O knowers of PS3!

[Silent Warrior]

With the advent of FF13-2 (... and the other off-shoots, and whatever that Something-Rain game was again, and...), I'm faced again with the debate of getting a PS3 or not. Since the price of the console has essentially dropped by half since the last debate (and I can buy FF13 new for what's advertised as 33% of the original retail price!), it's looking, ya know, more likely that I'll go ahead with it. But there are a few things I'd like some insight into.

1: Merits of HD-space. I can get a Slim PS3 with 160 Gb for a little bit less than a 320 Gb-model. What reasons are there for wanting a bigger harddrive? If I'm not going to play very many games, would I benefit from it at all?
2: Slim over Fat? Okay, so the Slim buggers are newer (presumably higher quality components, further optimised such-and-such), but what are the merits of each? (You probably won't need to debate them amongst yourselves - I'm intellectually capable of making my own decisions based on others' input, and old enough to face any consequences thereof.)
3: Region-coding and 3rd party firmware. I read a lot at its launch that the PS3 would do away with region-coding - which alone made it a very near thing I went out and bought one then and there, but then I decided to get an absurd sound system instead - so I expect concerns about imported games are a thing of the past. But can I have a report from anyone playing a US or Japanese game on a European console? All working fine? Any sense at all in going for a pre-hacked console if all I'll do is play games from the EU or US? Blue ray is not yet a factor.
(A store I've had good experiences with in the past is offering a Slim 320 Gb-version with some CFW or other - no un-modded console - at a not much more expensive price. They also have a forum where this is discussed and described at some length. There are other places I can go to for the stock consoles.)

And don't you go get excited, or anything! There is NO WAY I'll go through with this before May, at the earliest. There are a number of reasons, but the most urgent one is making the rent on a student-economy, all while being technically very busy. (Well... a PS3 with FF13 would certainly make me a busy man, but I'm supposed to be busy PRACTICING MY HORN-PLAYING - graduation coming up, looking at real-world auditions here and there, I'm sure some of you know the drill.)

[Iceglow]

I would say simply get a 360 but then I'd be accused of being a microsoft fanboy by the sony freaks.

If you must have a ps3 the fat older models are actually better than the slim new ones. They look nicer, take less space, have 2 more usb ports and can basically do more things. You need to look for a 60gb hdd console though you may need to change that disk drive for a bigger sata drive at some point. 60gb consoles are rare however because they have backwards compatability to the PS2 which is a major benefit of the model since this is not on any newer models. Therefore if you find a 60gb then jump on it asap!

[Jiro]

I was going to mention the backwards compatibility but Iceglow already got there. That's probably going to be a major selling point for you if you have/had a PS2.

[Yar]

I modded my PS3 to play PS2 games. All I did was take my PS2 and stick on top of my PS3. Problem solved!

[Baloki]

Arn't PS3's drm cracked now and Sony will be resorting to serial keys by the time the bits SquareEnix cut out of the original game are released?

Also depending on the price diff buy one with a smaller HD and update it to a larger one yourself, I understand it's pretty easy to fit a 1TB one nowadays.

[kotora]

I modded my PS3 to play PS2 games. All I did was take my PS2 and stick on top of my PS3. Problem solved!

except it doesn't work thanks to some genius who decided the PS3 should have a case that's rounded on the top side

[bipper]

you just need to remove one screw in the slim models to replace the hdd. I am rocking a TB. Like a boss.

[Mirage]

I would say simply get a 360 but then I'd be accused of being a microsoft fanboy by the sony freaks.

If you must have a ps3 the fat older models are actually better than the slim new ones. They look nicer, take less space, have 2 more usb ports and can basically do more things.

The PS3 slim doesn't have any USB ports?!

[Yar]

Yes it has USB ports

[DMKA]

I have an old fat model and it's only got 2 usb ports so...

Honestly I only have 40GB and that's plenty for me, so I'd say 160GB is plenty. The only reason you would want more than that is if you want to use your PS3 to store movies, music, etc. Personally I use my PC to do all that stuff so all that's on my PS3 HD is game saves and game data and occassionally demos downloaded from PSN. If I want to watch movies or listen to music on it I just stream them from my PC through my PS3 via my home network. So unless you have a crap computer I can't imagine why you'd want to store all that stuff on the PS3.

[kotora]

PS3 is horrible as a media player anyway. You're smurfed if you wanna playback more than just ty .avis and mp3s, unless you use a computer to stream it to the PS3, which is pretty much pointless because you'd be easier off connecting an extra cable from your PC to the TV.

[Mirage]

Plenty of use for more than 40 GB of HDD space. My game installs take up over 50GB alone.

[DMKA]

PS3 is horrible as a media player anyway. You're smurfed if you wanna playback more than just ty .avis and mp3s, unless you use a computer to stream it to the PS3, which is pretty much pointless because you'd be easier off connecting an extra cable from your PC to the TV.

Seriously? I've never had a problem playing back anything. But then I've always just streamed it from my PC. My PC and my television are on different floors of the house so another cable really isn't an option for me, which makes the PS3 and 360 streaming abilities a dream come true for me. I just play my PS3 more so it's what I use to stream stuff.

[kotora]

Streaming shouldn't be a problem because most of the work is being done by the PC. I was talking about the PS3s playback features of content located on the HDD which are just pathetic.

[VeloZer0]

As others have said, it really depends on if:
1) You want to play PS1/PS2 games on it
2) You want to store media/downloaded games on it.

I've had mine since 2007 and I have only filled up ~40GB. I have also read that it is relatively easy to upgrade a PS3 hard drive, though I can't tell you if that is computer modding person easy or real person easy.

Also note that the slims run cooler and quieter, if that is important to you.