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I never liked the idea of a HDD in a console. I have a friend who's xbox died just after the HDD died too. I saw it as a huge drain on resources, that HDDs today sometimes don't last 3 months before you need a replacement, and something that really wasn't needed. It also makes the console more expensive, but aside from that X-Box has other problems. The main one is the size of the unit. It's 4 or 5 times as heavy as a gamecube, and while technically more powerful the in game graphics are no better. The original controller design was also far too big, and in many people's opinion has too many buttons on it. It did have a good idea that the cord snaps apart when yanked, rather than yanking the xbox.
Aside from those things the X-Box is as good as the gamecube, it has comparable loading times, comparable graphics and equal sound. It also plays DVDs - but not straight out of the box. With that said, just as the PS2 unlike any normal DVD player you'd buy in-store, the consoles are not region-free. The fact that you can buy a stand-alone DVD player of at least equal quality to the x-box for $50 which is region free far outweighs the costs involved in making the x-box a DVD player in the first place (buying the remote) and then buying a chip to mod it with - which voids your warranty, on the other hand you can buy a cheap $50 player that's region-free out of the box and keep it's 12 month warranty.
Then there are the games themselves. Nintendo brings exclusive titles such as Mario Sunshine, Mario Kart Double Dash. Nintendo also received the best version of Soul Calibre II. Now this comes as a surprise since the arcade machine it was original designed on is closest to the PS2. Despite this Nintendo's version sees better loading times, better graphics, better gameplay as well as the better of the exclusive characters (Link). I've played the game on PS2, X-Box and GC and in my opinion it is certainly best on the GC.
