FCC reveals PS3 model CECHG01 -- the el cheapo 40GB PS3?

Having just denied the existence of a low cost, entry level PS3, we weren't expecting to find a new PS3 model from Sony parked in the FCC exhibits list this morning. That's right, a new PlayStation 3 model CECHG01 was just unearthed. The juiciest of documents are all withheld upon Sony's request for confidentiality. However, we did manage to scrape up a few details: Bluetooth 2.0+EDR; 802.11b/g WiFi; a 3.2GHz CPU clock speed just like other PS3s; 66MHz ATA, 133MHz ATA, 33MHz PCI and 750MHz SATA1; and a bevy of ports including USB, HDMI, and Ethernet. At least that what it looks like after combing through the data. Nothing new, eh? So the reason for the new model number is likely the result of a hard disk change given Sony's preference for unique models reflecting changes in storage. However, for all we know that could be an increase and not a decrease in capacity so we'll all have to hold tight for now and watch this unfold.

[Via Pocket-lint and Spong]

[alex @ Sep 26th 2007 2:51AM]

In Soviet Canuckistan, the 'ol cheapo playstation' is the one where we cross the US border and buy for 200 dollars cheaper.

[Kaemon @ Sep 26th 2007 2:57AM]

In order to keep up that $600 price tag, increase the driver by 20gb every 4 months, that costs only a little bit, and they can continue to charge us money for a system we don't need :D

I need a 360 :

[badz @ Sep 26th 2007 3:14AM]

cute comment.. do u always have enough free time to bash a product which clearly has no concern to you?

on topic: id agree that it is sounding like either a change in hardware that wont be noticeable to the consumer, or perhaps its a larger/smaller drive. Being that Sony just shot down more of the 40gb rumors im not sure i would vote that its a new sku, but who knows.... perhaps they can play on their own words and release a cheaper sku stating "this isnt a price drop, its simply a new package". as always, well have to simply wait n see what it is

[Kaemon @ Sep 26th 2007 3:24AM]

"cute comment.. do u always have enough free time to bash a product which clearly has no concern to you? "

I have owned every sony gaming system that they have ever made. PS1 broke a month after I got it, Ps2 broke 3 times. Amazingly enough both my PSP's are still working. I've followed sony and grown to dislike how they handle their console market. I think they've really gotten a grasp on handhelds now, but they have failed in consoles this generation.

How does it not concern me anyway? I'm a person looking for a new system, and am a potential buyer, you know, the people that they CARE about now. Once you buy the system they got you, everything they do now is for people like me who are looking into what system to buy.

Just because I said something negative about the PS3, don't assume that its of no concern to me.

[david @ Sep 26th 2007 10:05AM]

No, your comment was a hate rant, not a constructive comment. You said you were a potential "buyer" but by your rant you obviously are not. You having owned all those Playstations and having broken them all leads me to believe that something you or someone in your home is doing to the machines. I've never had a PS break, or a Sega, or an Atari, so I wonder what the real problem is with your systems, the system or something else. I would suggest for your next system you buy a 360. Then you can be unhappy after that one breaks and you can hate them too.

[Kaemon @ Sep 26th 2007 10:52AM]

Nope!!!!!!!!!

Launch PS1, Disk drive failed.
PS2, Once again, stopped reading disks
PS2, Suddenly stopped working
PS2, Got bumpped against, didn't actually fall over, but destroyed the disk in it by scratching it and then stopped working with any other disk.

Oh and I WAS a potential buyer. I've been thinking about what to buy for quite a long time, ya know. But I decided that the PS3 is too much for how little it offers. You're just ticked that another person isn't on your side and blindly follows what the company says.

[Jon Graft @ Sep 26th 2007 2:05PM]

"I have owned every sony gaming system that they have ever made. PS1 broke a month after I got it, Ps2 broke 3 times. Amazingly enough both my PSP's are still working. I've followed sony and grown to dislike how they handle their console market. I think they've really gotten a grasp on handhelds now, but they have failed in consoles this generation.

How does it not concern me anyway? I'm a person looking for a new system, and am a potential buyer, you know, the people that they CARE about now. Once you buy the system they got you, everything they do now is for people like me who are looking into what system to buy."


So you think buying an XBOX 360 is a better idea? Need I (or any of the thousands of people) remind you that almost HALF of the XBOX 360's get the RRoD? Microsoft's customer service is WAY worse than SONYs. And SONY is leading the next generation....XBOX didn't have an HDMI port, so Microsoft stole SONY's idea on that one. Microsoft even said they might make a Blu-Ray drive for the 360 in the future...because SONY IS LEADING IN THE HD-NEXT GEN RACE! Maybe not in sales, but they are truly leading in technology.

