I could be persuaded to provide this service to other people on here.

But I can't just do it for free. would have to work something out there.

Also posting on the PlayStation.com forums, got linked to this thread with good info: http://boardsus.playstation.com/t5/PlaySta...ls/m-p/45650070

Looks like the next up on the list is attempting the newer model power supply, and maybe a new fan to put on it. That should help keep my ps3 hummin' along

So anyway, here's my report on what I did, after reading this thread on gamespot. Following the dis-assembly tutorial on here, I noticed a couple of differences for the 60gig model I have vs. the 20gig they used for the tutorial. First off was the additional removal of the card reader drives, and secondly was the wireless antenna at the back that is connected to the front piece of PCB with a wire.

Other than that, the dis-assembly went through easily enough. For the 'warranty' sticker i used Elmer's Sticky out to soften it up enough to cleanly come off. And before you say "well, ya ruined it now", keep in mind this is an original 60gig model that I received from Sony after the last one had a GPU failure. This thing was already past any possible warranty I might have had from Sony, and it was either do this or spend another $150 and run the risk of getting a neutered unit back, already updated with the Linux-removed firmware.

So, got that done, put it together... the top cover(s) were easily the hardest part. Still ended up with a spare screw that didn't have a spot to go in, even after accounting for every possible screw hole in the system.

Put it together finally, switched it on... so far so good. Started up Twisted Metal 2, as that was one of the games I'd noticed that it would spin up the fan rather loudly, rather quickly. According to the other thread, AS5 would need up to two full weeks to properly cure and give the ideal performance for these chips. Even so, I noticed some improvement already. The fan spun up much later, and spun down rather quckly after exiting the game, which already suggests the AS5 is doing its job. 'Cooking' it now by running the F@H client, and even then it's running quieter on that too.

Have to say, I'm rather impressed with the initial results.

See here for posted images I'd taken during the process.

I too absolutely was blown away by this movie.

It's like if someone took the "good parts" of different action-heavy and dialogue-heavy movies, set in World War 2, and made a whole movie made up of NOTHING BUT these awesome parts.

Has it really been that long?

I'd suggest this then: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817139005

I'm looking at a 750TX myself, which is efficient enough to even handle an SLi of two GTX 295's and surrounding system.

Of the two, the Coolermaster is what I would go with, but I wouldn't get it from CompUSSR, either.

What's your spending limit power supply-wise?

... Hmmm. Didn't do too badly this time

One final, dredged-up update.

Brother's PS3's GPU fried out on me. Finally had to break down and call up $ony.

$150 later, they sent me a coffin and prepaid shipping label. A week later, I got what is now my fourth PS3.

So far, seems to be working fine. Runs hot as a bitch, but it works.

Let's see how I do this time around.

EagleBank - Dec 20
X-Wake (7-5)
-Mavy (8-4)

New Mexico - Dec 20
X-CSU (6-6)
-Fresno State (7-5)

St. Petersburg - Dec 20
-Memphis (6-6)
X-South Florida (7-5)

Las Vegas - Dec 20
-BYU (10-2)
X-Arizona (7-5)

New Orleans - Dec 21
-Southern Miss (6-6)
X-Troy (8-4)

Poinsettia - Dec 23
X-Boise State (12-0)
-TCU (10-2)

Hawaii - Dec 24
X-Notre Dame (6-6)
-Hawaii (7-5)

Motor City - Dec 26
X-Florida Atlantic (6-6)
-Central Michigan (8-4)

Car Care - Dec 27
-West Virginia (8-4)
X-North Carolina (8-4)

Champs Sports - Dec 27
-Wisconsin (7-5)
X-Florida State (8-4)

Emerald - Dec 27
X-Miami (FL) (7-5)
-California (8-4)

Independence - Dec 28
-Northern Illinois (6-6)
X-Louisiana Tech (7-5)

Papajohns - Dec 29
X-North Carolina State (6-6)
-Rutgers (7-5)

Alamo - Dec 29
X-Misouri (9-4)
-Northwestern (9-3)

Humanitarian - Dec 30
-Maryland (7-5)
X-Nevada (7-5)

Holiday - Dec 30
X-Oklahoma State (9-3)
-Oregon (9-3)

Texas - Dec 30
X-Rice (9-3)
-Western Michigan (9-3) whoop!

