Ben-DutkaIf you're trusting of used systems and 320GB just isn't enough for you, then GameStop may have the answer.
A reader has turned us onto a darn cool idea, courtesy of the world's largest dedicated gaming retailer. GameStop has teamed up with Recharged (the service the retailer uses for most refurbishing) to offer the following deal : a used PS3 with a massive 500GB hard drive, bundled together with a media hub (which increases the number of USB slots from 2 to 4), an HDMI cable, and a charging base that can power up two Dual Shock 3 controllers at once. Heck, they're even tossing in a special Supercharged console skin and a one-year warranty. You can get it all for only $399.99 and that's a darn good deal in our eyes. For the record, we're of the opinion that all PS3s should come with an HDMI cable these days, but that's another subject. For now, if you need another PS3 in the house or are in the market for another console, this could be a great option.
"Refurbished" doesn't usually go over well with some people, but that included warranty helps a little, right?
Yea, I don't do refurbished unless I have to like with my 60gb. Just about every device I have had that's been refurbished has failed again.
Pretty sweet deal though. Would be nice if Sony threw in a HDMI cable with all their new PS3's.
Luck of the draw i guess… not all refurbished units will expire, but some will, thats inevitable… maybe you have just had some rotten luck with these devices Jawk!
Q!
"play.experience.enjoy"
Last edited by Qubex on 3/15/2011 10:16:15 PM
Pretty much. Most people I know with refurbs seem to do okay with them and my 60gb is holding up nicely. Most of my crappy reburbs have been phones, disc-mans and an SNES. Though a friend of mine has been through 5 refurbished PS3's in the last year and a half.
I don't do any form of pre-owned at all. For games, sure, but for consoles, you have no idea what to expect. It might work fine for one week and then crap out on you the next. I know for a fact that some people sell broken consoles online, fooling people into thinking they work
yea, unfortunately my 60 gig has broken down on me about 4 times. it's not fun. especially when you have to start all over with some of your favorite games. i just got a PS3 slim so hopefully this one will last me considering it has a smaller CPU and GPU so it doesn't heat up and is more prone to breaking down
i remember getting a refurbished ps1 and it still works to this day! lol
I like refurbs, never had trouble with em. That sounds like a good deal but I have enough PS3s right now. I agree about the HDMI cable too, what on earth are they selling an HD console for without the proper cord. When I bought my Dad a PS3 I had to order a cable online, and I didn't want him to be underwhelmed with an SD set up for any period of time so I gave him my Cable in the mean time.
Caused me some pain too. It's almost as bad as selling an "HD" console without blu ray.
I agree about the HDMI cable thing and it also annoys me that SONY doesn't bundle a USB charging cable when you buy a new DualShock 3 controller. What's up with that?
My silver PS3 bought off of eBay still works and works well. I don't use my Phatty original anymore… trying to preserve it. My eBay PS3 I use everyday and had no trouble with it.
Q!
"play.experience.enjoy"
yeah how can they sell you a DS3 without a f*cking cord? They cost a fortune so it should have that at least.
ok maybe not go all the way as to give you a cable but at least AT THE VERY LEAST give you a 30% discount when purchased with a controller
I was pretty pissed when my ps3 didn't even come with composite cables, let alone HDMI.
A good deal from gamestop that is not overpriced? What universe is this?
Last edited by Bugzbunny109 on 3/15/2011 10:09:01 PM
At least slightly over1/2 of all my consoles are refurbished units & I've never had a single problem with any one of them.
Sounds like a decent deal, but not that "vertical" stand.
That's a serious no-no, you should never leave your PS3 standing up because if your solder overheats, it will cause a hell of a lot more damage running down the motherboard than if it was in the horizontal position & just puddling in that one spot. The good thing though is that they say that the controller recharger separates from the stand to act as it's own a stand-alone unit.
If your PS3 ever get's hot enough to make the solder run, you have a whole lot more problems than the solder.
