Seriously common sense isn't common.
1.) Thought everyone by now knew about the RROD and that it was most common in the older 360s; 360 has an over heating issue so it should be well vented, meaning don't block the back, don't place it on shelf where it doesn't have a lot of room to breath. If you don't like the high maintenance pick up a Wii, or PS3. Kind of stupid to keep hearing these new articles.
2.) Refurbished products generally break down over and over again. So why go down that road?
3.) On any electronic device that's over 100 bucks I get the extended warranty; and why wouldn't you because you get the full price of the device from the day you purchased it as a store credit despite any price drops. Last Gen I had to get both my PS2 and XBox replaced about 5x each due to faulty DVD drives. This Gen my 360 died I picked up an Elite for an extra 50 bucks and haven't had any problems since.
View