Armed Forces - Dec 31
X-Houston (7-6)
-Air Force (8-4)

Sun - Dec 31
-Oregon State (8-4)
X-Pittsburgh (9-3)

Music City - Dec 31
X-Boston College (8-4)
-Vanderbilt (6-6)

Insight - Dec 31
-Kansas (7-5)
X-Minnesota (7-5)

Chick0-Fil-A - Dec 31
-LSU (7-5)
X-Georgia Tech (9-3)

Outback - Jan 1
-South Carolina (7-5)
X-Iowa (8-4)

Capital One - Jan 1
-Georgia (9-3)
X-Michigan State (9-3)

Gator - Jan 1
X-Clemson (7-5)
-Nebraska (8-4)

Rose - Jan 1
X-Penn State (11-1)
-USC (11-1)

Orange - Jan 1
-Cincinnati (11-2)
X-Virginia Tech (9-4)

Cotton - Jan 2
-Mississippi (8-4)
X-Texas Tech (11-1)

Liberty - Jan 2
X-Kentucky (6-6)
-East Carolina (9-4)

Sugar - Jan 2
X-Utah (12-0)
-Alabama (12-1)

International - Jan 3
-Buffalo (8-5)
X-Connecticut (7-5)

Fiesta - Jan 5
-Ohio State (10-2)
X-Texas (11-1)

GMAC - Jan 6
-Tulsa (10-3)
X-Ball State (12-1)

BCS Championship - Jan 8
X-Florida (12-1)
-Oklahoma (12-1)
Points: 45

I expect the BCS to be a close one, but with the Gators taking it in the end.

I hate to pull a thread out of the grave like this, but quite a bit happened between the 13th and now.

Long story short, my brother made me a deal. I find/buy him an MGS4 bundle ps3, he sends me his 60GB unit.

Well, while I couldn't find one around here, he was able to, so money changed hands and now I have his 60, along with a fresh copy of MGS4, the collector's edition version of the strategy guide (a hardcover guide? in this day and age? wow!), a voucher for PAIN (download) and an extra controller to boot.

First thing I can say is how much cooler this new (to me) unit is compared to the last two I'd had.

Well, long story short, went and was finally able to get my ps3 and the stuff I bought on it returned proper.

Though I'd lost the $ for the replacement plan, I'm just going to count my losses and forget it this time around. I just wasn't in the mood to deal with the hassle anymore.

Without proper (hardware) BC, it's just not worth having a ps3 for me.

Yea, the extra $100 would basically get you a more feature-complete ps3 and a pack-in game that (IMO) is worth its existing retail price.

Unfortunately, my ideal model (the 60gb) is going to be next to impossible to find now. Or at least, one that's not already on its way out.

Title: Metal Gear Solid 4
Genre: Tactical Espionage Action
Platform: PlayStation3
Players: 1 (main), up to 16 players for Metal Gear Online component

Given the high anticipation for this title, it was little wonder that Sony's last 80GB bundle (with software BC) came packaged with this game. Sony knew this game would move ps3 consoles (so much so it even caused me to try and get myself a 60gb unit). Games like this become the "killer app" for a platform - a game that is not just exclusive to a given platform, but very well pushing what can be done with the system.

Hideo Kojima is a known perfectionist in terms of game development, and was noted in having taken his time, and appreciating the capacity of the BluRay media... so much so that he'd opted for keeping all the game audio in its raw, uncompressed format for this disc, which easily strained the limitations of the 50GB's a dual-layer BluRay Disc are capable of storing.

