NEW SATA-150 HDD FOR PS3. Massive bottleneck!

UKFX

UKFX

UKFX

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After learning some disappointing news that my 120GB CECH-2003A PS3 Slim has a SATA-150 connector instead of a SATA-II connector, an contains a very poor performing Hitachi HDD, I'm naturally very angry.

I'm limited in my upgrades but a few games that are HDD heavy are being hurt massively by this bottleneck and I need a SATA-150 drive with decent capacity (80GB MINIMUM - 250GB MAX), good seek rates, good transfer rates and no less than 16mb cache. Can this be done? There seems to be massive shortage in these because naturally SATA-II are the most common and SATA 6Gbit/s drives are floating around. I cannot afford an SSD and it'd obviously be massively pointless and limited by said connector.

I can't use my 500GB WD Scorpio Black 7,200/16mb Cache because it sits in this laptop lol.

Really really angry at Sony over this.

Please help folks.

Thanks.
 
Wow you really dont know about the PS3, before you even worry about the inferface have a look at the file system the PS3 uses and the real world performance benefits. It will help in HD based games, but not siginificantly enough to make the cost involved worthwhile IMHO.

Why most of us are happy to still use any/cheapest 5400rpm/7200rpm 2.5" laptop HDD that fits. IIRC SATA2 is backwards compatible so apart from the bottleneck just find the cheapest and not worry that its a SATA1 drive over a SATA2 one...

You also have to realise that when Sony designed the PS3, I doubt technologies like SATA2 let alone SATA3 were actually anything but draft specs. I can understand its an annoyance nowadays, but to be angry about it :confused:...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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You need to be angry at yourself for not being able to afford a SSD not angry at Sony for not taking your individual needs into account. They built the PS3 many years ago and they intended (as all console devs do) for it to be used as it is and not modified or enhanced by the user. Yes you can enhance the system but to do so you need to use your head and use hdd's that are compatible. Just because you have the wronf types doesnt mean Sony are to blame now does it

Besides what is your issue with the PS3 HDD. All you achieve by adding your onw HDD is faster loading times in games and thats it. You dont gain any gaming performance and the size of the PS3 hDD's are ample anyway.
 
ps3ud0 said:
Wow you really dont know about the PS3, before you even worry about the inferface have a look at the file system the PS3 uses and the real world performance benefits. It will help in HD based games, but not siginificantly enough to make the cost involved worthwhile IMHO.

Why most of us are happy to still use any/cheapest 5400rpm/7200rpm 2.5" laptop HDD that fits. IIRC SATA2 is backwards compatible so apart from the bottleneck just find the cheapest and not worry that its a SATA1 drive over a SATA2 one...

You also have to realise that when Sony designed the PS3, I doubt technologies like SATA2 let alone SATA3 were actually anything but draft specs. I can understand its an annoyance nowadays, but to be angry about it :confused:...

ps3ud0 :cool:
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I figured SATA-II had a jumper and I'm aware SATA is backwards compatible, I just thought maybe price may have been different. I'm also aware that the PS3 uses a FAT32 File System.

What else is causing this massive difference in performance then, if I'm wrong? Your'e just telling me things which don't add up to my problem. I was on about transfer speeds and upgrades because my drive in my PS3 sucks. Would you consider 10.375MB/s a good speed? Of course I didn't buy a launch console, but those were obviously released a long time ago when SATA-II wasn't as common or cost effective. Or, "draft" specs.

I have a right to be annoyed with Sony, my PS3 HDD is awful.

Again, if it isn't the HDD causing this issue, please highlight this mystery which everyone seems unable to solve. The only indication I can conclude is a difference in HDD in the PS3. That is all.

I'll be looking forward to your reply, full of wisdom and truth - maybe then I can enjoy my games like many other people.
 
