Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

NOTE: (Nov. 9, 2010) - The PlayStation 3 320 GB with a larger disc is now available for the same price. Another option is PlayStation 3 320GB System with PlayStation Move Bundle which would make sense if the Move was something you wanted with your PS3. _______________________________________ < BEGIN REVIEW > Briefly, the PS3-250 is the exact original PS3 'Slim' with a twice as large hard disk. I had the opportunity to actually see and use a PS3-250 on the Sunday prior to its launch. As I expected, the only difference between the ps3-250 and the PS3-120 is the larger disk with everything else the same. Many reviews of the PS3-120 are HERE. < END OF REVIEW > Once the decision was made to get a PS3, 2 important questions might be: - Which model to buy? PS3-120 or PS3-250? - To upgrade or not to upgrade to a 500/640GB PS3? Based on personal experience and the experience of other PS3 owners that I know, the options are the following - remember, these are my views: PS3-120, no upgrade --------------------- Buy a PS3-120 and do not upgrade if you use it mainly to play movies and you rarely download games from the PSN store. It will take you very far and it should have sufficient room for storing thousands of pictures and a lot of music besides it playing Blu-ray content and CDs. I found that 120GB would not be enough for me. After a couple of years of use, with a few downloaded games, many more demos, lots of pictures and songs and some videos the kids made with the PS3 Eye we've breached the 120GB threshold. I would not worry about that if all I wanted was one of the better Blu-ray players. In addition, anybody comfortable with backing up/restoring the PS3 and upgrading the disk can postpone the upgrade step for later. PS3-250, no upgrade --------------------- Buy a PS3-250 and do not upgrade if you do plan to download a few movies and games but not a lot of them AND/or you don't feel comfortable with upgrading your PS3 yourself. Anyone who is not an almost-exclusive movie viewer and doesn't want to mess with screws and OEM disks should buy the PS3-250. It should have enough capacity to last for quite a few years with good disk space management (delete the demos and downloads you no longer need). PS3-120 upgrade to 500/640GB ------------------------------ Buy a PS3-120 and upgrade it to 500/640GB IF you don't mind swapping the PS3's disk. You get to upgrade your PS3-120 to quadruple capacity for very little expense and probably for less than a PS3-250 would cost you (see next paragraph). This should buy you peace of mind for the rest of your PS3's lifespan. Keep in mind that a 500GB HDD such as the 500GB Scorpio Blue Mobile Sata 5400RPM 8MB 2.5IN or the Western Digital 640 GB SATA OEM Notebook Hard Drive WD6400BEVT (Scorpio Blue) if you don't mind the extra expense can be had for about 90 dollars at the time I am writing this. That would make a 500GB upgraded PS3-120 appear a little more expensive than the PS3-250 BUT you are left with a brand-new 120GB HDD (the drive originally in the PS3) when you are done and you can either sell it or use it as an external USB-powered backup drive or maybe to upgrade your laptop's drive. This would effectively set the price of the 500GB upgraded console to match that of the PS3-250. There are many online guides that detail the process. I will post a couple URL's in a comment to this review. PS3-250 upgrade to 500/640GB (not recommended) ------------------------------------------------ Do NOT buy a PS3-250 if you are planning to upgrade it to 500/640GB unless you really need a spare 250GB external HDD instead of a spare 120GB HDD and think that the price difference is worth the larger spare drive. EVALUATION The PS3-250 while not for everyone, deserves its 5 stars. In my view, there is enough value added by doubling the storage capacity to justify the price difference over the PS3-120. ______________________________________ NOTE: If you want to upgrade you are better off if you upgrade immediately. This way you avoid the backup/restore hassles and therefore greatly simplify the process. I would include the upgrade HDD on the same order with the new PS3 and maybe add a HDD enclosure if planning to use the drive I removed from the PS3 as an external drive.