With all the games, videos, and demos that I have downloaded and all the CDs that I have put on it, I was about out of free space. It was time to upgrade, and by that I mean go big!
I replaced the original PS3 60GB with a huge 320GB drive that resulted in 298GB available after the formatting. It was an easy process, and the new drive rocks. Thanks to Sony for the forward thinking to allow us to upgrade our own hard drives, and doing so now, will allow you to get the new 3Gb/s SATA interface too.
GameSpot's 'How to Upgrade Your PlayStation 3 Hard Drive' was helpful, however I strongly suggest that it incorrectly states "Both 5400- and 7200-RPM drives should work fine." Technically the PS3 will be unaware of the spindle speed of the hard drive, so yes, a 7200 rpm drive would work. However, 7200 rpm drives generate more heat, and will not be as quiet. The PS3 was designed to dissipate the heat generated from a 5400 rpm drive, for that reason alone I strongly suggest that people stick to the 5400 rpm drive specification.
The original PS3 60GB is a Segate Momentus 5400.2, which has an SATA 1.5Gb/s interface. 8MB cache, 12.5ms average seek and 5.6ms average latency. The Segate can sustain 150MB/s transfer rates. It is a nice 2.5-inch hard drive.
The new drive is a 2.5-inch Western Digital Scorpio model WD3200BEVT. It has a faster SATA 3Gb/s interface, which will allow for sustained transfer rates of up to 300MB/s! 3Gb/s is the next generation of SATA interface. The WD Scorpio has an 8MB cache, 12ms average seek and 5.5ms average latency timing. With the 3Gb/s interface, the transfer rates will have better performance without question; however it does get very technical as to where this performance gain can be realized, particularly on our PS3's. That said, small (8MB or less) sequential reads and writes should be much faster. Will we notice it when playing, or using the PS3, that is hard to say?
The WD Scorpio claims to have one of the quietest 2.5-inch drives on the market, and I'd have to agree with them. You can't hear this drive over the fans, as you couldn't hear the Segate. The PlayStation 3 remains nice and quiet.
Before I began the upgrade, I used the Settings >>> SystemSettings >>> Backup Utility to backup everything I had. After that was complete I followed the 'How to Upgrade Your PlayStation 3 Hard Drive' found here on GameSpot. It really is as easy as it looks, as long as you use the right size of Phillips head screw driver. Once the new hard drive was in the system, as the guide says the PlayStation 3 will format the new drive for you. Once that was complete, and after a reboot I went back to the Settings >>> SystemSettings >>> Backup Utility to do the Restore of the data I had backed up earlier. Everything went back into place just as it was on my original 60GB. Upgrade complete, and everything checks out and works as it should.
Want more information on the new SATA 3Gb/s Interface, get it from the specification organization itself at http://www.sata-io.org/3g.asp
Want to check out the drive that I bought, it's here at newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136197