ANN1H1LAT0R said:
You need to be angry at yourself for not being able to afford a SSD not angry at Sony for not taking your individual needs into account. They built the PS3 many years ago and they intended (as all console devs do) for it to be used as it is and not modified or enhanced by the user. Yes you can enhance the system but to do so you need to use your head and use hdd's that are compatible. Just because you have the wronf types doesnt mean Sony are to blame now does it

Besides what is your issue with the PS3 HDD. All you achieve by adding your onw HDD is faster loading times in games and thats it. You dont gain any gaming performance and the size of the PS3 hDD's are ample anyway.
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This is why I was never keen on OCUK forum, it's full of arrogance. Why should I have to spend £100 on a SSD on a console which is supposed to be on level terms with everyone else's - by which I mean, can play games like everyone else's? My individual needs? What a joke. I asked for help not criticism. Because I have the wrong types? Are you paying attention? That HDD in there is the stock Sony one, not one I've put in there myself. I suppose with my hardware being different to many others and having the worst HDD (aside from the 40GB model PS3 model HDD which were heavily criticised by people), that I am somehow to blame?

Thanks for the help, then.
 
UKFX said:
This is why I was never keen on OCUK forum, it's full of arrogance. Why should I have to spend £100 on a SSD on a console which is supposed to be on level terms with everyone else's - by which I mean, can play games like everyone else's? My individual needs? What a joke. I asked for help not criticism. Because I have the wrong types? Are you paying attention? That HDD in there is the stock Sony one, not one I've put in there myself. I suppose with my hardware being different to many others and having the worst HDD (aside from the 40GB model PS3 model HDD which were heavily criticised by people), that I am somehow to blame?

Thanks for the help, then.
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Your angry at Sony for something that isnt their fault and for a problem that isnt even a problem and you'd be better asking for help in the official Sony forums as they already have extensive sections on the PS3 hdd's and everything you could ever need to know there. It was your attitude that we have problems with
 
From what I can gather from the OP's ranting - he's somehow got a unique PS3 which has a much slower HDD than any other PS3, and is now angry at Sony for playing russian roulette with their customers, and so ruining his gaming pleasure?
 
And the PS3 doesnt use FAT32 for its file system. Its proprietary hence why you can only format a drive used in a PS3 in a PS3 and why it needs to format a drive that is installed into it before it can be used.

Like other posters have said the drive is adequet for the needs and specs of the rest of the machine. I have upgraded several of my consoles and always just used 2.5" SATA 2 drives with no problems..
 
I like my PS3 because I don't have to think like this. Turn on for 1 hour and have 1 hour of gaming. I did replace the 40gb HDD with a 250GB a few days after buying it but would struggle to remember anything about the HDD. It works.
 
Ive tried to read carefully each reply but can spot any mention of what the actual problem is supposed to be.

All I can surmise is that op has taken note of what model of hd is used and detemined it to be the worst drive in existance and making the ps3 unusable, even though all ps3's have similare drives..

Raging over nothing for no apparant reason ..as far as I can tell.
 
My attitude was not a problem initially, though it changed due to the responses I got. Not my problem.

OK, so I have a duff hard drive then? That's the conclusion?
 
MadMatty said:
Ive tried to read carefully each reply but can spot any mention of what the actual problem is supposed to be.

All I can surmise is that op has taken note of what model of hd is used and detemined it to be the worst drive in existance and making the ps3 unusable, even though all ps3's have similare drives..

Raging over nothing for no apparant reason ..as far as I can tell.
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Not raging, I'm actually rather calm to be quite honest, though I'm not particularly happy. I forgot, all PS3s HDDs must be identical. My bad.

Again, I ask, if it's not the HDD, on two HDD heavy games, what is the cause for the performance loss over other peoples consoles? No my PS3 is not broken. Continue discussion. Please no more spiteful comments and I'll assume I don't know everything (even though I don't).

:)
 
UKFX said:
I figured SATA-II had a jumper and I'm aware SATA is backwards compatible, I just thought maybe price may have been different. I'm also aware that the PS3 uses a FAT32 File System.

