I'm not sure I'd declare that the elites "can't" get the ring, but are far less likely. That said, most (if not all) the shelf stock - of all the models - was produced after June of last year and therefore should be in the "safe zone" with regards to the ring of doom. No Xbox 360's are free from the Red Ring of Death, no matter when they were made, however I do believe that if you take good care of your Xbox the chances of it happening are a lot less likely. I still have the original Xbox that I stood in line for during the November '05 launch and it works fine. Keep it well ventilated and don't move it around to much and you should be alright. Starting in mid September Microsoft began releasing Xbox 360's with a cooler and quiter 65nm "falcon" motherboards. One of the first systems that they put the new motherboard in was the Elite system and this is why everybody thinks that the Elite system is a sure fire avoidance of the RROD. This is false however, because there are Elites in existance with the old motherboard in them. The best way to get a system with the new "falcon" chip is to grab an Xbox 360 and look on the box. If the power supply rating says 175W then the system has got the new chip in it. If it says 203W then it likely has the old motherboard (in rare cases there are 203W powersupplies with the falcon). Also check the date on the back. If it's manufactured recently (11/07 or later) it's likely got a falcon chip. However, as sgtcluels already said the new Xbox's are not bombproof. There have been reports of DVD drive failure and RROD on the falcon 360s as well. But all in all they are a big improvement over the previous models. Also, if you follow the guidelines above, you will get an HDMI output with the system. For some reason the new Premium models won't say on the box that they have HDMI output, but they do. I would get a Premium for $350 and avoid the Elite model unless you want the black color to match your home theater. Otherwise they are more money, for harddrive space that you don't need. You'll love your new Xbox. They do everything. I just played an online game of 4 player UNO while I was waiting for my High Definition movie (Michael Clayton) to finish downloading. Have fun.