PS3 Help/Information

[adaffme149]

Well, I've been considering buying a PS3 [used] lately. A few weeks ago, I was staying the night at my friend's house. He had a PS3, and up untill then, I had no real interest in getting one of them [mainly because they seemed like a fancy blu-ray player to me, and had nothing I really found all that special.] Well, he let me play FEAR 2 for it, and I was AMAZED. It has THE BEST graphics I have seen to date... That reaction doubled when I saw Uncharted... It was like a trip back to when I played Tomb Raider, but on HD steroids! I loved it. And Call of Duty 4 was pretty nice too... It looked good and was pretty fun. Plus, I like the whole idea of the controller being motion sensitive, though I didn't get to play anythng that really used it like the Wii does. =/ But, all in all, it looked pretty cool, and I kinda want one now. But, before I take a stroll down to the used games store to pick one of these bricks up, I have a few questions. First off, which model would be ideal to get? I mean, they've got the 20 GB, 60 GB, 80 GB, which one would be best? I mean, I know full well how much a gigabyte is and what the numbers mean, but how much space do you need and for what? Is it like the Xbox 360, where, I've found, you really only need a 20 GB hard drive if you don't download everything you can? Second, does hard drive space matter? I mean, can you replace the hard drive with a standard PC hard drive? I would like to mod this with a bigger hard drive I have lying around if possible [160 GB SATA 2.5" hard drive from an old laptop]. Would I be able to do this, and does anyone know how if so? Also. Anyone have anything to say as to durability? It seems like quite the beast of a brick, so it should, in theory, be quite solid. But what about the Blu-ray drive they've crammed in it? Any help with this would be most awesome.

 

[clothdl]

Well i can't answer all the questions,but i just got mine 80g and i love it. This is my first game player. the best thing is the HD is great.i play mine on a 46" LCD.the on line play is great. im not the best on gaming yet but ill give it time. the place i went to check info on the ps3 was a web pg called Playstation secrets. take a look. i hope this helps.

 

[Fire2box]

Fear 2 and COD4 are both on the PC both also look and preform better on the PC. The major downfall of either the 360 or PS3 is that their video cards are two generations old now IRC and they can't be upgraded at all.

So if your getting a PS3 just for those I would recommend looking into PC gaming and it doesn't cost nearly as much as everyone makes it out to be.

 

[Hex]

Fear 2 and COD4 are both on the PC both also look and preform better on the PC. The major downfall of either the 360 or PS3 is that their video cards are two generations old now IRC and they can't be upgraded at all.

So if your getting a PS3 just for those I would recommend looking into PC gaming and it doesn't cost nearly as much as everyone makes it out to be.

[font="Calibri,Arial"]No no no. PC gaming is cheaper [/font]or[font="Calibri,Arial"] better. You can't have both. I could buy a PC for €300. Yes, it's a €100 cheaper than the PS3. Will it play games better? No. It will probably have about 2 GB or RAM, and some crappy Intel graphics card. Which will struggle to play COD4 at the low settings, never mind at the PS3-beating ones.

Alternatively, I could spend a €1000 on a PC. Will that be better than a PS3? Yes. But at 2.5x the cost, it's down the individual if that's the router you are looking for.[/font]

 

[Kokuei]

First off, which model would be ideal to get? I mean, they've got the 20 GB, 60 GB, 80 GB, which one would be best?
=======================
To answer that. there are a few things you should know first. the 20GB and 60GB has been dicontiunced for a LONG time.

all there is is the 80GB ATM and later this month a 120GB will be released.

If you want backwards compatability then your outa luck. None of them have it anymore. Unless you buy used or referbushed

But if you want the ps3 for the ps3. Then the size of your HDD really only matters. The size you get should depened on how much download content you plan to buy and how many PS Marketplace games you want to buy.

==================

As for modding a PS3 with a bigger hard drive...

