Tired of lame themes making your 360's dashboard look a little less than sleek?

Here is your fix; Make your own backgrounds that can fit with the new NXE layout. Now you can just put a picture as your background, but with that huge silver dome at the bottom of the screen, you may need to know how to do some tweaking in order to make your picture fit perfectly. As such, I did some hunting for some templates and guides to help you make your own NXE friendly backgrounds. Check out the results below:

DIY Custom Backgrounds Forum via Digital Spy
NXE Custom Wallpaper Template from TeamXbox forums

Or, if you are handy and have photoshop available, click here to download a template in .PSD form. (I used this, and it works remarkably well)

Now that you have the templates and instructions you need some high resolution wallpapers. The 360 runs at a native resolution of 1920x1080. As such, you will need to find a suitable picture so that the image fits the entire screen and looks flush with the layout of the dashboard. Check out InterfaceLIFT.com and Customize.org for some pretty nice user-created high definition wallpapers.

NOTE: It is extremely helpful if you know your way around Photoshop in order to make some really sleek themes, but even if you aren't you can still customize your 360 with the background of your choice.

Personally, I am constantly frustrated with the inability to preview items on the XBL Marketplace, especially themes. With the introduction of Premium Themes (most with a hefty price tag of 250 MS points), I would love the ability to get at very least a preview image of what the theme will look like on my system.

Recently released themes have been enabling a preview of the 'Friends' section of the dashboard in a rather small image above the product description. If you are like me, that certainly is not enough. I need a full preview. A test run would be wonderful. Well my clones, there is a solution!

Take a trip to NeoGAF's Official NXE Premium Theme Preview thread or Xbox360Achievements.org Premium Theme Preview thread.

UPDATE: I found this site as well. NeoGAF and Xbox360Achievements.org have more, but this is pretty easy to navigate. NXE Premium Theme Preview via Whirlpool.

In it you can view user's uploaded photos of premium themes. You can see all the various backgrounds for different sections, as well as the environments your friends' avatars are relaxing in while viewing the 'Friends' section.

Trust me, take a peak. It could save you precious MS points.

With the NXE update along came the ability to install games to your hard drive which, in most cases, cuts down on load times and significantly reduces the noise coming from the console.

There are some games that actually slow down when installed to your hard drive, such as Halo 3. The game was made to run from the disc, and installing it actually makes the game run a lot sloppier. To avoid such sloppy disasters, you need to protect yourself. No! Not using anything made of latex but rather by reading up on the effects of installing games to your hard drive.

To be your virtual 10 cent condom dispenser, I have collected some sites that will help you protect and educate yourself. Check the links out below.

NeoGAF Official Xbox 360 Game Installs thread

Xbox 360 NXE Hard Drive Install Chart (UPDATED)

NOTE: Installing games to your hard drive DOES NOT make it so you no longer need the game disc to play. Instead, the majority of the data is preloaded onto the HDD but the game disc is STILL required to play the game. Think of the disc as a 'key' needed to access the data.

I have done a complete overhaul of my old Xbox Space, which used to feature gaming updates and reviews. As of early 2008 I no longer blogged as regularly as I would have liked, and I pretty much abandoned the project.

However today I decided to bring back my space, but with a new approach. I will be bringing helpful links and resources to one central location, my blog. Such resources will include gaming tips, cheats, achievement help, and much much more. Keep checking back as often as you would like. I will try to update often.

Thank you!