A little question about memory on the PS3

[bartholen_v1legacy]

I bought a new PS3 a couple of months back. It was the 12GB model, since Sony only manufactures those anymore. Suprise surprise, my hard drive is now almost completely full. I tried to look up information about adding memory, but it was a little confusing and contradictory, so I decided to ask here:

Can you store actual game data, DLC, and such, on an external USB hard drive, and then play them off of the hard drive, or do you need to replace the internal one within the console? I saw a replacement hard drive in a webstore for 80?, but that's not a purchase I'm willing to make lightly. Thing is, I already own a 500GB external USB hard drive which goes mostly unused, so would it suffice to just use that?

Merry Christmas and thanks for the information!

 

[Darks63]

You cannot play off a External HD only store stuff with two caveats. One the EHD must be FAT32 in order for your ps3 to even see it. Two alot of saves are protected and cant be transferred off the HD w/o PSplus. I recently updated to 500 gig system myself and had to go through this process.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

You cannot play off a External HD only store stuff with two caveats. One the EHD must be FAT32 in order for your ps3 to even see it. Two alot of saves are protected and cant be transferred off the HD w/o PSplus. I recently updated to 500 gig system myself and had to go through this process.

Ah, okay. Off to buying a new internal hard drive for me then...

 

[Frezzato]

You cannot play off a External HD only store stuff with two caveats. One the EHD must be FAT32 in order for your ps3 to even see it. Two alot of saves are protected and cant be transferred off the HD w/o PSplus. I recently updated to 500 gig system myself and had to go through this process.

Ah, okay. Off to buying a new internal hard drive for me then...

You'll also need the mounting carriage, which I believe isn't included with the 12GB model.

Here's an example [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1EF0XK7710].

 

[WeepingAngels]

So Sony is only making the shitty 12 GB model now?

 

[Darks63]

So Sony is only making the shitty 12 GB model now?

I was able to buy the 500 gig super slim recently. Although if it wasn't on sale it would have cost 50 dollars less that a ps4. The most common super slims out there are gonna be the bundle systems like the GoW:A pack and TLoU pack all seemingly going for around 250 to 300 dollars.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

You cannot play off a External HD only store stuff with two caveats. One the EHD must be FAT32 in order for your ps3 to even see it. Two alot of saves are protected and cant be transferred off the HD w/o PSplus. I recently updated to 500 gig system myself and had to go through this process.

Ah, okay. Off to buying a new internal hard drive for me then...

What physical size is that 500 GB external HDD? If you don't use it and the drive itself is a 2.5", you might be able to just take it out of the exernal case, grab one of those PS3 slim HDD sleds, and save some money.

The only downsides to that is you either need another usb drive (thumb, HDD) with an empty 12GB or be willing to re-download all of your stuff, and you're out a spare external drive. But that last one isn't so bad because TB are getting super cheap anyways.

 

[flarty]

Ah, okay. Off to buying a new internal hard drive for me then...

What physical size is that 500 GB external HDD? If you don't use it and the drive itself is a 2.5", you might be able to just take it out of the exernal case, grab one of those PS3 slim HDD sleds, and save some money.

The only downsides to that is you either need another usb drive (thumb, HDD) with an empty 12GB or be willing to re-download all of your stuff, and you're out a spare external drive. But that last one isn't so bad because TB are getting super cheap anyways.[/quote]

Thu basically.

And $80 for a 2.5 500gb hdd? Where are you looking? I got a 320gb one for my ps3 for about £30 a couple of weeks back off amazon.

 

[laggyteabag]

Completely unrelated, but I remember when I got my first Xbox 360 which was a 12GB model. Seemed like nobody ever needed any more than that, and when I saw that a 120GB HDD was on sale, it seemed like an absurd amount of space that nobody would ever use up. Fast forward to now, and I just had to buy a 2TB HDD for my computer to go with the 500GB HDD and replace the 1TB HDD that broke and ended up being filled up with games. 120GB to me now seems like practically nothing.

On a slightly more related note: Isn't it a requirement for PS3 games to be installed on the HDD because of the Blu-Ray disks? If that is the case, then how many games can even fit on a 12GB HDD? That seems like a practically unusable amount of space for a console with that requirement.

 

[NPC009]

Completely unrelated, but I remember when I got my first Xbox 360 which was a 12GB model. Seemed like nobody ever needed any more than that, and when I saw that a 120GB HDD was on sale, it seemed like an absurd amount of space that nobody would ever use up. Fast forward to now, and I just had to buy a 2TB HDD for my computer to go with the 500GB HDD and replace the 1TB HDD that broke and ended up being filled up with games. 120GB to me now seems like practically nothing.

On a slightly more related note: Isn't it a requirement for PS3 games to be installed on the HDD because of the Blu-Ray disks? If that is the case, then how many games can even fit on a 12GB HDD? That seems like a practically unusable amount of space for a console with that requirement.

Not all of them, but a good portion does have atleast a few gig worth of installs. As for the sizes of the actual games: from my experience most fall in the 4-8GB region, with some of the triple AAA titles being twice the size. Some of the biggest I've seen are GTAV (17,2GB), Uncharted 2 (19,5GB) and Time and Eternity (13,5GB). That last one if a perfect example of why size doesn't matter. It's one of the worst games I've played on the PS3, if not the worst.

Also, the PS3 reserves some of its memory for system related things. IIRC the ones with a proper drive claim as much as 10GB for that. Wouldn't be surprised if the 12GB model did the same, leaving just enough space for saves and maybe one very small game.

So, yeah, you're probably going to need to install a new HDD. A daunting task for many, especially the parents who thought the 12GB model would make a good christmas/birthday gift. Fortunately, Sony has a 500GB one available for the low, low price of $80/?80 ~_~

 

[Laughing Man]

That seems like a practically unusable amount of space for a console with that requirement.

It lets Sony sell the PS3 at an uber cheap price, since HD prices don't tend to drop in price (they usually just increase the storage size and keep it at roughly the same price.) It means Sony can sell a PS3 with no HD and 12Gb of storage made up of flash memory built in to the console.

The end user can then buy their own HD of a model and type they choose and Sony can even charge you for buying the drive caddy that they claim you need to fit the drive, but I managed to fit a spare 2.5 60Gb SSD to my PS3 slim using nothing but the drive and some well placed cardboard.