create metamagic staff & spell perfection

[Cuttler]

If i want to create a staff with maximized fireball but have spell perfection with fireball, do i use spell level 3 or spell level 6 in the cost calculation???

for references:

The creator must have prepared the spells to be stored (or
must know the spells, in the case of a sorcerer or bard) and
must provide any focus the spells require as well as material
component costs sufficient to activate the spell 50 times
(divide this amount by the number of charges one use of the
spell expends). Material components are consumed when he
begins working, but focuses are not. (A focus used in creating
a staff can be reused.) The act of working on the staff triggers
the prepared spells, making them unavailable for casting
during each day of the staff ’s creation. (That is, those spell
slots are expended from the caster’s currently prepared spells,
just as if they had been cast.)

[james maissen]

Cuttler wrote:

If i want to create a staff with maximized fireball but have spell perfection with fireball, do i use spell level 3 or spell level 6 in the cost calculation???

For cost level 6. In draining your casting for the day a 3rd level slot.

-James