[Kaemon @ Sep 26th 2007 6:18PM]

Yeah.. but... see, they don't charge $80 to repair a $130 device.
And they refused to repair my PS1 back in the days.

Microsoft at least is trying hard to fix it.

[GL @ Sep 29th 2007 3:31PM]

Holy cow, Kaemon! I think we get the picture. You don't like Sony. Ok, that's fair. But a $399 PS3 is good no matter how you try and spin it.

I think you should get your 360 and stfu! See how simple that was?

[Kaemon @ Sep 29th 2007 4:07PM]

I love sony.... they've given me great games...

I'm just no fan of their latest tactics. Ya know?

I just keep commenting because other people keep replying. Ha.

[JohnQ @ Oct 2nd 2007 12:29AM]

You know what, I don't understand why the hell everybody keeps bashing Kaemon when he's being the most reasonable in every one of his comments!

People are saying all sorts of things about him, putting words in his mouth, and telling him to shut up!

Read over Kaemon's comments and the responses he got and tell me who's being the most hateful.

Now I can understand what it would feel like to be attacked by a pack of rabid dogs.

I don't mind fanboys - I just don't like the ones that foam at the mouth.

[reticulate @ Sep 26th 2007 3:38AM]

I don't get this. One of the biggest draws for the PS3 (and something that was widely mentioned) is that you can change out the hard drive for a bigger one whenever you feel like it.

Why not just have one SKU, on hard drive size, and leave it at that? It's not the hard drive that's making it expensive anyway - it's the Blu-Ray drive and everyone knows it.

[Solomon @ Sep 27th 2007 11:27PM]

Well, so far, the three PS3s have been three different models.
20 gB 'core' : no 802.11, no card slots, no silver trim, Cell BE and EE chips
60 gB : included 802.11 and card slots, silver trim, Cell and EE
80 gB : same as 60 gB, but no legacy chip; emulates PS2 game compatibility

It is said that eventually, the PS3s with the EmotionEngine will also resort to emulation. Then, system updates concerning old games will be the same for all models, which saves their developers from coding EmotionEngine utilization...

Personally, I would take the core model. I'm sure that it will produce a little less heat and power consumption; besides, wired connections are better, anyway. And I have high speed external card readers, so I really do not need the slots built-in.

I have a question, though: why no 1394 (FireWire, iLink)? That would truly make it high-end, and give it something the other consoles don't have. It would also make sense for use with all of Sony's other high-end electronics. I can see someone displaying high definition videos, filmed with a HandyCam of course, through the PS3. Besides, the PS2 had a plug! Why did they push it on PS2 (original models, at least), but not on the PS3?

[TheGuy @ Sep 26th 2007 5:03AM]

Ignore this post

[D.king @ Sep 26th 2007 5:52AM]

https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov...586&native_or_pdf=pdf

More tech details here.

[D.king @ Sep 26th 2007 5:55AM]

https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/retrieve.cgi?attachment_id=838586&native_or_pdf=pdf

again, now with working link.

[Robert @ Sep 26th 2007 6:59PM]

the controller model number listed inthe PDF that DJking provided is different from the one currently available. The PDF lists CECHCZ1J, where as current sixaxis controllers are CECHZC01. could this be including dualshock?

[alexballiet @ Sep 26th 2007 6:22AM]

i stuck a 200gb 7200rpg drive in mine cause i love my ps3 and a have the spare money to do it. That kind of excessive for most people, buy why the hell do we need a drive that has 20gb of additional space (or less space). Sony would save some cash on buying a million 120gb drives (although they would probably have to eat the additional cost on them for the thing to sell.) When i went to buy my ps3 i laughed at the storage capacity compared to my 120gb 360 elite, so i went and bought the 200gb drive because the drive isn't proprietary like the damn 360's is (still love the 360.)

[yacoub @ Sep 26th 2007 7:19AM]

Maybe this will be the $299 PS3.

[Rob @ Sep 26th 2007 7:54AM]

If Sony thinks that 20gigs should make a price difference of $100 either up or down. Then, give me a PS3 with 4gigs (enough for the OS) and sell it to me for $250-300. I'd be more than glad to pick up another PS3.

[david @ Sep 26th 2007 10:08AM]

Hell, sell it to me for $299 without any drive and I'll buy a 120gb drive at Fry's!

[The Aggie CEO™ @ Sep 26th 2007 9:17AM]

smh........

Ima need to know the price of this.......

I want one but if it doesnt drop to $400 or less in the next few months I'll just wait 'til it does.....

but damn if 20GB is a big deal.........it only takes 4-5 minutes to install a bigger one and I've got a few 300GB hard drives that need a home

[icepop4who @ Sep 26th 2007 9:25AM]

If the capacity is decreased, this thing must drop below $400 or it's just going to be pointless. The 20GB version didn't work so what makes this one work? 20GB? eh...

