I've had a fat ps2 for some time and did the old solder in method and used hdloader and other stuff in the past but moved into world of warcraft and havent looked back until recently when I noticed my little brother had taken my ps2 and assumed it was his to sell off.
-needless to say, I'd like to get back into it, but havent stayed up on tech and updates.... I've seen refurbished slim pstwo systems at gamestop and stuff for like 60 bucks US, and just need to know what chip to look for and what models to stay away from.
The only thing with slim ps2 is that you need a v12/v13 in order to use hdloader on a PS2IDE hdd.
Higher Versions of PS2 slim are not capable of playing off an IDE hdd.
If its your goal to play off the hdd, you would be better off to find another FAT PS2/ network adaptor.
You can however use a USB external Drive to play games, but the compatiblity is no where near the same, and sometimes requires one to change the IOPRP or DNAS on the game itself