Anyways, enough of that. We're here to review the actual game, not mess about with the story leading up to it.

Well, if this is your first MGS title, prepare to be... confused. While Hideo knows that gaming is a great way to tell a message/story, he doesn't seem to have a lot of patience for the gaming aspect... which is a shame, because mechanically this is easily the best Metal Gear Solid title yet; many of the faults that were common with the previous titles have been addressed, and with practice, it becomes quite easy to work with. No more clunky "stop, press x to get up" nonsense, and the camera is now by default meant to follow you from behind instead of from a fixed isometric view as the previous ones did (Hideo's excuse for this initially was that he was quite prone to motion sickness when playing first person games). And well, playing it from this is much akin to having your only Star Wars movie experience being Return of the Jedi. It's not bad in its own right, but you'll be left with too many question marks unless you go back and play some of the prior games first (which at least you would be able to with a PS3 that has BC on it, now that Konami re-released the previous MGS's in a value-priced bundle). For many first-timers, the story will come off as convoluted, and you'll get the feeling that to truly understand it would involve some experimental brain surgery into Hideo's head, and maybe finding out what kind of narcotics he was on in the first place.

The other personal fault is with the cutscene to gameplay ratio. Fans of the series will have no problem with this, as they are a great way of getting the story across, but if you're one of those people who much prefer to just skip them all (i.e. if you're going for a run in a very low time), they may get quickly annoying. From the moment you first start the game to when you encounter your first enemy can take as much as 23 minutes (!!!). Granted, this is a game that has a priority on sneaking, but then why must things feel hindered when you are required to get into the action part of the "Tactical Espionage Action" that this game is supposed to be about? While there is an auto-aim to shortcut things a little bit, it actually becomes a hindrance at higher difficulties where you need to be able to nail soldiers with headshots if you're going to be able to put them down for more than a few seconds. So you are going to have to invariably learn to struggle with it in order to get the best results from your weapons.

That's not to say that things are all bad here. Visually and audio-wise, the game is easily one of the better looking games on the PlayStation3, with the kind of graphical presentation that would make that $3000 HDTV purchase (and the $$$$ sound system) look like a very sound investment (you know who you are ). And for a series that prioritizes on sneaking, it easily has some of the most memorable boss fights, as you can easily keep the upper hand if you know what you're doing and what equipment to use, but it will still provide a good challenge. (and let's just say, if you make it toward the end of act 4, its boss battles are freaking AWESOME! ).

Having played the prior games in the series, MGS4 felt like proper closure to the story of Solid Snake. And parts of prior games that left me scratching my head (pretty much all of MGS2 and some parts of MGS1) were thankfully answered by the end of MGS4.

For those seriously interested in playing the games in story order, they go like this:
Metal Gear Solid 3 (PS2)
MGS: Portable Ops (PSP)
Metal Gear (MSX) - if you buy MGS 3: Subsistence, the 2nd disc includes this game along with the MGO stuff
Metal Gear 2 (MSX) - if you buy MGS 3: Subsistence, the 2nd disc includes this game along with the MGO stuff
Metal Gear Solid (PS1)
Metal Gear Solid 2 (PS2)
Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3)

That way, the story will follow chronological order of the events that unfold (if you're the kind of person that has to play it that way).

If you'd been wanting a reason to get a PlayStation 3 and didn't like the previous MGS titles, then keep looking. If you did enjoy the prior games, the significant gameplay improvements when you are actually out in the action more than make up for the faults, and it will clearly be the best MGS yet (especially since it also cuts out a lot of the BS you initially had to deal with in some of the prior games). Fans will no doubt have bought it already, wrote a synopsis of it on the web and would be preaching of how it's the second coming to the franchise and gaming altogether. It's a heck of a ride and a much better execution of "cinematic gameplay" than Uncharted, IMO. And you wouldn't believe how hard it would be to tell you some of the better parts without spoiling the story in this one, too.

80GB Core is $399.

