I've read that the 360 should only be plugged into a wall outlet. I was wondering if the same was true for the original Xbox. So is an extension cord or Power Strip/Surge Protector OK? I have the cord that has it's own surge protector on it. It's just my wall outlet is a bit full and either a Power Strip/Surge Protector or Extension Cord would be useful to me when it comes to powering my original Xbox.
To memory, the original Xbox draws about 60W of power. To test if your extension cord/power bar is good enough just plug a lamp with a 60W light bulb (or higher wattage) in it for a couple of hours. After that, check for burn marks or burned plastic odors all around the circuit (wall outlet->extension cord->lamp cord->bulb socket). If there's none after a couple of hours (let's say 3-4) then your Xbox should be good to go! But my advice is to not cheap out on a surge protector power bar. This is a really useful thing to have, it'll probably save your aging Xbox's power supply for frying in a thunderstorm.
i've got everything plugged into extensions and its been fine i have my 2 pc monitors, PC, laptop psu, 5.1 speakers, mode/router, headphone amp and xbox 360 all hooked up via a set of extension sockets (4x and 6x) also sometimes hook the megadrive adapters and other things into same extensions i have my xbox 1, 32" CRT TV, dvd player+5.1 speakers, wii, saturn and ps2 and a one of them home power network adapters hooked up to the same extension 12 way switchable then a stereo hifi, dreamcast, retro duo, lamp and alarm clock ipod dock radio thingy in another. probably not 100% safe and recommended but its worked out fine so far(long time) but never had an issue with xboxs and power extensions. i would reocmmend surge protectors although im using normal cheap power strips as long as the mains in your house / apartment are solid and not from the early 1900s then you should be fine.
Power strips max out at 2000 watts, home extension cords max out at 10amps. I have seen people (not smart people) connect a MIG-welder (20amps) to a 10amp lead and get away with, but don't try that because it won't be pretty....... The original 360's PSU was rated at 200W MAX .
