Sony PS3 500GB Super Slim Console (PS3)

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The flash storage reads almost as fast as a conventional hard drive, and while write speeds are very slow, the fact that it has next to no latency moving from one file to the next goes a long way to making up the difference. One thing we should point out is that all our comparisons were based on entirely empty hard drives - these will lose some performance over time as they become fuller and as fragmentation takes hold. Thus, the flash could actually become even more competitive over the months and years. But even in these tests, we found that selected games actually load data faster, though deletion speeds on the flash storage are dire. This appears to extend to the game cache too, and a few titles like Rage may cause some issues on this hardware. The deletion issue could also further intrude on the user experience - deleting installs can take an absolute age and with the limited storage available, you'll need to do this a lot if you're shuttling between various games. But it’s not all good news. Gone is the quality finish and feel of the predecessor, although the curved design survives to an extent. Any consoles sent to us without following the above guidelines may have their value reduced or may not be accepted at all (in which case they will be returned to the customer at their own expense or disposed of if the customer prefers). Sony PlayStation 3 (500GB) review New, slimmer PS3 feels less special, but it's still a multi-talented media hub

Eurogamer.net is owned by Gamer Network Limited, a ReedPop company and subsidiary of Reed Exhibitions Limited.The new PS3 Super Slim feels like a stop-gap until the next generation of the console is launched – the rumour is June 2013 – and those that already own the console don’t have a huge incentive to upgrade.

The features remain the same. Blu-rays, DVDs or CDs can still be spun, and the PS3’s multimedia skills remain unchanged: you can stream content from networked devices and through on-demand services such as Sony’s own SEN ( Sony Entertainment Network) and BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, and 4oD. When we discovered that Sony had opted for an embedded chip rather than an SSD drive, we feared the worst, but generally speaking the 12GB unit performs well, outstripping expectations. In terms of write speeds, it is significantly slower than the hard drives, but it has the benefit of zero seek time - the mechanical hard drives need to move the writing head about on the surface, whereas the flash chip moves onto the next write immediately. In the case of the BD and HDD-rending GT5 install, which writes thousands of tiny files to the HDD, the flash actually outperforms the mechanical hard drives significantly, shaving off around 10 minutes from the mammoth transfer. However, elsewhere, with more prolonged writes, the flash chip came off a little worse, albeit not disastrously so. You can look at the results above yourself. After much eyeballing, we can't tell the difference, and as such we have no hesitation recommending any PlayStation 3 as a brilliant Blu-ray player. Indeed, for those using their consoles as media streamers and BD players, the 12GB PS3 is an obvious choice. The 12GB PS3 Super Slim: the Digital Foundry verdictIt looked a premium product, but in terms of size it could give some home cinema amps a run for their money. Gumtree.com Limited is an Appointed Representative of Compare The Market Limited who is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

For Sale is my, older version Fat PlayStation 3 Console, with box, 1 controller and 4 games, Power cable.

Benchmarking the 12GB PlayStation 3

The available 12GB of space is undeniably tight, but you should be able to install any retail disc game onto the system. After the question of available space, performance is the next real issue here. We ran tests on several games: Gran Turismo 5's install is the stuff of legend, the kind of unoptimised dumping of data that is entirely at odds with the level of technological achievement found elsewhere in the game. A multitude of tiny files are transferred across en masse, making it perhaps the sternest install-based workout available. Next up, id Software's Rage - a lengthy install in its own right, but also the strongest in-game stress test we could muster for our storage test subjects. Controller works but it's not compatible with ps2 games. Other games like ps1 and ps3 it works fine. At this point, the entirety of the flash chip is copied onto the hard drive in a somewhat lengthy procedure. Our drive had four tiny save games on it, but the process still took around 15 minutes to complete (our guess is that the 4GB cache portion was also ported across). Once the transfer is finished, the flash store is deactivated completely, only being used once more if the hard drive is completely removed from the system. Other games that aggressively stream data through the cache may see similar unforeseen issues emerge. However, we didn't see anything like the same effects in any of the other games we tested. Upgrading the 12GB PlayStation 3 But if you haven’t considered a PS3 before, then now could be a good time to strike given the price and 500GB hard drive.