Maximun Time Before Fail = my guess, lol

Okay, I have experience with all the systems that are out. Wii, 360 and PS3. It is correct that the 360 does fail. If you do choose to go that route, get an 'elite' edition. They are far better than anything else unless you get a new Arcade version. Problem with the Arcade is that it does not come with a hard drive. But it is what is known as a Jasper and because of this and all new editions of the Elite in stores are Jaspers too, they are built better and do not have the Red Ring issue. The PS3 is great and better in the long run at the moment since it is free online play, BluRay movies and all the such. But since you are thinking of your kids and on a tight budget, I would have to suggest the Wii. There are a heap of games out there fun for single player and for group/family. It is also the cheapest one of the lot.

I got a used Premium that appears to have a hard drive issue (not recognised by Forza3) which makes Forza3 fairly useless as the 2nd, content disk has to install to the console for all the car modifying, save games etc.
It does have memory slots on the front so I'm hoping one of those little memory sticks will do.

Peter, it could also be the disc reader/optical reader is not correctly able to read the disc to transfer the information. That is a common issue due to the system internally overheating and the sodering and such having issues.

It simply says "no device found" when I try and create a user profile. Forza 3 defaults to a simple arcade style with fixed choice of tracks, cars, no XP building, car mods etc.

Wii's are loads of fun, my daughter (7) and son (6) love it and we all have a good giggle playing it.

That Wii Fit is a bit intense though :D

MTBF = Mean time before failure, although in the case of the xbox i would say Umpkins interpretation is infact more accurate:D

The Jaspers are no better, same shoddy build quality which has been masked slightly by the shrinking of the fabrication process.

Cam in Head you will be waiting around for ever if you use a usb flash drive to store your forza 3 data on. write speed of cheap/mid grade usb drives is between 1-5 MB/s compared to 60-100MB/s of a regular hard drive. If the warranty has expired there are 3rd party spares available to replace / upgrade it.

seeing as its for the kids i think i'll go for the wii, i've had games systems over the years and still got a couple of old playstations, but i don't seem to be bothered playing them anymore, must be past it :p lol.

TBH I think I'm best accepting the inevitable and getting an Elite, only when they're < £150 new, though. Unless you know of any reasoable 3rd party specifically ?

i got the missus a wii last xmas.....never been used since :P

i've had a 360 the last few years, it's had a few trips for repair but the new arcade units have a much better chipset - as far as i know, the elites still have the dodgy chipset. Don't buy it based on the racing games though, Forza Motorsport 2 was awesome and I had a good group of mates online that used to cane it round the 'ring with me regularly. However, the developers fucked up Forza 3 and everyone is migrating to the PS3 ready for Gran Turismo 5. It's more expensive but think of it like a 2-in-1, you get a blu-ray player, kids get a games console ;)