this is just a hard drive upgrade right? i've been thinking about getting mine upgraded too since i'm starting to have to delete old stuff to install new stuff... if it's a significant performance benefit that might put me over the top....

SSDs work in the ps3?

You only get the advantage of the seek times. The read/write speeds are gimped by the archaic SATA 1 protocol.

Sure would be nice if we could build our own PS3 with modern bits. (Waiting on parts for a new PC build myself.) I wonder how much trouble I would get in by hacking something like that together?

yeah I popped in a seagate hybrid drive. works great.

To the OP: What is your SSD capacity? And besides performance of Dust, did it improve any other aspect of PS3 operations?

Thanks, this is an intriguing idea will definitely want to know more.

I am in the middle of a new PC build and while I wait on parts I decided to run an experiment. I tossed a Crucial M4 into my PS3 slim and I must say the improvement is surprising. Texture pop is gone. Quick select is fluid. Neocom is snappy. And something I didn't expect - stuttering is dramatically decreased. I haven't had enough time for an exhaustive review, but the results so far are more dramatic than anticipated.

It seems DUST is just creaking against the technologically ancient PS3 limitations. Optimization will help, but it makes me wonder how much better it will be when the PS4 eventually lands. Food for thought.

I got a 512Gb M4 SSD ;-) And i have no problems with DUST 514, most games i can fully install stutters less and loads a bit quicker...

SSDs work in the ps3?

Any 2.5" HDD/SDD will work, just be mindful of the height. I can't recall the specifics, but of the various standard heights out there, the tallest won't fit. I think it's the 1/6" high ones and taller that you have to avoid.

The OP surprises me though. The PS3 is supposed to be a SATA1 device. That means that even a 7200RPM drive is faster. The only time I think the SSD will win is if the game uses a very large number of very small files. Seek times would be lower.

yeah, you just got to make sure to research any update to the firmware for the HDD, before you put it in the ps3.

And there was 1 game that gave me grief because of the hybrid I have in my ps3, armored core 5's audio was wonky, the cut-scene background ambient sounds and music would only work upon fresh install of the game data file. When I contacted the game's live tech text chat help they said it was because of my hybrid.

Digital Foundry made an article about on SSD on PS3.
Read their conclusions since they are to be trusted.

"there may well be some performance improvements, but not enough to justify the expense. Upgrade your laptop with an SSD and that's where you'll really find value"

^^^
That is exactly the article I was talking about.
The key point in the article is this anyway:

The PlayStation 3 can't access ultra-fast SSD speeds. The PS3 can't stream data quickly enough by virtue of the fact that data needs to be buffered, and RAM is a finite resource on console. The PS3 obviously doesn't support TRIM either. It's in the 0.1ms access time that the SSD wins out, and that's effectively a standard on all makes.

You only get the advantage of the seek times. The read/write speeds are gimped by the archaic SATA 1 protocol.

"There is a big gain in a small number of circumstances"
This is exactly why DF says: "it's not enough to justify the expense".

Also why spend $100+ for a free to play FPS like Dust?!
Better save those money for the PS4 than spend them now on the PS3 for just few titles.

SSD (as DF says) "In the here and now, SSDs remain an expensive luxury, but they clearly represent the way forward for console technology - if not now, then definitely for next-gen machines."

Also you are judging the improvements on a partial/incomplete code which means that the results you are getting NOW definitely will not be the same you get in the final game.
Not to mention that Dust 514 qualitative inferior to many FPS on PS3, both in therms of performance & video quality, so a SSD can make it run/look better because there's far less to do than on a title such as Killzone 3.

I'm not telling people they should go out and buy one. I merely had one, experimented, and reported my findings here. Some guy has a 250GB SSD in his PS3, others might be happy with a 30 GB drive. Some people even bought PS3s and/or Vita just for DUST. Price/performance values are not universal.

Any 2.5" HDD/SDD will work, just be mindful of the height. I can't recall the specifics, but of the various standard heights out there, the tallest won't fit. I think it's the 1/6" high ones and taller that you have to avoid.

The OP surprises me though. The PS3 is supposed to be a SATA1 device. That means that even a 7200RPM drive is faster. The only time I think the SSD will win is if the game uses a very large number of very small files. Seek times would be lower.

I'd never heard of those before... My wallet does not appreciate this.

This is just a rough guess from what I remember reading, but +players might know more about this as it hit them hard when they got the 6 games for free offer.

You need double the space in GB for the game file you are downloading and attempting to install. So if you got a 20gb or 30gb, the system takes some to run the os, your game saves and data utility files take more, so if the Download is 10gb's or larger you sometimes can't install it, same goes for if you have an almost full HDD.

Any 2.5" HDD/SDD will work, just be mindful of the height. I can't recall the specifics, but of the various standard heights out there, the tallest won't fit. I think it's the 1/6" high ones and taller that you have to avoid.

The OP surprises me though. The PS3 is supposed to be a SATA1 device. That means that even a 7200RPM drive is faster. The only time I think the SSD will win is if the game uses a very large number of very small files. Seek times would be lower.

So, you'll have an advantage over players online?

Stuffed my 300GB SSD drive (that I don't have other uses for atm lol why did I buy it?) and it's amazing how much sharper everything in the game is now.

Pretty much perfect resolution / LOD through the whole game, and menu's etc are much more responsive. Highly recommended upgrade if you're not poor.