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Sony May Be Planning 80GB PS3
narramissic writes "Included in a filing made by Sony to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) earlier this month regarding a change to the PlayStation 3's Bluetooth module is notification of a new PS3 game console with a higher-capacity hard-disk drive. From the cover letter: 'The model CECHE01 to be added by the difference of the capacity of hard disk.' It then says the new model will have an 80G-byte drive. Of course, Sony is downplaying these rumours, saying that 'Application to the FCC has been made with various possibilities in mind, however, it does not lead to a new product announcement at this time.'
People have been upgrading their HDDs on the PS3 since the day it came out. The HDD on the PS3 is user-replaceable so you can swap it with any 2.5 inch SATA drive you want. I personally swapped my 20GB drive for a 120GB 7.2K drive.
Obviously ...
After Microsoft announced an increase in the price of the price of the XBox 360, Sony decided to get into a price war with Microsoft so they're releasing a $679 Super-Duper PS3. Nintendo, obviously being the odd ball out of the three, refuses to get into this type of a price war.
will there be five PlayStation 3s now? 20 Gig PS3 with and without PS2 hardware. 60 Gig PS3 with and without PS2 hardware. 80 Gig PS3 without PS2 hardware.
What's the point of the big hard drives on the XBox 360 and PS3? Are people really downloading that much content that they need 120/80 GB drives? Are downloaded movies really that popular? Why would you rather download a game then get the a DVD? I really don't see any need for a drive of this size on a console. For me it just seems like something that would drive up the cost on an already expensive product.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
The PS3 is designed to easily upgrade the harddrive so this really isn't news. You can put any laptop drive you buy in the machine. I believe someone already has a 500 gig PS3.
Very cool.
Currently, most HD manufacturers seem to be making single platters hold well more than 100 gigs per, so my question is if (and if so, how?) Sony saves any money using a 60 gig HD (or 80) versus most anything else as long as they stick with a single-platter HD?
Because nobody will ever need more than 80GB.
Seriously, can't they just put the base OS in flash and put a small removable drive on the box? That way if I wanted 80 I could buy 80, if I wanted bigger, I could buy bigger.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
If I want one I'll spend $60 http://www.memorylabs.net/fumh2nbhdd80.html , thanks tho sony.
Why not a 220Gig ! Be the number on or close your door !
Ceci n'est pas une Signature !
The Wii is selling like hotcakes due to it's lower price.
Analysts are saying that the PS3 needs a price drop.
So how do Sony and MS respond to this? By releasing a MORE EXPENSIVE VERSION of their existing consoles.
Call me when you have a scaler, though.
Because when people consider a PS3, they think to themselves, hmm, I just don't feel like they've packed enough shit in there already.
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This goes for both Sony and MS. Both machines are not only game consoles, but hi-def multi-media machines as well. Why in the world would they skimp on hard drive space to begin with. MS should be truly ashamed. You can't even find a 20 gig HDD anymore. They just aren't functional. And out of all the system components, the hard drive is one of the cheapest parts. It is especially bad considering that MS has a huge lineup of downloadable media and demos that are at minimum 250 MB each. I'd say it was a horrible move for both the PS3 & Xbox not have 100Gig+ right from the start. At very least Sony started with 3X more disk space than the Xbox.
Personally, I can't make any sense out of why either would sell with such small drives. There isn't much difference in price between to jump to a 120 Gig drive, and there isn't a shortage or lead time problem with making such a drive. All you are doing is pissing off customers and preventing people from downloading premium online content because they are out of disk space.
They want you to use the game console as media center. They want you to buy video and music from their online stores.
Frankly I still don't understand why you can not take video from the 360 and put it on your Zune.
Microsoft and Sony see the console as a way to get into the living room and replace TV. Nintendo sees consoles as way to play games.
I keep wondering when Sony is going to let you take video from the PS/3 and put it on your PSP.
It seem logical the PS/3, 360, Zune, and PSP all have wifi seems like a logical jump.
The other reason for big hard drives would be for downloading games. Sony and Microsoft would love that. No more Gamestop and no more used games.
Bandwidth and lack of HD space is the only thing stopping it. Now if Microsoft put a burner in the 360.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Xbox offers game demos at ~1 Gig each. They have an impressive & growing library of TV shows, Game & Movie Previews, and movies you can download as well. Much of it is offered in high def. High def video takes up some major disk space. I had 20 gigs filled on the Xbox very quickly. Since I don't have any hi def cable or disk drive, I'd like to download certain things just to check it out. However, I can't because I'd have to delete a bunch of stuff I don't want to.
