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Speeding up your PS3

October 16, 2008 in Mods comments 20

The folks over at ExtremeTech go in depth on swapping out your old PS3 hard drive for a faster, albeit more expensive, X-25 Solid State SATA drive.

You would think the $600 SSD would outpreform the original right?
Wrong.

When it comes to installing games, the difference in performance was almost negligable (see first chart), though when downloading and installing games from the PSN - there was a 40% decrease in time.

Game start times did decrease with the SSD, but not enough to truly warrant spending $600 on it. (chart 2) The same went for loading times (chart 3)

But changing out your PS3 hard disk for another bit of rotating magnetic storage is kids stuff. We've already raved about the stellar performance of Intel's new X-25 solid-state drive, which just happens to come in an 80GB capacity and 2.5-inch SATA form factor. Perfect for a PS3!

So after a quick FAT32 format, we dropped the drive in the PS3 unit we keep in the HDTV lab here (an original 60GB unit) to see what kind of impact it has on install times, game start times, and load times. We took four games notorious for long installs or load times and timed them both with the original 60GB hard drive and the Intel SSD. The results may surprise you—but at $600, it's certainly not a cheap upgrade.
Deathsythe via extremetech.com »
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Most recently commented on by on Oct 21, 2008

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  • 0
    Daigoji_Gai Oct 16, 08
    This is a great find Death, and interesting to see that the upgrade had only a neglible effect. Interesting... hrm...
  • 2
    Darknet Oct 16, 08
    It kind of makes sense. I mean the PS3's HDD is designed for the PS3, so that may prove as a factor. I'd also like to know the RPM on that Intel hard drive. Maybe that could of affected the test.
    • 0
      Daigoji_Gai Oct 16, 08
      Actual curious about the RPM also...
      • 0
        Exevier Oct 16, 08
        It's a solid-state drive.
      • 0
        Xenctuary Oct 17, 08
        Which means you're looking at read/write speeds since there's no motion.
  • 1
    Zero and X Oct 16, 08
    I dont think I would ever buy this.....
  • 0
    Gutter_Tech Oct 16, 08
    apparently 5400 rpm is ideal for the ps3 not sure what they were running.
  • 0
    HisServant77 Oct 16, 08
    Wow . . . Sorry I'm just shocked at the load times period I haven't played any of those games and the games I play have load times that are either nonexistant or less than 10 seconds. I was thinking load times were a thing of the past for the most part! WOW 73 Seconds!
  • 3
    SUPREM_KITE Oct 16, 08
    The reason the ssd doesn't speed most functions up is it can only write as fast as the bluray player can read. and you see the time decrease in download games because it is all ran from ssd there is no disc to slow it down.
    • 0
      HisServant77 Oct 16, 08
      Exactly. This is why it'd be best to test them on PSN games
  • 0
    Final Blade Oct 16, 08
    So, spending 600 dollars on a SSD to only decrease slightly downloading games in the PSN and installing is a good buy? Pfft, yea right.
    • 0
      Absolute Oct 16, 08
      Am I the only one who had to read this post 3 times to understand what he meant..?

      Jesus dude..
      • 0
        HisServant77 Oct 17, 08
        ? He's asking first "So is spending $600 on a Harddrive that will only shorten the time, very minimally, a good buy?" Then says, "Yeah Right" as in saying the value of doing what this article says, is in the negative.
        • 1
          Absolute Oct 17, 08
          I know that, but he said "decrease slightly downloading games in the PSN and installing."

          It's worded so horribly I almost didn't know what he meant at first.
        • 0
          HisServant77 Oct 17, 08
          Ah, okay Gotcha . . .
        • 0
          Final Blade Oct 17, 08
          The only thing I could see you not understanding is that I forgot to switch the "decrease slightly", with "slightly decreasing downloading games on the PSN....etc". While yes I did forget to do that its still understandable.
  • 1
    Absolute Oct 19, 08
    All I'm saying is; try to proof-read what you post, there are some pretty in-excusable problems with the overall coherence of your posts.
    • 0
      Final Blade Oct 20, 08
      Im sorry mister absolute, i'll try to become awesome at noticing mistakes later.

      Seriously though, At the time of posting it sounded fine in my head. Its only when you and HisServant touched on it It didn't sound great. Sometimes during the heat of thinking of what I want to say it sounds fine at the time. Only when you come back and see it without thinking does it show more often. Sorry that im not gifted in seeing the mistakes quicker like you are.
  • 1
    Absolute Oct 21, 08
    Well *bleep*, I was trying to give you some advice. When your post is incoherent, no one enjoys reading it.

    Do whatever the hell you want.
  • 1
    Deathsythe Oct 21, 08
    So back on topic...

    SSDs vs. HDDs

    We can see improvement, albeit not enough to warrant the $600 pricetag.

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