Bought one on launch day in '05. Ran beautifully all the way till the Elites came out, and then it stopped reading all discs. It's as if it "knew" there was a better model out for me to upgrade. I went ahead and paid the $99 to fix it. Then, on an impulse, because I was dying to play, I went ahead and bought an Elite anyway a day or two later, and gave the repaired launch model to my sister. Then MS did the warranty extension thing so I got my repair fee refunded. Everything ran cool till the launch day of Gears of War 2, and my Elite RROD'd during the INTRO video, before I could even play it! I sent that in, at this point, out of warranty, unfortunately, but again, somehow refunded unexpectedly by MS a month later. The launch system did red ring last year again, and somehow that repair came up free on xbox.com. I know that one is past the warranty, but I wasn't questioning anything, free is free. Long story short, I've still got the launch day pro and the first run black elite running, after a bunch of repairs, all ending up being free in the end. They're loud, starting up like jet engines, but they work fine, and I'm sure to install the newer games I have just in case.