I think that's just a myth Biker. I don't think Sony would encourage us to stand our PS3's on their side if that was a problem waiting to happen.
yea that's what some guy was telling me, my PS3's kept breaking down. i always had them standing up. but i didn't really think that was the main issue. although it could be true for the old fat ones with the 90 nm chips. since those do create a lot of heat it may be more prone to overheating than the new 45 nm chips.
dude, if your console gets that hot running soldier is the least of your worries!
your better off having the system upright simply because heat rises and the top is where most of the vents are.
especially in the phat systems, on the slim systems it wont make much of a difference as long as the bottom is clear.
and back, my slim kept freezing on me then last night i went to move it and the HDMI cable was so hot i burned my hand!
had it too close to the wall and that was limiting the air flow.
my phat PS3 has been running vertical since day one and no problems.
Last edited by AcHiLLiA on 3/16/2011 1:40:41 PM
GOt a Socom beta invite! Can't wait to play
I got the Email Invite, the Plus Beta on the way and the Killzone 3 voucher. May not be able to give the Plus Beta so I gave the Emailed code away. One left.
I will give it away to a fellow PSX member on the 22nd once I download the Plus code. Just in case. Anyway, whoever sends me a message first on PSN will get it. My username is the same as PSX.
Last edited by FatherSun on 3/16/2011 12:53:14 AM
I saw this the other day when I was browsing their site and I don't really consider it that great of a deal.
You can get a refurb for $250, a 500 GB hard drive for $50, an hdmi cable for $10-$15, as for the base, waste of money, and the media hub, also waste of money, I'd rather pass.
For $399, I'd rather just buy a new ps3, upgrade it myself to a 500Gb drive, go to my local store for the hd cable and call it a day. I'd have saved $40 and wouldn't have to worry about the refurb. I could charge my controllers the way I do now, either through the regular usb ports on my ps3 or through the usb ports on my computer.
For HDMI cables, etc, look no further than monoprice dot com.
I bought a bunch of 10 foot color coded cables (already with the newer 1.4 HDMI standard built in), and for only about $4.20 each.
I also picked up a bunch of 30 foot matching color-coded Ethernet cables for around $3.50 each.
Last edited by BikerSaint on 3/15/2011 11:45:35 PM
Oh crap, my phat 60/640GB couldn't take any more of my KZ3 marathons.
She finally kicked me off of her, winked once at me with this yellow jaundiced eye as she slipped into a coma, & then she kicked the bucket & the spark left her eye as it turned blood-red for good.
But the worst part is that she died while pregnant with our little Killzone 3 baby still inside her.
And unfortunately for me, I've run out of gaming funds once again for a while, so I'll have to mummify her until late June when I can afford to have Sony do a resurrection & a Cesarean Section to bring my Lil' Helghast baby back to full term once again.
At least she died happy & peaceful with her controller still in my arms.
Tes,
It won't let me do the fan test, I already tried.
Every time I try it, the power light will turn green & I hear the fan start to turn, but a second later the yellow light comes on and at the same time the fan kicks back off, then an instant later, the machine goes back into a blinking red light.
Then if I hit the power sensor again, it then stops blinking & stays a solid red.
I've even unplugged it altogether for over a 1/2 hour & then tried to re-start it, with the same old results.
I'm not tech savvy so if it's completely dead, I'm wondering why it would even go into green with the fan starting for a second, at all.
And you know how they bad things happen in 3's???
Hell no, so far today they happened 4 times since my PS3 no longer works, I decided to hook up the Intellivision 1 & Intellivision 2 that I bought from different sellers a month ago, into my gaming system network, only to find out that my new better-than-mint-looking Intellivision 1 is f*cking DOA right out of the box. The seller said it was working, but he listed it "as-is" so I'm out a $100 bucks. So now I'll have to buy another one to replace that too.
