Any good cooling mods?

D

Dayle Hall

Member
Are there any practical cooling mods To cool my phat ps3 whilst keeping noise levels down? It's a backwards compatible console so I want to pro long the life for as long as possible. I would even consider re casing the guts into something else if it meant drastically reducing the temps. Are there any kits out there that I can just drop the internals into?

I've been looking at after market fans but I can't find any that confirm low noise levels.

Obviously the thermal paste needs changing regardless and also keeping on top of dust but I'm really looking to add another 10-20 years onto the console.
 
Ha for 10 to 20 years? Shell that thing and buy a slim or superslim and play on that. Really ive done this. Even when i have delided mine the temps are still not that low(55 idle, 60-69 when in game). And they are many things not only the temp. Capacitors in power supply, Nec Tokin, failing thermal pads.
 
Luisile said:
Ha for 10 to 20 years? Shell that thing and buy a slim or superslim and play on that. Really ive done this. Even when i have delided mine the temps are still not that low(55 idle, 60-69 when in game). And they are many things not only the temp. Capacitors in power supply, Nec Tokin, failing thermal pads.
Click to expand...

It's the noise of the fans that annoys me more than anything. If I buy a slim or a super slim then I'll lose the decent ps2 gameplay. The phats are unique and need to be preserved for as long as possible.
 
On 2 of my slims, it's become a norm for me to play with the top case removed. It helps my cpu disperse heat better. The temp drops when the cpu load also goes down. With my top shell on, sometimes the temps wont even drop after finishing a game.
Then I put the shell back in place while not in use for obvious reasons.

Sent from my TRT-LX2 using Tapatalk
 
I've removed the IHS plates on my CECHC03, applied thermal grizzly beneath and above the IHS, stock fan and power supply still in place. I've also drilled an array of holes directly beneath the fan, currently playing Black Ops 2 with the fan set to 26% which keeps me anywhere between 58-63C.
 
Dayle Hall said:
Are there any practical cooling mods To cool my phat ps3 whilst keeping noise levels down? It's a backwards compatible console so I want to pro long the life for as long as possible. I would even consider re casing the guts into something else if it meant drastically reducing the temps. Are there any kits out there that I can just drop the internals into?

I've been looking at after market fans but I can't find any that confirm low noise levels.

Obviously the thermal paste needs changing regardless and also keeping on top of dust but I'm really looking to add another 10-20 years onto the console.
Click to expand...
For cooling always works the "brutal approach"
The most critical factor is the amount of metal surface from the heatsink (meassured in 2D area) in contact with the air
And the biggest fans can move more air with less noise

The best approach to that is by using heatsinks from PC, the standard ones with the shape of a big cube (and with copper pipes if posible, the most pipes the better)
The fan size is not restricted to the size of the heatsink btw, because you can build an "air duct" with plastic to adapt them... as example, the next XBOX is really a box with a fan on top, the size of that fan is not really related with the size of the heatsink, and the air duct is the whole case itself, is a brute design copyed from apple, but it works :D
 
sandungas said:
For cooling always works the "brutal approach"
The most critical factor is the amount of metal surface from the heatsink (meassured in 2D area) in contact with the air
And the biggest fans can move more air with less noise

The best approach to that is by using heatsinks from PC, the standard ones with the shape of a big cube (and with copper pipes if posible, the most pipes the better)
The fan size is not restricted to the size of the heatsink btw, because you can build an "air duct" with plastic to adapt them... as example, the next XBOX is really a box with a fan on top, the size of that fan is not really related with the size of the heatsink, and the air duct is the whole case itself, is a brute design copyed from apple, but it works :D
Click to expand...

Oh great now all I can thinking about is what my ps3 would look like with a great bug noctua strapped to it.

I was considering putting the board and everything I to a PC case which would open up my options but I want it to look at ,east a little like a console haha
 
Dayle Hall said:
I was considering putting the board and everything I to a PC case which would open up my options but I want it to look at ,east a little like a console haha
Click to expand...
Yeah, thats the problem in my oppinion too, lol
I was thinking loud mostly when i wrote that, because everytime i think in it i end with the same conclusion, all other hardware mods could help, but replacing the heatsink is the real deal
For the XBOX360 i remember there was a heatsink that was pretty much... like a huge amount of metal filling all the space available inside the case, thats the idea but there is nothing like that for PS3... and building a heatsink "at home" is pretty much imposible, specially the copper pipes, is imposible to add coper pipes because we cant even bend them (they breaks internally when bended)

So using PC heatsinks we have 2 options, the "low profiles" ones (that im not sure if they would fit, and how good are going to be)... or the big ones with a shape like a 3D cube (the brutal approach)

The brutal approach requires to build a case though, it gives you a lot more freedom (incase you want to build plastic air ducts or things like that to conduct the airflow)
This thread could give you some inspiration, the case is standard though (lot of space wasted), you can see the problems you are going to find (like the ON/OFF switch, and the bluray ribbon cables) and the "pros" (using a standard ATX PSU incase the one you have starts failing)
https://www.psx-place.com/threads/ps3-built-into-a-pc-case-modding-question.27109/
 
Maybe water cooling could be an option? Could have the pump and everything in a separate bit if you don't plan on moving the console.

Im monitoring my temps at the moment and they don't seem to be going above 60c with fans at 33% this is with ps2 games too.

I picked up the console (60gb phat) off eBay for £13. The seller listed it as spares or repairs because he acquired it and hadn't tested it. The original warranty sticker has been removed and replaced with a silver holographic one. So maybe all the paste and stuff has been replaced recently?
 
Well, with watercooling is needed to add a tank + radiator... outside... and that breaks a bit the idea of a console :/
At least in my oppinion, i prefer to have a PC case than the PS3 case + other parts hanging around

In my country there are many shops that removes the sony sticker and then they adds his own sticker, is like a warranty from the shop but is pointless after the warranty expires
I guess the previous owner sent it to a repair shop, maybe they made a reballing (in that case is good for you)
 
...or it could be used a couple of that sealed PC waterblocks without tank, are not so big, but not sure how much money would increase the budget to buy 2 of those
 
Yes I'm hoping it's a shop that's done a decent repair job. Every now and then the system freezes when I'm navigating around Multiman/Webman but never whilst I'm in a game.

Is this normal behaviour for a jailbroken ps3? Or a sign that there's a fault with the hardware?
 
Dayle Hall said:
Yes I'm hoping it's a shop that's done a decent repair job. Every now and then the system freezes when I'm navigating around Multiman/Webman but never whilst I'm in a game.

Is this normal behaviour for a jailbroken ps3? Or a sign that there's a fault with the hardware?
Click to expand...
For a CECHC model with a CFW is not normal, but is hard to know if is related with hardware or software
The confusing thing is you have custom plugins running at all time in the background (webman), so any problem caused directly or indirectly by webman could crash the firmware

What i would do is to uninstall webman for some testing (some days or weeks) and see if the problems stopped

For more paranoid checks you can disable cobra (in rebug toolbox incase you have a rebug firmware installed) and load your games with other backup managers for some time
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Back
Top