WANT TO BEEF UP MY PLAYSTATION2

First off, check your caps lock key, it seems to be broken and stuck on.

However, the PlayStation 2 is limited to 480i resolutions, 480p if the game and TV support it, but that's it. That's your standard North American TV resolution. While the PS2 CAN output 5.1 audio, it's not an in-game feature, which is rather misleading in the marketing material. It's only for DVD movies you play, OR I've seen a grand total of ONE game (Xenosaga Episode 2) that has 5.1 audio during cut-scenes. Basically, 5.1 audio would just take up way too much space on a single layer DVD, and dual layer discs cut into the profit margins quite a bit by being more expensive to produce. You'll also never get anything even close to movie theater sound without spending several thousand dollars, console or no console. Movie theaters have some VERY high end equipment to generate that sound field.

You can get svideo or component cables for the PS2, and they will improve the image quality somewhat, but you're still stuck with the resolution of standard definition TV and you need a TV that can accept those inputs. The fixed resolution is a blessing and curse. While you can't jack up the resolution, it also means that virtually every game you buy will run, and run well, on that hardware. Very different from the constant upgrade treadmill PC gamers deal with.

Also, the Slimline PS2 is not designed to have a hard drive in any way. The original PS2 had a hard drive bay, and some of the first slimline models had a place where you could solder your own IDE connection to the motherboard. The only thing there is now is using a USB HDD, but since those USB ports are USB 1.0, and thus VERY slow, they're pretty useless. I tried using USB Advance to let me put some of my more damaged game discs onto a spare HDD I had, and it didn't work out so well. Gameplay is usually fine, but any movies or cut scenes in the game are going to play for a bit, then have a long pause, play a little bit longer, long pause, etc. You also can't use it to save games, like the Xbox does, or much of anything really.

Only two games I'm aware of, in the entire history of the PS2, ever used the HDD. The main one is Final Fantasy XI, which is a MMORPG game like World of Warcraft. The international version of Final Fantasy X also could be installed on the HDD. That's it. There may be others, but they would be very, very, few in number.

The long and short of all this is that the PS2 is a fixed bit of hardware. What you see is what you get, and all you will ever have. The PS3 and Xbox 360 can output video at the highest HDTV resolutions, and presumably have in-game surround sound audio. The Wii can't, but also isn't really aimed at the same market segment as the PS3 and Xbox 360.

The best thing you can do to improve your picture, as the previous poster mentioned, is to buy component cables for the PS2 (provided your TV supports it). I HIGHLY recommend Monster Cable's Gamelink 400 if you have an HDTV or at least a flat screen that takes component inputs. In my opinion, it is worth the $40-$60 for the Monster Cable over a cheap knockoff. I also have a $10 Mad Catz component cable and did a live swap with the Gamelink Cable and immediately saw the picture's brightness increase by approximately 10%-15%. This difference becomes even more evident if your TV is larger that 40" or so. A normal component cable (made by Mad Catz, Sony, Pelican, etc.) is by no means bad, but if you want to get the most out of your PS2, go with the Monster Cables.

Also using the component cables will allow you to take advantage of the few PS2 games that utilize progressive scan (480p provided you have an HDTV). Wikipedia was nice enough to provide a list of games that do so:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Progressive_Scan_PS2_Games

***IMPORTANT***: When you begin using component cables, be sure to change your PS2 video settings to component Y/R/G (You can get to the menu by starting the PS2 without a game/DVD in it). You'll also need change the settings for sound if you decide to go with your fiber optic cable.