If the capacity increses, another one of those clearance sales (selling out 60GB for 80GB) would definately help. Or maybe keeping 80GB at $499 and another 160GB at $599 would be nice.

[david @ Sep 26th 2007 10:10AM]

I have a feeling its the new 40gb version with the "simplified" hardware. AKA, no PS2 chip (or whatever they call it, emotion engine?)

[ET @ Sep 26th 2007 5:51PM]

The 20GB didn't work because it's missing a lot of stuffs from the 60GB. The 40GB should be exactly the same as other models except for the harddrive size.

[BLee @ Sep 26th 2007 9:40AM]

I held out this long, Im not gonna buy one now for a smaller hard drive from minimal price difference.. Imma wait till next year when they start bundling in the dual shock 3..

[A C @ Sep 26th 2007 9:56AM]

I knew it. Thats why they all have this movie rebates for the PS3 and Amazon even adds 2 additional movies making that 7 blu-ray movies free. I think a price drop is coming for the 80gb.

[kgainey @ Sep 26th 2007 10:19AM]

so what

[The ZeroCorpse @ Sep 26th 2007 10:50AM]

How much crap do you need to store in your video game console, anyway?!?!

Just give me something that plays games, dammit.

[Silverfrog @ Sep 26th 2007 11:28AM]

It's not about MP3s. The HDD allows games to cache information too. You like faster load times? You will need that HDD then.

[Silverfrog @ Sep 26th 2007 11:23AM]

Here's an idea. Sell one and only one SKU with a 40 GB hard drive for $299-$350, like the original Xbox did. All game producers will be comfortable knowing all PS3s will have a hard drive for their games. And, then people can buy a larger hard drive on their own. Everyone benefits.

[Ryan P @ Sep 26th 2007 12:05PM]

Why don't they just sell it with a cheap 10GB drive an let you do whatever you want? If you want 120GB just slap it in.

[ET @ Sep 26th 2007 5:54PM]

because 10gb is not that cheap. it's not like 20Gb is 2x more expensive than 10gb. It's probably 10% cheaper at this time.

[Ryan P @ Sep 26th 2007 6:02PM]

That's kind of my point. These companies seem to be finding a $100 differential between hard drive sizes when it's really only 20 bucks. Let people put their own in at half price.

[djism @ Sep 26th 2007 1:57PM]

in other web page(GAMEPRO) I saw that sony could get out the USB ports or the backwards compatibility, I think that they could get the backwards compatubility out but, the USBs? no, how are we going to charge the controller, a pc could work but we trust the ps3 to do the job!

please, not the USBs!

[James Hendricks Jr @ Sep 26th 2007 9:08PM]

I just happen to be a former 360 owner--I loved the original Xbox, and mine lasted all the way until the last week before the 360 launched. I never had any hardware problems with it, it was great. Then the 360 I brought at launch--first 9 months were perfect, and suddenly it died via the RRoD like so many others. I got a replacement unit right after New Year's, but the fact that I had to send in a 360 barely a year old..I never got over that.

Fast forward to last week, and during some Bioshock playtime, my 360 began to freeze up and crash..oh no I said, and despite all my intention of playing through Halo 3 first, I sold my 360 and all the games and controllers. The 360 has come the hardware equal of Windows--simply unreliable. From what I'm seeing and reading, the PS3 will start showing its potential soon enough, and while there's no Haloo 3 type title just yet, the PS3 is going to have UT3. Any lower priced PS3 will be perfect timing for me!

[Terry @ Sep 30th 2007 1:38PM]

Yeah I feel your pain. I have had 3 360's and they all had issues. The 1st had the RRoD, 2nd would lock up(returned before the the RRoD happened) and the 3rd simply would not recognize any games straight out of the box... Oh well... I still would like one, but not till the hardware issues have been resolved...

So in the meantime I have a PS3. The games are not quite there. But I just picked up God of War 1 & 2, those are some cool games. Even if there were designed for the PS2.

There are pro's and con's on gboth systems. As far as I'm concerned, as long as they make some QUALITY products I will buy. I just took back a LCD tv the other day because it started to crap-out. Electronics are more complicated and are not made like they used to be....

[butlersp @ Sep 28th 2007 12:22AM]

Another idea is that Sony may just release a hard drive less system and let the consumer pick the size drive they want. Figure buy the system for $350 - $400 then still be able to get a drive larger than 80gig for the $600 model. It makes sense given that Sony is looking at adding Tivo like functionality next year.

[diggmediggyou @ Sep 28th 2007 4:02AM]

This one could be a doozy. It might just be the unconfirmed 40GB PS3.
But in case we're really see Sony's next-gen console, the Xbox 360 will finally have a worthy opponent, besides that magnificent Nintendo Wii.

So, as a consumer like me, i hope to see the price war begin.