Quick questions about buying PS3

[Daniel]

Decided to join the next generation and have opted for a PS3.

Basically is it worth getting the 160gb version? It's an extra $80 but there is a $480 160gb drakes fortune bundle over here which might be worth it since drakes is one of the games i wanna play.

What is the point of the hard drives? Is it just for save games and downloading demos or something? Can you install entire games onto the HD to reduce load times and noise during gameplay?

Lastly, is it all wireless and ready to get online out the box or do i need to pay for some online membership and get separate wireless adapter?

Thanks

[kernow]

Drakes fortune is a great game, it depends how much it is seperately, I've heard its still $60 in the US, so I'd personally pay the extra just to have a huge 160GB hard drive. its up to you though of course. You could get a used 60GB original PS3 with 100% hardware backwards compatibility for PS2 titles, or an 80GB with half hardware/half software backwards compatibility for a lot cheaper.

The hard drive is for installing games to (note, you cannot install an entire game like the 360, every game has its own install criteria, some don't install at all, some have a 5GB install, it really depends on the title). Its also for save games (which you can offload to USB storage), demos, videos and music.

Wireless is builtin, except on the Japanese 20GB version, which you won't be getting so every version you buy in the US will have wifi.

The online service is free.

So you can get playing straight out of the box.

Hope this helps.

[Daniel]

Thanks for the info.

Doesnt sound like the 160gb is all too useful then as i don't tend to digitally hoard stuff. Just spotted a new 80gb bundle for $399 with MGS4 and killzone 2 which were also on my list so think i will go with that and just get drakes on ebay.

Besides i don't fancy paying $80 for another measly 80gb when i know $80 should buy me +750gb these days.

[Soundwave]

Besides i don't fancy paying $80 for another measly 80gb when i know $80 should buy me +750gb these days.

That right there is th beauty of the PS3.

They accept standard 2.5" HDD's & allow you to upgrade to any size you like in the future...it even tells you how to do it in the manual

I'll be replacing my 80GB drive with a 320GB one later in the year.

Wish Microsoft had offered the same feature

Neil

[Daniel]

I was thinking about fitting a bigger hard drive but this being the world of consoles i naturally thought it would have some arsey proprietary socket or unbreakable plastic casing but wow...thumbs up to sony.

I think 80gb might be ok but always nice to know i won't be punished later if my choice proves a little shortsighted.

[Strolls]

I'm still using the 60gig drive my PS3 came with 2 years ago. Game saves don't take up much room, and you can always delete & reinstall the games' installation files later. So it's mostly only for demos and if you use the PS3 to play movies. Movies you can just put on a USB drive or flash card, though (I'm not sure about demos).

[kernow]

Same here, I'm using a 60GB, and 10 of that is partitioned off for Linux use, so 50GB really, still got 20+GB free.

[Brad]

Mine ahs 120 gig in but I've got PLayTV so I need lots of space. 60/80 gig should be fine

[Kubrick]

Games that have been heavily updated & patched can take up quite a lot of space - GT5 Prologue & Minna no Golf 5 account for 15GB+ of my HDD.

Deleting them to make room isn't a very good idea either since it took forever to download the udates for them.

[kernow]

I found shrinking the size of GT5p by deleting GTTV videos in the game helps.

[MisterBubbles]

daniel if your gonna get a bigger HD make sure you use the correct tools, ie screwdrivers as the heads on the bolt where the HD is kept is easily chewed up, i bought 320Gb for 65 quid and its awesome.

[JP]

Hoping not to sound stupid but, what will you be using your PS3 for?

If you're mainly concentrating on games then, depending on your usage the 60GB hdd could be fine and it's easy enough to replace if you need to. You back up the hdd to USB drive, stick in a new hdd and then restore.

It can be quite slow with a USB backup though so it can be a bit of a pain.

In our house we've used the PS3 for games, video & audio as well as using it as a PVR so we have 260GB internal drive but you can probably get 2.5" drives with higher capacity now.

Files can also be stored and played from external drive, game files must be internal drive though. You can also stream/transfer from a Mac/PC if you want to.

I've had a right mess around with it to see what we could and couldn't do with it and it's really not that complicated, even for an idiot like me. It may well seem daunting at first though depending on what sort of knowledge you have about this stuff so feel free to PM me if you're having a specific problem.

The wireless setup for me was pretty much me pressing a button and it setting itself up and the only problems I've had with it is having to change the wireless channel a couple of times.