this must be a biast link I've heard the ps3 boot and it's as loud as the 360,I believe the mic was next to the 360 and sitting distance from the ps3 and wii.although my current 360(mar06) is a hell of alot quieter then the 1st (oct05 build) one I had.

The Microsoft Furnace 360 has a hard time when the game graphics are heavy and it needs to keep cool. It's not as loud when on idle.
Solution: turn up the 5.1....

All of a sudden my 360 started making a grinding noise when I load a disk into the tray. Sometimes the sound subsides but at other times it picks up and ruins the gameplay. The console is manufactured in 2006 so I guess I can't benefit from the 1 year Microsoft free extended warrenty and I didn't bother to purchase an extended warrenty at time of purchase....this had to happen a week after the three month period!!!

Any tips, ideas, solutions to alleviate the grinding noise??

Where did you buy it? If you can do an in store return/exchange then do so. The 360 has far too many defects that I would risk keeping it as is.

this must be a biast link I've heard the ps3 boot and it's as loud as the 360,I believe the mic was next to the 360 and sitting distance from the ps3 and wii.although my current 360(mar06) is a hell of alot quieter then the 1st (oct05 build) one I had.

I assure you that link is not biased. I have played with 3 different PS3 units and 12 different 360's (including 2 of them manufactured in mid 2006). The PS3's noise is barely perceptable while the 360 sounds like it is taking off from a runway. It is pretty commonly accepted that the 360 is the noisiest console around (and to date).

Cal

Put it on it's side if you have it standing up.

But not while it's running.

(I know you probabaly wouldn't, but I saw a video last year of the instantaneous gouging of the disk if you moved it from horizontal to vertical or vise-versa while it's running).

Orientation makes little to no perceptible difference. I have had it both ways.

Anyway, it's part of the system really. Take it or leave it I guess.

Cal

Its night and day between the built in drive and the addon drive. The HD drive is a lot quieter.

the 360 does not make that noise for DVD, it does for games and the graphics it's giving I'll take it ,but like someoneelse said with 5.1 on WHAT NOISE

Suupafly, if it was manufactured in 2006 then 1 year has not yet passed. It's still covered.

I just bought a 360 and the HD Drive. I don't have an issue with either. Mind you, how could you hear that when my 5.1 is pumping out the noise!

I have to say that it's quite loud when I'm using it in my room. On my HT in the basement, its fine...

the ps3 and hd-dvd add on are equally noticable when the movie is quiet

It really depends on your luck really. I had a newer unit for a bit while my 360 was with MS for 'repairs', and that unit was so quiet while watching HD movies. It was barely audible even in uber quiet scenes, but now that I have one of the older refurbed units back, it's a difference, not a total annoyance, but it's definitely not a perfect player because of the noise. It's too bad the systems vary so much in terms of noise level, it'd be nice if they were all as quiet as the new builds.

I found my Xbox360(Bought Oct/06) to be noisey and was one reason I sold it. My PS3 is very quiet when playing games or watching BR movies.

Just dug my old Xbox 360 (circa Mar 2006) out of storage after more than a year and upgraded it (well, repaired it, actually) by replacing the moribund Toshiba/Samsung DVD ROM Drive (TS-H943) with one I got off ebay....this is a pretty easy fix: simply replace the logic board on the new drive with the old logic board from the original drive, and you are good to go...no need to flash the new drive (the DVD ROM logic board is keyed to the Xbox motherboard).

At the same time, I swapped-out the HORRENDOUSLY LOUD original black fans with the Whisper Moon drop in replacements, tested the Xbox to make sure everything was working with no red rings, and snapped the case back together. Believe me, the replacement fans make a *big* difference in the noise level of the Xbox 360 at idle....it went from unacceptable to acceptable for use in a Home Theatre setup as far as I am concerned.

Mind you, while playing a game, the DVD-ROM drive is still pretty loud, although not overpowering. When streamiing Video thru the Xbox from a networked PC, the Xbox DVD ROM isn't running, so the 360 noise levels are minimal...something akin to the fans on a HTPC, I would say. Also, I believe that with the new NXE upgrade for the Xbox 360 you can load the games on an attached HDD, thereby bypassing the noisy DVD-ROM drive altogether during game play.....

Streaming is great....I downloaded some of the clips from Microsoft's WMV HD site to my laptop and streamed them thru the Xbox to an HDTV and quality is comparable to HD DVD/Blu-Ray...no stuttering at all.

I stopped using my 360 to play dvd's because it was too loud. I've since replaced it with a dvd player for movies, and the difference in noise is amazing.

Since I really was only using the 360 as a movie player, I decided to trade it in for a ps3. I couldn't be happier. On top of being quieter, as well as an amzing bluray player, I'm finding it fr more useful than the 360 ever was. In fact, Im typing this reply on my ps3. I can't think of any one device to add to a home theater setup that can do so many different things as a ps3.