PS3 cooling.

[Frances_Penfold]

To be clear, I'm not talking about piracy

The PSP has a really deep library, including many titles that can be bought for $10-20 USD new, with expanding options for digital purchasing if you want to roll that way. The hardware itself runs $150, is very reliable, energy efficient, and can easily be hooked up to a home TV using a first-party peripheral. Plus there are lots of inexpensive add-ons like grips and cases.

It's a good time to be a hand-held gamer these days

[AG-wolf]

True enough... I dunno, my whole issue with the PSP is the same problem I've had with every hand-held console since the original GameBoy; I'm never "on the go" enough in situations that are actually suitable for playing a handheld game. On breaks/lunches at work, I use the time to eat my meal for whatever given time it is (my "lunch" at my most recent job was at 6:30pm, thus that was my dinner). If I have an appointment somewhere (doctor, dentist, etc), I get there just before the scheduled time so I'm not stuck waiting 45 minutes prior. If I have to go on a long trip (like leaving my house in northwest CT to get to Boston at 1:30am tonight to pick up my sister and brother in law, then driving an hour north of Portland Maine to bring them home, then sleeping and driving back home to CT tomorrow before Noon on saturday), I'm usually the person driving, so I can't really sit and play a game. When I was in school, there was never really adequate time to sit and play something... On top of that, I've only ever found a small handful of exclusive titles for any handheld that I really wanted to play, and I would just play them at home with an AC adapter plugged in the wall anyway :/

Given that Lance says he prefers practicality when it comes to gaming, even the "value" the PSP can offer may not apply. I bought a PSP at launch, and still to this day have only purchased two games for it (bet you can't guess which ones *cough* lol), other than that, I modded the crap out of it and loaded it with emulators and stuff... and still got bored with it. The "really deep library" doesn't seem to have anything to offer that I can't get on a main console like PS2/360/etc, and even its exclusives aren't anything more than another entry in a series that already exists on different machines. Not my thing I guess... hahaha well I guess that's one more thing I don't have to worry about packing up and bringing to college next week

[Lance]

I've come close to buying an old PSP a couple of times, but somehow I do not yet have one. I do not play games anywhere but home, so that aspect doesn't even come into consideration. I do have a DS because I wanted to try a couple of classic platformers to see if I like them, or at least why so many people do. SomehOw, I still have not got one of those platformers, but do have a couple of racing games, including NFS ProStreet which I find that I like much better on the DS than on the 360 because there is a quickrace mode and a track editor, neither feature being available on the 360 version. The portable is fun to just pick up and play.

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There is more than economics to consider in buying anything. Tech for tech's sake or just wanting to have the thing with the highest specs so I can feel like I'm on the cutting edge doesn't play into my decisions either. This is one of the reasons I can always consider more than one machine for purchase and more importantly, use. It can certainly give one more options. Sometimes, with a little judicious use of available funds, one can acquire more than one console 'family', and pick the game versions one likes the best, and I never feel like I have to have only the one that is considered [by the majority, or somebody, or whatever] the most 'cool', most prestigious.

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But to continue the discussion of PS3 heat, the 40 GB seems to be the one most often mentioned as cool running. I may not need any bigger harddrive than that, or might not need a harddrive at all considering my current lack of interest in online gaming. But if I got one, and given my past experience with a couple of HD failures, I'd probably want to go with a new one, which just adds to the reasons I already mentioned for probably preferring a new slim PS3 if I get a Sony machine. And I'm hoping Sony will be releasing games on hardcopy.

[okam]

I have the 40 GB model, and the only noise I ever hear from it is the little beep when you turn it on/off. No fan noise, or noise from the drive, at all.

For me, 40 GB is plenty, since I don't load it up with music or movies. You do need a HD though, as some games install data from the DVD/Blu-Ray onto the HD for faster loading times (there is no option of "would you like to install YES/NO, so there is no way around it), and you will probably want to download game updates or additional content which will also be stored on the HD.

Most PSN games that I have downloaded are less than 500 MB each, and DVD/Blu-Ray disc games rarely install more than 1 GB each (allthough Fallout 3 installed over 3 GB I think... ). I still have plenty of room for mp3s for my custom soundtracks, game screenshots that I have taken, etc.

That said, you can get cheap-ish 500 GB replacement HDs and they are apparently very easy to install (no need to open up the console, etc), so if you regret it later you can always do something about it.