I recently just bought a Slim myself, after owning a Phat that broke in 2004 and from what I gather, it's easier to use Swap Magic or other swap disks with the Slim, because blocking the sensors is easier with a set of magic keys.
a fat ps2 and a network adapter with the intention of adding a IDE hard drive to it.
my v7 is from 2000-2001 and it still has the original laser; i'm the original owner. no DRE's. and since i have a hard drive in it now, it only uses the laser during boot.
You don't even need the laser if u get Free McBoot on it. Anyway i'd go with a slim, cause buying fat ps2 now, doesnt seem like the laser will last long at all.
but yea.
slim - small/portable
no disk tray moving out less moving parts less problem
newer
seems to dislike some burned disk more than the fat ps2.
laser cost around $10-30.
dont get V12! scph70012 as they have laser issue, there are fix but...
Also note that V12 and V13 have IDE harddrive mods, however this requires soldering, and the cables/thing cost like 50$.
fat - internal ide hard drive... at this moment i cant think of much pros
they are old
buying a used will most likely have laser issues soon, because original owners didnt take good care of them, they may of been sold to numerous people, who did many laser fixes on it.
laser cost like 60$ made by some 3rd party or like 50$ original used, and hard to find.
There also some models with laser issues i forget which model, but i remember a remo? mod or something i think v9/v10, n something else.
Personally id go with phat with a NA and internal idehd. Yeah ok so the laser may be worn (but still usable) as you can only get them pre owned now but with FMCB ( latest version 1.8b) you dont really need it as you can configure it to boot straight into ule or hd loader or pretty much any home brew you want it to. Hope this helps.
P.S the 'fix' that vcbc was talking about is the romeo mod on v9 and v10 models
