PS1/2 Which PS2 should I get for hacking?

[miketh2005]

A fat or a slim? If slim, what version? I have a really nice PS2 slim I can get for $40 or so. But the serial number is: 70012

An older version. There are also some PS2s one Ebay that have serial number: 75001

But, then I can also buy the newest 90001 one.

Or just a fat one?

 

[Rasas]

Depends on how you want to mod it but I honestly prefer the slim due to the fact I wouldn't use the hard drive also that method's easiest way of modding in my opinion but it needs a code breaker which of course costs money. (please note it is the only way I've modded it)

So ask yourself some questions.
How much money do I want to spend modding it if any?
Do you want a hard drive or would like the benefits of having one?
Are you willing to open the console?
How much effort are you willing to put in?
Do you want to burn discs or run them off a hard drive?

 

[miketh2005]

Hmm. To be honest, I'd like to do both. It's a hassle to keep burning discs all the time, but I heard running from harddrive has compatibility issues. I don't care how much it costs. CycloDS owner here

But I wouldn't want to open the console, no.

 

[Rasas]

Well just buy the one you like then both can run game images off burnt disc and hard drive but the method to do so varies.

 

[dilav]

Flash is selling his Fat PS2, just pointing it out.. he will probably negotiate with the price listed.
http://gbatemp.net/t258351-wts-ps2-bundle

But buying slim or fat is your decision. I like the slim myself (smaller, quieter,.. well thats about it i guess lol, they are also known for using cheap lasers that don't read disc well, but you can replace them for around 10$-20$), but also like the original for its hdd support (but since there so old, it's hard to find a reliable one with a good laser). 90001 will only works with modchip.

Modchips are the way to go in my opinion if you are running off disc. It works without needing to patch iso, less compatibility issues than esr (I have never tried open ps2 loader or what ever it is called though so I have no idea about compatibility using that program), able to run ps1 and ps2, multi-disc support with ease. But there are cons too, its not a memory card mod so its not portable that you can bring along with you, certain ones still need memory card to install programs on it (that is if you want programs). Cost is a con also.

Oh yeah, try to avoid V9, V10 and V12 (scph-70012)
They have some problems with laser burning up. They have chips/solutions that claims to prevent it though.

 

[431unknown]

I have both a fatty and a slim and I'd have to say I like my fatty more just because of having hard drive loading capability with the network adaptor peripheral. You can put an hard drive on a certain model slims but it's just a pain in the ass to do and USB loading on either is just too damn slow to work right. Find yourself a fatty in decent condition and get hooked up with FreeMC Boot and you'll be all set.

 

[JonthanD]

I like my version 7 PS2 supposedly they have the best laser and fewest problems of all the versions.

The nice thing about the Fat PS2 is that you can get the network adapter and install a hard drive and then if you have a way of booting it, you can install HD Advance and run your games from the hard drive.

I use swap magic in mine to boot into HD Advance and most games load sooo much faster that way.

The nice thing about the Slim if you decide to do the Swap Magic thing is that installing the doodad that lets you swap disks is like a 1 minute deal and on the Fat PS2 its like 5 or 6 screws and probably a 10 minute deal, but it didn't take long for me.

At any rate, I hear the Slims are really nice though. (I still do not like that they took out the hard drive option though....)

 

[h0ser81]

Fatty with a network adapter and Free Mcboot! I picked up a fat with the adapter from my buddy for 20 bucks, bought swap magic for 25 and had an extra IDE drive laying around. Works great once you wade through all the misinformation floating around the internet about the actual modding process.

 

[miketh2005]

I did have a 50GB HDD, but I don't know if its IDE and I can't find it anyway since we moved.

Can I use an external harddrive? If so, will it work on Slim 7, or just fat?

 

[dilav]

USB loader on PS2 are mostly crap since PS2 runs on USB 1.0. You can run games through network i guess... but I have no idea how as I never used this program before
http://opl.psx-scene.com/

 

[MrCooper]

Get a "phat" one, you can still an IDE HDD in it

 

[Kayot]

Fat with a network adapter and a 500gb EIDE. Use Seagate as their drives tend to line up with the network adapter. I used a WD, but I had to remove the metal plate and shift the cable over about 2mm.

Then what you do is use the Open PS2 Loader for ps2 games, the epsxps2 loader for ps1 games, and a host of other emulators and run it all off the hard drive. I didn't do the later parts as my PSP does the ps1 and other emulations. But I assume that if you don't have a hacked PSP that it's the next best option.