How to upgrade your PlayStation 3 hard drive - Features at GameSpot

there ya go.

If your planning on modding in the first place. just get the 80GB and mod it.

 

[ajsco]

Well...
First off, if you want THE best graphics you can get, go PC, only drawback is that to get any PC that can compete with the PS3 you are looking at spending $1200+ and bearing in mind that PS3 is only going to get better, eg. MW2 will only use 6 (or was it 5, anyway...) of the 8 processors that the PS3 has. Even to play say CoD 5 on moderate settings, you are going to be spending in upwards of $550.

So we can rule PC out, if you want alright graphics for a good price go the 360, bearing in mind it's limit was reached by Forza 2 (no arguing Microsoft themselves even said this is as good as it's going to get). No doubt the 360 is a good console, but for best bang for buck PS3 wins. Everytime, and the mass of features it has is just amazing, it's not just a console it's a media centre (watch films in AVI, MP4 ect, play music, view pictures and my favorite...Connect to your laptop/PC's connected to your home network through your router), blu ray player and PC as you can run a secondary OS on it (would love to put Vista on one and click on 'welcome centre' to drool over the specs)

But the first point in choosing what one to go for is do you want backwards compatability with PS1 or PS2 games, if so then you are narrowed down to the 60GB version (which is why you'll find it priced higher than the other models). Second point is what do you want on it if it's just running games and the odd music track then go the 40GB, bear in mind that you have to install the games (so that menu's and games load faster) and that will take up ~2GB for each game and after formatting the HDD you're left with just under 30GB, also there are many app's eg. playstation home, which is like the sims, you can build your own house ect, but also 'walk around' the place and meet and talk to other users who're walking around and that takes up 4GB. Map packs take up ~650 - 800MB, game demo's take up 750MB - 1.5GB. But that said, it depends on how much of a difference in price there is between 40GB and 80GB, as you can put a 2.5'' SATA drive in (I got a 250GB drive for £40) so bear that in mind, as there is very little difference between the two. Though which ever one you buy you will not be disappointed as it is a fantastic console (and I'm going to be shouted at by others for saying this) at a very cheap price as everything it does it just fantastic. Anything else you wish to know PM me, leave a comment on my profile, I'm on the IRC pretty much all the time, and my various other contact details (MSN, AIM, Yahoo & Skype) are on my profile.

Wow - this is the longest post I've ever made ^_^

 

[diaperedwolfcub]

Mmmmmmk! Well this is what I would do... the price just dropped so I hoped you have not got one yet...if you do i would take it back for a price change. Also you can wait for the slim model as well which is released in september. (I think).

The only disadvantage of the slim one is that you can't put linux on it... but most people don't care. Other than that the slim has all the advantages of the regular... including the 100 dollar price drop.

For your other question you can most definitely upgrade your ps3 hardrive... I would just go with the regular 80gb... and switch it out with a 320gb hardrive.

You can get that hardrive from newegg for like 60 bucks. I know I paid fifty dollars when I did it but they were having a sell.

But as you said you can upgrade for whatever size hardrive you like.

Enjoy it!

 

[Fire2box]

[font="Calibri,Arial"]No no no. PC gaming is cheaper [/font]or[font="Calibri,Arial"] better. You can't have both. I could buy a PC for €300. Yes, it's a €100 cheaper than the PS3. Will it play games better? No. It will probably have about 2 GB or RAM, and some crappy Intel graphics card. Which will struggle to play COD4 at the low settings, never mind at the PS3-beating ones.

Alternatively, I could spend a €1000 on a PC. Will that be better than a PS3? Yes. But at 2.5x the cost, it's down the individual if that's the router you are looking for.[/font]

When did I say PC gaming was cheaper then a PS3?

Anyways you don't have to buy a pre-built PC. There are websites you can order every single part you need from for about 10-25% less then you would pay for a Sony or HP.

