Nice to be here PLEASE help!

[MaximumRD]

I am ROB DAVIAU form Canada! Totally into retro and classic gaming and computing so see my sig or simply Google MaximuRD is ya want to be freaked out!
Long story short, I had two original PSP 1000's, affter changing the faceplates my analog nubs went wonkey. Yeah I tried all suggestions and even replaced the ubs, nothing helped.

SO, at this point I just want good condition PSP's that HAVE HACKED FIRMWARE and just WORK. I have no problem doing it myself BUt I want to know, as someone starting form scratch what is the best option? I do NOT care about loading original UMD's. I want to be able to use emulators, hacked firmware and hopefully my original PSP memory sticks and batteries and power supplies. Due to my bad experience with original PSP analog nub I am wary about used items. IS THE PSP GO worth considering in my case? If you were coming fresh onto the PSP hacked scenes what would you recommend? THANKS!

[Epworm4ever]

what is PSP GP (GO)

[MaximumRD]

what is PSP GP (GO)

Ugh yes I meant PSP GO CLEARLY http://goo.gl/F5czM
As you seem to of figured out? Now any helpful comment or am I wasting time here?

[Slowman]

RETRO GAMING!

You belong on RFGeneration - my collection, although I'm much more narrowly focused than you are. This site lets you make an awesome inventory of everything you have.

As far as PSP's go, I like the form factor of the PSP Go but I feel that it's too small for my hands. Personally, I think the "best" PSP is a fully hackable 2000. Any Slim/2000 that is Ice Silver or Ceramic White is hackable for sure. All the other Slims are questionable, with the most questionable being Piano Black. All 1000's are fully hackable and all 3000's can only run Lite CFW. You can run a full custom firmware on any fully hackable PSP these days, regardless of firmware, but motherboards that are "unhackable" (ta-088v3 or higher) can only run Lite CFW. Lite CFW is fully functional and equivalent to full CFW except...

--Full CFW is permanently installed and boots from the motherboard.

--Lite CFW is installed on the memory sticks and runs in memory via an exploit that can be lost upon taking out the battery or turning off the PSP, although you can just run the exploit again upon restoring power.

There is next to no risk of a permanent brick these days, which WAS a slight but fixable concern 3+ years ago and a serious and unfixable concern 5+ years ago.

[MaximumRD]

@Slowman now that is an awesome reply, much appreciated.

Now I still wonder, I like the PSP GO form factor also, can it be modded for full CFW?

Otherwise I will likely go with your suggestion thanks!

[Slowman]

Nope, the GO can only have a Lite CFW.

A fully hackable Slim would be much cheaper. Don't pay more than $60 for a fully functioning and complete PSP. Craigslist can work but I find often people want too much for them. Alternatively, you can pick 'em up on eBay, fully functioning, for about $50 with shipping OR with a broken screen or bad UMD drive for $20-30. Both of those fixes are around $10 each. Don't buy a bricked one because you don't know what caused the brick and the seller often won't tell you. The Slim doesn't seem to have the analog stick issues that the Phat had either so you won't really have to worry about that. If I were to buy another one (just sold my Ceramic White Slim about a month ago) I would buy a broken Slim and fix it because it's just so cheap to do so.