They both come with the DualShock 3 controller, but the MGS4 bundle has software BC (so that you could go back and play the older MGS games for PS1 and PS2 if you get interested in the storyline) and media card slots (to make it easier to transfer data in and out of the console). And obviously, a copy of Metal Gear Solid 4, which is one game that (IMO) is worth getting the system for.

If you're lucky, you may be able to still find the 80GB MGS4 bundle ($500 USD).

Otherwise, the only model Sony is producing now is the 80GB Core model.

You do know that golf is the single most environmentally destructive sport available, right?

Not to mention the cost of such a sport would dwarf what I'd spent in video games.

The 80GB Core pack right now is basically the prior 40GB unit with a larger hard drive.

60GB - hardware PS2 BC, media card slots, 4 USB ports, wireless
20GB - hardware PS2 BC, no media slots, 4 USB ports, no wireless
80GB (Motorstorm and MGS4 bundles) - software PS2 BC, media card slots, 4 USB ports, wireless
40GB - no PS2 BC, no media slots, 2 USB ports, wireless
80GB Core - no PS2 BC, no media slots, 2 USB ports, wireless

Arguably, the ps3 is still the only BluRay player worth a damn in the market, since it's the only one that will survive Sony's relentless revision fetish (they've now BD Profile 3.0 - audio only - and the ps3 is the only player on the market that understands that protocol).

MGS4 is still hella great, and there are finally some good exclusives coming out to it.

But right now my experience has been hella soured by this episode, especially because Sony can't be bothered to retain the functionality the launch units had with their newer systems.

If you didn't have a playstation before, I suppose it's okay to get a new ps3 now. But if you are hardcore (like me) about your games, it will just seem like an insult to get these newer units.

So you like your own Hershey stains?

Let's just hope Lucky didn't have burrito night before he saw this coupon.

Well, I'll keep the story short.

I initially broke down and bought a refurb 60GB ps3, because it was the first time that any GS close to me actually had one, when I had money to get it. With the one-year replacement plan (since I'd already had no faith in Sony product reliability), came out to $540 after taxes - IMO, way too much money for a console, but better than paying $800 for one that is claimed to be "new" on eBay (f**king price gougers).

Anyway, its BluRay drive decides to start clicking and scuffing up the first ps3 game I purchase for it - MGS4 (will have a review up of it soon enough). Given the symptoms, I knew it was only a matter of time before those scuffs turned to scratches, and it would then start ruining all my games.

What's sad is that I'd basically still was on my initial 30-day return when I had to return it. Went back to GS and they searched around, and found a store that had a "used" 60gb PS3 available. So I go home, unhook and pack it up, go back to this particular store (since the next available location that had one in their network was 60+ miles away compared to 30 for this one that I knew where it was), and out of the box, it was already heinously loud. Even just idling @ the XMB (for those who don't have one, think the Sony work-alike to the 360 dashboard), it was already louder than what my Xbox 360 Pro unit is running a disc game. Running any kind of game on this one (either by disk or from the hard drive) caused the fans to spin up to ear-splittingly loud levels.

And - oh, you'll love this - when I went to return it, the GS store I went to couldn't take it back, because they didn't have enough physical cash to be able to refund me.

Personally, this is aggravating the living s**t out of me, especially now that Sony has removed BC altogether from any *new* ps3 that you buy now. With the new '80gb Core' pack being the only available SKU you can get new, they have no backward compatibility whatsoever. And doing my homework on the PS3 compatibility page, the older 80GB's software BC method simply couldn't run a significant amount of games I have/had for the PS1 and PS2... many of which that I do enjoy going back to.

So long story short, I'm quite angry... both @ GS because they can't seem to get a proper PS3 in, and at Sony because they insist on neutering their consoles further with each new revision.

As I said, if you like KotOR, you will find this game quite an awesome leap in storytelling and mechanically.

