Get a Jasper or a slim and have it RGH'd with a CoolRunner chip: (It's the same as JTAGing but can be done on all consoles, regardless of motherboard/dashboard version)
http://www.free60.org/Reset_Glitch_Hack
That is of course if you want all the benefits of having a fully modded 360; XBLA games, Japanese games, free DLC, homebrew etc etc.
If you just want to play burned retail games then a flashed console will do. Just make sure it has the latest firmware on the drive (LT 3.0), and then you'll have to get yourself an iHAS burner to be able to burn XGD3 games properly.