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60 GB PS3 w/Backwards compatibility: Too risky?

Setzer

Setzer

Member
tilomite! said:
I'm playing my launch 6ogb ps3 right now.
Click to expand...

Same. I still use mine regularly and it works just fine and it plays PS1/PS2 games great as well. Only thing I had to do about 2 years ago I got the YLOD error and had to open it up and apply some more thermal paste between the heatsinks and processors. Has worked flawlessly since.
 
L

LonelyGreyWolf

Banned
IdreamofHIME said:
How is it 2015 and people still don't know this?
Click to expand...

Lol, why would people be more likely to know it in 2015 versus previous years? It's not like there has been any form of information spread about it any shape or form.

No reason to act like a jerk, it's perfectly acceptable to not know that.
 
finalflame

finalflame

Gold Member
All PS3s play PS1 games.

Some PS3 fats have hardware based PS2 compatibility. Other PS3 fats have software based/limited PS2 backwards compatibility. Some PS3 fats have no backwards compatibility at all.
 
E

EdReedFan20

Member
I may be wrong, but isn't $150 the going rate for PS3 repairs from Sony. I recall having to spend that much when my launch 60GB got YLOD.
 
V

Volotaire

Member
I didn't know PS1 games were playable on the PS3! Interesting and useful to note in the future.

I'm guessing that there are still a few PS1 games, similar to some of the PS2 models, that do not work or run perfectly.
 
Patrick S.

Patrick S.

Banned
Vashetti said:
Yes, not EVERY single game works, as they didn't on the officially BC PS3s, but I imagine the majority work.
Click to expand...

Wow, that could be the moment I retire my fatty and put it on a shelf. As I said, it works fine, also it doesn't have a single scratch, so I'd like to keep it as a "personal museum piece".

Do you happen to have a link at which I can look into which models work, and on what firmwares the procedure works?
 
V

Vashetti

Banned
Patrick S. said:
Wow, that could be the moment I retire my fatty and put it on a shelf. As I said, it works fine, also it doesn't have a single scratch, so I'd like to keep it as a "personal museum piece".

Do you happen to have a link at which I can look into which models work, and on what firmwares the procedure works?
Click to expand...

No sorry, I've never personally gone down the CFW route.
 
Y

Yawnier

Banned
As someone who went through 2 fats (though they were 80GB models, not 60GB models) I wouldn't even bother, they're ticking time bombs waiting to die. I will say though that I never had any trouble with the PS2 backwards compatibility when I owned mine. The fat PS3 is also still one of my favorite console designs even tho mine died.

You can probably find a slim PS2 (north american model) for pretty cheap, like anywhere from $20 to $35 if you look around.
 
M

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
My launch unit still runs fine. The funny thing is, I wanted this just for the PS2 capability, but I've realized that the games look way better on my PC now so I don't even need it.

So if I want to get a new PS3, does the first slim run silently? I don't think I wanna mess with the newest slim, that sliding door disc tray looks really cheap-o.
 
T

The Lamp

Member
I got my power supply upgraded and my thermal paste replaced for cheap from endlesselectronics, it was quick and cheaper than Sony.

Use a service like that and you don't have to worry about your PS3 dying. My 60gb is still chugging along. The Blu Ray drive failed but EE replaced it for me.
 
M

MilesTeg

Banned
Way too risky. I got one when my slim disc drive broke and it only lasted about a month. It was a real waste of money. It's super heavy so shipping it out to someone on ebay as broken wouldn't even make me any money. It's essentially a huge brick. I guess I could try and fix it myself, really that's my only option.
 
N

Nesther

Member
The Lamp said:
I got my power supply upgraded and my thermal paste replaced for cheap from endlesselectronics, it was quick and cheaper than Sony.

Use a service like that and you don't have to worry about your PS3 dying. My 60gb is still chugging along. The Blu Ray drive failed but EE replaced it for me.
Click to expand...

Unless they redo the soldering, you still have to worry about it dying.
 
D

doctorcdcs

Member
All this thread has done is convince me to get a different PS3. I love my 60 GB but I don't want it to crap out. Its just too much money right now to justify buying a second PS3 though. :(
 
S

Sjefen

Member
Lost my day one fat PS3 to ylod, got back a slim PS3 on guaranter. Not a happy day. BC is nice and all but just buy a PS2 and PS3. That fat one is loud and so beatiful, I miss it :-(
 
J

JesseZao

Member
I wouldn't. Mine just stopped working about a month ago. Not YLoD, but probably a HDD issue Maybe I could replace it and fix it, but I haven't yet. Not that I have the time, but it is annoying that I have no means of playing my PS2/3 discs now. Wish there was a digital conversion BC system to play them on my PS4 w/o a sub.
 
S

Super_Cobra

Member
I miss the fat PS3. They were such a beautiful console. But yes they're a ticking time bomb. Mine YLOD twice even after Sony sent me one.
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I believe YLOD sufferers are a vocal minority.

