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60 GB PS3 w/Backwards compatibility: Too risky?

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..

Anyone know if there's any truth to this?

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.

I'm probably leaning towards Slim at this point but your post has me really tempted.
 
I've had my 60gb die on me twice. The first time I sent it to Sony, and they sent me another refurb for $150 or whatever. It lasted about a year before it died, and I recently took it to a local guy who reballed it for $110. So far so good. I think unless someone who isn't Sony has opened it up and worked on it, ylod is probably inevitable.
 

androvsky

Member
It's probably launch 360 syndrome, where every popular game and firmware update was blamed for killing systems for a while. What it is, is anything that puts a decent thermal load on the system and is popular so it has a lot of people playing the same thing at the same time is going to look like it's killing a lot of systems. It's especially apparent when they're newer games, so everyone's system is even older.

Basically, on average, a launch PS3 is going to die soon no matter what you play if it heats up the system, especially if it's a refurb.
 
Bought a 60GB PS3 used back in 2008 and it still works like a charm. As long as the people you're buying it from are reliable, I say go for it.
 

LewieP

Member
I really lucked out and got a launch debug PS3 off someone who didn't want it any more. They used it to review Lair in 2007, then it sat in a drawer until last year when I got it. Plays PS1/2/3 games from any region, and has a bunch of cool extra features because it is a debug console.
 

Darkangel

Member

I actually couldn't beat TLOU on PS3 because it kept freezing up and crashing BOTH of my 80GB backwards compatible phat PS3s. Uncharted 3 never crashed, but the game had some trippy graphical (texture) glitches and made the fans go crazy. One of my phat PS3s has since gotten the YLOD.
 
My launch fat works as of right now but I only keep it around for collectors value. Did the blu ray diode 3 times, reapplied the TIM twice, and baked the motherboard once. Played Uncharted 3 on it recently on it and forgot how loud them Phat fans got. Right now I put it back in the box it came from and stashed it int he attic. Hope to unload it on some chump in 15 years for an insane amount of money
 
I had to replace the blu-ray drive in my 80GB twice before it finally YLOD'd on me 2 years ago. I'm hoping to get it reballed at some point locally.

I bought a slim but I really miss having PS1/2/3 all in one place with HDMI. At least I've got an excuse to use HD Loader on my PS2 more often.
 

Severance

Member
I played through Uncharted 3 and even platinumed the Last of Us on a launch 60gb. No freezing ever IIRC and I'm definitely a marathon gamer(4+ hours gaming sessions). I guess it's luck of the draw though. I've never taken particularly great care of my ps3 and have played the shit out of it. I even dropped it down a set of stairs. I'm not really sure what makes one system a beast and another a dud when they're produced at the same time with the same materials, but I guess sometimes you get lucky.
 

Gusto

Member
I still use my phat backwards compatible PS3 with 4 USB ports and that son of a bitch is louder than a mutha f*cka. Even though it is BC not all games that work, work all the way. Gitaroo man locked up every single time on a certain part but, plays perfect on my PS2.
 
My fat Ps3 work just fine. Even upgraded to 7200rpm HDD. It only gets very loud when playing PS classic games while not so much for Ps3 games. No issue other than the store being shit
 

Dremark

Banned
I have a 60GB and have had no issues aside from having to replace the BlueRay drive.

So yeah still probably too risky.
 

hesido

Member
Sony sell PS2 classics on the store that work on all PS3s.

If your PS3 has custom firmware, you can play any PS2 game, regardless of which PS3 you have. Sony kept improving the emulator through firmware for years, and they only lock people out from playing any game to sell the games on the store.

I did not know this, and this is very weak of Sony.
 
You're better off just buying a slim PS2 and a new PS3. The older PS3 models are too risky at this point, my 40gb PS3 had broke on me twice back in 2007/2008 and I ended up having to just say screw it and bought a new one.
 

Carroway

Member
I both agree and disagree with people saying that PS3's are unreliable. My launch PS3, the 60GB, died after little over a year, but the replacement, also a 60GB, has been working perfectly and still run to this day *knocks on wood*

That being said, the emulation on some games are less than stellar, for example, a PS2 version of Killzone is laggy and sluggish on the PS3 compared to playing on a PS2, which was already pretty laggy and sluggish.

To answer OP's question, it really depends on what you want it for. If you have a lot of diskbased PS2 games, then by all means, but the BC isn't all what it's cracked up to be, and refurbs can always be very hit and miss, in terms of quality.
 

Henrar

Member
As an ex-owner of three FATs 60GB - it's too risky. Better buy Slim PS2 (it's almost the size of DVD box) and Slim PS3.

Also, all PS3s play PS1 discs although you need to know that these games are region locked (PAL and NTSC thing), whereas PS-classics from PSN are not.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I both agree and disagree with people saying that PS3's are unreliable. My launch PS3, the 60GB, died after little over a year, but the replacement, also a 60GB, has been working perfectly and still run to this day *knocks on wood*

That being said, the emulation on some games are less than stellar, for example, a PS2 version of Killzone is laggy and sluggish on the PS3 compared to playing on a PS2, which was already pretty laggy and sluggish.

