YB1Mmx7E4.flv (Photobucket video)