I would really like to install a 500GB SATA HDD or at least a 7200RPM HDD.Could anyone explain which one would be better for skyrim and why.I am willing to shuck out cashe but have heard that using a SATA drive would not be that much of a performance increase.I also don't get the part about having to change the format of the HDD from NTSC or is it NSTC from whatever that is to FAT32.I really need someone to explain the process.I know it isn't that hard to change the format but is it possible to buy hard drives that are already FAT32.Thanks any help on this subject would be greatly appreciated or if the investment might even be worth it thanks.FUS RO DAH!!!

First of all, neither will improve performance with Skyrim. Skyrim's performance issues stem from poor design decisions and a lack of optimsation resulting in the game needing more memory than is available on the PS3, Bethesda's answer to this little problem was a massive swap file in the mandatory install. While a faster drive will give a faster swap speed, it won't give you a noticable difference in performance, the game will still break down when it reaches that memory threshold and get progressively worse after that.

Second, if this hard drive is going into your PS3, as in internally, then you don't need to worry about file format. The PS3 uses a special Sony patented file format and encryption and the console will format any newly inserted drive to that format during the setup. It literally is a case of insert drive, switch on console and then wait for it to finish.

A 500gb drive is definitely worth it if you have a lot of games, after formatting and encryption you're left with about 415gb, so if you buy a lot of stuff from the PS Store or have PS+ it'll prove itself a worthy investment almost immediately. Anyone with PS+ will find a bigger drive pretty much essential, it's also great to not have to delete an old game every time you buy a new one which used to be a huge problem for me with my 60gb fat and even my 120gb slim, but just for Skyrim? Nah.

A faster drive will be faster, obviously. But in the case of Skyrim, not by much, infact barely noticeable. You will see the biggest performance increase in games that consist of many small files like Gran Turismo 5, while Skyrim consist of a few very large files. This is especially true if you get a SSD drive which gives a huge GT5 loading boost.