Greener, lighter, 320GB PS3 confirmed

By Robert Purchese Published 20 June, 2011

CECH-3000B reporting for duty.

A new lighter, less power hungry, 320GB PlayStation 3 model has been revealed.

Sony's website, unearthed by Andriasang, calls the model CECH-3000B.

CECH-3000B units will ship this month in Japan.

The new PS3 costs ¥34,980 (£269).

Specifically, CECH-3000B will gobble 200 watts, weigh 2.6kg and pack a 320GB hard drive. You'll also get a DualShock 3 controller, power cable, AV cable and USB cable.

cech-3000B

Arr she's a handsome beast.

CECH-3000B comes in Charcoal Black.

Namco Bandai's Tales of Xillia X Edition PS3 bundle contains a 160GB version of the CECH-3000 hardware. Sony doesn't mention a separate 160GB unit.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (40) Latest comment 11 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Vice.Destroyer #1 11 months ago

    I want to buy a PS3 console, but can't shake the feeling that we will see a version of PS3 on sale for about £170 before the end of the year.

  • KayJay #2 11 months ago

    I hope this comes to the UK.
    I've been thinking of upgrading my launch 60gb, and seeing as my PS3 is on pretty much all the time the Power usage change is very welcome.

  • Beano #3 11 months ago

    "Specifically, CECH-3000B will gobble 200 watts"

    No it won't... it's rated for 200 watts but will use far less. The current CECH-2500 model only use around 80-90 watts at peak and around 60-65 watts when idle.

    Even the older 2000 and 2100 slim models used far less power:
    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digita...
    Edited by Beano at 20/06/11 @ 09:54

  • Silvergun-Blue #4 11 months ago

    @kj66246

    I miss my 60 gig, you're lucky your's has lasted so long. If you do upgrade it may be worth keeping hold of the 60, never lnow it may be worth something in the future.

  • slickster #5 11 months ago

    it will work out better if you just buy a 120gb ps3 slim for £180 and then buy a 500gb hard drive for £37. (£217) thats what i did job done.

  • Olemak #6 11 months ago

    "Gobbles 200 watts" probably means that it will come with a 200 watt power supply, but it probably won't use all of them at any time.

    What did they do to reduce power consumption this time? I dont think they've miniaturized the cell any further, so what did they do?

    And 35,000 yen... isn't that actually more expensive than the curent model? I thought they would try to cut the price further with another model. I guess there will be more news on this soon.

    I hope this new model will be flat, stackable and ultra-quiet. And insanely cheap. Like the slim PS2, really. THayt's what they need to sell another 50 million, I think.

  • Beano #7 11 months ago

    @Olemak: Expect 100% the same form-factor at the current slim model. Sony will not introduce a revised design now.

  • TechnicPuppet #8 11 months ago

    I'm happy with mine, good size, pretty much silent. I am all for reducing power usage in any gadget though.

  • mkreku #9 11 months ago

    Why isn't the PS3 Slim as small as the PS2 Slim yet? That was the perfect size..

  • Olemak #10 11 months ago

    @Beano yea, I checked the japanese site; it looks pretty much identical to the "old" slim.
    Too bad; i would rather have a flat one, like the squished PS2. Hm.

  • Beano #11 11 months ago

    Yes that would be nice - maybe when PS4 is annouced late next year (or early 2013), Sony will make PS3 even slimmer and cheaper :)

  • Dave52 #12 11 months ago

    I still can't see why the don't throw in an HDMI cable...

    Other than that little gripe - it's a great deal. But yeah, price drop in time for Christmas...?

  • drumbaby #13 11 months ago

    Apparently it has PS2 compatability as well?

    http://www.tqcast.com/2011/06/20/new-ps3...

  • TFM_Excalibur #14 11 months ago

    Supposedly has ps2 compat built in as well

    [link url=http://n4g.com/news/790176/new-ps3-model-to-have-ps2-compatibility
    ]http://n4g.com/news/790176/new-ps3-model...[/link]

    I call bullshit though, sony aren't this smart

  • Eldritch #15 11 months ago

    How about simply releasing a PS2 emulator for it? It's just software, right? Heck, I'd even pay for it!

  • Kano-11 #16 11 months ago

    Sony have done wonders to make the ps3 slim the size it is. It doesn't have a power brick and is lighter than the 360 slim(Which does have a power brick) and it's still a hell of a lot easier on the ears. I'd love to see it even smaller - like the size of the ps2 slim.

  • Eldritch #17 11 months ago

    Well, if you consider the power of the Vita, I'm sure we'll get to the PS2 slim's format eventually.

  • BonzoBanana #18 11 months ago

    It would be nice to see ps2 compatibility to return. Wasn't there a story a year or so ago that developers were sought by Sony to work on an emulator and it was assumed at the time that it was ps2. I'm assuming a combination of improved software and the bare minimum of hardware improvement will give ps2 functionality. I think one of the issues was the ps3 memory was too slow and that the ps3 cpu wasn't quite powerful enough. By using improved memory and perhaps using a turbo mode for the cell processor like 3.6ghz or something perhaps its enough. It was believed sometime ago that ps2 compatibility would return so I don't see this as a unrealistic prospect. I use ps2 compatibility mode on my 60GB model all the time and when it finally goes tits up I'd love to get a newer ps2 compatible ps3 to replace it. I also have a 40GB model and find it annoying that I can't use ps2 games on it. Really annoying to be honest. Still have about 30 ps2 games I like.