The PS3 allows you to add any media you want to it. You can rip DVDs on the computer and put them right on the drive. (Xbox isn't as easy) Fills up pretty fast.
Also, the hard drive isn't exactly a very expensive part of the machine, no need to skimp on that, especially since a larger drive encourages users to download premium content.
Theres a fairly good chance that by the time the 80 gig drives come out there won't be any issue making such drives using one platter and the cost difference between the 60 gig and 80 gig drive will be minimal if any. Thus it may nto be any more expensive then the 60 gig models.
Currently the cost of manufacturing a 40 gig 3.5inch drive and 120 gig 3.5inch drive using one platter is almost the same. The ps3 does infact use a 2.5inch drive and i'm not quite so sure how big the platters on such a drive is but i don't think there will be much of a cost increase (if any at all), especially if the 80 gig drive ps3 has no additional features.
Hmmm... Pie...
They are combining more chips and trying to make a more efficient circuit board (65nm cell announcement, the fact that now the number of ps3 components have been halved from 4,000 components to 2,000). During launch a few months ago the ps3 cost $300 more to manufacture then they sold it for (not to mention cost of boxing, shipping, advertising).
Price is at the top of their concerns but they can't just downgrade the current components or subsidize it further. They are just going to need more time for a price drop. They may have dug themselves into a hole but it's not one you can easily get out of.
Hmmm... Pie...
Ever wonder how come games on the PS3 that have 5Gig installs take longer to load than 360 games that have no HD installs? It's because 360 games can automatically use the pre-allocated hard drive cache- that's why the 20GB drive only has ~15GB when you get it and wipe it clean on content. It's fixed size, at the fastest part of the drive, it is guaranteed not to be fragmented, and the OS supports it transparently so it isn't up to the developer to roll their own caching (and possibly corrupt your hard drive which apparently is happening more and more often on the PS3). So Sony needs bigger and bigger drives just to be in the running with the 360. Poor Sony, always bring hardware to a software fight.
Also, since the PS3 can't stream video from a PC or media server (unless you run Linux and then can't use the graphics chips) it needs a big honkin hard drive while I can watch HD on a $299 core unit that doesn't even have a hard drive. Of course, even if the PS3 could stream video, good luck with its crappy wifi that couldn't stream standard def video without hitches...
It's going to be even better when companies actually start churning out fun games to go with these bells-and-whistles consoles.
They do plan to release games, don't they?
Mod me ignorant of my own ignorance, not trollish. Thanks for the education.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
My gut instinct says this will replace the 60GB model, by the additional 20GB hard drive space to compensate for the loss of the dedicated chips. Sony should watch carefully the gaming communities reaction to the Xbox Elite, and play their hand accordingly. This is assuming the 20GB version are/have been phased out.
thinking that Sony did this in response to Microsoft's release of the 360 elite....Look at the date of the filing....March 2, 2007. This is not a response the the release of the 360 Elite as Sony filed this on March 2nd 2007, and the elite came out when???
Jesus...
Everyone's got the same problem: General Motors, George Bush, and now Sony. The populis screems to have less of something, and what do they do? Put out MORE and BIGGER things! It's like how GM saw a fall-off in sales of low-gas-milage vehicles, and in their struggle to keep alive, how do they respond? They put out a brand new line of HUGE SUVs! Similarly, the voters asked Bush to start pulling troups out of Iraq, and what does he do? He sends even more in! Now Sony's facing platauing sales of the PS3, consumers are saying that the unit is too expensive, and what do they do? They make an even more powerful (and most likely, more expensive) one!
What is this new trend? People are screaming for businesses and politicians to CALM THE FUCK DOWN, and they respond by throwing it in our face. This strikes me as bad business. GMs facing possible bankrupcy, Bush's polls are lower than ever... why is Sony so eager to join them?
Steve Jobs (MadTV): "No, what the iRaq needs, precisely, is MORE THINGS!"
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I hope they release it in white, and call it the Sony PlayStation 3 E-Tile. It would give my universe a sense of balance.
Stasis is death. Embrace change.
I thought the PS3's drive read data at 9MB/second, while the Xbox's drive reads almost twice as fast at 16MB/second (although it seems to depend on some other factors, as well)? Here's the link. Please note that while I own a PS3, I have not actually bought a game yet, so I don't really know how fast it loads in real life.