I feel for you guys. But who goes around crowing about how their 60gb model works like brand new to compensate? (Well, I guess I do in every 60gb related thread ;)
 
B

Bergerac

Member
I actually have a refurbed 60GB after my original shit itself and died. The machine is fine. Have had it for at least 5 years.

Conversely I just don't think it's worth it for the sake of playing PS1/2 games at this point.
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Bergerac said:
I actually have a refurbed 60GB after my original shit itself and died. The machine is fine. Have had it for at least 5 years.

Conversely I just don't think it's worth it for the sake of playing PS1/2 games at this point.
Click to expand...
Now that's a better point.

PS2s are plentiful and work just fine. If you have an upscaler like the XRGB mini, that's just as good (or maybe a frame less lag?) than the PS2 capability of the 60gb.
 
L

Lgndryhr

Member
My 80GB BC PS3 still runs, but is loud. Two of my friends have 60GB BC PS3's and they work just fine. I believe the environment they are in affects them some.
 
M

Max_Po

Banned
I have a brand new ps3 60 gig and my personal like new ps3 60 gig near launch unit.

I take care of it by regularly changing thermal paste and normal cleaning. It still is pristine finger print free.
 
S

SURGEdude

Member
A key thing people forget about refurbs is that by their very nature they only replace the defective part of the unit. A 8 year old PS3 has a lot of mileage on all of it's components increasing the likelihood of something else failing much sooner than a new unit.

As a general rule I recommend buying only refurbished products that have been on the market for less than a year. Usually the 10-20% discount offered is otherwise not enough to offset the wear and tear of the non-replaced components.

Even if those risks are worth it to a person I would still suggest they only buy a unit that can run custom firmware to allow all games to be run off the hard drive. As somebody else pointed out and I have seen tons of supporting evidence, the blu-ray drives in first gen PS3's have an insane failure rate. It's so dramatic that I'm amazed the far less common YLOD problem is so much more highlighted. When I used to see and repair lots of fat PS3s especially early models like the BC ones I almost never had one with a YLOD issue that didn't have at least 1 or sometimes 2 replacement BR drives prior.
 
P

PeterLegend

Member
Ticking time bomb in my opinion.

Back in August 2008 I bought the MGS4 PS3 bundle 80 GB with PS2 software emulation. The unit died December 2010 when playing Gran Turismo 5...

It had proper ventilation, I only played 1 hours to 2 hours max per day too...

I replaced it with the 160GB slim which was really quiet and nice.
 
E

epaturun

Member
My 80Gb YLOD recently after 7 yrs service - can't decide which one to go for Slim or Super Slim - which model is less likely to die
 
S

SURGEdude

Member
IvorB said:
If you're covered by sufficient warranty then I guess there is no reason why not.
Click to expand...

The problem is warranties are short and any refurb of 8 year old hardware still has 8 years of wear on everything but the single replaced part that initiated the reason for refurbishment in the first place.

It's like buying a car with 200k miles on with a brand new transmission and everything else having the accrued wear expected for that amount of use. I for one would never buy that car for the 25% or so discount over new knowing the likelihood of failure is very high on everything but the newly replaced transmission.

I mean even a lightly used 8 year old console is likely to fail at any moment even with significant user care. And it's the luck of the draw as to what kind of care was shown by the original owner. If by some act of divinity it lasted until now with it's original BR drive and thermal paste investing in it at this point would be like a cheese of the month membership for a person in the final stages of terminal cancer.
 
M

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
S

Severance

Member
I have a launch day 60gb and reading these threads make me so nervous about it. I have played a *ton* of hours on it too, even to this day since I don't have a ps4 yet. The thing is loud, those fans are always going hard when I'm playing a game. I'm extremely thankful since my 360 RROD 6 times till I said fuck Microsoft and my Wii U has died twice..

As much as I love and appreciate my 60gb PS3.. I'd recommend not getting it. There are better options for sure.
 
S

SURGEdude

Member
Nesther said:
The Super Slim. It's an uglier device but the most reliable iteration.
Click to expand...

That's true but the difference in reliability of the slim and super slim is very small between all but the very first of the 4 minor revisions of the original slim. Only CECH-20xxA/CECH-20xxB slims use the 65nm GPU carried over from the previous fats. All later units of the slim and super slim utilize the same die sizes to this day.

The only real difference is power consumption and resulting heat differences between the 2 designs. Which would result in a cooler running unit, except it's cooler design is cancelled out by encapsulating it in a smaller physical box.

I would certainly buy a super slim over a slim were it not that the market has mistakenly overvalued the benefits and caused a significant difference in average price between the very similarly reliable designs. I would go super slim if the difference was less than $10 or of course if I had a strong desire for a smaller sized console. Personally I don't care about size unless it gets to XB1 or above.

