Which Saturn is the one to get?

[shmuppyLove]

I know there are a few different models of Saturn that were released in North America -- 80000, and 80000A and 80001.

Are there any real differences between them? Is one more reliable than the others or quieter or something?

Basically shopping around and curious to know if there's one to look for or one to avoid.

[gabe]

A few of the later Asian revisions have some compatibility issues. However, If you are looking at NA Saturns, the only differences I'm aware of are those that come into play when modding. Particularly if you plan on installing a mod chip and/or region switch. I know that there were a few different board revisions with changed jumper locations, though I'm not sure if one is any more desirable than another. If you do not intend to mod, first gen Saturns (with oval buttons) have a drive access light, which can be quite useful when doing the "swap trick" to play a region patched game.

[dunpeal2064]

The light on the model 1 may make swapping discs a bit easier, but if you have a sense of timing you can do it on the model 2 with no issues

[RGB32E]

Seems like Sega had multiple sub-revisions for each of the 3 main revisions. There's been a little bit of discussion in the XRGB threads about the RGB output quality different revisions have, but not to the extent of the SNES/SFC. However, if you're just using S-video or composite video, picture quality of the different revs shouldn't matter too much.