On top of comments about USB 1.1 on PS2, it is important to note that the PS2 cannot reach maximum USB 1.1 speeds via its interface - the I/O processor is the primary bottleneck of all the PS2 interfaces - with the sole exception of FireWire, where a hardware byteswap (which can't be disabled.. yet?) is slaughtering the speeds on the order of ~6x slower than it should be, though even this could be blamed on the IOP as the IOP is the processor doing the byte swap...
Regardless, HDLoader is archaic. OPL is still actively maintained with very good compatibility and settings that can be refined to fix any problematic games (unless the complaint is loading times on, say, USB). HDLoader's straight to HDD dump feature is useful, but really that's the extent of its use case in 2019. And as mentioned, yes, absolutely use daily builds. Countless new features such as FireWire support and a HD GUI added, along with under-the-hood improvements.
EDIT: One very important thing about SMB.. you can't play online while loading games via SMB which is a deal breaker for some games for me. COD 3 and MGO are still great fun to play online although the latter especially often needs premeditated organising to get a game going.
Regardless, HDLoader is archaic. OPL is still actively maintained with very good compatibility and settings that can be refined to fix any problematic games (unless the complaint is loading times on, say, USB). HDLoader's straight to HDD dump feature is useful, but really that's the extent of its use case in 2019. And as mentioned, yes, absolutely use daily builds. Countless new features such as FireWire support and a HD GUI added, along with under-the-hood improvements.
EDIT: One very important thing about SMB.. you can't play online while loading games via SMB which is a deal breaker for some games for me. COD 3 and MGO are still great fun to play online although the latter especially often needs premeditated organising to get a game going.
Last edited by TheMrIron2,