For those that get it for Windows, they get the advantage of getting the Bring Down the Sky expansion for free. The thing that blows my mind about BDTS is that for such a (relatively) small download, it was one of the tightest, most integrated expansions I'd ever seen in a game.

Let me explain. You know how with most post-release expansions, they just feel kinda "sewn in", but that they rather stick out as a feature the game normally didn't have? Well, this one manages to fit in so well, you'd swear it was part of the original disc already. Doesn't "break flow" or anything.

Game: Mass Effect
Genre: western sci-fi RPG
Platform(s): Xbox 360, and now Windows

Disclaimer: While the game did just come out for Windows, my review is based on the Xbox 360 edition of the game.

Having been in a drought of KotOR and finished Jade Empire, Bioware was quite keen on making a properly next-generation role playing game to really take advantage of the newest (now current) generation of video game consoles. Thus, unlike KotOR, Mass Effect is a new property (with a proposed/expected trilogy to fully give breadth of the story) for the Xbox 360 console.

Clearly, many fans of this genre are in it for the story, and the story is definitely there with a mind-bendingly copious amount of depth. On a technical standpoint, games like this seem to manage to redefine just how much content you can fit onto a single disc without the devs basically begging and pleading that they'd had the ability to define their own media to put the whole thing on, or like they'd set a personal challenge of seeing just how much possible content one could fit into a single game whilst remaining coherent and consistent.

On a graphical level, Mass Effect has many incredibly detailed scenes and worlds, that you could find yourself wishing for a way to screenshot some of these for use as an appropriate desktop wallpaper or post card.

A common turn-off for most people that aren't generally into RPG's is the turn-based nature of the combat. Even in games like KotOR, there were those pauses when you first encounter an enemy and you'd have to fiddle with the occasional menus and switching between which character you were focused on to assign what to execute. In Mass Effect, this is streamlined a fair bit. With the right options enabled, you could very well go without looking at the battle-specific menus for you and your party members, but this would only work for so long before you start dying - a lot. In order to get the most out of the combat, you still have to sort through a couple of menu interfaces for the weapon selection and abilities, but now you can assign these for all characters from the one menu as opposed to stop and do this for all three party members. And while enemies scale relative to your own level, levelling up still comes in handy on account of talent points that let you unlock and improve your proficiency in a set of abilities for you and your party members, letting you build a group with focus on whichever talents you want.

As you're basically exploring about half of the milky way galaxy, exploration is a big part of the various side quests in M.E. and if you are a completionist, you'll be driving the Mako a lot. Most of the time this works well, but there are times where you'd want to smack the thing for making you take the long way around to more than a few side quest objectives.

Controls work well, but it takes some practice. The one thing this game really lacks is some kind of integrated tutorial to get you acquainted with how to do things before you begin on your mission to save the galaxy and show off what humanity is capable of.

Where previous Bioware RPG's involved morality choices int he sense of good/evil, which usually subtracted from one to gain in another, Mass Effect has the Paragon and Renegade morality meters, and while both net the (usually) same end to a problem, respective reactions and attitudes change accordingly. Character development is very thought out if you go through enough side quests, and I certainly wanted to get to know them more, and their chime-ins on various conversations gives a nice flavor to the otherwise standard main-game plot developments.

In Summary, if you like RPG's and if you really liked KotOR, you will find Mass Effect a great choice to play if for nothing else than to provide a momentary stop-gap until we get to see the public release of the TSL restoration project. But if you already hate RPG's, then Mass Effect won't exactly change your mind either.

In short, let's get a thread going to share all your Nintendo DS and Wii friend codes for all the online-enabled games that you may have.

In my particular text, DS games will be given red text color; Nintendo Wii will be given a blue text color.

Pokemon Diamond: 2535 4557 4173
Final Fantasy III: 0989 2666 4973
Mario Kart DS: 116106 570027
Castlevania PoR (Portrait of Ruin): 1547 6127 5869

Super Smash Bros. Brawl: 0130 1526 0977