Stealth 5 no-swap chip review

[Racer]

Hello, I just finished installing the Stealth 5 no-swap mod chip in my PS2. Here is what I found. (Please remember, I am a hardware guy, not a review writer haha)

Test Hardware:

US model 30001R V5 PS2. Has been well used by the in house gaming expert. (Ok, so its my 9yr old son)

Installation:

Installation is very similar to the rest of the no-swap mod installs. Actually, this chip uses the same points as the XO-2 chip on a v5 and v7. The only thing I don't like is you have to set jumpers for your PS2 region and model. This is really not a big deal, takes about 2 seconds to dab a bit of solder on the pads. The layout of the chip is not the best, but no real problems here. The unit uses +5v for power.

Testing:

Well this chip booted everything I threw at it on the first try. Now granted, I didnt do this hundreds of times, but everything I did try booted well.

All PS2 originals (CD and DVD) booted without any problems.

DVD-R discs I tested:

Madden 2003 - booted
Vice City - booted
Men in Black 2 - booted
Kingdom Hearts - booted - did NOT lock up like a magic 3!!!
Smackdown - booted.

Most of these were just on cheap generic DVD-R media and worked fine. Smackdown was on Ritek, Kingdom Hearts on Imation media.

CD-R Discs tested:

Crazy Taxi - booted
Lord of the Rings DVD Rip - booted
GTA3 dvd rip - booted
Armymen Air Attack 2 - booted

Gameshark Compatibility:

Tested with v1.93 and booted Armymen Air Attack 2 with codes. I guess it worked, instead of a helicopter I was flying around as a bumble bee hahaha.

PS1 mode:

This is a little different than what I am used to. To boot the unit into PS1 mode, from standby press reset button. When blue eject light comes on, press it again. Play DVD movies from this mode. Tested with Scooby Doo and it played fine without any skipping.

I only tested a couple of games and they all booted. Note: Antimod games will detect the chip, tried it with Crash Bash and it wouldn't load and gave the message in Japanese.

Disable mode:

Yes this does have a disable or sleep mode, although it does not work as good as the Magic 3.1 mode. From standby, press and hold the reset button for about 8 seconds. Only originals and DVD movies will boot. But they will not boot from the browser like an un-modded console.

All in all its a good chip at a good price. I have them listed on my site for $19 which does come with hookup wire. Visit [url]www.brown-computers.com/catalog[url] (Ok, shameless plug over) I think its a good solution to the Magic 3 chips. Honestly, it does seem to boot the discs more reliably. I find my self having to power off the units with a Magic 3 about 25-30% of the time to get them to boot. I did not have to do this at all with this chip from the testing. I will give it to my son and let him run it through its paces and see what he says. I am just not a big gamer.

I did not test this with DVD-9. I do not have a DVD-9 game. I also did not test it with any imports. I do not see why it won't boot imports though. They claim to support DVD-9 games but we will see I guess.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[NEWCASTLEmodchi]

I remember back in the day when psx chips from Bali looked similar to this, ie, the blob of black goo. I tried to steer clear of them. Perhaps they have cleaned up their act. Sounds ok so far.

Nm

[Yu-Gi-Oh!]

Hmmm...

Yu-Gi-Oh!

[ftothe3]

success-hk also sells them
http://www.success-hk.com/pp/item_de...6-975CB83FE4AF

[kizmet]

WHAts the black goo for?

[dust4dust]

Originally posted by kizmet
WHAts the black goo for?

at a guess to hide the chip

[dust4dust]

just tested the stealth 5 also 37 pin socket

v7 39003pal gh019
couldnt find no info on jumper settings for this model

p1 p2 p3 p4 no bridge made

games still wouldnt boot ps2 seemed to act different everytime i reset it

my stealth 5 only had 2 red diodes on it your picture has 3

the missing 1 is located behind the vcc connection, diagrams i found siad bridge these 2 pads if the ps2 black screens after install,mine didnt black screen,but i bridged them anyway

early results chip booted 4 ps2, 2 ps1 games np

please note chip build quality is very poor

[Racer]

See now I would say the chip quality is very good on the ones I have. All the parts are in nice and straight, the contact pads are very shiny and easy to solder too. I have seen some Magic chips where the components arent in straight and things like that.

Just to update, my son has been playing games on and off all day without any problems at all.

[fiv5]

I have fitted several of these to v4, v5 and v7. All work very well, no problems with Kingdom Hearts etc. (intro running for 5 hours, no lockups etc.)

As for the build quality, doesnt look great (some components not straight etc.) but i have yet to find one where this has made an impact on the chips performance, who cares what they look like as long as they work

I ran some boot success tests, roughly 40 boots in succession with zero failures, this included switching modes several times (ps2 cd-2, ps2 dvd-r, ps1, films).

I did find it was needed to connect 3.3v to get ps1 games going in most cases, now i just do this all the time as it only takes seconds.

In summary: for the price, great little chip

v7 install pic:

I also installed switches to each of the jumpers to make sure of the correct settings, this is what i know so far:

(all UK PAL systems)
v4 - jumper 4
v5 - jumper 3
v7 - no jumper

I'm going to install to a v3 and see if it will work, seems there are no diagrams so i'm unsure if it is supported.

We are stocking these now, anyone looking for a UK based supplier email me at sales@consoleplus.co.uk or http://www.consoleplus.co.uk

Cheers

Matt
www.consoleplus.co.uk

[Dew-It]

Originally posted by fiv5
I have fitted several of these to v4, v5 and v7. All work very well, no problems with Kingdom Hearts etc. (intro running for 5 hours, no lockups etc.)

As for the build quality, doesnt look great (some components not straight etc.) but i have yet to find one where this has made an impact on the chips performance, who cares what they look like as long as they work

I ran some boot success tests, roughly 40 boots in succession with zero failures, this included switching modes several times (ps2 cd-2, ps2 dvd-r, ps1, films).

I did find it was needed to connect 3.3v to get ps1 games going in most cases, now i just do this all the time as it only takes seconds.

In summary: for the price, great little chip

v7 install pic:

I also installed switches to each of the jumpers to make sure of the correct settings, this is what i know so far:

(all UK PAL systems)
v4 - jumper 4
v5 - jumper 3
v7 - no jumper

I'm going to install to a v3 and see if it will work, seems there are no diagrams so i'm unsure if it is supported.

We are stocking these now, anyone looking for a UK based supplier email me at sales@consoleplus.co.uk or http://www.consoleplus.co.uk

Cheers

Matt
www.consoleplus.co.uk

So you did'nt have any problems booting antimod games such as Dino Crisis? It would'nt boot on my magic 2 version 5 ps2, I had to patch the bin file of Dino Crisis so it would work on my ps2.