To answer OP's question, it really depends on what you want it for. If you have a lot of diskbased PS2 games, then by all means, but the BC isn't all what it's cracked up to be, and refurbs can always be very hit and miss, in terms of quality.

I'm going to guess you are in a PAL region (Europe, Oceania), where one of the major chips in the PS2 was removed from all PS3s, in favour of software backwards compatibility.

When people covet the 60gb launch model specifically, they typically mean either a North American or Japanese version, which has full hardware backward compatibility. All of the original PS2 chipset is in there. It is not emulated.

This North American/Japanese 60gb PS3 will play 99% of PS2 games perfectly. The one game I remember having an issue was Star Ocean 3.
 

Hasney

Member
My housemate bought one off Amazon for £60 and it works fine, but not sure how long it'll last. Mines finally dying, but it's been through some long sessions.
 

Burkatron81

Member
I've been on a bit of a retro round-up of late and bought both a first year PS & PS2 for nostalgic reasons. You can grab games in great condition for less than a few quid these days, so my intention was to stock up on classics and then lock them away for amusement when I'm old and grey.

So far I'm loving returning to Ridge Racer Type 4, Tekken 3 and MGS to name a few, though I have one issue, both systems run using a RGB scart lead that looks fantastic on old CRT's but not so great on a modern 4k set. Would anyone recommend getting the same BC 60gb launch model so these old games can be output via HDMI and therefore upscalled in a better way on a 4k TV? Its an answer that's so far eluded me, do the 60gb models even upscale the old systems in the first place? #firstworldproblems
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I've been on a bit of a retro round-up of late and bought both a first year PS & PS2 for nostalgic reasons. You can grab games in great condition for less than a few quid these days, so my intention was to stock up on classics and then lock them away for amusement when I'm old and grey.

So far I'm loving returning to Ridge Racer Type 4, Tekken 3 and MGS to name a few, though I have one issue, both systems run using a RGB scart lead that looks fantastic on old CRT's but not so great on a modern 4k set. Would anyone recommend getting the same BC 60gb launch model so these old games can be output via HDMI and therefore upscalled in a better way on a 4k TV? Its an answer that's so far eluded me, do the 60gb models even upscale the old systems in the first place? #firstworldproblems

Basically, yes.

RGB scart would look great on a 1080 or 4k TV, the issue is that your TV upscales from its original resolution like dogshit. That's why it looks like a mess.

A 60gb PS3 would upscale all of that nicely to 1080 (which your 4K will easily display well). Keep in mind that ALL PS3s play PS1 if that's all you're into.

There's a device called the 'XRGB mini Framemeister', which is a better upscaler if you want all RGB scart content to look beautiful on your modern TV. It's expensive, but it might be a better investment if you wanted to branch beyond PS1+2. Plus you'd be using the original consoles. +1 for authenticity and +1000 for no PS2 emulation issues on PAL PS3s (see my post above).
 

Hasney

Member
I got halfway through Last of Us without any issues. Now I can't even play a PS1 classic without the fans going nutso and telling me it'll shut down for heat reasons.
 

loddite

Neo Member
So actually, I have a fat ps3 with hardware ps2 emulation. I used to have another one, but there is an issue with the thermal paste that plagues these consoles. Apparently the stuff sony used on these original models doesn't last for several years and around now is when a lot of these consoles are starting to die. I shipped it to sony to get it repaired, it came back still broken. So I bought an entirely rebuilt model on ebay for like $400, been working fine. That said, if you decide you want one of these ask how long it has been in use, and be prepared to do some repair work if need be. Buying a ps2 is cheaper.
 

Riky

$MSFT
I have two launch models, both still work fine and one survived a complete playthrough of The Last Of Us, they are my favourite PS3 models.
 

lherre

Accurate
I have several launch models (japanese and pal). My japanese 60 gb model still works perfectly (it's the one that I use all the time, the pal one is still sealed).

I have another ps3, (60 gb phat test model) and it works fine too. This is the best model since you can play ps1-ps2-ps3 games (physical copies) from every region without problems.

So for me, they are reliable but I know people with broken 60 gb consoles.
 
It's really too bad the 60gb models aren't more reliable. With the Ps4's move away from BC, a playstation console that can natively play 3 gens of software( ps1, ps2, ps3) would be worth gold right about now.
 
It's been forever, but I remember applying new thermal paste to something when I had it torn down for a cleaning. I also replaced the stock fan with a much better one, where it's not 100% fan 100% of the time. My launch unit is still going strong. I got it for like half price a week after it came out from a mom who grounded her son for shit grades.
 

Cruxist

Member
I'm rocking a 40 gig I bought used in 2008 and it's still trucking. I don't use it super often, but I just recently finished the stick of truth in a marathon session and it's still working great.
 

TVC 15

Neo Member
Would love a fat first gen Japanese PS3. Never been bothered about PS1/PS2 pal/ntsc-u library.

That way I could play all my PAL PS3 stuff no probs, but have NTSC-J back copatablity.
 

Bubba77

Member
My launch 60gb is still running strong. I did need to reformat it once, but besides that no issues. It is great to play 3gens on one machine
 
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