I recommend getting an OEM Sony network adapter and buying the PS2 SATA Bitfunx adapter PCB kit (This kit requires no soldering) from Zed labs or wherever as the third party models usually don't offer any online functionality and the price of the third party model would factor into the OEM price anyway. I would also recommend the Grimdoomer OPL mod that allows for use of exFAT formatted drives letting you drag and drop your games. I also recommend you have a FAT32 formatted flash drive on hand. I have an SSD in my PS2 3000 model and I notice the fast load times especially in games like "The Fear" a Japan only FMV game with nearly seamless loading times with SSD, but it's up to you. The game doesn't start until you say yes.
I recommend getting an OEM Sony network adapter and buying the PS2 SATA Bitfunx adapter PCB kit (This kit requires no soldering) from Zed labs or wherever as the third party models usually don't offer any online functionality and the price of the third party model would factor into the OEM price anyway. I would also recommend the Grimdoomer OPL mod that allows for use of exFAT formatted drives letting you drag and drop your games. I also recommend you have a FAT32 formatted flash drive on hand. I have an SSD in my PS2 3000 model and I notice the fast load times especially in games like "The Fear" a Japan only FMV game with nearly seamless loading times with SSD, but it's up to you. The game doesn't start until you say yes.
I own the Official PS2 Network Adapter that I put a Bitfunx SATA board in, as well as Gamestar one, and I've never noticed a difference. You won't be able to play online with a third-party adapter, though.
Also, once you have everything installed and up and running, I recommend setting OPL's GSM to 1080i (has the best compatibility), putting your PS2 in widescreen, and then placing the widescreen cheats that can be found on Github in the Cheats folder. Some do have compatibility issues, though. I noticed a widescreen cheat for Black which already has a widescreen mode; this'll cause serious performance issues if you have it enabled. Just delete it from the folder. Otherwise, it fixes a large majority of the PS2's game library so the image won't look stretched if set to widescreen. Please note that you can't have all of the widescreen cheats in the folder at once since it'll only recognize so many. You'll have to go through the games on your HDD and select the cheats with the corresponding game ID's.
1- PS2 games designed for its disc speed (between 3-5 MB/s) that most of them don't even require that high speed. That's why the recent update for OPL enabled you playing games via USB despite 1.1 (1.5 MB/s speed) without slowing down even racing games or videos anymore (however for some games their videos are a great exception that sometimes OPL's Mode 2 fixes it). Sometimes higher speed than DVD via HDD, SSD or SMB actually may ruin games' sounds and stream loading (which OPL's Mode 1 and 2 setting likely to fix) and while some games only run on SMB for example and not really because it has high speed. If you pick HDD/SSD option its speed limited to 66 MB/s no matter how fast your device may be due to PS2's hardware limitation. Whole higher than DVD speed has no benefit for gameplay, it only benefits for faster loading speed between levels. Still some games that are famous with slow loading times may not benefit due to engine reasons.
In that regard your actual concern is not speed but compatibility. It means some games work on USB but not on HDD/SSD, some only work on SMB and here SMB is connecting your PS2 with your Windows PC using LAN cable via SMB feature to play your game on your storage device, so the speed here is 12.5 MB/s that really not that necessary but it is needed for some games.
However compatibility is not just about making games work, it is also about being able to use Virtual Memory Cards (VMC). Some game may only work on USB but its VMC feature won't work on USB. That's why I use a PS2 setup using USB, HDD and SMB. Can't just rely on one.
You may say "dude no worries I won't use VMC, I heard you can still save games on your FMCBOOT Memory Card" and yes that is true but every time PS2 Memory Card is used, even when it just load save file you increase the chance of your FMCBOOT setup being corrupted because MC usage degrades itself. At some point you may access FMCBOOT but not your saves and then it is a good ending for your modded setup that you may recover the MC with another FMCBOOT memory card. To make your Memory Card survive longer it is better to use VMC if you can, or buy another Memory Card to save games in it. Yet Memory Cards got old so naturally any original you bought is subject to "it can stop working properly anytime". Either way when you have no VMC issue it is the best option.
And then better use original 8 MB PS2 Memory Cards because non-originals may not have the feature needed for FMCBOOT to work but some fake ones they sell doesn't actually work. Never buy more than 8 MB ones because they won't last longer because PS2 is not designed to work with them and therefore you risk corruption every time you use them. If original memory cards are out of option Katana Memory Cards technically less reliable but they are developed smartly for how PS2 works so despite more than 8 MB capability. But since it is harder to find a Katana better buy a MemCard Pro 2 because it is magical lol.
2- Yep, get an official Sony Network Adapter with a SATA upgrade board if you really need SATA, otherwise the network adapter itself works via IDE. If the official one is out of option Bitfunx and GameStar is popular around. BTW to use SMB feature for PS2s without Ethernet port you need Sony Network Adapter. I do not know and never seen any 3rd party ones that have an Ethernet port. What I saw is using USB for SMB "experiments" and IDK what happened to them lol.
3- Sure. It is not something you may install to a memory card without a memory card that already have a FMCBOOT. Or you may install it on your HDD/SSD.
4- OPL is updated so you may use exFAT for your storage devices whether it is USB or HDD. It means since you are not limited by FAT32 you don't have to split more than 4 GB games by 1 GB anymore too. However if the storage device connected via the MX4SIO adapter so you still gotta use FAT32.
5- In recent years shit changed so better find a most updated guide since there are still new OPL versions being released that can change how shit works.
6- Well before that check the game compatibility list to download games lol.
Then you need to learn OPL modes to troubleshoot games:
Mode 1: Accurate reads (fixes glitchy games in HDD mode. Emulates CD/DVD drive. May help with games that require audio sync.)
Mode 2: Synchronous mode (fixes audio or video glitches)
Mode 3: Unhook syscalls (turns off OPL after game starts. Turn off Mode 6 if Mode 3 is turned on)
Mode 4: Skip videos AKA no PSS mode (can help with slower transfer devices like USB by skipping FMVs)
Mode 5: Emulate DVD-DL (fix for DVD9 to DVD5 ripped discs).
Mode 6 Disable IGR (disables In Game Reset. fixes controller or black screen issue and overall helps with running games on USB)
more detailed descriptions:
Mode 1: Emulates CD/DVD drive without ever needing to use some slow transfer mode like MWDMA mode 0. Required by games that run on storage devices that have higher transfer rates and due to synchronous nature of HDD mode.
Mode 2: Makes OPL read data synchronously (reads as it receives the request) instead of asynchronously (in the background). Some games needs Mode 2 because of the way their engine work.
Mode 3: OPL won't remain in EE RAM after the game resets the IOP with its IOPRP image. Required for games that can overwrite OPL or can somehow confuse OPL’s SifSetDma hook. When this mode is used Mode 6 must be disabled. GSM and PS2RD cannot be used either.
Mode 4: Changes the reported sizes of PSS video files to 0 so that they will be skipped. Useful for slow storage devices like USB. This mode fixes some games that freeze due to timing issues with videos (for example Max Payne).
Mode 5: Emulates DVD-DL for game that converted from DVD9 (dual-layer DVD games) to DVD5 (single-layer DVD games). DVD-DL support must be emulated because OPL will otherwise treat such a disc image as a regular single-layer disc.
Mode 6: If the game has issues always try Mode 6 first and as last resort.
Now congratulations, you are ready to graduate from PS2 scene primary school!!! lolol
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