I'm assuming the person who asked the question above doesn't place a huge premium on space either judging by the fact that the even asked and didn't buy a super slim based on size alone.

I really wish we had gotten even a single version of the slim in which Sony had utilized the motherboard of a super slim. It would be far and away the box to buy if you want the best chance of being able to revisit PS3 titles in 20 years on original hardware.
 
E

epaturun

Member
SURGEdude said:
That's true but the difference in reliability of the slim and super slim is very small between all but the very first of the 4 minor revisions of the original slim. Only CECH-20xxA/CECH-20xxB slims use the 65nm GPU carried over from the previous fats. All later units of the slim and super slim utilize the same die sizes to this day.

The only real difference is power consumption and resulting heat differences between the 2 designs. Which would result in a cooler running unit, except it's cooler design is cancelled out by encapsulating it in a smaller physical box.

I would certainly buy a super slim over a slim were it not that the market has mistakenly overvalued the benefits and caused a significant difference in average price between the very similarly reliable designs. I would go super slim if the difference was less than $10 or of course if I had a strong desire for a smaller sized console. Personally I don't care about size unless it gets to XB1 or above.

I'm assuming the person who asked the question above doesn't place a huge premium on space either judging by the fact that the even asked and didn't buy a super slim based on size alone.

I really wish we had gotten even a single version of the slim in which Sony had utilized the motherboard of a super slim. It would be far and away the box to buy if you want the best chance of being able to revisit PS3 titles in 20 years on original hardware.
Click to expand...

Thanks both, I'm looking at buying it from CEX (UK shop that deals with second user - I will get 12 months warranty & have credit that pays the significant bit) - will be buying a PS4 later this year but got huge backlog of PS3 I would like to play. Size isn't important as it will replace the YLOD Fat, like to get one with least possible known issues.
 
A

androvsky

Member
Patrick S. said:
Wow, that could be the moment I retire my fatty and put it on a shelf. As I said, it works fine, also it doesn't have a single scratch, so I'd like to keep it as a "personal museum piece".

Do you happen to have a link at which I can look into which models work, and on what firmwares the procedure works?
Click to expand...

Last I checked the compatibility for the software PS2 emulator on PS3 wasn't very good.

http://www.pshomebrew.net/wiki/PS2_Classics_Emulator_Compatibility_List

Note all the red and orange. Even green listed games aren't guaranteed to work perfectly all the way through, all it says is "Playable". Persona 3 is green but it's a PS2 Classic on PSN and is said to have a nasty texture flickering bug that makes playing the last part of the game an unpleasent experience.
 
E

eyeball_kid

Member
I've still got a 60GB PS3 and it still works fine, Blu-Ray player and all. It gets really loud, but it's always been that way. But I also stayed away from a couple late-gen games that were rumored to be destroyers of the OG models, such as The Last of Us.

There's some misinformed people ITT. The 60GB PS3 has a full PS2 chip inside; there's no emulation going on. When you launch a PS2 disc, it switches over to the PS2 chip, and though the PS2's OS is not available, it effectively functions like a real PS2. Memory cards are emulated.

One thing I've never been able to figure out is why the PS2 games from PSN run at low framerates on the launch model (or at least on mine). My guess is that the revised Cell processor that's in the Slim was secretly upclocked by Sony. Unfortunately PSN's PS2 games aren't run on the PS2 chip. So, buyer beware if you're looking to download PS2 games for an OG model – you're going to have to settle for buying retail discs.
 
V

v0yce

Member
Day one 60gb still going strong. I've put ridiculous hours on it both gaming and movie watching. It's quite possibly my favorite console of all time.

It is the best PS2 and PS1. Better than the actual consoles.
 
B

Breakage

Member
Still got my PAL launch model.
It's been boxed up for around 4 years tho. It would probably be dead by now if it was used frequently.
 
U

ugh_the_boot

Banned
The YLOD problem usually required a reseat of the heat sink with some fresh thermal paste which I was able to do by myself very easily. It is a small problem and since then my console has run perfectly. I think $150 for a PS1, PS2 and PS3 all in one is actually a very good deal. My advice would be to sell your PS1 and PS2 and grab one of these, this way you have 3 consoles in one which is less clutter and way more convenience.

I still have my launch model and it works great, infact I still use it as my main Blu-Ray player as the Ps4 sucks for any sort of media.
 
Patrick S.

Patrick S.

Banned
ugh_the_boot said:
I think $150 for a PS1, PS2 and PS3 all in one is actually a very good deal. My advice would be to sell your PS1 and PS2 and grab one of these, this way you have 3 consoles in one which is less clutter and way more convenience.
Click to expand...

That's why I love my fatty so much. I have a good PC that's perfectly capable at emulating the PS2, but for some reason I just love playing on an actual PlayStation system.
 
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