QUOTE(Clockface @ Aug 1 2011, 04:07 PM)
I know this isn't the answer you want, but by far the best thing to do is to get it fitted with a mod chip. Nowadays this is cheap, removes all danger of bricking your XBox,, and a good mod chip (I doubt the bad ones are still available) also allows you to have hard drives over 120GB (or whatever the limit is) - I've got a 500GB in mine, and I've heard you can have much larger drives in there. You might think you just want to use a few emulators on the XBox, but trust me, it's addictive - you'll want to add more and more emulators and ROMS, and run all your XBox games from the hard-drive and XBMC makes a first class media centre (my hard drive has lots of films (movies) and DVD rips on there, plus my entire music collection.
You can either buy a mod chip and fit it yourself (or get a friend to fit it), or get it done at a shop that does this, although it's difficult to find shops that do this - search the FAQs and forum for advice on which chip is best for you, it's well worth it.
I dont see where the benifits are..
Softmods can do all the things you just said that you need a mod chip for, provided you get the most recent ones.
if you get the correct ones and use the game save exploit installation method. the chances of bricking your xbox are slim to none.
Installing a mod chip your self is more difficult and costly. and can cause more issues if you make errors than if you make an error with a softmod.
I believe mod chips probably do have there place and benefits, but they arent any of the ones that you described above.
modern Softmods dont suffer from the 137GB hard disk limit,
modern Softmods Install a shaddow C: to protect your moded files
modern softmods offer simple installation with minimal choices.
modern softmods allow switching of dashboards
Modern softmods back up your eeprom
the softmod I would usualy advize is krazie's ndure 1.1.1 Followed by using hexen disk to install it again cleaning up the files afterwards.
Kingroach's softmod is also advizeable. but i dont use this one personaly.
Granted a chip will mean that you dont need to relock any new hard disk with the eeprom, and a softmod makes a slimbox mod requier some aditional work.
But by soldering a few points on a v1.0-v1.4 softmoded xbox then using hexen disk to flash your tsop you can switch hard disks without locking them and you can make a slim box.
the v 1.6 xbox would be the only real exception to this rule and would need a modchiop to use unlocked hard disks or work without its dvd player.
But even the 1.6 can use large hard disk with just a simple softmod. You just have to re lock the new hard disk.
