Backstory: I am unfortunate some would say that the I just got into the PS3 when the Super Slims came out. I never owned a phat PS3 or any kind that was fully backwards compatible. I could have had a PS3 phat that did everything at one time but bought a 250 gig used super slim model instead for the same price, because I kept hearing stories of the Fully compatible models breaking and acting its nasty blinking light issue. So I am hesitant to this day to buy a PS3 fully compatible model do to its short life span. among most of it's players
I eventually bought 2 PlayStation 3, super slims both the 250 gig and the 500 gig models.
the 250 gig model never gets hot as long as you don't use HDMI then it gets a little hot but never burns up unlike what people say the bigger PlayStation 3's do. the 250 gig at nature runs much faster with both reading PS1 and PS3 discs then my 500 model by nature ever gig did. of course my 500 gig PS3 was covered in thick nicotine thick enough to bury my nails in upon it's arrival.
it was 2015 when I purchased my Super Slim 250 gig (by nature) model about a year later when I got my 2nd Super Slim 500 gig model (by nature)
the 500 gig by nature? All I can say is it seem more sluggish than the 250 by nature however it seems to keeps it's cool at all times better then my 250 did, even though the dam thing is covered in an inch think of cigarette smoke and ash residue from it arrival.
The laser went vary quickly but of course it was used, not sure how much but, used and filthily I had cleaned the lasers multiple times in it, still didn't work and even when I had both lasers replaced the darn thing would constantly reject PS1 games by giving my data options (the option to explore the CD) instead of the option to play the game. Personally I don't think that the 500 gig super slims in which are supposed to be the latest PS3 on the market. are compatable with PS1 games at all. though they generate less heat buildup. but they do not play games vary well it is even a chore for mine to load PS3 games and I can forget PS1 games because all I could do on it was read the contents of the PS1 CD nothing else and SONY never responded to help me to fix this issue
My point but If you want a new PS3 for your game room take my advice from experence and go with the 250 gig. I bought that thing used and its read at least 3000 CD and 300 Blu Rays and still holds up to this day, only with slightly less heat tolerance on HDMI output. then on my 500 gig model.
SO you know what I did I swapped the hard drive and gave it away because It still plays PS3 games and I did clean it and the 500 (at nature)+ gig gave me nothing but problems
SO now I have a 500 gig harddirve inside a 250 gig model. and if you guys really want to take a chance you could swap out a 20 gig for a 500 gig or something bigger because all PS3's take SATA laptop hard drives for any newbies out there.
There is nothing like cranking out an old PS2 for the PS2 games so I highly recommend a PlayStation 2 phat and A PlayStation 3 Super Slim 250 gig model( by nature) in your collection. Those 2 systems seem to me to be the better builds
Dont't even bother taking a PS3 super slim apart there is a switch that is called a limit switch I had to hire a tech guy just to put this tiny switch back onto the console in which is vary hard to see and extremely easy to break off when your working on any super slim so watch out and don't say I didn't warn ya