 

[IWANTHOTDOG]

I'd say wait for the Slim which will be $300 for 120gb(I want to get one of those myself hehe, LittleBigPlanet ftw)

 

[baby_mike]

If you want want one that is backward compatible with ps2 games you want the 80gig with they don't make anymore

 

[Hex]

[font="Calibri,Arial"]If you are worried about backwards compatibility, you might want to try PCSX2, a PS2 emulator for the PC. Download the beta from that site, as ATM it's much better than the release version.

It doesn't have 100% compatibility, and for speed reasons you practically have to rip the game to your HDD, but if it plays the games you want acceptably on your PC, it'll save you the bother of going out of your way to get a backwards compatible PS3.

AFAIK all PS3s have full-ish PS1 backwards compatibility. If not, there is psX emulator (which has 100% compatibility) or pcsx (1) (which I've never used).[/font]

 

[Tygon]

If you've found someplace that sells a used 20 or 60gb PS3 for a reasonable price and are interested in backwards compatibility (with PS2 games), get it. These are the only PS3s that have hardware backwards compatibility, and they will be able to play a larger percentage of games. Be aware that the 20gb doesn't have WiFi or memory card readers. The older 80gb is backwards compatible through software emulation, but there are fewer games that work under this. You can check the Playstation website to determine if the games you want to play will work under either of these systems. If you don't want BC or are OK with using PCSX2, you might want to wait a week or so until the PS3 Slim is supposed to be released for around $300.

Don't worry too much about hard drive space. If you need more, the drive is very easily replaced (both for the old PS3 and the PS3 Slim: Video: Another look at PS3 Slim and its removable HDD). There's a slot on the side of the console; just slide the new HD in. You need a regular 2.5" SATA drive; special proprietary drives are not necessary like with the 360. Instructions are here: Knowledge Center | Support | Playstation.com

As for hard drive space, you do need to install new games before playing them (kind of a pain, but if it reduces load times so be it), and the space each game takes is listed on the back of the box. Expect a few gigs per game. If you're planning on making your PS3 a media center (it plays several types of music, video, and picture files), installing Linux, or downloading a lot of content from the Playstation store, you'll of course need more storage.

I managed to track down a refurbished (it had a 3-month warranty from Sony) 60gb PS3 this December for a decent price. About $460 with insured shipping, so it's less than what the console cost at launch. They're out there, just hard to find. It's been working great so far. I wanted one with the BC because I basically missed out on an entire generation of gaming and had a list of PS2 games I wanted to play, along with a growing list of PS3 titles that looked interesting. And the PS3 does a nice job upscaling those old PS2 games to an HD screen.

As for durability--don't drop it, obviously. But the machine is pretty solid. Surprisingly heavy. As with all electronics, failure can happen. When I was researching this before I bought one, it seemed that if something does go wrong with the PS3, it tends to be the Blu-Ray drive. If something does go wrong with the drive and the machine is out of warranty, it apparently costs $150 for Sony to fix it; if you feel like cracking the machine open yourself and can find the necessary parts, you can fix if for about half that. PS3s can also overheat. I don't know the exact statistics on failure, however. All I can say is that mine is working just fine. Then there are people who abuse their machines and try to sell them. Be careful if you are buying used. Make sure you can at least exchange it if you take it home and it doesn't work.

Yeah, PS3 games don't use the motion-control as much as Wii games do. You might want to check out Warhawk if you want to try piloting a motion-control fighter plane (or tank, or truck) and like online multiplayer war/capture-the-flag games. And in case you didn't know, Uncharted II is scheduled to come out this October. Hope all this helps.

 

[ajsco]

Yeah the PS3's overheat when used for more than 6 hours (especially the 40GB version - only 2 fans opposed to the 3 the 60 and 80 have) I just bought an external fan than goes on the side and plugs into the USB for £15 (and has cool blue neons on it which look cool as). Though I predict the slim version to have overheating problems (25.6GHz, use logic Sony) and it doesn't look as good as the previous versions, and actually looks quite cheap - gloss black and chrome FTW.