  • fizzyfish #19 11 months ago

    +1 to Olemak's preference for being stackable, shame this model doesn't look to be. I'm short on space and my boxy Wii and PS2 Slim sit nicely atop one another.

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #20 11 months ago

    I would of thought those people hired to work on a PS2 emulator, were hired for the PSVita, they already had a emu on the PS3 its just the graphics chip that was impossible to emulate. I suspect if PS2 BC is back for the PS3 it will be because this new PS3 has had a slight hardware upgrade to make it so.

    I would certainly replace my lauch ps3 for a new slim if the price is a bit better.

  • betrayerofhope #21 11 months ago

    you get what you pay for fools!

    i paid 300 quid for my 60gb launch ps3. but i have got ps2 bc, card readers, extra usb slots.

    cant complain. The superior console version.

  • RodHull #22 11 months ago

    The return of PS2 BC would be great, since the death of my fat PS3 I've had to fire up the PS2 each time I fancy a waltz down memory lane. I will be very annoyed if BC isn't patched to all the Slims out here though. MS managed to make software emulation work for most of the Xbox games on 360, I don't see why Sony can't throw us a bone.

  • Jmog #23 11 months ago

    Why isn't the PS3 Slim as small as the PS2 Slim yet? That was the perfect size..

    Might have something to do with hardware which becomes vastly hotter than a PS3. Hot hardware = bigger chassis.

  • knightmt #24 11 months ago

    I am nearly out of memory. And getting tired of deleting older games, i will probably opt for whatever is 200£ come winter.

  • NotSoSlim #25 11 months ago

    Maybe upgrade your hardrive for 50 quid

  • DarthMartious #26 11 months ago

    I like that certain websites have such faith in Google translate :)

    What it actually says is "This product is not compatible with PlayStation 2 software", so no backwards compatibility.

  • Hog-lumps #27 11 months ago

    I am nearly out of memory. And getting tired of deleting older games, i will probably opt for whatever is 200£ come winter

    Aren't the ps3 hard drives swapable with larger capacity standard PC ones? If so, surely cits heaper to replace the harddrive than get a whole new PS3?

  • BonzoBanana #28 11 months ago

    I seem to remember the early jap/us ps3s had the full ps2 chipsets inside. The uk 60GB model and us 80GB models had the emotion engine/mips processor removed and replaced that part with software emulation. All the ps2 compatible models had the ps2 gpu which included 4meg of ultrafast video memory. I think that was the issue as the ps3 gpu wasn't sufficiently powerful enough to emulate the graphics synthesisor. It would of been a lot easier for the ps3 to emulate the original xbox or gamecube than ps2 despite those consoles being more powerful overall. The ps2 is such an eccentric design. The issue for me is will ps2 compatibility if it returns be for downloadable charged versions of ps2 games or will it be like 360 where small patches allow the original games to run on their original discs or will it be a full ps2 emulator like the ps3 60gb? I hope its not the first solution as I'm not interested in paying for my ps2 games again.

    It will be interesting if the ps vita actually has ps2 emulation. PS vita has some high bandwith memory and is very easy to develop for. Its possible the ps vita while not as powerful as the ps3 will still find it easier to emulate the ps2 due to superior memory bandwidth.

  • Shakey_Jake33 #29 11 months ago

    I didn't realise they still don't bundle some form of HD cable with the console. Given HD is the main selling point, this is pretty hard to justify.

  • oupe #30 11 months ago

    I can't justify buying a new PS3 if my fatty still works. Same goes for the 360. I really hope the 360 dies in the near future though. I'd like to live without the sound of afterburners when playing a game.

  • sfp_noodle #31 11 months ago

    I think a true PS3 slim will be announced at the same time as the PS3s successor. Possibly next year at E3 even. The current models have never been referred to as slims by Sony. They've always maintained that the newer models were more of a re-launch of the PlayStation brand. They even gave it a new logo which resembles the older PS2 logo closely. My PS3 is still going strong so doubt I'll have to upgrade, but like the PS2 before it, once a hypothetical PS3 slim drops to under £100 in a few years, I'll purchase one for use in the bedroom.

  • Whatsfor #32 11 months ago

    @Vice.destroyer

    stirling.sony.co.uk/product/ps3-consoles/playstation-3-160gb

  • Geowolf #33 11 months ago

    For the age of the hardware, I'd expect it to be sub-£150 now. PS2 by this point was under £100. It's the knowledge that the unit is artificially high in price for its position in the lifecycle that repeatedly puts me off, that and the loss of b/c. It's a real shame as I would have liked to move onto some of the series I loved on the PS2.

  • Geowolf #34 11 months ago

    @Whatsfor

    Ah, this is getting more like it.

  • thedriffter50 #35 11 months ago

    I hope this PS3 model does play PS2 games. Being able to play 3 gens of games on 1 console is sweet.

    San Andreas on PS3 :)

  • Architect_z #36 11 months ago

    Sony, is there any way this console could be bundled with an AK47 assault rifle. If the answer was yes, i'll buy it today if you like.

  • BadFlounder #37 11 months ago

    This one had better include wireless-N. Sony is way behind the times sporting this craptastic wireless-G in their current PS3 line.

  • Alestes #38 11 months ago

    Still no return of PS2 BC, sigh.

  • Dave52 #39 11 months ago

    Why would the put in BC now...? They're trying to make a profit, and you can pick up a PS2 so very cheaply now. I really don't get the big deal.

  • MaoZedong #40 11 months ago

    Post deleted at 09:40:08 17-12-2011