Hacking before I pull the trigger on a 3.55 Slim off of eBay...

[Rhino Juggler]

Assuming I don't care about online/trophies, and assuming I want to run my backups off the internal HDD, what would be my best method of hacking my PS3? It seems that due to various different SKU's and firmwares out there, it can be difficult to get on the same page as others. So with the conditions above set, I should:

Get a bigger HDD
Install CFW correct? (Which CFW?)

And I'd assume the instructions for your CFW would tell you how to install your ISO's on the HDD?

 

[PhyChris]

Assuming I don't care about online/trophies, and assuming I want to run my backups off the internal HDD, what would be my best method of hacking my PS3? It seems that due to various different SKU's and firmwares out there, it can be difficult to get on the same page as others. So with the conditions above set, I should:

Get a bigger HDD
Install CFW correct? (Which CFW?)

And I'd assume the instructions for your CFW would tell you how to install your ISO's on the HDD?

GET IT!! trust me you won't regret it. as soon as you get your 3.55 I would recommend installing rebug 4.65 and when it comes to the bigger HDD you can load games from USB just fine.

plus you can use PSNpatch to get online with your backups without issue

 

[DaFixer]

I'm also thinking to softmod my PS3 Slim, becase I want to play so many games. But if PSN server go down for the PS3 then I can not download patches for my games.
So I want to DL all the games I want and update them before the server are closed.
And I want to play PSN only games forever, and I don't care about online but sometimes I want to update my trophies

 

[CheeseCake]

Assuming I don't care about online/trophies, and assuming I want to run my backups off the internal HDD, what would be my best method of hacking my PS3? It seems that due to various different SKU's and firmwares out there, it can be difficult to get on the same page as others. So with the conditions above set, I should:

Get a bigger HDD
Install CFW correct? (Which CFW?)

And I'd assume the instructions for your CFW would tell you how to install your ISO's on the HDD?

The instructions for CFW installation is mostly the same for any model.
Some precautions are: turn off Automatic Updating, turn off your Wifi if you must, remove your Game Disc (They have a Ps3_Update folder burned onto them), and finally you should format the USB you use to decrease chances of data corruption when transferring it in Recovery Mode.

If you're really cautious about it, go REBUG 3.55.2 first then use a hombrew called Toggle QA, this will insure a lower chance of bricking when you update to the newer firmware.
You could also as the person you're buying from to update to CFW for you. What you want is REBUG 4.65.2. Also tell them to dehash it (They'll know what this means since they downgraded the console, using Toggle QA is essentially dehashing if you want to do it yourself.)

I'm also thinking to softmod my PS3 Slim, becase I want to play so many games. But if PSN server go down for the PS3 then I can not download patches for my games.
So I want to DL all the games I want and update them before the server are closed.
And I want to play PSN only games forever, and I don't care about online but sometimes I want to update my trophies

There are pkgs of game updates so you don't need to go on PSN for them, you DL from PC instead. It's faster than direct PS3 update and you keep the update on your PC if you need a backup.

 

[Rhino Juggler]

is there like a recommended guide to follow for a complete PS3 hack beginner?

 

[CheeseCake]

There tutorials in the Tutorials and FAQs section. Some of the outdated stuff is still applicable like Cyan's Multiman guide.

I don't want to be a self-advertiser but...
There's my guide which assumes you're a complete noob that did like 1 hour of research, although it is long as hell because I cover all the general stuff.

I made it last summer so it doesn't cover "ODE," the alternative to CFW that only plays backups and nothing else (No homebrew or free PSN games).

 

[DaFixer]

And can you play all the games on ext HDD?
Also the 4gb+ one's?

Do PS2 classic manager work for all PS2 games?

 

[CheeseCake]

And can you play all the games on ext HDD?
Also the 4gb+ one's?
Yep, you can play all the games. About the 2nd question, FAT external hard drives and USB, by nature, can't support "individual" files over 4GB. Usually only the really big games have files over this limit (like 14GB and higher) so you can play most games around 10 GB and under with no problem.

In the case that it does happen, internal HDD is your only choice. I recommend FTPing over transferring split files. It's much less of a hassle to split and transfer everything and also takes less time.

If you have a Cobra CFW, it has NTFS HDD support. You can use NTFS external this way and get rid of the 4GB limit but it's only limited to Cobra CFW since the support is part of Cobra itself.

In conclusion, get a NTSF HDD if you plan to only use Cobra CFWs. Use FAT if you're okay with the 4GB file limit and putting some games into internal HDD.

Do PS2 classic manager work for all PS2 games?
It depends...do you have a backwards compatible FAT or not? That's really the main question.
If not, the compatability is really iffy. A good portion of the games are unplayable.
Here's the compatability list for non-BC, http://www.pshomebrew.net/wiki/PS2_Classics_Emulator_Compatibility_List
By the way, if you have a Cobra CFW, you don't need PS2 Classics. Cobra has direct ISO support for games which saves you some time used for coversions and installs. (I should really add that onto the guide, forgot about it) The only actual thing from PS2 Classics you would need is the .RAP file to use with ReACTPSN to get rid of the booting error