Looking for a reality check on buying a used PS3...

[hybrid2d4x4]

Lately I've been toying with the idea of getting a used PS3 and wanted to get some feedback whether what I'm looking to do is actually doable of if I'm chasing unicorns and wasting my time...

My main motivation for all this is to get Rock Band (my group of friends still bust this one out at gatherings and since I've been a PC-only guy for the longest while, I've sucked at it since I didn't have regular access to it) and take advantage of a lot of the C3 songs available, which I've recently discovered and actually has a lot of songs I like that the stock games don't (or at least my friends don't have). I'm also interested in tabbing out my own songs and adding them in. But in order to do any of this you need a jailbroken console...

From what I've been reading the CECH-21xx and 25xx slim models would be ideal, but only if their FW wasn't updated past a certain version. I've obviously never owned a PS3 before so I have no concept of how the FW updating works on these consoles so here are some questions:
1) Does Sony "force" these updates on consoles similar to the way MS has been shoving Win10 lately or is updating consoles something only the tech-savvy bleeding-edge types go for?
2) Expanding on #1, what's the likelyhood that people selling older slim PS3s on classifieds would be running old FW that is still jailbreakable today?
3) Is the older hardware still fairly reliable? (I'm not opposed to upgrading the cooling and swapping in SSD, or other minor mods)
4) Is importing/managing songs from C3 to RB fairly straight-forward?
5) Is there anything I missed, or are there any other major hurtles in getting what I want that I haven't mentioned here?

Any info would be helpful...

 

[gorcorps]

1.) "Force" in that you can't connect to PSN without upgrading. So the only way it would be possible is if they weren't really connected to the Internet

2.) because of #1 I'd say your chances are quite...


*wait for it*













slim

 

[cmdrdredd]

1) You can't connect to any online services without updating.
2) Unless someone sells it as a hacked system then it will probably have been updated.
3) I've actually heard of very few real problems with the PS3, occasionally the old glossy fat ones turn up with issues but not to the extent I'd worry.

Honestly for what you want to do...You'd probably have to buy a console that was already done and sold as is with no warranty off someone. I doubt you'll find one like you want otherwise.

 

[WhiteNoise]

I had two PS3s back in the day one of which was hacked by me following online guides. Back then if you updated via Sony after the hack then you bricked the PS3. But the hacking scene would release the hacked updates and it was just a matter of downloading them to a thumb drive and updating the hacked PS3. Replacing the HDD is easy but I don't know if an SSD can be used. I replaced my stock one on each PS3 with a western digital blue 54k HDD. I hope that helps. If you are just playing rockband then I do not think you would need to upgrade anything at all except if you want more space.

The only reason I hacked my PS3 was due to it being the original phat 20gb model. It's br drive went out, I sent it in to Sony to be fixed and it cost like $80, then it went out again and I bought the replacement br drive myself and repaired it....then about a year later it went out again so I just hacked the PS3 and ran games off the HDD. Then bought a new slim model which worked perfectly up until I sold it at the PS4 release.

 

[shortylickens]

I just got one from Amazon. The 500 gig version.
Am unimpressed with the seemingly small library of the PS3. Most of the games just plain suck. Of the few that dont suck, most I already own on Steam and have no interest in playing on my TV with a game pad.

Looks like I will be getting a couple of racing titles that were never available on Windows, like GT6.

 

[shortylickens]

Even more peeved at the thing.

It took me 6 hours to download, install, and update Gran Turismo 6.

Is that normal?

 

[shortylickens]

System crashed after 1 race. Is that the fault of GT6, or the PS3 itself?
Also, the PS gamepad is awful for racing. Gonna have to find something better. Not a wheel, but a better pad or maybe joystick.

 

[Pheran]

Hybrid, if you are looking to get RB3 with customs, the Xbox 360 is a better platform for this purpose. RB3 always had some crashing issues on PS3, and you can use customs on the 360 even if it has the latest firmware, you just have to have a RB3 physical disc which you don't patch.

 

[nakedfrog]

Hybrid, if you are looking to get RB3 with customs, the Xbox 360 is a better platform for this purpose. RB3 always had some crashing issues on PS3, and you can use customs on the 360 even if it has the latest firmware, you just have to have a RB3 physical disc which you don't patch.

They patched most of the PS3 RB3 crash issues, the only outstanding one I'm aware of is crashing with multiple players while you're signed into PSN. If you sign out of PSN first, it doesn't crash, or if you're playing solo, it doesn't crash.