Just what ever you do don't put it in a cabinet, as it will most likely overheat, potentially damaging it and other appliances.

 

[Tygon]

Just what ever you do don't put it in a cabinet, as it will most likely overheat, potentially damaging it and other appliances.

Yeah, I forgot to mention that. A large portion (nothing scientific, I was just checking out message boards dedicated to the PS3) of the people who had their PS3 overheat or had issues with the fans being very loud also had it in a cabinet. Keep the thing on a hard surface with plenty of room for airflow on all sides (6-10" at least). And keep it away from other electronics that may be throwing a lot of heat.

Also, if you get an external fan, pay attention to the direction its fans are blowing. I have heard of a couple external fans that blow air in the opposite direction of the internal fans--so if the internal fan is trying to blow hot air out, the external fan is blowing it back in. Yikes.

*shrug* The slim may or may not have overheating problems. They are using a smaller chip design (45nm vs. 65nm) that apparently generates less heat. Sony says they have cut the power consumption of the PS3, which should also result in a decrease in heat generation. I'm not sure if there will be an external power brick or if it will still be inside of the PS3; if it is external, that will cut a bit of heat, too. Finally, check out the fan: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/08/ps3-slim-tore-down-explored-huge-fan-revealed.ars. But still, maybe wait a few weeks after the Slim has been released to see if there are any major problems before buying one?

...I should stop looking at gadget pr0n now and get back to work

 

[Fire2box]

[font="Calibri,Arial"]No no no. PC gaming is cheaper [/font]or[font="Calibri,Arial"] better. You can't have both. I could buy a PC for €300. Yes, it's a €100 cheaper than the PS3. Will it play games better? No. It will probably have about 2 GB or RAM, and some crappy Intel graphics card. Which will struggle to play COD4 at the low settings, never mind at the PS3-beating ones.

Alternatively, I could spend a €1000 on a PC. Will that be better than a PS3? Yes. But at 2.5x the cost, it's down the individual if that's the router you are looking for.[/font]

Newegg.com - DIY Kits starting Under $200

the DIY kit on the left (sold out now it seems) costs less then 200 dollars, you can get a very decent video card, a computer case and a optical disc drive for less then another 200 dollars. Maybe even as low as 100 dollars.

so for 400 bucks you CAN get a computer that's better then mine. So far my computer runs nearly every PC game at max just without AA. But you can't find any new 8800GT's anymore so you will be getting a slightly better video card anyhow.

So it is possible to build a computer that can/will have better graphics then a PS3 for the same price if not lower price. Also putting together a PC is more simple then building stuff with lego's or knex I tried all 3 and so far the PC is the easy one.

 

[adaffme149]

Hahaha, yes. I do have to agree, I haven't managed to put a dent in my desktop's performance [Quad core Phenom 9600, Radeon HD 3870 [512 MB GDDR44, 320 SPU's], 4 GB Corsair [yes, corsair...] RAM], and it cost me a grand total of about 450 bucks. I just happen to enjoy my console gaming at times, because of the, for one, knowledge that this wILL run nice at the settings it is at, without me having to fuck with it [but that usually just means setting it to max settings and the correct resolution on PC anyways], and because I just sometimes like to have a console for those games that you either can't play from ps3 to pc with friends, and for those only for X games, that aren't on PC. I do love my TF2 [on PC] and would never ditch that, I just kinda like the prospect of haivng another console such as the PS3. I could build a computer like the parts are Training Legos, but I want a console. Either way, fun story. I just recently got to work on a PS3 [it turns out its' Blu-Ray drive is fucked], and I know where I can get a 20 and a 60 GB PS3 [used]. If I do decide to get one, I think I'm gonna go with the 60, and just throw in my old 120 GB 2.5" SATA HDD. Well, thanks for all of your help, I appreciate it!