What else is causing this massive difference in performance then, if I'm wrong? Your'e just telling me things which don't add up to my problem. I was on about transfer speeds and upgrades because my drive in my PS3 sucks. Would you consider 10.375MB/s a good speed? Of course I didn't buy a launch console, but those were obviously released a long time ago when SATA-II wasn't as common or cost effective. Or, "draft" specs.

I have a right to be annoyed with Sony, my PS3 HDD is awful.

Again, if it isn't the HDD causing this issue, please highlight this mystery which everyone seems unable to solve. The only indication I can conclude is a difference in HDD in the PS3. That is all.

I'll be looking forward to your reply, full of wisdom and truth - maybe then I can enjoy my games like many other people.
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Im late replying, so no doubt others have already answered this, but for the sake of being complete...

Ive got the same Slim and it came with the same Hitachi drive, before I even turned it on it was replaced by a 320Gb WD from my old phat. When the Slim revision came out in 09/2009, SATA2 was common (SATA3 was still draft IIRC) and there was a possibility for Sony to upgrade the part to SATA2 but they didnt for whatever reason - no doubt they considered that as a console the speed of the HDD isnt really a priority for 99% of the time...

Unfortunately whatever performance you are attempting to test its going to be difficult to compare to when its in a PS3 as it doesnt use the FAT32 system (though it can read it via external FAT32 HDDs/flash drives) but Sony own proprietary one.

You dont have the right to be annoyed at Sony, but rather yourself for poorly managed expectations and also thinking the PS3 can be indexed like a PC and therefore a direct comparison/conclusion drawn. At worst it could be a faulty HDD, but I would hopefully assume with what appears to be some HDD knowledge that youve attempted to do some checks on it using manufacturer tools...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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Its more that we dont know how you determined their is a problem. Is it a case of youve seen a game running absolutly fine on one ps3 but on yours its not acting the same or as expected? What games have you seen issues with?
 
Could it be that said unmentioned game is trying to synch and update leaderboards for example whilst loading which could be causing the problem rather then the HDD itself.

I have seen this happen.
 
UKFX said:
Why should I have to spend £100 on a SSD on a console which is supposed to be on level terms with everyone else's - by which I mean, can play games like everyone else's? My individual needs? What a joke. I asked for help not criticism. Because I have the wrong types? Are you paying attention? That HDD in there is the stock Sony one, not one I've put in there myself. I suppose with my hardware being different to many others and having the worst HDD (aside from the 40GB model PS3 model HDD which were heavily criticised by people), that I am somehow to blame?

Thanks for the help, then.
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It actually worries me that there are people out there that have done speed checks on console HDDs rather than just bothered to replace them if they feel they arent good enough, any self-respecting manufacturer would always source the cheapest available component at bulk that met their minimal requirements, if thats not to your taste then Sony provides instructions for you to replace yet while keeping your warranty intact...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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I don't know what to do then. I don't fancy wasting money if it isn't going to help.

What happened is I've been asking everywhere, in game, on forums, and my buds who play PS3. They all seem to claim that their performance is fine. But when I was playing Wake Island one day an me and friend sat under a roof getting battered by helos and the world, etc, I had the most awful frame rate imaginable. I asked if he experienced the same thing, he said no, I'm at 30fps. I was quite shocked at that claim, so I went to the BF3 forum where folks with 120GB PS3s an claimed the same thing. When I asked the guy I play BF3 with if he had any FPS issues with Skyrim, he too said no. I couldn't fathom why I was getting such problems. My only conclusion was the HDD. It works, it functions, it reads data, it writes, but it seems inefficient.

I seem to be stuck at a dead end. Now I don't know if it's worth upgrading at all, or whether I should just stop playing BF3 and Skyrim altogether - which I'd rather not do. (I know Skyrim performs badly on the PS3 for other reasons too).

:(
 
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