Another NH3 Review

[Datana]

First post for me, and I hope this isn't old news, there already being one review on the NH3 posted. I recieved slightly different results (and a different system was modded), so I thought I'd post them.

Being somewhat new to the PS2 modding scene, I opted for a system with a chip pre-installed. The vendor used the NH3 chip in a V7 39001 NTSC-U/C system. I'll probably be replacing it with a Magic 3.1 or Messiah 2 as part of my first PS2 modding attempt; I've only modded PSX units in the past (which were comparatively easy to what this job looks to be). Are there any problems with either of those two I should know about beforehand?

To answer some questions I saw in the other NH3 threads, one can use an AR2 or CB2 with no problems. The chip can be disabled by holding the power switch for four seconds. It does NOT have DVD-9 support in this system, though it apparently does in PAL units; I've tried both real and bootleg (HK silver) copies of Xenosaga (both are NTSC-J) and never got either to work. There is no DVD region hack in this chip, so you have to use DVD Region X or another similar tool to get this effect.

The procedure used was fifteen boot attempts on each disc, followed by about ten minutes of gameplay to determine stability.

The games I tested:
<PS2>
GTA: VC (NTSC-U/C HK silver): 14/15 boot rate, goes to Browser if not successful.
Breath of Fire V (NTSC-J CD rip): 15/15 boot rate.
Breath of Fire V (NTSC-U/C DVD rip on Apple media): 13/15 boot rate, went to Browser upon failure.
Xenosaga (NTSC-J HK silver): 0/15 boot rate, went to browser.
Xenosaga (NTSC-J original): 0/15 boot rate, went to browser.
Wild ARMs: Advanced 3rd (NTSC-J original): 15/15 boot rate.
Wild ARMs 3 (NTSC-U/C DVD rip on Apple media): 14/15 boot rate, went to browser on failure.
Final Fantasy X International Version (NTSC-J HK silver): 12/15 boot rate.
Final Fantasy X-2 (NTSC-J DVD rip on Apple media): 13/15 boot rate, went to red screen upon failure.
Guilty Gear XX (NTSC-J original): 15/15 boot rate.
Guilty Gear X2 (NTSC-U/C CD rip): 7/15 boot rate; went to Browser upon failure.
Suikoden 3 (NTSC-U/C original): 14/15 boot rate, going to Browser upon failure. Disabling chip results in 15/15 boot rate, though this might be due to chance.
Silent Hill 2 (NTSC-U/C original): 15/15 boot rate.

Seems pretty good from my standpoint for PS2 games, apart from the DVD-9 issue. Anyone else have experience with this chip? It might just be misinstalled, though I'm not sure where to begin to look.

I also ran a few tests on normal PSX games (not quite as important to me, as I can emulate these). These didn't turn out nearly as well, but I didn't test quite as many. The boot procedure for PSX games is to start up, then reset the instant the tray eject button lights up; it took a bit of experimentation before I figured that out, so this should save trouble for anyone else using this chip.

<PSX>
Star Ocean 2 (NTSC-U/C original): 4/15 boot rate, red screen upon failure. Disabling chip results in 15/15 boot rate.
Xenogears (NTSC-J original): 2/15 boot rate, red screen upon failure. Disabling the chip naturally results in always getting a red screen.
Xenogears (NTSC-U/C original): 14/15 boot rate, red screen upon failure. Disabling chip resulted in 15/15 boot rate.
Valkyrie Profile (NTSC-J original): 5/15 boot rate, red screen upon failure.
Valkyrie Profile (NTSC-U/C CD-R): 0/15 boot rate, going to red screen upon failure.

As can be seen, this absolutely blows, even for one of the original discs I tried. The interesting thing is what happens on failure; it goes to a red screen instead of the Browser, which it normally does for PS2 games. Again, this might be a wiring issue, though the fact that it can boot at all seems to discount this.

Overall, this is a pretty good chip if one sticks to non DVD-9 PS2 games. It has a high success rate in booting these, though seems to have issues with everything else. Hope this was of some use.

(EDIT: Caught a typo thanks to itZme.)

[itZme]

Hi,
Welcome to the world of PS2 modding :-) .
Unless you made a typo you could have been riped off. The 35001 is not a V7 it is most likely a V5 console. ( i have one here that is a V4 motherboard on a 35001 though)
This is not an issue unless the person who sold you the system claimed it was BRAND NEW and not a used system. I guess there is that remote chance that it is a new 35001 that was on the shelf for a long time but most likely it has been played for a year or so. The 35001 was the console that came with the GT3 pack.

Just thought you might like to know.

Later,
itZme

[Datana]

Yeah, it was a typo. Model number is 39001.