Just got my fliptop.
Just got my flip-top lid today, and works great. My friend has a soder free mod chip in his, and he likes the fliptop better. It also loads faster, no delay, but that may just be because I have a newer modle ps2. My other friends haven't seen it yet.
Problems I had with the flip-top:
1. the spring dust doors for the memory card slots, were not compatable, from my version of ps2. Luckly I had a spare parts ps/2 and took the ones from it.
If you have the kind that slide in and lock, they won't work. If you have the kind that have the hinge piece that screws in, your good.
2. If you have the network card installed, this somewhat interfers with the filptop door opening all the way. but it opens enough to do what you got to do. Im going to try fileing a little bit off the back of the door and see if this solves the problem.
3. The biggest problem, but was real simple to fix. there is no IR port on the fliptop lid. So i had to remove it and I drilled two holes in between the grill work on the cover, and round filed them out. can't even tell.
And what's with all the hype, or really B@ll SH*# about some of the stuff in regards to playing ps/2 backups. I think some people just like to start rumors.
Like, what is this 630 to 650mb limitation I here some people talking about. My friend has had his setup since week one the ps2 came out, and has never had a problem. I don't know anyone personaly having any problmes with this. And within our group we have several different versions of ps/2, and different configurations, and mods. I'm playing games up to the 4.7g mark.
The lattest things I've heard were that Grand Theft Auto SanAndreas, and StarWars battle front can't be coppied. I've only been burning PS2 games for about 3 months now and had no problems with these 2 or any others.
And that the flip-top cover won't play some DVD's as opposed to the soder free mod chip, or the slide card. This is untrue, it's the swapdisk that determines what will be played and not the mod. in all actuality you don't need a mod. you could remove your cover and the cover to your drive, and use the swap disk like this if you wanted too. All the soder free mod does is enable or acutually disable your ps/2 from reloading when you hit the eject button. And anyone using the slide card, I feel sorry for your system. at best this will throw your laser out of alignment, easy to fix, at worst, and will eventualy happen, it will burn out your drive motor. a $30.00 part and a pain in the but to install.
I would recomend going with either one, but last time I checked a soder free mod wasn't available for all system modles. The fliptop will work on any model, but you will have to do some slight modifications. If you do go with the fliptop don't order from pscovers.com it took them 30days, several emails and phone calls to get my order to me. they have changed their company name several times, and just see a little shady to me.
Jim