PS3 Is it worth hunting down a CFW compatible PS3?

DisasterMo

DisasterMo

Forum Noob
Hello folks!

I have a 3000 model PS3 and am wondering if it would be worth it to explicitly hunt down a CFW compatible PS3 or just stick to HEN.
I know, it sounds like a "pure opinion" kind of question, but what I would actually like to know is:

What would I be missing out on? What can be achieved with CFW, that is not possible with HEN?

I know that HEN needs to be re-activated on every boot, and while that's mildly annoying, I'd be willing to put up with that. If possible, I would really love to have QoL improvements, like what can be had with plugins on PS Vita: being able to use different/newer controllers, dump games and game saves to HDD and transfer those to NAS, make snapshots of the RAM and effectively have save states for PS3 titles - that would be so good.

Maybe some of those ideas are too outlandish even for CFW, in which case please be kind. I am new to PS3 homebrew and don't yet know what to expect.

Thank you for your consideration!
 
DisasterMo said:
Hello folks!

I have a 3000 model PS3 and am wondering if it would be worth it to explicitly hunt down a CFW compatible PS3 or just stick to HEN.
I know, it sounds like a "pure opinion" kind of question, but what I would actually like to know is:

What would I be missing out on? What can be achieved with CFW, that is not possible with HEN?

I know that HEN needs to be re-activated on every boot, and while that's mildly annoying, I'd be willing to put up with that. If possible, I would really love to have QoL improvements, like what can be had with plugins on PS Vita: being able to use different/newer controllers, dump games and game saves to HDD and transfer those to NAS, make snapshots of the RAM and effectively have save states for PS3 titles - that would be so good.

Maybe some of those ideas are too outlandish even for CFW, in which case please be kind. I am new to PS3 homebrew and don't yet know what to expect.

Thank you for your consideration!
Click to expand...
CFW is deemed much better for a number of reasons, you get a full jailbreak and the ability to customise everything you need including system binaries, but then again it can also depend on your needs, for someone playing GTA or COD/BO2 online a lot, toggling HEN on/off might prove safer.

Am pretty sure there will be a CFW equivalent for models from 3xxx up one day but I cannot say when that will be so if I were you, for average gaming needs, I would get a slim 21xx or 25xx compatible with CFW.
 
bguerville said:
CFW is deemed much better for a number of reasons,
Click to expand...

I get that. I've read the same statement multiple times already, but I'm still missing the details, you know?
I know already that 21xx/pre 2011 25xx are probably the best options to go (for me at least - not interested in backwards compatibility, since I own both a PS1 and PS2; compatibility don't get much better than og hardware), but here's an extreme scenario: What if all I can find are 20xx? Would you still recommend me to go for it?

bguerville said:
Am pretty sure there will be a CFW equivalent for models from 3xxx up one day but I cannot say when
Click to expand...

Wait, for real? Are people still looking into that? That is great news! I was afraid development on that front was dying out, if not already dead. I don't mind waiting for a CFW, even if it'll be years still. I have lot's of fun stuff left do with my other consoles to bridge that gap.
 
Berion said:
read HDD outside PS3
Click to expand...
So, like, on a different device? I can see the benefits of being able to do that, but it's probably not an absolute necessity if I can still read from & write to the HDD via network, right?

Btw, can I access the internal drive via network with HEN? That should be handled by a homebrew app, which gives me hope that I might?
Also, external drives do not get encrypted, do they? Or do they have to be, to be able to load games from them?
 
Benefit from it is only data recovery solution. Because, You know, internal storage is encrypted per console key. Without key, You cannot decrypt it, and this is for what reason ERK is needed for such task. Imagine situation when You didn't finished game because console died, and let's assume that doing reballing or any other fix is to costly. When You have this key, You can connect HDD to PC and copy any data which You want (system settings, passwords, licenses, save games, trophies, games, whatever).

I'm not a HEN user but if I'm correct, it is fully LV2 hacked, and to internal HDD, only LV2 defend access. So I believe You have full access to its contents from file manager on PS3 side or FTP client on PC side. Until console will stop works. ;)

External storage media aren't encrypted.
 
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Thank you for all this insight. Having the ability to decrypt the internal drive is definitely useful, but again, I don't find it to be essential. Backups should be done continuosly, anyway. And if one does, system failure seems a lot less scary, don't you think?

I should dig through the available homebrew one of these days, maybe an automated backup solution is already available.

But please, if you know of any other feature that sets CFW apart from HEN, I would love to learn more details about this topic!
 
DisasterMo said:
But please, if you know of any other feature that sets CFW apart from HEN, I would love to learn more details about this topic!
Click to expand...

The thing that stands out to me the most with CFW - esp. REBUG CFW is that you can change your PS3 into a DEX configuration. This allows you to access all the DEBUG settings of the PlayStation. For me, this has been very helpful, as I imported a PS3 from Japan, but run on PAL discs. So it was easy for me to change from NTSC to PAL in the debug settings. That's the thing that I would say sets CFW apart from HEN. Other than that, if you're just looking to run Homebrew as it is, then HEN should be enough :)
 
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