Hardware PS3 Hard Drive Size Limit

[drfsupercenter]

I haven't been able to find an answer online, so I thought I'd ask here.

Is there an actual size limit to hard drives you can use in un-hacked PS3s? I know a WD Scorpio Blue 1TB will work just fine and fit into the caddy... but I know they also make 1.5TB and 2TB drives now.

Does the PS3 software support stuff that big? I can confirm that 1TB does work, but why stop there? I am not sure if the 1.5 or 2TB are too thick, though, I haven't taken apart my externals to check the dimensions.

Either way, does anyone know if the software limits the size at all or if it really is "endless" like people claim?

 

[geishroy]

I'm pretty sure it is endless people have hooked up 4tb drives with success, going higher is not really worth it. As for the thickness, I'm pretty sure that mostly all 2.5" drives will fit, they just may be more snug it seems at high capacities from what I read. IF there are any problems then you could always just get an extension and have the drive hooked up outside of the PS3. How many GB do you have currently in your PS3?

Also, I have CFW PS3 160gb internal and I can tell you that you will fill up the drive pretty easily with the game installs and if you get games off PSN. I have multiple hard drives dedicated to just PS3 games because of the lack of space on the internal. I would upgrade the internal, I have just never gotten around to it.

 

[drfsupercenter]

I just bought a CECH-2100 model so it only has a 120GB hard drive.

I'm not even going to bother using it until I get at least a 1TB drive... I previously had a 500 super-slim which I exchanged for the regular slim, and I filled half the hard drive with my PSN purchases. Games like The Last of Us are pretty big

How did people hook up 4TB drives? Are you talking USB ones or did they use a SATA extension to hook up a 3.5" hard drive externally?

 

[trumpet-205]

Is there an actual size limit to hard drives you can use in un-hacked PS3s? I know a WD Scorpio Blue 1TB will work just fine and fit into the caddy... but I know they also make 1.5TB and 2TB drives now.

Hacked or not, PS3 only supports up to 1TB of SATA HDD. PS3 can only accepts 2.5 inch SATA HDD with height less than 9.5 mm. Some 2.5" SATA HDD with capacity greater than 640 GB are actually 12.5 mm tall, so they will not fit.

USB port on PS3 can support up to 2TB.

While FAT32 has a theoretical size limit of 8TB, its performance degrades as capacity increases. I know no electronic devices that supports up to 8TB.

 

[drfsupercenter]

Yeah, I knew about the 9.5mm limitation. WD Scorpio Blue 1TB is 9.5mm, I have one of those in my CECHA01 and it works fine.

So... OK. 1TB is the limit then, why are people saying they've hooked up bigger ones? Or were they using USB?

 

[trumpet-205]

Yeah, I knew about the 9.5mm limitation. WD Scorpio Blue 1TB is 9.5mm, I have one of those in my CECHA01 and it works fine.

So... OK. 1TB is the limit then, why are people saying they've hooked up bigger ones? Or were they using USB?

Most likely USB.

 

[drfsupercenter]

OK. I'll go ahead and buy another Scorpio Blue, unless there are 1TBs that work better? But those are 5400RPM so they don't get too hot.

 

[trumpet-205]

OK. I'll go ahead and buy another Scorpio Blue, unless there are 1TBs that work better? But those are 5400RPM so they don't get too hot.

5400 or 7200, they are all better than HDD that came with PS3.

You won't see much benefit in 7200 RPM.

 

[drfsupercenter]

Yeah, I know. Ordinarily I'd go with 7200RPM if this was for a computer, but they also get hotter and PS3 already has enough heat issues as is. Hence why I've read that it's better to stick to 5400RPM drives.

 

[driverdis]

Look what I found online, it seems HGST was able to pack 1.5TB into a 9.5mm drive. and its not bad price wise either, ~125$ at the moment.
http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Travelstar-2-5-Inch-Internal-0J28001/dp/B00EDIU5IW
now 1.5TB is the max that can fit into a PS3 Internally.

 

[trumpet-205]

Look what I found online, it seems HGST was able to pack 1.5TB into a 9.5mm drive. and its not bad price wise either, ~125$ at the moment.
http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Travelstar-2-5-Inch-Internal-0J28001/dp/B00EDIU5IW
now 1.5TB is the max that can fit into a PS3 Internally.

It doesn't matter, PS3 only supports up to 1TB.

Some people have been using eSATA adapter like this,

to mount internal HDD outside of PS3. No one can get PS3 to recognize space beyond 1TB. The SATA controller used in PS3 is a rather old one, only supports SATA 1.5 Gbps.