SCPH-39001 PS2 project introduction

Sony’s PlayStation 2 is the best selling video game console of all time. By selling over 155 million systems Sony dominated the sixth generation of consoles. For comparison Microsoft only sold 24 million original Xbox consoles. At $299.99 the PS2 wasn’t the cheapest console of its generation, but being priced less than most DVD players helped people justify the higher price. Both the Dreamcast and the GameCube cost $199.99, but didn’t support DVD playback. This is the start to a series of posts covering the fat SCPH-39001 PS2 project.

I recently bought my fat PlayStation 2 for $35, less than 12% of the cost of a brand new system in 2000. The model I ended up with was the SCPH-39001, which began selling in late 2002 at the midpoint between the launch of the PS2 fat and the launch of the PS2 slim. I primarily went with a fat PS2 because of the internal hard drive expansion bay that will allow me to play my games off of a hard drive instead of DVDs.

I also own an SCPH-70012 PS2 slim console that I’ll be writing about.

Topics

Here’s a short list of topics, in no particular order, that I’m planning to cover:

  • Console teardown and reassembly.
  • Console cleaning.
  • Thermal pad replacement.
  • Fan replacement.
  • Softmodding using a memory card.
  • Hardmodding using a modchip.
  • Installing an IDE hard drive.
  • SATA hard drive mod.
  • HDMI video output.
  • Powering the console using an external PC power supply.
  • Mounting in a computer case.

For an up to date listing of topics that I have covered, see my projects page. You can also check out the SCPH-39001 PS2 category page, and my SCPH-70012 PS2 category page.

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marcelo
marcelo
July 28, 2017 1:36 PM

wooooow hdmi for a ps2 fat im going too check this out very cool your work