hi,

i own the 40gb ps3 and if current posts rumours on vgchartz are to be believed ps2 games will be available on the ps stire soon. I'd imagine these would take upwards of 2gb for some of the later gen games such as mgs2 and was wondering where (in a uk shop or on a uk website) cheap hdd could be found. I ve been lloking at google and it seems i need a 5400rpm sata drive but i really wanted to ask u guys as hopefully some of you have already upgraded ur ps3's hdd.

Does anyone recomened there hdd? i want at least 80gb and a cheap price!

I have a 120 GB 7200 RPM Western Digital Scorpio. It only cost me $70 its probably cheaper now. I highly recommend this drive.

yes a 250 Gb.

so a 7200rpm drive works? I thought that you could only hv 5400rpm like the 40gb in the machine at the start?

Is a 7200rpm any louder? Does it improve load times? Does it produce more heat?

I have a Seagate Momentus 7200.2 ST9200420AS 200GB 7200 RPM. It works great. No problems with a faster drive. It was very easy to upgrade.

Load times do improve but not by much. It may shave 5-10 seconds off of loads. On the heat question, Yes and No. It depends what you are playing and how much it accesses the HDD.

Go to dabs.com (UK site). Higher spinning drives are not necessarily faster and they can produce more noise/heat. Stick with 5400, you'll get decent price/performance. I got a western digital 250gb and it's been fine - these drives are quiet and have good performance.

Relevant drives:
http://www.dabs.com/productlist.aspx?&NavigationKey=11154&NavigationKey=42240000&NavigationKey=47250000&CategorySelectedId=11154&PageMode=1&PageOffset=0&RecordOffset=0#Paging

The drive I have:
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4LG3&CategorySelectedId=11154&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11154,42240000,47250000

*edit in bold

So yes to all, but not enough to make a significant difference either positively or negatively? (The question is also for Xgamer) So when shopping, I should look for the best price/quality/GB ratio without regard to RPMs.

Regarding enclosures, for my 40GB I'll be taking out. What should I be looking for?

I got a Western Digital Scorpio 250GB S150 5400RPM 8MB drive from dabs.com in my machine and I am generally happy with it. It seems quiet. Only thing is I do feel that the PS3 fan is running more often/louder now, so I can't help but wonder if the new drive generates more heat and thus cause the fan to turn on more often. Sad part is that I didn't get a 7200RPM drive for that exact reason, being worried that the high RPM would cause more heat emission and thus cause the PS3 system fan to turn on faster/more frequently.


Also make sure to get a good perfect fitting screwdriver with a good handle before attempting the screws holding the old drive to the harness. I ruined the screws trying and had to drill out the screws in order to get the harness lose so I could attach it to my new drive.

I do wish that somebody like arstechnica did a review of possible drives for the PS3 letting you know which drives where gave of the least noise and produced the least heat and so on.