Oh well, at least I can play the 10 games that came with it on my Intellivision 2,which is working fine(damn, I didn't realize that Burgertime now looks so freaking outdated).
And to top off the bad news, I then tried to hook my new $100 Onlive steaming micro-console system that I bought 2 months ago, only to find out it won't let me in, saying that my 3 mbs (spelling?) isn't a high enough internet speed.
And then my computer monitor started taking a long time to come on & kicked the bucket a few hours later. Luckily, I saved my old windows 98 system & am using that crapola monitor.
If anyone wants to wish a black cloud pox on their enemies, I'm going to be selling mine super cheap.
Just in case you did it wrong, I'll tell you what I did. Turn off the power switch on the back of the system. While holding the eject button, turn the power switch back on and it should go into the fan test. When the fan kicks in, tap the eject button and your disc should come out.
The power button on the front won't help you in this situation.
Weird thing is I don't have the YLOD.
My PS3 threw me right out of the Killzone multi-player & went in to red mode.
And as I was trying to figure out how to get my KZ3 disc out, I tried to manually hold down the power button & the eject button.
It only turns green for a second as I hear the fan start, but turns right into yellow, and then right over to red for good each time.
Hmmm????
Last edited by BikerSaint on 3/16/2011 12:23:05 AM
A fan test will eject the disc. You can do a search on how to do it. I did it when my daughter's ps3 bit the dust.
Yea that's the yellow light of death Biker. Bummer. 🙁
That's basically how mine died, too. But I was playing Uncharted 2 when it happened. I'd say anyone who's an avid gamer and is still running a 1st gen PS3 should be ready with some money set aside for a replacement.
That sucks. I thought that Killzone 3 was going to do that to me too for awhile. It kept freezing and resetting my PS3. It only happened with Killzone 3. I tried everything. Shut off and cooled down the system , deleted the game data a few times. Nothing! Then I went and deleted the 2 demos and game data that were on the PS3 and I never had that problem again. Not sure if that is what actually worked but It did for me.
@Temjin, Deja vous! Same exact ordeal with Uncharted 2 for me. That Platinum cost me my Launch day BC PS3. I was at war with Sony CS for awhile to have that system deactivated. Best Buy replaced it with the my Protection Program and there began the saga.
Last edited by FatherSun on 3/16/2011 1:14:01 AM
Does anyone buy broken PS3s?
My 3 y/o 40G works like new, but with all the sob stories you hear (Like Biker's – Sorry bro) I get paranoid sometimes. In the event of a breakdown I'd immediately buy a new one since I figure I've had my money's worth, but it'd be a shame to just bin the old one.
Tes,
Thanks for the 411.
I tried it your way, with the same results as before, the fan will only start for a second then cuts off same as before, same as the yellow & red power lights.
I had noticed that during my recent 8 to 15 hour mini-marathons on KZ3(66 hours playtime so far), my fan had been running louder & more often, so I'd turn it off after every 5 hours for about 15 minutes & then I'd go back and resume my playtime.
Man, I'm really jonesing here, I was only about 2 million points away from the KZ3 leaders(LOL), & was 1/2 thru Brigadier general-1 with over 640,000 points. Crap, by the time I can afford to buy a new slim & also have my beloved 60 repaired in late June, I'll be down at rock-bottom of the pack.
Plus what also sucks is that I've about another 25 new PS3 exclusives sitting here that I recently bought, but can't play.
Guess I'll have to marathon it on my consoles of lesser disc-abilites till July, either 360 for a while & either play GTA4 or Splinter Cell: Conviction some more, or maybe I'll go try out Red Steel, Alien Syndrome, or Saint(no relation) on my Wii.
Plus there's a bunch of titles in my PS2 collection that I could get started on or finish.
It's nice to have some other consoles/games to fall back on, but man am I still going to be jonseing big time till July because my PS3 was in a league of it's own as my King of consoles.
Damn, I think I need a tissue.
