PlayStation 3 Buying Guide
There's no denying that the PS3  caused quite a stir when it launched, thanks to limited demand and crazed gaming fans struggling to bring it home. With its cutting edge processing ability and sci-fi-quality Blu-Ray disc drive, the PS3 is undeniably the most technically powerful of its generation, surpassing the Xbox 360 and Wii. It's slim and short enough to blend into your home entertainment equipment, without standing out. Many people bought the PlayStation 3 based on the fact that it included a Blu-Ray player, which appears to have been a very wise choice now that the format war is over, and Blu-Ray won over HD-DVD (which was an option in the Xbox from Microsoft). The PS3 costs around $399 (PlayStation 3 40 Gb game console ) for a system with a 40 GB hard drive, upgraded from the original 20GB drive which is no longer avaialbe, and around $450 to $500 for a 60 GB unit (PlayStation 3 60 Gb game console ). The new 80GB version is available for around $550 to $600 (PlayStation 3 80 Gb game console For an in-depth comparison of the three newest game consoles, check out our Video Game Console Buying Guide.
The Controller
Cool Features- The machine plays all PS2 and PlayStation games, but the memory cards from the old systems won't work on the PS3. You'll need to buy an adapter in order to make it work.
- Features 1080p HDTV compatibility.
- The RSX GPU will roughly equal the quality (resolution-wise) of two top of the line Nvidia GeForce cards. Plus, it will be up to 30% faster than Nvidia 7800 GTX. Translation for non-geeks: The graphics will blow you away.
- Plays DVDs, Blu-Ray discs and CDs. Memory wise, it supports a variety of formats: CompactFlash, SD/MMC chips and Memory Sticks. Get the Sony PlayStation 3 blu-ray remote control to play Blu-Ray movie discs on your HiDef-TV
- Sony has a free thriving online community for multiplayer gaming, akin to the lauded pay service, Xbox Live.
Specifications Provided by Sony
CPU- Power PC-base Core Cell CPU @ 3.2 GHz
- 1 VMX vector unit per core
- 512KB L2 cache
- 7 x SPE @ 3.2 GHz
- 7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs
- 7 x 256 KB SRAM for SPE
- 1 of 8 SPEs reserved for redundancy
- total floating point performance: 218 GFLOPS
| GPU- RSX @550 MHz
- 1.8 TFLOPS floating point performance
- Full HD (up to 1080p) x 2 channels
- Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines
Sound- Dolby 5.1ch, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell- base processing
| Memory- 256 MB XDR Main RAM
- 3.2 GHz 256 MB GDDR3 VRAM
- 700 MHz
- Various hard drive size options
System Bandwidth- Main RAM 25.6 GB
- VRAM 22.4 GB
- RSX 20 G (write) + 15GB/s (read)
- SB< 2.5 GB/s (write) + 2.5 GB/s (read)
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Storage- USB Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0)
- Memory Stick standard/Duo, PRO x 1
- SD standard/mini x 1
- CompactFlash (Type I, II) x 1
| Communication- Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) x 3 (input x 1 + output x 2)
- Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g
- Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)
Controller- Bluetooth (up to 7)
- USB 2.0 (wired)
- Wi-Fi (PSP)
- Network (over IP)
| AV Output- Screen size: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
- HDMI: HDMI out x 2
- Analog: AV MULTI OUT x 1
- Digital audio: DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x 1
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External Links- PS3 Land -- Info and message boards.
- PS3 rumors -- The latest rumors about the system.
- Kotaku -- Online gaming magazine.
- PS3 Blog -- A lively blog devoted to the PS3.
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