[spedmetal]

A few things about the new design.

1) The flip top does kind of suck, but less moving parts are always better, now there is no need for a tray and tray drive motor, or circuitry to drive it.

2) The flip top does add one major benefit, now its very easy for the average user to clean the laser eye if need be.

3) The majority of PS2 games need no HDD support so for like 98% of the PS2 game titles this PS2 will be just fine. And if your one of the few that needs an HDD there will be the PS3 which I'm sure will support PS2 titles that need HDD support (or at least I'm hoping)

4) It now has the network port built right into the motherboard thus eliminating the need to buy an online bundle or the NA separately. So all the non-HDD games that are online-able are able to be played right out of the box.

5) A major draw back of the new unit is that its kind of a throw-away design. Now that everything is all on the mobo other then the laser if something gets toasted its not going to be easy to fix if at all. Like the controller port is now integrated into the mobo along with the NA.

6) It appears they have combined the emotion engine (EE) and the graphic chip (GS) into one chip on the mobo. If you look at what appears to be the EE it says right on it EE+GS and I don't see a GS on the mobo any place. Every cool!!!

7) The external power supply is going to be kind of a pain in the ass. Now we will have to have just one more transformer eating up wall space and constantly drawing power unless its unplugged. But the benefit in it is less heat the PS2 has to dissipate and a better, cooler running unit.

I wonder how long it will take until its cracked? If you look at the mobo carefully there are many similarities with the current PS2's. The bios chip looks the same although I would be willing to bet a completely new bios code is one it. I hope they invested some research and money in a quality laser this time, but since this is a stream lined PS2 that is wishful thinking most likely.

What team do you think will crack it first?