I feeling when it comes to reliability of the PS2, they can be a hit and miss. On one hand, back in the day they are known to have disc read errors issues causing a lawsuit, and on the other hand people still have their PS2 even during launch. Me personally, I almost tend to have the best luck with the PS2 SCPH-3900x fat models even if i get it on untested on ebay, because they were known for more durable laser assembly, while I also heard praise for the 5000x, they sadly known for mechacon issues, I heard them 3900x(but in the span of playing burned discs on my model for almost 2 years now, it seemed the mechacon issue on 3900x is extremely rare and the issue being almost non-existent. I wasnāt a fan of the slims even as a kid, their lasers are just cheaply made and love to scratch games. So anyways which PS2 is the best model to have right now?
ive heard better about the longevity of the slims, but i still have such affinity for the phatty & those still seem more readily available? i havenāt checked in a while so donāt quote me on that
like, i know theyāre all cracked wide open, but iām most used to HDloader/OPP or whatever the current form is with free mcboot - playing off an HDD is ideal for me; not just ongoing fan translations/etc but also you get the winning combo of saving the wear & tear on the laser reading data (often one of the points of failure over the years) + depending on the game, you can seriously cut back on loading times. suikoden IV & V come to mind but thereās a bunch of others!
ive got both options but stay with a fatty, mostly because itās the one ive known and itās the model thatās worked for me off & on for decades now. anyway hope that helps!
Honestly, good question. I know that my early fat stopped reliably reading CD games.
I sought out the rare early 9000 skim models with built in power supply but are compatible with free mcboot and Mechapwn, and itās been decent but has issues with drive door close detection. But hard to say with second hand goods on reliability since no idea how it was used before.
39k are good, but I didnāt like how hot the power circuitry was on mine when it was off.
A 50k with the mechacon boobytrap fixed is probably the ābestā on paper but I had some luck and got a FreeMCBoot compatible early 90k that seemed to have almost no use and itās become my preferred way to play PS2 discs. I had issues with the earlier slims disc ribbon cable scratching discs too but my 90k doesnāt seem to have that problem.
I heard 79K slim models is the the āonlyā slim model that doesnāt have the disc scratch issue, because of those clips holding the ribbon cable up and down to prevent that from happening, its also the lightest slim model too. So for my curosity sakes, 39k and 79k is my best bets if i want to play games with no issues, but i mainly prefer my 39k model because fat models in general have the best compatibility for PS1 and PS2 games. 79k is a good model, because starting with 75k models some of the compatibility for PS1 and PS2 games have sorta been stripped down. But regardless, it still has superior compatiblity compared to PS3 E01s, which relies on software emulation. 50k are also good, im sure plenty still own those since 2003/2004, even without the mechacon issue being fixed, but i just find it cheaply made compared to previous fat models.
Itās crazy that sony fixed the ribbon scratch issue in one revision but then didnāt feature the same fix in the subsequent model.
Iāve got a 3D printed guard to try out on a 70k, itās this one: PS2 Slim Disk Saver by ale_2602 - Thingiverse kind of simple but the comments are positive.
Iād expect if you never disassemble your PS2 slim or try to mess with the stock ribbon cable itās not really an issue. But once you do itās a serious problem.
I believe itās partially down to the glue weakening over time and the ribbon then being able to rise up, at least thatās what Iāve seen on a couple of my old slims that have never been opened.