Anyone know where I can get a 55-gallon drum filled with triple-strength Valium to hold me over till July?????
Last edited by BikerSaint on 3/16/2011 7:16:23 PM
That's weird, my 40gb phat has the exact same symptoms as yours. But it will run the fan for about 20 seconds when starting the fan test, then die again.
@Biker, meet me behind 7-11. I'll have the goods.
Sounds good but I have a 5 minute policy when dealing with Gamestop. I only go there because I get free Gamestop cards and I just go in get what I want and I'm gone. I allow no time for the madness to set in from some of the employees.
I would like Sony to make a Supercharged PS3. Give me back all my ports. USB in the back. More RAM. Wireless N support. Faster Blu-Ray drive. 500GB-1TB Hard drive. Basically a PS3.5.
Did I miss anything guys?
Hair dryer
A 500GB(60GB) refurbished PS3 for 399 is a sweet deal….the b/c is a win alone
Nowhere does it specify the original model nor the BC capabilities of the machine.
"a used PS3 with a massive 500GB hard drive, bundled together with a media hub (which increases the number of USB slots from 2 to 4)"
This indicates that it is either a Slim model (very likely) or a standard 80 or 160. Only 2 USB ports built into the machine is an easy way to determine that it is not a BC model! Sorry to crush your dreams, but if you want to play PS2 games, get a PS2!
it's in fact not b/c because it states that it has only 2 usb ports and that the media reader makes it 4 usb slots.
A b/c ps3 has 4 usb slots naturally and since this doesn't, it's not b/c.
not worth buying refurbished considering the systems poor reliability.
tis why i dont buy anything used, you just dont know what your getting.
for all you know the systems been left on for days at a time, and has been sitting in a oven for the last 6 months!
no thanks, id rather pay the extra 100 bucks or so and know its new and never used.
nothing worse then spending 1000 bucks on something, then have it break months later like my 60GB launch system did.
O, well almost nothing.
spending 3.5K on a laptop, then have it break on you 6 weeks later.
unbelievable how unreliable things are these days!
what happened to the good old days where things were built like bricks?
my old motorolla i bought over 12 years ago is still working!
never broke on me once!
my iphone 4 has been to repairs twice since i bought it in august!
Maybe that's true if you by the cheapest junk Made in China or xbox, but if you buy quality hardware and treat your electronics with care that's simply not true. I'm a tech geek and I can't even remember the last time ANYTHING electronics-wise I purchased that has broken down or needed any kind of repair, including my original "Fat" 20GB launch PS3.
Anyway, how is this a "good deal"? You can get a brand new PS3 for $250, a 500GB or bigger replacement HD for $50 and a high-quality hdmi cable for $4, hardly a total value of $400, especially for a refurb.
it is true, nothing these days is built the way they use to be!
i still got my very first laptop i bought 20 years ago, still going like brand new!
the 3K laptop i bought late last year is constantly overheating and turning off on me.
the old motorolla my father still has, dunno how old it is but very because its the size of a brick!
still working like brand new!
the HTC desire he bought less then a year ago the battery is dead, wont hold a charge for more then 6 hours.
hell even cars!
my father had a 92 WRX, modded the sh*t out of it kept it for 8 years and sold it with over 200K KMs on the clock!
now hes got a 2010 WRX, 6 weeks after purchase the airbag sensor is gone, the traction control is up the sh*tter, the sunroof does not work, and the quicktrack alarm system keeps activating during driving.
quite scary when your on the M4 doing 90KM/H then the bloomin engine stalls because the stupid alarm has cut it out!
even fridges.
when i was working with a friend of mine fixing them, allot of our customers had their systems for over 20 years!
then when they finally did break down, they bought new ones and we would be called in every month to fix them!
especially electrolux, they use to make the best compressors my 20 year old freezer downstairs is still running strong!
my nan bought the exact same model as mine, only new and its already broken the compressor seals kicked the bucket.
