Written by Kyriptic
October 2006
Introduction
Well it seems that the talk of the town in the PS2 scene would be the new Cystal Chip v2.0. Having been out
of the PS2 scene for awhile now the last chip I installed was the DMS3+ and well they worked pretty well
and had tons of features. So does this new chip live up to the hype of being the DMS4’s competition or are
all the other reviews pulling your leg. We here at ISO420 will put it to the test and found out just that.
Features
Full Auto boot of all media, 100% no-swap direct boot
Compatible with all console revisions v1 - v15b
Compatible with all PAL/NTSC systems, all regions supported
HDD, USB, MC, Flash "Dev Mode" support
DVD Region Free with RCE, Green Screen (RGB) Fix and DVD Color Fix
Macrovision "OFF"
Upgradeable firmware
Quick boot mode
Hardware and software based boot modes such as "Sleep", "Enhanced" and "Minimal"
PBAT scripting for automating homebrew software and menus
Installation control onboard LED
High timing stability - Onboard Crystal Oscillator
Hardware Recovery Mode
Completely jumper less, auto-configuration
1 megabyte Dataflash with DFFS (DataFlashFileSystem)
Multdisc-Games Support
ACTEL FPGA Technology
Custom glitch detection logic & noise filter
Professional 4-Layer PCB design
High quality anti-static packaging incl. case sticker
Quality & functionality control for each item
Contents
Cystal Chip v2.0
Cystal Chip Sticker
Installation
Installing any high end PS2 modchip is always time consuming and just simply a pain in the butt. Well I have to
say even though the Cystal Chip v2.0 has about the same number of wires as the other high end chips it does
have some interesting features to make life a bit simpler. For example there are multiple 3.3v and ground pads
on the chip allowing the installer to rotate the chip anyway they want for convenience of your installation.
Also since the chip is on a 4 layer PCB board it’s very small. First thing that I noticed when I opened the
package was the chip’s size - just a little larger than a quarter I would say. This also makes it convenient
to place it anywhere on the PS2 motherboard. The last helpful installation feature would have to be the
troubleshooting LED on board. This way if the chip isn’t working after spending 3 hours installing, you
can turn to the LED to narrow down which wires could be the culprits instead of just guessing.
Now that we have managed to install the chip time to move on with the flashing and software available for
the chip. Once you do have the soldering done and your chip is working I would say its pretty much easy
street from here on out. Flashing the chip is as simple as downloading the latest firmware (currently
release v29 at time of review) burning it to a CDR and popping it into your PS2. You will then be
greeted with a menu that will allow you to upgrade your Firmware and install the Boot Manager.
Usage
Now to take full advantage of the Cystal Chip v2.0 I installed the modified version of the firmware release
v29 without the modified version you will not be able to run backups. While booting up your PS2 you should
get the Boot Manager main menu if installed correctly.
Once you put a disc in your PS2 the icon on the top left will change to whatever type of disc you have
inserted. Then in the Boot media menu you will have three methods of booting your
media making it convenient to go straight to sleep mode or not.
Now in the application Browser it will allow you to run, install or remove applications from your flash,
memory card, network or DVD drive. Since I haven’t installed any homebrew apps just yet because I’m holding
off till I get my network adapter and hard drive I only have the dvd player and PS2 browser in my apps section.
For homebrew apps you can check out the mega pack hosted on PS2-Scene.
Next on the main menu is Device Manager and this allows you to remove and add certain devices to be
recognized inside the BM. However in order for the HD to be recognized you first do have to make a
crystal partition on it in order to work correctly.
Then there is the Memory Card manager that lets you do well everything from formatting your memory
cards to just removing applications or the BM from it.
The system information screen well shows you information about what version firmware your running and
what chip and console you have. Apparently there is a bug that it can’t correctly identify all PS2
versions yet. Nothing major and the crystal team are working on fixing this.
Last but not least there is the configuration menu. This screen will alow you to configure pretty much
anything to autoboot, change bottons on your controller, change the BM theme, network settings, and a
ton more stuff. I thought the video wizard was a pretty handy and after answer a few question it will
set your video modes for you and fix games that aren’t the same mode as your TV. Another cool feature
is that you can change the themes on the BM to suit your own personal style. Themes can be found at
www.allps2skins.com.
Conclusion
In my opinion this chip definitely is a competitor to the DMS4 chips. I found it a lot easier to
install because of the little extras the Crystal Chip v2.0 has, like the extra pads and the troubleshooting
LED light come in very handy. This chip also boots all my media flawlessly every time. I haven’t
experience one RSOD (red screen of death) yet since I have installed it. The only thing I could
say the DMS4 have over the Cystal Chip v2.0 is that their ToxicOS can boot games directly
from the HD and have better compatibility then the HDLoader variations floating around, other then that the
Boot Manager is definitely a great contender for their ToxicOS.
Positives
Very Stable Chip
Flawless Booting
Great Boot Managers
Creative Design Makes Install Less Painful
A Lot of REALLY Nice Features
Negatives
19-21 Wires (Depending on Console)
No built in option to create the crystal partition for HD’s (have to use homebrew)
Links
Crystal Chips Website
-=[ Crystal Chip v2.0 Review Discussion Thread ]=-
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Product(s) were received from the website above. ISO-420 will always link back to whomever sent the
product(s) *respect*, but please remember that the reviews are independently written by our staff
and are not subject to alteration by whomever supplies us with the review product(s).
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