to anyone that has it....

can you explain its features to me??

-does it make the graphix better?
-can you save internally w/o memory card (like xbox hdd)?
-does it speed up the loading times?
-are most games compatable with it?

 

1. no
2. no (i'm not 100% sure on this but i don't think you can.)
3. yes and no (some games allow you to use it to make loading times faster but it's pointless because there aren't enough games to take advantage of it.
4. no

overall it's not worth it to get the HDD. i said screw it and just bought me a new slim ps2. it seemed to load faster than my old ps2 and yes i ran the laser cleaner like every 2 weeks. it's a lot more quieter too due to the fact that there isn't a big fan in the back anymore. the only games thats worth having the HDD is FF and socom 2. and when you buy the HDD FFXI comes with it.

 

^^^what he said

You can save all your game saves to it but in MOST(like 99.9%) cases you have to save to a memory card first, and then transfer it to the HDD. Then to load the game saves you have to transfer them back to the memory card before you start playing the game.

horrible waste of money...horrible horrible horrible

 

well i got one which came with Final Fantasy XI online, it run's FFXI pretty fast but thats running the game of the HD, if your playing a cd/dvd game it will not do anything for speed. There are only 2 games that i know of that use the HD, FFXI for the game and updates, and SOCOM 2 for downloading new maps etc. And yes you can use it as a 40GB memory card, but i would not buy it just for that.

 

I think that putting a Hard Drive into a PS2 really adds something to the PS2 to extend it's lifespan. You don't have to purchase the official $ony one. If you have a network adapter you can just go buy a 120-300gb Maxtor HD and slap it in.

With a program called HDLoader you can put your games right on there, making it unnecessary to insert the original disc to play the game (* hint hint *). As well load times are faster for most games. There's a huge difference in playing any of the GTA games. The downside is that you cannot play online from the HD tho.

All in all if you already have a network adapter, pick up a cheap Maxtor HD and you can carry just about your whole game collection with you without any discs.

 

if you put a 300gb HD in the ps2 will cap it at 128mb only (or was it 256?) either way theres a cap on it unlike the xbox. so you will only be able to use not even half of what you've put in. i can't remember where i read it from but there were people blowing their money on bigger HD's and still only being able to use 128mb or 256 whichever one.

also, the HD loader only loads the old DVD formats onto the HD. it's not compatible with the new DVD-9 formats so you wouldn't be able to put a lot of the new games on it. i haven't looked into it for a while so i'm not sure if they released a new version or not but when i was thinking about buying it, i got turned away because of that. either way, better buy it before it becomes illegal because this is too easy. you can just go rent a game from blockbuster and put it onto your hd.

 

Yes the original HDLoader was capped at 120gb but there has since been a patch to increase the size. Just had to modify the the LBA. So I know of people who have upwards to 300gb HDs in their PS2 now... it's pretty cool.

And yes for DVD-9 format games (like GT4) you cannot put that on HD yet. Some people have been having good success with certain games, flattening the dvd and putting that on the HD. I managed to do one myself (Champions of Norrath). All I can say for this is that 99% of the games on the market are either CD or single layered DVDs now. Only a handfull of recent games are DVD-9. Xenosaga, GT4, Champions of Norrath, MGS3 ... a handful.

Anyways, it sure is great being able to play GTA:SA from the HD.