my answer to this question is that in 20 years time few of the OG xboxes will still be running. The DVD drives seem to fade out even when they are not used frequently (I've seen them fail to read after being hardly used in a decade, and most use prior to that was w/soft mod - no DVD use)
Some guys online sell Xbox modded with supposedly greased rubber bands and cleaned dvd drives with new upgraded HDD's for around $180-275. I think this will be my best bet. They got the program DVD2Xbox on their too so I'll just rip all the games I may be interested in on the HDD. Then I'll just play off the HDD. I think this plan would be the best for me for the long long term. Even if the DVD drive fails the HDD will have all my games on it and should outlast the DVD drive by far. If I get one and it's as nice as they say it is and my funds permit it maybe I'll buy a backup.
ok you are kind of having it both ways here. you said you want "stock" but then say you are going to go for something completely opposite of stock.