Last edited by ___________ on 3/16/2011 9:09:46 AM
Sounds like you (and your father) don't know how to take care of your property. I still have my original PS3, PS2 and PS1. I have a 3D0, the original nintendo, sega master system, super nintendo and nintendo 64. None of them have ever given me any hint of a problem. Cell phones, televisions, cars…..anything technological has to be taken care of. Not that hard to do.
like the others above have mentioned, i don't see how this is a good deal. the individual components don't even add up to $400.
every ps3 should come with hdmi cable, and a mic. not enough people on psn have a mic.
I think it was a mistake bundling a mic with every Xbox sold. It gave every child who doesn't understand how to be responsible with being anonymous on the internet a pass to turn LIVE into a haven of degenerates throwing around racism and every curse word in the book. There's a reason I never signed up for LIVE beyond the free trial. I couldn't stand listening to those idiots. At least with the way Sony has done it, not ever moron with a foul mouth is willing to go out and buy a mic so inevitably PSN airways are cleaner.
Based off of Amazon deals for all the accessories and then buying the only refurbished PS3 slim from the gamestop website (which is a 250GB model), it seems buying everything separately lands you saving about $4. I added links to each of the items I chose to come up with my conclusion in a post here, but it has to be approved by a moderator, which I hope it does. It's chop full of good info, I think, lol. There are of course cheaper versions of the items I suggested, but I thought about what brands Gamestop would include and tried going off that assumption, like Sony brand HDMI. It's a good deal, actually, if you're planning on buying a new PS3.
I've counted up all the accessories that are included (all Amazon.com prices), all the accessories added up to about $116.05 and taking into account the Refurbished PS3 Slim on Gamestop.com (the only slim the appeared to be available on the site was the 250GB model) being $280, that Supercharged deal, you'd save like $4 and end up with an extra 250GB HDD, lol. So if you don't already have a PS3 or need a new one, their deal is pretty decent! I'll even leave links to the items I referred to, and all of the amazon items has free shipping, I believe, so the estimated cost of it all separately should be about right.
500GB HDD (there are cheaper ones, but this particular one has a sweet 3GB Transfer rate):
$54.99
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Momentus-5400RPM-Internal-ST9500325AS-Bare/dp/B001R4BBL0/ref=sr_1_8?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1300298297&sr=1-8
PS3 Slim Media Hub (Nyko brand): $17.98
http://www.amazon.com/PS3-Slim-Media-Hub-Playstation-3/dp/B0038KORSA/ref=sr_1_1?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1300293423&sr=1-1
High Speed Sony HDMI Cable (there was one bundled with a USB Cable for an extra $25, but that seemed ridiculous): $14.99
http://www.amazon.com/PS3-Slim-Media-Hub-Playstation-3/dp/B0038KORSA/ref=sr_1_1?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1300293423&sr=1-1
Dualshock 3 Charging Base (This particular model has a port to plug in your Official PS3 Headset as well, it seems): $28.09
http://www.amazon.com/Playstation-Energizer-Power-Charging-System-3/dp/B001H4NMNA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300293767&sr=8-1
So yup, that's what all I based it off of. Also, found a 1TB HDD if you'd be willing to pay an extra $30 or so, lol, though it seems a bit slow.
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-MK1059GSM-internal-SATA-300-buffer/dp/B00467QF7A/ref=sr_1_33?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1300298578&sr=1-33
DeathOfChaos,
Just a few weeks before my PS3 decided to kick the bucket, I had installed a 640GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue Laptop HD from Amazon for only $69.99, plus free shipping.
And check my post above for 10 foot high-speed 1.4 color coded HDMI cables for less than $4.50.
And you can also get them with the Ethernet inside the HDMI cable for less than a buck more.
Last edited by BikerSaint on 3/17/2011 12:49:39 AM
@Biker sorry about your losses man thats some bad luck with your electronics.