Honestly, you need a hard drive whether you are an avid gamer or not. I am personally a very hardcore gamer, and i have friends who range from playing very little, to teammates who travel to gaming tournaments all over the east coast. All of them needed a hard drive, so if your looking into this xbox make sure to look into getting a hard drive as well. I personally will be at Walmart picking one of these up since my xbox just recently got the red ring of death and is at Microsoft getting repaired. This leaves me without an xbox for the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 launch. I figure ill pick one of these up until mine comes back and then resell it while keeping the gift card. Anyway, just figured id try to help out.