According to documentation DECR-1400 units are lacking some SPU/RSX profiling features. Originally I thought that Sony was offering both - 1000 and 1400 - units to developers with 1400 being a cheaper alternative for those not needing these features, akin to the concept of editions for software packages. However some people here on the board have reported that Sony doesn't sell DECR-1000s anymore. I don't have any PS3 work experience so I can't really assess the usefulness of these profiling features. My question is whether someone more knowledgeable than me could shed some light on why Sony stripped them from this revision of the devkits, seemingly without compensation. My second question is related to the durability of DECR-1000 units. There's a case documented here on these boards where a DECR-1000's RSX apparently broke, resulting in occasional freezes, black screen or some kind of "star field" shown on the screen (see this thread for reference). Is that an inherent problem of the old devkits or was it just bad luck? Thanks in advance
Sony stopped selling the 1000A awhile ago and they also stopped selling the 1400A since last year. I have witnessed three 1000As got RSX/overheating issues. They got sent back to Sony for repair/replacement. Couple members I know on here also have the 1000A and also experienced similar issues so I would recommend staying away from them unless you get access to Sony support. The 1400A seems more reliable as I haven't seen or heard any report on overheating issues yet so I think it would be wise to go with it. Hope it helps.
I think the big problem is not overheating, its the cautious of the board when heats up and down. The 1400A had no problem with it, like other kits or retail units. So a 1400A with double of ram and nice hardware will be the real deal.
I have seen a bunch of DECR-1000 with the RSX overheating, overall though those are still a lot more reliable than the DECH-1000A units that were riddled with YLOD issues. Most of the DECR-1000 units usually failed fast after purchase/shipping, so if you had it for a few months and nothing happened you are probably on the safe side. The DECR-1000 is a lot better than the DECR-1400 for professional development as it allows true/proper SPU PA through GPAD which no other units those, that alone makes the unit worth a lot should you need to optimize your code. You can also fully customize DECI3 on these, the CP is after all a full hardware debugger while everything runs software wise on the DECR-1400, this also means the DECR-1000 has slightly more free ram when running in both Tool and debugger mode compared to the DECR-1400. The DECR-1400 is very much like a regular debugging station with the extra ram. It's really mostly useful to test builds that require the extra ram for debugging purposes or that weren't yet optimized to fit in the regular user available space. Both DECR-1000 and 1400 are rare but the DECR-1000 is almost impossible to find nowadays given that studios mostly only purchased one or two of these and SCEE stopped selling these since January 2009. DECR-1400 units are more reliable hardware wise though as I haven't seen any of those ever fail. that said the DECR-1000 units sport HUGE heat-syncs so outside the RSX issue that seems mostly to be a manufacturing related issue, those are relatively safe. The DECR-1000 units are however heavier (about 30KG+ for one unit) and very noisy (slightly more than a DECH-1000) while the DECR-1400 is pretty quiet overall (though not as quiet as my DECH2000A) If you just need to perform some average development, a DECH unit would be enough, even a DECH-1400 unit might be overkill. If however you are truly serious about development or you collect development related hardware and want the best you can get, you may want to skip the DECR-1400 entirely and get a DECR-1000 assuming money isn't a problem to you and you can get around the availability issue. Nowadays, should you ever find one of these, considering how rare they are, it most likely won't go for less than 5K USD, most likely even 5K Euros (that's not including shipping, which considering the weight would also be quite steep), DECR-1400 while rare, would go for a lot cheaper than this.
