Some folks say you might put a jumper onto your ssd to force it establish negotiation at low speed. Do you have some jumper slot on your ssd?

I figured out the problem I had to put a system update : http://us.playstation.com/support/systemupdates/ps3/pc_update/index.htm onto an external hard drive and update my PS3 from there. At that point my SSD formatted. I am currently restoring from my previous backup, with 3 minutes remaining. I will keep you guys posted, but I think for a fair assessment I will need to play 4 consecutive hours, which I can't fooking wait to do LOL!

On a side note, if you've read this thread you will see I have jumped through 100000x hoops to get this working. During this process I might have figured something out which may help game play. Before I backed up my system I deleted ALL of the content from my old HD except save game files. After I backed it up, I couldn't get my hard drive to work because I had stripped the screws. It was 1am so I had to wait till the next day to go find a new HD guide (I have the really crappy model guide which I guess breaks a lot and they don't use anymore). I had nothing to do so I re-installed the game data on my hard drive and ran around abit. The game was running VERY well. Much better than it had been. SInce there was no point in completing objectives as I would be using my backup the next day I went to Solitude and Whiterun and other mega-lag zones. I proceeded to basically kill the entire town. I was having instances of me fighting 5-10 NPC at once in the town with very little lag. This makes me think that possibly cleaning up your HD and reinstalling the game data may be a temporary fix. However, I only played for about an hour so this is rather inconclusive. I can tell you though that before I cleaned up my HD and reinstalled the game data I wouldn't last 5 minutes in those cities with 5 NPC chasing me around, regardless of how long I had been playing.

Did you ever think maybe it was more of a fresh hardrive not the fact that its SSD. In all tests of PS3's I've read it made NO difference or made it slower.

http://www.gamespot.com/features/playstation-3-solid-state-drive-upgrade-report-updated-6192258/

All you have to do is REBUILD the HDD Database and FILE SYSTEM through the SAFE MODE MENU.
Google "rebuild PS3 database" its the same process for both, just do File System then Database.

My Save is 9.1 MB, i see a few frame drops, thats it.

I've already done hdd cleanup and game reinstalling. I had no noticable improvement except that I get when restart the game.

Well I'm only 30 minutes in but the game is incredibly smooth on my SSD, and load times seem a little quicker. We'll see in a few hours.

If it doesn't work just return the HDD. I know best buy would allow you to return your SSD if its within the return period, used or not.

I'm currently living in Korea, and returning it might not be that easy. Even if it doesn't work I'll just hold onto the SSD for when I build my gaming computer soon. Should have just built it for Skyrim, but figured PS3 and 42" TV would be better....little did I know LOL.

So far the game is running VERY smooth. Load times also seem a bit faster. I'm only about 45 min in though, so we'll see.

Great news man!
Could you please try some intensive scenes like fighting with citizen and guards, riding a horse, fighting with mages casting tons of spells (winterhold college for example)?

SSD does make a difference, though, especially for huge games that read data off of the HDD constantly. Mst of the people doing those benchmark tests have no idea what they are measuring since 9 times out of 10 the speed that they are clocking is how fast a game installs from the bluray drive to the SSD... Which is completely dependent on the bluray drive itself, not the SSD. Digital download games run a helll of a lot smoother on them, so it's fair to say that a game like Skyrim, that is pretty much entirely installed to the HDD would also run a lot smoother, especially since it is constantly accessing the gigantic save file as well.

About an hour and half of straight play. Game is running extremely smooth, and load times are faster. I just did a pretty long mission/dungeon crawl at Northwatch Keep and had like 1 or 2 small fps drop when fighting like 4 melee guards with 2 casters on me and my helper casting as well. The slow down was very brief. Everything else has been perfect. I fought a dragon, and it was nice to actually have no slowdown during the fight. Haven't had a clean dragon fight in a *LONG* time. They aren't as hard with more than 5fps LOL. Riding a horse, Whiterun etc. has been great. I'll drop a post in another few hours see if it holds up. I would be totally screwed at this point with my old HD that is 100% sure.

Also, I'm not about 65 hours in with about a 10MB file.

Perfect. Readied my 120 bux for new ssd...
Keep posting your experience, it's very helpful!

I had a hell of a time getting it all to work. Be very careful when unscrewing your original HD from the guide. Make sure you have the exact size screwdriver. I used one size too small and ruined a screw. I had to track down another guide, luckily I'm living in Seoul and there is a massive electronics market about 20 minutes away from me. Also, my SSD wouldn't work at first, I had to download an update and use an external drive in order to get my PS3 to recognize/format my SSD. I linked the update site from Sony in a previous post.

Also, stuff is loading MUCH faster. When I enter/exit my hose in Whiterun it's near instant. When I go into Dragons reach it takes like 2 seconds. Fast travel is noticeably faster as well.

It's weird that the SSD wouldn't just format on without an update O.o. Mine slotted in just fine and immediately offered to format itself. Perhaps you need to make sure you are either connected to the Internet or just have the latest system update installed beforehand (which there's no reason not to have unless you're doing illegalities as you need it to access the PSN anyway). Also, since the SSD has no moving parts, you can technically let it rest inside the PS3 with only 3 screws to the bracket as long as you don't lose "the blue screw" which is the main very important one holding it against the SATA connectors =).

Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday (had to attend real life commitments and couldn't play Skyrim :<) but it's great to see others chipping in with their own experiences.



As for the loading times for games with an SSD, the difference comes down to file systems and folder structures. It's MUCH harder reading 18 folder containing in excess 15000 files (like skyrim or Gran Turismo) than a single file or low file count game that is optimized to run in that environment. To show the difference, it takes roughly the same amount of time to copy 1000 files of one meg each spread up though 15 different folders as it does to copy a single ten gigabyte file to a USB drive. It's just pain to read or write many files in sequence, which is where the SSD shines.

It more than halves both install time and load time of Gran Turismo (see http://www.tomshardware.com/news/playstation-ps3-ssd-upgrade-loading,11811.html) and since it has fixed all Skyrim issues for several people, obviously it's not effectless here as well.

Any updates so far, Funkfactory?

Yep, over four hours of straight game play, and it's running perfectly. As I said, one or two very minor and momentary slow downs in large fights. Other than that it's so smooth, and things load notably faster. I not longer care when I accidentally need to go back in a shop etc cause it takes like 2 seconds now to load. I've been all over the map. Everything is good and consistent. I can finally enjoy the game as it was meant to be played. I really hope Beth's patch fixes it like this for everyone else. I would recommend waiting for others who can't buy a SSD. It's a shame to play this game laggy.

Go ahead and order your SSD, if you don't want to wait a few weeks and *hope* that the patch fixes everything.

Already ordered, will be shipped todays evening. Thanks for your (and Asuka's) help and experience!

Bethesda, is smoking crack if they think I am going to buy a hard drive, to rectify their crappy ass code!! Also why does it not say buying a new HDD, is REQUIRED on the back of the box.. trying to tell me I need to speed my cache, up for this game.. Insane.. I remember when I bought oblivion, for the PC and I had to update my video card, add memory download the community graphic fixes, etc. etc. go into the .ini file, to fix numbers in it, draw distance etc. etc. just to get the game to freaking run properly, AND, now I am seeing poor schmucks on the console going out to buy fancy dancy HDD's to put in their PS3's just so they can play one video game?!

this is 2011, not 2000, or 2006, if the game is broken on my ps3 its not my problem, its the game's problem... None of my other ps3 games are broken, and quite a few of them have big world in them as well to play in like red dead redemption, assassins creed games, dark souls, dead island, etc. etc. going out to buy parts for you console to play one video game, is pretty sad..

Its thanks to them that I'm actually considering buying a spanking new 360 just to play Skyrim. I want to sue so bad but I'm not millionaire.

Funkfactory grats. Happy it works for you.

Buying the Xbox is the best solution so far. And most expensive yet. Sad but true.

Can anybody recommend a good SSD for the PS3? That cost no more than ￡100? I dont need something massive, even 60gb would be enough..

Ok, i found two....

OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-60G) [AGT3-25SAT3-60G]
- Capacity: 60GB
- Controller: SandForce SF-2281
- Maximum Read: 525MB/sec
- Maximum Write: 475MB/sec
- Max I/O Per Second (IOPS): 50,000 IOPS (4KB File)
- NAND Flash: Multi-Level Cell (MLC)
- Interface: SATA-III / 6Gbps (Backwards compatible with SATA-II / 3Gbps)
- TRIM Support (Requires Windows 7)

Link: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-075-OC

Or

OCZ Vertex 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (VTX3-25SAT3-60G) [VTX3-25SAT3-60G]
- Capacity: 60GB
- Controller: SandForce SF-2281
- Maximum Read: 535MB/sec
- Maximum Write: 480MB/sec
- Sustained Write: 455MB/sec
- Max I/O Per Second (IOPS): 60000 IOPS (4KB File)
- NAND Flash: Multi-Level Cell (MLC)
- Interface: SATA-III / 6Gbps (Backwards compatible with SATA-II / 3Gbps)
- TRIM Support (Requires Windows 7)

Link: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-079-OC&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=910

Both OCZ, both look simular, the size is ok for me, will that "extra" little speed for read/write make much difference forthe extra ￡10 cost?

From the research I've done during this process it doesn't really matter what SSD you get. The ones you listed are SATA3, and PS3 is only SATA2. They are backwards compatible, but you get no benefit from buying an extra fancy SSD for your PS3 as the SATA interface is old compared to the newest drives (I think I am FAR computer literate).

This will fix the mass lag problems? Bethesda should just fix the game...

so an SSD SATA 2.. do OCZ Agility have these? although, im a tech head (i know about my mobo's, ram, processors etc but never invested in an SSD ever, so the SSD tech spec and general market are almost foreign to me, i know the benefits of one, but never justified spending x amount of money until now, although id happily of dropped ￡400 on a new gfx card). Your probably thinking why im playing on ps3 now? I sold my rig when i moved to Sicily last year, i still build computers for people but dont own a desktop anymore, just my alienware m11x for my internet needs and i got all my cross over and jumper cables if i ever need to back up anybody internal hdd.

Also to note, i cant find any SATA2 SSD's about, the ones i do find with the same size and spec are the same price...

Aynbody can recommend a good SSD?

Apparently the OCZ Agility 60GB is "overkill" but what about the OCZ Vertex 60GB, roughly the same price, but the read/write speeds are lower and its SATA II and not SATA3. Any help is appreciated